Men who slaughter other men in heinous ways sit on death row for up to 20 years or until they die on their own, and yet we automatically end the lives of “bad dogs,” dogs who are violent or take up space. We as a race have determined that we get to decide whether these dogs live or die. We reason that they are too dangerous to keep alive, yet people of our own kind who are far worse are treated with mercy.
Humans kill and harm as a result of hatred, while dogs are violent mainly because of fear, frustration, or pain. Almost all dogs that suffer abuse in their lives become aggressive; their behavior is a result of our actions towards them. Dogs’ brains aren’t wired the way ours are. They don’t understand the difference between right and wrong. They act out of fear, out of instinct. We instill fear within their veins and proceed to take their lives when they finally lash out.
Unlike humans, dogs don’t become violent because they want to. They do so because it’s in their DNA to defend themselves from threats. If a dog is treated properly, then it won’t see humans as threats, which means that it isn’t likely to become aggressive. It is our fault that dogs become violent. We force them to act in these ways, so who are we to kill them for such?
If you were to reach your hand out to a dog that had been chained to a fence, abused senselessly for months, and left to rot by the people who were supposed to give it a home, it would sink its teeth into your hand, but why? Even if you are just trying to help the dog, it still bites.
The only feelings this dog has ever known are fear and pain, so it does all it knows to do. In its eyes, humans only want to hurt it. Violent dogs can be rehabilitated, however. They can be shown that not all humans are bad. Every dog at least deserves the chance to live like the beloved pets they are supposed to be.
The movie “Isle of Dogs” by Wes Anderson perfectly depicts this. The main character is a dog is a fighter who has a problem with violence. In the end, he is given a proper chance at life.
“I am not your pet,” he says. “I never liked you, I don’t care about you, I won’t wait for you. I bite.”
“What happened? Why did I do that? To this day, I have no idea. I guess he scared me. I bite.”
“I’m not a violent dog. I don’t know why I bite.”
This movie is what changed my perspective on dogs. Even though they don’t talk and think like they do in the movie, the way the movie creators portray them is accurate. Dogs don’t understand why they bite.
The odds of dying from a dog bite are one in 53,843 while the odds of being killed by another human are one out of 157. We let people who murder others roam the streets freely while dogs that so much as bite someone are put down.
Our shelters don’t have enough space to house all of the strays, and not enough people spay and neuter their dogs. This means that we euthanize the ones we don’t have space for. Instead of putting money and brains into finding a better way to fix this problem, we take it into our own hands to take their lives simply for the crime of existing in a way that is inconvenient to us.
www.dogsindanger.com is a website run by an organization that collects donations, offers adoption of dogs at risk of euthanasia, and portrays names and photos of dogs that have been killed. They collect data of dogs and share with the internet the date that they are set to be killed. On their Instagram, you can see in real time photos of dogs that are scheduled to be put down every day. They make these posts in hopes that someone will adopt these dogs.
Make backyard breeding dogs illegal, and make it so that the only possible way to acquire dogs is through adoption. Anything else that would mean we no longer “have” to kill dogs in shelters.
