Brandy and Val

I’m all for the First Amendment and the freedom of speech but the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn a a federal law that made it a crime to create or sell dogfight videos and other depictions of animal cruelty seems really out-of-touch with the world at hand. While the law as it stood may have been weak, its’ underlying principle was sound and should have been upheld.   In order to maintain a lawful society, we need laws and, hello! HAVE laws that curtail abusive and abhorrent behavior without their subverting our basic freedoms.

In the sole dissent, Justice Alito wrote, “The activity underlying both kinds of depictions (referring to child pornography) are crimes.  The crimes are difficult to combat without drying up the marketplace for depictions of them and both kinds of depictions contribute at most minimally to public discourse.”    Indeed.

Have we already forgotten the lessons learned from Michael Vick’s dog-fighting scandel?

Violence propagates violence–abuse of children, women, animals and tendencies to inflict harm to one group have been shown to affect the others.  Dispersing information that overtly supports and endorses this type of behavior is and should continue to be crime.

Our mission at Brandy and Val, LLC is “to do good where good is needed.”   It is through the sales of our books and through our pet therapy duties and appearances that we hope to spread the word and support causes that have a positive impact on animal welfare and the lives of children.

Adopted Oscar with sibling, Kitty

The controversy continues as to whether Pit Bulls are a menace to the dog-world and society at large.   It is unfortunate that these creatures have been in-bred and their reputation and their use as attack and fighting animals seems to be spiraling out of control.  When I was growing up, everyone was “afraid” of Dobermans.  Now, due to the exposure of large dog fighting rings (thanks, Michael Vick!) and some of the unsavory people who are using and training them as intimidation dogs, the Pit Bull’s reputation has been soiled to the point where, almost universally, people are fearful of them.   Two of my friends rescued and adopted Pit Bulls — one was captured and taken in after being observed wandering in a public park for weeks and slowly dying of starvation and cold; the other was thrown into my friend’s yard as discarded trash.  Both dogs were nursed to health and  are now thriving with their new families and are adorable,  sweet pups.

The forever beloved lab, with a reputation for having the friendliest, gentle demeanor can also be bred to be mean and attack. We had a neighbor who had the meanest lab I had ever seen.  I just couldn’t figure it out.  When I walked Brandy and Val it would run up to the boundary of its’ invisible fence and bark, snarl, growl, bear teeth, etc. to such an extent, I would cross the street and literally pray that it would not break through the fence.  Everyone in the neighborhood knew that dog was scary except its’ owner.  Eventually, the dog bit another neighbor and it was put down with the excuse being “it was old and getting erratic.”  Erratic for the last 10 years?

Maybe it’s the people and not the dogs?

Here’s an interesting article recently forwarded to me written in  Philly.com