Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Dumbstruck Wednesday

... but not for long. Today was going to be a day for fluffy photos of well-chewed Easter chickies, or the strange crop-circle effect Holly's been having on the lawn, but instead I've found a soap-box and fully intend to stand on it.

Dogs Today magazine has just published a two-page rant about greyhounds, illustrated with a drawing of a young boy saying "Daddy, what's a greyhound?" The article advocates treating all greyhounds as livestock, and then wiping the breed out, because they are apparently the biggest killers of other animals in the known universe, and their mere presence on this earth offends the writer of the article. Even the tabloid press, writing of children killed by Rottweilers, haven't called for all Rottweilers to be euthanased, but only to be kept under control. It's therefore particularly alarming to see a vet, who in theory should be able to keep a clear head, calling for a breed to be wiped out just because she's had a bad day at the office.

The editor of the magazine has been swift to disown the vet's views, and says she didn't read the article before it went to print. Oh-kayyy. Nice to see responsible journalism is alive and well... any chance of the magazine trying to undo any of the damage it's just caused? The irony is, the first half of the magazine is full of the plight of Staffies, abandoned in their thousands for being a bull breed, the victim of media scare stories.

OK, I'm going to take a lot of deep breaths now, and try and take up some form of meditation.

1 comment:

Aoj and The Lurchers said...

We can only hope the next edition goes some way to repairing the damage. :(