I’ve dealt with my fair share of uppity nanny-staters in my day.   You’ll know them because every once in a while they’ll stoop to correct you like negative reinforcement for their pets.   They’ll look down their noses at you and they’ll say ridiculously asinine things like: “If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about” in giving up your fundamental constitutional rights.   It’s not their fault.   They’re probably just repeating a sound byte from NPR.  

Still, never in my life have I seen a worse burgeoning nanny state than in my old stomping grounds of Evanston, Illinois, to the point where I not only had to move away from there, I had to never go back.   So I’m sorry to say I was not surprised to hear there was quite a hullaballoo when over Labor Day a Golden Retriever “mauled” a Miniature Crispin Pinscher, supposedly to death.  

Concerned residents in Evanston did what they always do when some kind of drama happens east of Greenbay Road:

Residents sent out a community alert e-mail trying to learn the identity of the dog owner and expressing concern about more attacks.

And you thought the powers-that-be were only after those big, bad “pit bulls” didn’t you?   Nope.   Now you see the real agenda.   They’re after all domesticated animals, and “they” won’t rest until ownership of all domesticated animals is eradicated.  

The article itself describes the Golden Retriever as a “big dog.”   So now “big dogs” are a threat to the community, and you’ll hear all sorts of propaganda to accord with same. What breeds will they try to ban or restrict after those “big dogs” Golden Retrievers I wonder?   I’ve already seen one city in California, Hollister, try to pass breed-specific legislation for Chihuahuas.   Yes, honest to God Chihuahuas!  

The dog lobby has maintained for years that all dog owners should get involved in fighting breed-specific legislation (BSL) because the radical animal rights movement hellbent on eradicating domestic animal ownership wasn’t going to stop at “pit bulls,” Rottweilers, German Shepherds, or Dobermans.   Indeed, right now it looks as if they want even Golden Retrievers.  

And now you know how BSL is born.   While the Min Pin owner says the attack was “unprovoked” (which is radical animal rightist speak indicating BSL or some other nanny-state restriction is likely to be forthcoming) the Golden Retriever’s owner has a different story and suggested to the Sun-Times, that “her dog may have been led into the attack”:

The owner of the adopted golden retriever, named Macie, said she was walking the dog near her home and had reached Lincoln Street and Jackson Avenue when she saw the smaller dog and owner coming their way.

As they approached, she said she yelled to the owner, is it male or female, because sometimes females dont get long.

She maintained the small dog had already advanced toward her dog at that point, invading my dogs air space. I grabbed her and I jumped on my 86-pound dog and got her (Macie) to release it, she said.

Its not like I walked away, said the woman, who asked that her name not be used, to avoid more attention to the criticism circulating in the neighborhood.

After the incident, the Min Pin’s owner was sitting on the ground on the corner.”   The Golden Retriever’s owner “asked her several times if she was all right, if there was anything I could to help, and she didnt respond . . . ”   The Min Pin owner was holding on to her dog whose eyes were open.   The Golden Retriever owner said she never heard anything from the Min Pin that would indicate the dog was hurt and the Golden Retriever owner then left the scene before there could be another altercation.  

Was the Min Pin on a leash, because it sounds like she wasn’t?   And how odd that the Min Pin owner acted robotic, like she was on autopilot, refusing to respond.   What was the Golden Retriever owner to do?   And if the Min Pin was hurt, why didn’t it yelp?   And if the Min Pin was mortally wounded, wouldn’t the Golden Retriever owner have noticed?   She certainly wouldn’t have walked away had that been the case.  

This incident reminds me of the third supposed “pit bull” mauling in Waterloo, Iowa, a target city for breed-specific legislation.   Like the Evanston incident, the “facts” in the Waterloo incident just don’t add up.  

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes out of the Evanston incident.   Perhaps they won’t be so brazen as to introduce BSL for Golden Retrievers, but it wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to propose a so-called “dangerous” dog registry for breeds other than “pit bulls,” Rottweilers, German Shepherds, and Dobermans.   And nanny-states so love their surveillance databases.   It makes them feel all warm and safe to know they can spy on their neighbors from the comfort of their own living rooms with no more than an Internet connection.  

 

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