It's worse than ignorant dog owners - much worse.

Society has laws to protect us against violence and programs and social standards to try to teach non-violence. Law-makers (our MPs MLAs, our Mayors and councillors) adopt many laws to prevent violence.

In the case of dogs, the law not only permits dogs to be made violent by the cruelty of social isolation, but actually insists that any dog that has shown violent tendencies be kept in confinement, the usual confinement being a pen. So the law-makers are responsible for every attack and death. And they are responsible for imposing cruelty on dogs too.

All over the world, even in our so-called "civilized" country, dogs are kept as livestock in pens and on chains for their whole lives. The difference being that if this were done to a goat or a cat, the law would seize the goat or the cat and charge the owner with cruelty.

But the law actually says that some dogs must be kept this way.