There are a couple of reasons I didn't watch the BBC documentary "Death Row Dogs" last night. I never watch these things because I already have more than enough awful images stuck in my head that I wish I could scratch out. And I also don't watch them because I usually get so angry and frustrated at the sensationalism or the ignorance or the one-sidedness that I start yelling at the television and upsetting my own dogs. And, really, none of us need that - with 4 dogs in the house we generally have more than enough opportunity for noise.
But on this subject I'm with Beverley Cuddy, Editor of Dogs Today magazine. You can read her excellent blog on this subject here.
In the meantime I leave you with an old photo of Neka, aged 11 months, playing with Annie, who was our very own "dangerous dog" Akita. A more gentle, loving and dignified dog you could never hope to meet. Does she look scary here playing? You bet she does. Was she completely reliable around all people, children included? Yes, to our knowledge, she certainly was. Would we ever have left her (or any of our dogs) alone with small children, as Beverley discusses in her blog? No. We definitely would never have done that.
Rauhan & Pippa illustrate the wonderful relationship between dogs & children when carefully supervised
2 comments:
The programme was well made and very sad. It was also balanced and not at all sensationalist. Watch on Iplayer to see how the police dog handler reads the body language of a poor dog who was cooped up by low-life humans and reported as 'type'. It left me feeling sad for the human race but not angry about sensationalistic reporting.
Looking at the BBC blurb about the programme in advance, it sounded like it would be too sad for my eyes :-( And you have confirmed it.
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