Dear Prudence gets one right

As a diehard Miss Manners loyalist, I'm not a big fan of Dear Prudence, but she did get a good one in today: http://www.slate.com/id/2203349?wpisrc=newsletter

Dear Prudence,
My sister is 20 years old, has an 18-month-old daughter, and is a great mother. She doesn't have much money, so she recently moved in with a new roommate. The roommate has a pet pit bull. I met the dog a couple of days ago, and while she is very sweet, she also seems to be pretty nervous. I know I was a new person to this dog, but overall what I saw was potentially a very dangerous situation for my niece. I told my sister that, and she told me that she trusts the dog and thinks she's well-mannered. She said that the dog and her daughter get along well, the dog doesn't mind if the child pokes her, and that the dog lets the child sleep in her dog bed sometimes! Is this one of those situations where I can't tell her what to do, so I should leave it alone? Or should I call child protective services?

Dear Uneasy,
No wonder the dog is nervous. Suddenly a small human is sticking fingers in her eyes and sleeping in her bed. You're probably sweet and well-mannered yourself, but surely you would lash out at someone who invaded your home and poked your orifices all day. That a pit bull is involved adds to the potential damage if the dog strikes back, but even a placid basset hound could be provoked to take a hunk out of a toddler's face under these circumstances. When a dog uncharacteristically attacks a child, often the aggressor was the child who simply didn't understand that you can't pull on a real dog's tail the way you can your favorite stuffed animal. Your sister is a 20-year-old single mother; that alone indicates she still lacks the ability to understand how acting on her impulses can lead to life-changing events. [Yay!] You must intervene, but try to exhaust all your possibilities before you consider calling the authorities. Tell your sister that her daughter's safety is at issue here and that even the best-behaved dog can lash out at a toddler. Show your sister and her roommate this article about mixing kids and pets, the point of it being that both girl and dog need to be chaperoned as carefully as if this were a Victorian courtship. Your sister and her roommate must understand that unless their darlings are under direct supervision, they must be physically separated. Add, for the roommate's benefit, that if her dog bit your niece, no matter what the circumstances, it could end up being destroyed. If things don't change immediately, offer to help your sister find another living situation. Explain to your sister you won't let up, because you couldn't live with yourself if you didn't do everything to prevent a possible tragedy.

Pit bulls are NOT a dog for everybody. They need a strong owner that will give them direction and a job to do. Pits are EXTREMELY eager to please and you need to tell them what they are doing is right or wrong. I doubt that is happening here because the dog is so nervous. It's not getting direction from it's owner so it doesn't know how to act.

Child protective serives? Uh, NO. Somebody should call the Humane Society for animal abuse: forcing a dog to live with a fucking kid it's not used to.

But no, of course it's, "OH MY GOD!!! THE CHILD IS IN DANGER!!!!!" Why can't somebody teach the fucking brat how to behave around an animal instead of placing blame on the pet?

The sister sounds like a real prize. C'mon, let the dog have a snack. Then we get another article for our entertainment. Actually no- That would be really bad for the dog.

10 points to Prudence for shutting down the Pity Express gravy train for the little slut.

"You can't slit the throat of every cocksucker whose character it would improve."
-Al Swearingen

Finally, some common sense when it comes to
a) telling moo she is an ass and doesn't make good decisions
b) any dog can 'snap' when provoked by a toddler

Moos have their heads up their ass in denial.

if it was a golden retriever - just as large (or larger) and with teeth just as sharp - the woman probably wouldn't have even written the letter.

i don't own a pit bull, never have, probably never will, and i'm not one of those rabid (pun intended) pit bull-activism types, but i think the breed is unnecessarily demonized. a dog will be as sweet and kind as it's taught to be. people just hear "pit bull" and go into a frenzy of "OMG FACE BITING BABY EATING KILLER!!1!!1!!!!"

Awright, Prudence! I LOVE how she pointed out the sisters bad decision, plain as day.

That poor dog is so dead. Only a matter of time.

Yes, "nervous pit bull" and "young child" are not a good combination...poor dog.

Poor dog is right. It will sooner or later end up dead because of the moo's inability to teach the kid to stay the hell away from the dog.

I'm glad, too, that Prudence pointed out the inability of Moo to make good decisions.

I was watching one of the parts 3 or 4 of "When animals attack" (or one of the spin offs like it) last week and as I suspected in all but ONE CASE it was a human being's fault that they or their kyd was attacked. We have a famblee with kyds and a nanny who decide to go for a swim in KNOWN ALLIGATOR infested waters and at near dusk at that in a murky area about 15 feet from the shoreline. Of course nanny got her arm bit off and is lucky to be alive to tell about it. Then we have a veterinarian, a MEDICAL DOCTOR mind you, who keeps poisonous snakes in his office, feeds them and regularly cleans their cages, yet he doesn't keep anti-venom around because it's "too expensive". Of course he is bitten and anti-venom has to be airlifted from a hospital 4 hours away as his body is literally being destroyed with every minute that venom is allowed to spread. Somehow, Dumdum makes it out alive too, but not without permanent neurological damage.

Then we have a deer hunter/amateur nature photographer, who is trying to attract a buck during their mating season. So, he spreads deer piss all over himself, has plastic girl deer look alikes setting about, and then ( as he demonstrates) he starts making a very realistic girl deer mating call sound. Naturally, a buck comes along and is HIGHLY pissed off when he sees a human when it's supposed to be a girl deer and he begins to toss him about like a rag doll, what an IDIOT. Then my personal favorite, the guy who received life threatening jelly fish stings. This guy physically walks past NUMEROUS signs that say things like, "DANGER, JELLY FISH PRESENT", AND "NO SWIMMING DUE TO JELLY FISH", and further goes on to walk past COLORFUL warning flags which have been set out by beach employees which warn that there is no lifeguard or other attendant on duty and BEWARE OF JELLYFISH".

Yet, IN the water he goes anyway and in less than a minute he is covered with jelly fish and nearly dies. It's almost always a human's fault when animals attack them and even if it isn't directly the human's fault, often a human is at fault indirectly or at least partially responsible in some way when he is attacked.