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Ken Foster's Dog Vanished on Christmas Eve. He Just Found Her. Perhaps We Should Kill Her?

Douglas Anthony Cooper
Novelist, Amnesia
01/06/2014

Ken Foster's dog, Maple, disappeared on Christmas Eve. He had taken her in after she was found in an empty house: she was maybe a year and a half old, and the previous tenants had simply abandoned her. Maple was in pretty rough shape at the start, but he had almost succeeded in nursing her back to health. And then she vanished.

Ken spent the holidays frantically papering New Orleans with posters. More than a week went by, and hope had all but evaporated, when he received a call. Someone was sure that they'd spotted Maple. They sent a photograph to Ken's phone -- and there she was, tethered in a yard. Maple had been sold on the street for fifty dollars. Last week, Ken and Maple were reunited.

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Lots of people want it to be illegal for Ken to share his home with Maple. Lots of people go much further than this: Ingrid Newkirk, for instance -- the celebrity president of PETA -- wrote an article "reluctantly" embracing the practice of killing these dogs automatically whenever one is unfortunate enough to find itself in a so-called shelter. Perhaps you don't believe me? These are her words:

    Most people have no idea that at many animal shelters across the country, any pit bull that comes through the front door doesn't go out the back door alive. From California to New York, many shelters have enacted policies requiring the automatic destruction of the huge and ever-growing number of 'pits' they encounter. This news shocks and outrages the compassionate dog-lover.

    Here's another shocker: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the very organization that is trying to get you to denounce the killing of chickens for the table, foxes for fur or frogs for dissection, supports the shelters' pit-bull policy, albeit with reluctance.

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As you've perhaps guessed, this isn't just any guy who loves his dogs. Ken Foster -- yes, that's his real name -- is one of the most prominent advocates for pit bulls in America: he's the bestselling author of I'm a Good Dog -- a book intended as an antidote to the poisonous bigotry bent on rendering this dog extinct.

And it is bigotry, I assure you. It rests on lousy science, distorted anecdotes, and pure hatred. I'll go into this in further articles, but I'll refer you for the moment to words by Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer: "Going Pit Bull: How We Can End Prejudice." This quotation sums it up nicely:

    "It's hard to blame people for being afraid of pit bulls, when all they see on the news are stories about dog fighting rings and people being attacked. They usually leave out that it's the owner who made the dog violent, not the breed." (my emphasis)

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(Maple at a wedding party soon after she returned.)

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(Douglas Anthony Cooper is currently collaborating with the illustrator Dula Yavne on Galunker, a children's book about a pit bull rescued from a dogfighting ring.)




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the kinder euphemism is more comforting-- "put down"; painlessly, pakatulgon ug overdose ug anesthesia.  ihaw as in slaughter is terrifying.  may those who dare do that end up barking.

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