The problem is America falling ever further behind the rest of the western world in refusing to even contemplate a Universal Pit Bull system.
It’s how every goddamn conversation about poverty goes in this country, and it’s exasperating.
Them: “Wow, check out this fucked thing a person did.”
Me: “You realize they did that because they’re poor and have no alternatives, right?”
Them: “That’s just not true. They have alternatives, they could have done this thing we’d never expect non-poor people to do. Plus, there’s incredibly eager social services out there; clearly it’s all their fault.'”
Me: “Why isn’t there a way for them to have a normal life doing this thing non-poor people do?”
Them: “Whoa, communist! You want the government to provide that thing for free to everyone?”
Because, you know, free pit bull-friendly housing for poor people is clearly the only solution to the problem I could have been talking about, and I’d totally suggest that! Because I’m the parody liberal that exists only in your mind.
I’m pretty sure even in evil tophat-wearing capitalist America the poor aren’t forced to own five pitbulls.
No offense McCullough, but sometimes … and I say sometimes here, you come off as a crackpot supreme “over the top” way far to the left to even be called liberal, liberal.
Like now.
I think it all stems from what seems to be a lack of understanding that people can behave responsibly in a variety of situations, and somethings bad things that happen? It’s people’s fault, not the state’s fault.
I’ll give you a hint:
“Me: “You realize they did that because they’re poor and have no alternatives, right?””
This statement is not always true. As in, this case.
Why would you not expect these people to understand that having 5 aggressive dogs cooped up in their SUV might lead to them attacking someone? Is that not a reasonable expectation? I don’t think poor/not poor even enters into the equation, it’s a lack of sound judgment on their part. Think on this … if you heard this was some rich guy who just liked to travel around with his 5 dogs and leave them in the car all the time, would you feel different?
When you blame people’s bad judgment on poverty, you really stereotype them. You basically say that poor people are dumb and don’t know any better.
Also, this phrase?
Me: “Why isn’t there a way for them to have a normal life doing this thing non-poor people do?”
… this just really confusing. You think it’s normal for people to live in their car with 5 big dogs?
I would think at the point that you have to move to the car, you are going to have to get rid of the pit-bulls.
Pitbulls are small ,yes? Like cherry pits?
Then that would be adorable!
SIGH
Actually my first question in these bizarre stories is what happened to their friends and family? But in this story they were actually working on that, yay! So it’s less of an issue of social services and the plight of the poor and more of how the hell do you transport 5 big dogs in a car and break down on the side of the road without them going stir crazy. Tip #1: don’t open the doors and windows when your father comes to put gas in the external tank.
People - the poll was tongue-in-cheek and was simply for fun.
Obviously the problem here is trying to maintain 5 adult pitbulls when you have other needs that need to be taken care of. To take care of pitbulls you need to be very good pet owners, and these people are terribly irresponsible people who should not be raising dogs like this such as leaving 5 pitbulls cooped up in a car overnight, let alone trying to make them live with you in a car… these owners are messed up.
Forget that these are pitbulls. Forget the car. Trying to take care of 5 dogs is tough and expensive. I don’t know many people outside of folks who live in rural America that have 3 dogs much less 5.
…but that begs the question of why they had to move into their car. I’d say that’s the cause of their problems, not dog management skills under duress. If you postulate “well, you’re going to have to live in your car now” then all hell breaks lose in a downward spiral, surprise, surprise.
Creating a workable system that ensures that no one ever has to live in their car ever: really hard.
Having the common sense not to open the door when someone approaches your pack of pitbulls: well, at least you’d think it would be easy.
Not everyone hits a downward spiral like in the story books.
Perhaps pitbull steak is not in its prime until it’s been grown for a number of years and pre-heated to SUV temperatures. Apart from food I can’t think of why you’d keep dogs in an SUV, especially five of the damn things, when you need to be in there as well. Given that nobody in their right mind (or at least outside of Korea) eats dog I think it’s safe to say the owners had no choice or just didn’t care enough to consider letting them go, or handing them to a temporary carer.
It does raise the question of why they have five in the first place. Am I a dog-hater or does five dogs seem excessive? Puppies I can understand, but full blown pitbulls?
My brother once came up with an awesome bumper sticker (that I’m sure is out there somewhere, as well):
“If you lived in your car, you’d be home by now”
It was more a response to Jason McCullough, who apparently believes that living in your car (with or without pets) is a horrible atrocity we need to do everything we can to prevent. You don’t raise kids or pets in a car, but I don’t see the big deal with living in one for a little while if you’re between jobs.
And the story is a little sparse on details, but if the guy did have a place big enough for 5 pitbulls, but lost his job and couldn’t find anyone willing to take on the dogs after he got evicted, it’s hard to blame him for wanting to keep his dogs rather than euthanize them (but definitely not impossible. The guy should be tried for something and the dogs put to sleep). Or is there a cheap (free?) way to keep dogs for a few months until you can get back into a bigger place?
It was more a response to Jason McCullough, who apparently believes that living in your car (with or without pets) is a horrible atrocity we need to do everything we can to prevent. You don’t raise kids or pets in a car, but I don’t see the big deal with living in one for a little while if you’re between jobs.
I can see that. I know a guy who lived in his car for a few months and he’s doing great now. Sometimes life kicks you in the nuts but that doesn’t preclude you from getting back up.
I wish Jason would explain exactly what he thinks society should provide to these folks so that this wouldn’t happen. Because it sounds to me that he thinks society has a responsibility to provide housing not only for the humans but for the animals.
But I don’t want to put words into his mouth. I just think he needs to provide a specific, reasonable solution rather then throwing out generalities. It’s easy to say that something sucks; it’s much harder to find solutions that are reasonable.