This Guy's Dogged by Criticism

He's controversial, short, stocky and unattractive. He likes to get his drink on, and he was born to hunt. And he's gotten his share of news coverage this week. No, I'm not talking about Dick Cheney, though of course I could be. Rather, I'm referring to Rufus, who was named Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club show this week.

In spite of these astonishingly similar traits, newsmakers Dick and Rufus share an even more unusual distiction. Like Cheney, there are wide swaths of America where Rufus is unwelcome. Though I believe Cheney's status as persona non grata has not yet been codified in any jurisdiction -- though it wouldn't shock me if it's on the books in Takoma Park -- "in some parts of the country, dogs that look like [Rufus] are seized, muzzled and in some cases, destroyed."

That must be because they're more dangerous, right? Pit bulls are ripping babies and grannies to shreds left and right all the time.

Not so, pointed out Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, in a thoughtful piece in The New Yorker last week. (Gladwell is so brilliant -- screw Chuck Norris -- he wrote about the bull-terrier bans at least a week before upstart Rufus captured best in show.) Here's Gladwell quoting Randall Lockwood, who is identified as "one of the country’s leading dogbite experts":

I don’t think I even saw my first pit-bull case until the middle to late nineteen-eighties, and I didn’t start seeing Rottweilers until I’d already looked at a few hundred fatal dog attacks. Now those dogs make up the preponderance of fatalities. The point is that it changes over time. It’s a reflection of what the dog of choice is among people who want to own an aggressive dog.

And so dogs just like Rufus are being needlessly banned and/or destroyed based on their genetics and the perceived threat they pose, rather than on any hard data.

Seeing Rufus, his much more accomplished peer, under such fire, who can blame a Westminster merit-winning whippet for escaping into the marsh surrounding JFK airport this week? Sauvez-vous, Bohem C'est La Vie! Sauvez-vous before they ban you, too! (Man. Did someone dose my coffee?)

And finally... This week in DeWitt, Arkansas the city attorney outlined a new law banning most terrier breeds in his city. The attorney's name? Rufus. That's all for tonight. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Have a good night.