Some people shouldn't breed

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/12/MNGJND7G5L1.DTL

I pity the poor boy who had to be locked in a basement to protect him from a vicious animal. I wonder what prompted him to come out, and meet his death at the jaws of that animal.

But mostly I wonder how his mother can live with herself. And I'm angry. Very, Very, Terribly angry.

My former in-laws were big dog people. They raised, trained, and showed them for fun and profit. I once saw a picture of my ex husband as a toddler, with chew marks healing on his face. I asked my mother in law about it and she was casual. "Oh, Jody was playing with the dog and he got too rough." Imagine my surprise that she blamed the child. Imagine my shock to learn she'd kept the animal even after it chewed up her baby. But she was insistent; the dog was not at fault, her son was. He didn't know any better, but he was at fault. She even laughed about it; joked that it might be why her son never warmed up to the idea of dog ownership.

I must say I can't blame him.

A dog is a pet. It can be beloved, it can be a part of your family. But it is never, ever equal to your child. And if your dog eats your baby, maybe you ought not to have that dog anymore, hmm? Just a thought.

That mother in the article I linked up there? Is no mother at all. She isn't fit to bear the name. "Mother" is not some hereditary title, it is a job description. She wasn't doing her damned job. And her son died for it.