Comments on: End petlessness? Yay, a pit bull for every gang banger!

By: gerry

gerry — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:24:08 +0000

The posts on this topic make me feel like you need help picking your battles. The sheer loss of habitat due to growth is the significant land use issue for wildlife, not pets. To think of the Humane Society’s billboards as materially harmful is ludicrous.
The diminishing of public funding for shelters and municipal animal control programs is of more importance than the Humane Society ad. Did you know that there’s no more dog catchers here? What about the shelters? Are they full? How’s their funding? Do you really want to look at the issue, or is it all about this ad and you thinking you’ve found a land use Gotcha?

By: gerry

gerry — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:25:53 +0000

and I meant to include - the racist headline isn’t helping either.

By: Peter Bray

Peter Bray — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:29:32 +0000

How is it racist? Or you incorrectly assuming that when I say “gang banger” I meant “black youth”? That’s not what I meant.

By: Peter Bray

Peter Bray — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:40:18 +0000

Or maybe you are accusing me of being “dog racist” by assuming that pit bulls are predominantly owned by gangsters?

By: gerry

gerry — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:21:08 +0000

It’s an ill-advised headline and you obviously know it. But whatever. I still say your posts about the ‘end petlessness’ ads make whoever all writes this site look like touchier crackpots than I’m sure they mean to be. Even if ‘they’ is just you.

By: Peter Bray

Peter Bray — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:38:56 +0000

Sorry, I don’t see the headline as ill-advised.

That said, I do agree that in the grand scheme of environmental destruction that ads promoting general pet ownership probably shouldn’t be such a big deal. That said, pets can and do cause significant damage to local ecosystems: feral cats are single-handedly to blame for driving several bird species to the edge of extinction. And the tropical fish trade is responsible for the death of corals and other surrounding species. And dogs are the leading cause, in many urban watersheds, of pollution.

Besides, this site isn’t meant to only talk about the biggest things going on… sometimes it is the broken windows that need a little attention.

Mixing metaphors, Peter

By: Pete

Pete — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 02:35:04 +0000

Yo, gerry:

What is racist about the headline? The headline takes a shot at the Humane Society for implying (by failing to speak to the responsibilities inherent in owning a pet) that anyone and everyone should have a pet, even a gangbangers. How that is even remotely racist is beyond me. Gangbangers are bad people. Bad people shouldn’t have pets. Duh.

You can’t accuse someone of racism and then offer a pathetic “whatever” when you are challenged to explain the charge.

By: Tensai

Tensai — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:14:09 +0000

It appears to be a cheap shot at Michael Vick, who is black. You may remember him as the ex-NFL player who is now going to jail for his involvement in running a pit bull fighting racket.

By: Peter Bray

Peter Bray — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:07:03 +0000

I wasn’t thinking of Vick when I wrote the headline. But even if I was, I still don’t see how that is racist.

Just to be clear, I wasn’t thinking of race at all when I wrote the headline. I don’t know where the original complainer was from, but here in Portland most of the gangbaners that I see are usually white kids from Gresham with pitbull, Rott, or German S in tow.