14 DAY TRIAL // A fifteen-year-old boy from Boston is the main driving force behind a new bill that proposes the banning of the medical practice known as “debarking,” which is just an euphemism for surgically removing a dog's or cat's vocal cords, for the ridiculous reason that they are a nuisance to people around them. The proposal has already won support from the Senate, and will hopefully pass, making this cruel and barbaric practice history.
Jordan Star, the Boston teen behind the initiative, says he got this idea after seeing a dog on the street, when he was coming home from school. Because it could not make any sound, the animal did all kinds of tricks just to catch the boy's attention, and maybe get a treat. He used to have owners, but they left him on the streets after the procedure, because he wasn't acting like a “real” dog anymore. The nerve that some heartless people have is just amazing, and the ease with which they abandon their animals after mutilating them should be a cause of concern.
Democratic House Majority Whip Lida E. Harkins and Republican Sen. Scott P. Brown are already behind the bill, which means that it could actually stand a chance to get passed. If that happens, the procedure will be illegal in Massachusetts, and the only way to perform it will be if a licensed state veterinarian or the Boston police commissioner deems the procedure to be a medical necessity.
“The reaction of people whenever he (Logan) was outside was, ‘Does your dog have laryngitis?’ I tried to explain he had no voice box and people were pretty horrified by that. We always said to him, ‘We hear you,’ because he tried so hard to bark,” Gayle and Tom Fitzpatrick, the people who famously adopted Logan, a “debarked” dog, say. If the new bill gets voted, it will be named “Logan's Act.”
“You have to get to the root of the problem. If the dog is barking, the dog is barking for a reason. There’s a lack of understanding between people and dogs that leads to conflict, and unfortunately the dog often pays the price,” The Cooperative Dog specialist Vera Wilkinson, who is also a certified trainer, adds. She states that it's futile to keep mutilating the dogs for doing what they do.
In addition to all the moral issues involved, these animals are often put through this procedure in the pound, which is basically like signing their death papers. No one wants to adopt a dog that has no “voice,” and they end up being killed. Truth be told, if people find themselves unable to keep a dog and put up with its behavior, they shouldn't adopt one in the first place. Or maybe they should buy fish, they keep silent pretty much all of the time.