The pit bull puppy in my earlier story Animal cruelty and the Ontario government is now on her way to be cremated. She died this morning at the vet’s office.

She never left the vet’s office from the time my friend brought her in, torn and bleeding from a barbed wire “collar”.

Her body simply gave out. She had spleen problems, probably from being kicked so hard or so much. She had a bladder infection, as well as infection in the neck wounds. Apparently, there were other things wrong as well, too much and too many for her five-month-old body to handle.

The man who was to be this pup’s final home is still going to take her, along with the remains of his old boy who is going to be put down tomorrow after living a long and happy life.

So this little girl, nameless to the end, becomes just another statistic in this war on dogs. But not in my heart, nor in the hearts of her rescuers.

There are so many of these stories, so many of these dogs.

I want so much to blame the Ontario Liberal government for this dog’s death, and perhaps there is some part of this tragedy that can be pointed at them. Certainly, the “pit bull ban”, and the fear it created in this dog’s rescuer with its insistence on killing unoffending, non-biting dogs, is the reason these owners were able to walk away and the reason they’ll be free to get another dog tomorrow.

But the reality is that, no matter what laws are in place, dogs will always be dying because of stupid, irresponsible, negligent, or just plain abusive owners.

I blame the breeder who created and sold this little girl to live her entire life in pain and fear.

I blame the dog’s owners for taking out their hatred of the world on a dog that wouldn’t fight back.

I hope I run into them one day.

I really do.

Nobody knew this girl’s name, so I think I’ll call her Dolores (sorrow, pain).