BINGO
You know that we need to step up our advocacy game when the pro-BSL crowd is using a BINGO card for our most predictable responses.
The saddest part is that they are not wrong. When looking through media coverage and social media in just the last week, we have seen almost all of these responses and clichés.
Over the years, we have addressed these comments directly: ie, it's all how you raise them; they're bred to be nanny dogs; blaming the owner; blaming the victim: look at my “pit bull” with the baby/tutu/stuffie; making excuses for dangerous behaviour; minimizing the incident; being offensive or sarcastic.
People accuse us of being negative when we warn against this behaviour, or not supportive of other advocates. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We have a collective 20+ years in advocacy between us. Many of us started out parroting these same statements and over time, we have seen that they don’t work. They only set us up for this kind of mockery.
When we agree that an aggressive dog of any breed is a serious public health issue, maybe we’ll get taken seriously.
When we can talk knowledgeably about the proven risk factors for dog bites and how we can better address them, maybe we’ll get taken seriously.
When our response to someone’s death is not immediate defensiveness, maybe we’ll get taken seriously.
When we can do all that, maybe we’ll be the ones with the BINGO.
We need to do better than this. With two potential dog bite related fatalities in less than three weeks in Canada, we are going to be under scrutiny, and we need to step up our game. Please stay tuned for more posts on how to keep your communications effective.
The saddest part is that they are not wrong. When looking through media coverage and social media in just the last week, we have seen almost all of these responses and clichés.
Over the years, we have addressed these comments directly: ie, it's all how you raise them; they're bred to be nanny dogs; blaming the owner; blaming the victim: look at my “pit bull” with the baby/tutu/stuffie; making excuses for dangerous behaviour; minimizing the incident; being offensive or sarcastic.
People accuse us of being negative when we warn against this behaviour, or not supportive of other advocates. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We have a collective 20+ years in advocacy between us. Many of us started out parroting these same statements and over time, we have seen that they don’t work. They only set us up for this kind of mockery.
When we agree that an aggressive dog of any breed is a serious public health issue, maybe we’ll get taken seriously.
When we can talk knowledgeably about the proven risk factors for dog bites and how we can better address them, maybe we’ll get taken seriously.
When our response to someone’s death is not immediate defensiveness, maybe we’ll get taken seriously.
When we can do all that, maybe we’ll be the ones with the BINGO.
We need to do better than this. With two potential dog bite related fatalities in less than three weeks in Canada, we are going to be under scrutiny, and we need to step up our game. Please stay tuned for more posts on how to keep your communications effective.