Sisters Pet Pics’ Blog

Abby The Brussells Griffon (Click to enlarge)

Meet Abby, the Brussels Griffon.  I know, I know, she’s got that fly-away look, but if you’re not an AKC judge (and how many of us are one of those?), you can’t help but smile at her obvious personality.  I happen to love her look, although you won’t find her listed in the examples of what a Brussels Griffon looks like; nevertheless, she comes with the same personality package that the breed standards have.  Her natural ears and shaggy, coarse coat give her that compelling little-big dog look.  If you were looking into adding one of these folks to your family you may read that this is not the dog to get if you have children, as they are fragile and can be injured by children easily.

It may be a good time to talk about children and animals.  In the olden days, you remember, when children were meant to be seen and not heard, yeah those days; well back then pets were added to the family as a lesson for children, moms and dads got a dog to teach the children about responsibility or compassion.  Those are the days when you would hear the phrase just a dog repeated to the oft crushed human who lost a beloved pet to disease or injury.  If a child pulled a tail and received a well deserved nip you would see a serious reprimand coming from the adult to the dog (!).  I bring this up because I still see evidence of what I call species-ism.  That is, humans appear higher on the food chain so our lives must be more valuable.  I don’t see it in my studio, but I do see it in the world and it’s disturbing to those of us who have known and loved an animal and recoil at the words, she’s just a dog, after all.

The way of thinking which follows the disrespectful reference to the animal members of a family is the same state of mind which allowed animals to be left behind in so many instances when humans left the city of New Orleans during the Katrina disaster.  It’s important that we each do our part to nurture respect for animals in every corner of our lives.  Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” We have a long way to go to become a great nation, but we can get there.

Luckily, Abby here lives with a child who is respectful of her little self, but if you are out and about and you hear the words just a dog, call the speaker on them, because we know those words do not convey anything but ignorance of respect for life, and shouldn’t be uttered any more than, she’s just a child, after all.

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