Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. - Eleanor Roosevelt



Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Save Dakota!

Here's a little riddle for you: How can a dog get hold of an infant, drag it out of a house, unbeknownst to its parents, and go so far as to spark an actual search by the parents for the infant’s whereabouts?

This is a question I ask after having read an article about an incident involving a four-year-old Native American Indian dog going off with a four-day-old newborn in its mouth, causing injuries that left the baby in critical condition at the hospital. Of course, the dog, Dakota, is now considered dangerous, a threat and a menace and has been handed over to animal control. Her fate, most likely, death.

Though I can imagine what horror it might have been to live through such an incident as a parent, and the anguish a parent must feel toward any creature hurting their child, I simply cannot wrap my head around destroying an animal for being just that—an animal. Especially when the evidence is there that the parents themselves are responsible for letting such events transpire in the first place.

Everybody knows that dogs, or any animal really, can unexpectedly do things that are harmful to humans. Before I get to the core of my argument, however, let me mention that these lovely parents hailing from Lexington, Kentucky, actually left their child alone in a room with a dog roaming around freely—a dog with wolf ancestry, mind you. Now, whether you believe that four-day-old infants should never be left alone for any period of time, or believe that leaving your children alone when you have a breed of dog that even home insurance companies want you to be extra cautious about by raising your premium is totally and completely idiotic—the bottom line is, in my opinion, that these parents are solely responsible for this mishap.

If anybody ought to be punished for this tragedy, it is the parents for being so irresponsible as to leave a newborn alone in the first place; that was offense number one. Offense number two, is to leave the newborn alone with a large dog roaming freely.

I’ve never been a parent, but I’d like to think (and know I am totally wrong to do so) that common sense is a rather universal thing, and with common sense comes the knowledge that leaving a newborn alone in a room long enough for a dog to figure out how to get it out of a crib and out of the house is, well, bad parenting.

I vote for Dakota’s life to be spared and for her to spend the remainder of her years away from such bad owners, who ought to be paid a visit by social services, if for nothing else than for a little lesson in common sense for the welfare of their poor child-- who I’m happy to report is in stable condition and expected to pull through.