Ever since I first heard about Vanessa’s story, I’ve been following it very closely. She didn’t deserve what happened to her. She was falsely accused because of her breed, because people like to blame pit bulls. Now, she may never be the same. She has to go through rehabilitation to help her through her fear based behavior. That fear based behavior was not present until she became a ward of Ogden. Dogs like her are treated unjustly all the time. Instead of hating the breed, learn to understand them. Apply it to your everyday life too. Instead of just hating people or fearing them, try to understand them. The moment the accusers wife said that she couldn’t identify the dog, the case should have been thrown out. Instead, they picked their scapegoat and wanted to have her killed. It took a giant movement to save her life and get her help and it’s ridiculous that it took that much. The town of Ogden is known for abusing their judicial power and despite its smaller population, it has more court ordered euthanasia cases than the surrounding towns that have higher populations. Changes need to be made with the town court and people need to stop blaming bully breeds when they haven’t done anything wrong. Breed specific legislation, BSL, needs to end. It’s harmful and outdated. Breed bias and breed discrimination also needs to end. Statistically, labs bite more people than bully breeds. Did you know that? You allow fear to drive your hate for these dogs because you think that they are monsters and/or killers. They are just the only ones the media will share about whenever something does happen. Vanessa should never have gone through all of this. She should have been at home, safe and loved with Jeremy. Now she has a long road to recovery. This movement is not done, we are not done. This was a big win in an even bigger war but it’s not over yet. I stand for Vanessa, and I stand for the other dogs who have no voice with which to defend themselves.
