Protest Verizon’s Pit Bull Commercial.
July 20, 2008
I am not a pit bull owner, but I work with pits and know a lot of people who own them.
The Verizon commercial featuring pit bulls chained in a junk yard is irresponsible and compounds an already difficult situation with the breed. On the one hand some people will take it to mean it’s okay to chain them up in junk yards. On the other, the chains give the impression that they are bad dogs that have to be contained in cruel ways.
Contact Verizon and let them know you don’t like the commercial. http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/vzwfly?go=/ContactUsControllerServlet
July 20, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I emailed them and all my friends.
July 22, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I will be dropping my account with Verizon as soon as possible, if they can support a commercial that makes the public continue to view pit bulls like they are some big breed of slavering monsters I want nothing to do with their company.
August 13, 2008 at 7:53 pm
seriously? you are willing to protest over some dogs being chained while there are so many other things going on in the world? our country needs to pull it’s head out of it’s ass and start worryiong about what is really important….childhood hunger, global warming, iraq just to name a few. stop spending so much time and effort worrying about how a stupid advert might be perceived.
August 16, 2008 at 3:30 pm
You’re so right that the world is rife with problems, all of which deserve attention. One of those problems is our treatment of animals. So, yeah. Seriously.
September 10, 2008 at 9:20 pm
One of the many reasons that animal lovers become upset when they see a commercial like the one that verizon wireless aired, is because we are very aware of the cruelty and torture many of these pit bull breeds and mixes are still forced to endure, all for the love of money, and sport, and due to ignorance this “breed” of dog has gotten a reputation for being something that naturaly is just isn’t geneticaly predisposed to be, which is human-aggresive and that of a guard dog. The breed specific legislation that has been going on for some time now isn’t based on breed facts as much as it is the undeserved image that this breed has due to media hype and history, forgetting, or maby just blatantly ignoring the natural behavior of the american pit bull terrior. Thier reputation for being the physicaly strong,loyal, loving,family oriented hunting and herding breed it once was known to be has long since been destroyed and forgotten, once humankind learned to use these traits to thier atvantage in the most inhmane ways.
Yes, there are so many problems in the world today, what with world hunger, poverty, crimes against humanity, wars, and the abuse and neglect of children worldwide, just to name a few, BUT,
many wise men and women throughout history will tell you, well respected human-rights activists, Ghandi is a good example, Dr. Martin Luther King, Dr. Jane Goodall, many of your nobel peace prize winners, that if humanity cannot learn to extend compassion, empathy and kindness to any and all in the animal kingdom, to understand that we as humans have a responsibility to those creatures whose habitats we have destroyed, who we have made dependent on us for thier care and well being, who we, becoming and making our species to be the dominate one, and therefore responsible for the care and well being for our planet and all of its inhabitants, if we cannot and will not as a society and a species choose be compassionate, empathetic, and kind to all animals, (including the american pitt bull terrior and their plight,) then how can we ever learn to extend the same to humankind? How can you separate one from the other? Hundreds of studies prove that people who abuse animals will more than likely become people who abuse people, who will become people who abuse people, and so the vicious circle goes round and round. Of course there is more to it than that, nothing is ever that cut and dry…….
just as there is more to the verizon wireless add. It perpetuates the myth surrounding this breed of dog, one of a few breeds that our government is wanting to erradicate, all because of human ignorance and fear, and not placing blame where blame is to be placed. We caused the problem, and this is not the fair, ethical way to solve it. It is the easy way out. Place blame and kill who is to be blamed. That’s what we do with people, too. So some should be “put down”, who is to say? But we do little to understand. We all know that children are starving to death, our men and women are dying in a war that isn’t supposed to be a war fighting for a cause we can’t completly understand anymore,and as I type this some 4 out of 10 people have died senseless deaths, and as these things happen, as we torture and kill our own kind. We are torturing and killing animals as well. Just a fact. And, as we have done in the past to peoples of different color, ethnenticity, and religious beliefs, we try to exterminate and/ or suppress that which we don’t understand and wish to dominate, using physical force,and stereotypes perpetuated by the media, not to mention good old fashioned propaganda, a form of brainwashing still used in many hate groups.
So you wonder why anyone worries about the animals?
If we care so little for the animals, treat them with such disregard, so cruely, (and choosing ignorance is just as cruel as direct inhumane treatment by our own hands, just as it is to turn a blind eye to all ignorance and injustice,)how on earth will we ever learn to care for each other? How? Would this not be the ultimate in animal experimentation? Could this not possibly have the ultimate of outcomes, if we were to apply kindness, empathy,and understanding to those species which we consider “beneath” us, record the healing power that these extended emotions can and do have on those that have been abused and neglected within the animal kindgom ( and, not that we need them, but studies have already been done on dogs and cats that do, in fact, prove that these animals feel emotions in a comparable degree to that of humans,) and record what we learn and find, and then apply what we have learned to each other? It should not take this to make us care, but in this hateful, hateful world that we live in, maby we need to learn to feel things deeply once again.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was quoted as saying,” It’s a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done.”
This is why the verizon commercial is offensive; we that have seen and cared for these dogs who have been trained and forced to fight and kill for thier lives, these dogs, who very, very rarely show any aggresion to people, (if they did the people who fought them would not be able to control them and stop a mauling between two dogs, their loyalty towards humans is one of their fine traits that was used against this breed,)who have bandaged their wounds, held them and reasured them when fearful of the outside world, and of grass, and trees, and being afraid to leave their kennels for fear of what lies in wait for them outside the door,we who see the aftermath of one used as bait, flesh ripped off, knowing no kindness from a human hand,(and this is IF they are lucky enough not to be beaten to death, electrocuted, drowned, or just thrown in the trashcan if they loose the fight, and someone resuces them,) starved, beaten into submission, so much; we who know the truth about the american pitt bull terrior and dog fighting and breed specific legislation and how hard we are fighting to show the truth about the breed,and dismiss the myths about the breed for the sake of saving their lives,how could we not be upset over this commercial?
It puts the whole movement back decades.
I have met enough animal lovers in my small, secular little world, and most of them have suffered some form of abuse during their life, and they know all too well the connection between animal abuse and the abuse they have suffered, and the stereotypes which perpetuate the myths surrounding abused men, women and children. Only 17 years ago in the state that I live in, did this state begin to understand and take seriously battered women, rather than scoff it off, and say, ” There are bigger things to worry about, this is not so important.” Tougher penalties have been put in place to punish the abuser, and to help separate the mean from the sociopathic, the behavioraly challenged from the psycotic, and this has helped to save lives, yet there is more to be done.
You think this is really no big deal, this commercial?
That’s fine. That is your right, and I am glad that you take atvantage of the free speech that this great nation provides us.
So, find your cause, get connected with one of the many organizations that work dilligently to end world hunger, fight for human rights, and to end war and injustice all over this nation, all over the world if you can. Take one hour a month, at least, to be a part of positive change for that which you hold close to your heart and that which you believe in with such passion and conviction. When you do, when you decide to become invested in your cause, causes that work tirelessly to fight for the weak, to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves,I know that you will begin to understand.
February 28, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I love your site!
_____________________
Experiencing a slow PC recently? Fix it now!