Pit bulls, history, & sociology • Pit bulls, greenhouse gases, & poop: the solution is not dilution • Pit hags, rescue angels, crazy cat ladies, dog men & chicken fighters: what’s in a name? • Unleashed: The Phenonena of Status Dogs and Weapon Dogs, by Simon Harding, reviewed by Alexandra Semyonova • A black-and-white issue […]
Pit bulls, Trooper & “The personal is political”
News analysis by Barbara Kay When I began writing regularly for Canada’s National Post, my editor told me that two kinds of news stories can be counted on to attract heated response from readers, and plenty of it: sports and animals. Even thus forewarned, I was taken aback by the virulence of the feedback my […]
Anti-Vaxxers and the pit bull advocacy movement
by Barbara Kay & Merritt Clifton Reasonable people tend to overestimate the role that reason plays in history and in their own culture, and also tend to overestimate the power reason has to combat the theories, belief systems and emotions that drive people to action––or inaction ––much of the time. Unreasonable theories, belief systems and […]
Pit bulls, Ann Landers, & Dr. Laura
by Barbara Kay My first, and arguably most influential, journalistic role model was advice columnist Ann Landers. I discovered her in 1955, when I was a teenager. I liked her crisp, dryly humorous “voice” that radiated moral clarity and common sense in equal measure. Our culture changed dramatically over the years, but Ann remained faithful […]
Three pit bull stories to chew on
News analysis by Barbara Kay The news cycle of the last two weeks has turned up two remarkable pit bull-related stories in North America, both worthy of editorial mastication, so to speak. There is a third story, also noteworthy and included below, which didn’t make the mainstream news, but should have. The first story, out […]
Rotten, by Michael Northrop, reviewed by Barbara Kay
“I was attracted to Rotten by the arresting cover––a frontal image of a Rottweiler.” Scholastic Books (store.scholastic.com), 2013. 256 pages, hardcover. $17.99. As a child I was enthralled by dog stories, including Eric Knight’s Lassie, Come Home, Jack London’s Call of the Wild, and the entire Albert Payson Terhune series of books about collies. […]
What’s a Dog For? The Surprising History, Science, Philosophy and Politics of Man’s Best Friend
by John Homans Penguin USA, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 2012. 272 pages, hardcover. $16.00. Reviewed by Barbara Kay Humans and dogs have travelled a long road together. Their story began thousands of years ago as two species living parallel lives in the same habitat. But with every generation, the gap between them […]