THE DOG THE SUPERIOR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21987, 23 June 1933, Page 7

THE DOG THE SUPERIOR

ro THE EDITOR

Sib, —Surely writers with reference to Alsatian dogs are joking when they make suggestions about the Society for Protection of Women and Children? Many women and children suffer cruelties daily from men, hunger and want are rife, and this society has already more than it can do even to find out about all such cases, let alone deal with them all. Men have been known to kill, and some are capable of abominable cruelties once they are married. Why pick on Alsatians? Should a woman escape from a brutal man, with enough nerves and spirits left to attempt to make a new start, and fail to manage without aid from these societies, she will probably be presented with “meal tickets” and other humiliating kindnesses. It ia a pity some men could not be dealt with in the same way that writers would deal with these beautiful animals! It would be an honour to be bitten by mistake by an Alsatian in contrast to the' indignities and cruelties which this writer has experienced at the hands of a human being. 1 If a dog bites once someone will deal with it, but men get away with cruelties time and again if women keep quiet, and they are never punished. Alsatians, at worst, only attack someone they believe to be an enemy. Can the same be said of men? Let everyone cultivate a feeling of goodwill to these dogs; they are intelligent and recognise friendly (and unfriendly) feeling much more quickly than we do as a rule. A few generations of such treatment and these dogs will be wonderful. I ask again, can the same be said for man? It is good to remember that, "unless you are deliberately kind to every creature you will often bo cruel to many.” As for the “ German ” element, is it not going from the sublime to the ridiculous, and proving bigotism to attempt to attach a stigma to Alsatians because they are of foreign origin? Only a man could be so unreasonable. —I am, etc., Fair-Minded.