Language that kills

California towns and ciities can enforce mandatory breed specific sterilization under SB861 but they can't label any breed as dangerous. The city of Manteca doesn't seem to understand that nuance of the state law, and is finally getting called on the discriminatory language of their new spay/neuter ordinance.

San Francisco stops just short of calling pit bulls dangerous and instead, uses the term "High Risk" when it discriminates. An odd way to look at pit bulls, considering the city is posting a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person(s) who brutally murdered a pit bull puppy named Pogo (above) after he disappeared from a SF dog park.

One has to wonder, does labeling a breed "high risk" or "dangerous" open individual dogs up to random acts of torture? After all, animal control agencies generally set the tone for how a community views its animals. It's not a big stretch to see that, by holding any animal in such a negative light, a city's more violent citizens might feel justified in dealing with them violently. "It's just a dangerous pit bull, after all."

High risk, indeed.

We hope that Pogo's killers are ratted out and brought to justice and we hope cities like SF and Manteca see the incredible harm that's created by applying such derogatory labels to its animals.