Man Eat Dog Eat Dog

A dog in our neighborhood was shot and killed this week by an Ingham County Animal Control officer. The dog shot was large, and was killed while engaged in a physical confrontation with a smaller dog. A headline of the LSJ today announced 2 police officers shooting and killing 2 aggressive dogs that were attacking a smaller dog in S. Lansing. Without hearing any more of the stories, how do you feel about incidents like this? Angry? Sad? Satisfied?

So often, I see the gross misconception that the dogs themselves are somehow responsible for misunderstandings like these, but this type of idea is simply wrong, uneducated, and arrogant. At the root of every single bad behavior in any creature, justified or perceived, lies the irresponsibility of a human.

As the smartest animals at the top of the food chain, we must be diligently aware of our power over other creatures, and we must be comitted to fostering relationships with them that create respect, understanding, and symbiosis. Unfortunately, the dog shot in my neighborhood was a beloved family member and a peaceful creature who was uncharacteristically out of his yard due to an unknown vandalism to his owner's fence (human cause). And although many are quick to assume the other dogs' actions were of their own accord, it is more realistic to assume them to be purely products of their environments, which no doubt included abusive treatment and non-existent training. We do not exist on this planet as god-like beings with a type of indebtedness owed to us by all other living things; rather we must consistently attempt to co-exist and learn from all that which exists around us.