Beefy needs to die

On Wednesday's Neal Larson Show I conducted perhaps my most irreverent and blunt FlashPoll ever. A vicious Bull Mastiff named "Beefy" keeps attacking kids in one Idaho Falls neighborhood, and the owners seem reluctant to put the dog down. I asked my listeners "Should Beefy Die?" Overwhelmingly listeners responded that, yes, Beefy indeed should go to Dog Heaven, Dog Purgatory, or Dog Hell, wherever his hereafter fate may take him.

One participant in my rapid fire phone-in poll agreed that Beefy should be put down, but she was highly offended at the flippant tone both callers and host were treating the solemn subject of canine euthenasia. Instinctively I asked her if she had dogs. Her response, as my radio host intuition predicted, was "several." I feel for the dog people.

Don't get me wrong, I like dogs. I grew up with them. We have a beautiful growing energetic black lab puppy. But I'm not so far gone that I can't distinguish between Roxy and my own children. I have and will never subscribe to the "Dogs are people too" mindset. And I even cried watching "Marley & Me". I still can't see or read "Where the Red Fern Grows" without some water works. My childood dogs -- Peppy, Pops, and Sting -- were all good friends, but they were dogs. And when they died -- from old age, getting hit by a passing car, and another lapping up anti-freeze (we didn't have control over it, before you go off) -- I was sad, but I knew that dogs have their place, and for my family, it's not inside the house, and it's not wearing clothes, and if they get terribly injured, you shoot them, or take them to the vet.

If this sounds harsh, don't blame me. It's how I was raised, and I see nothing convincing that I'm wrong.

Now to this Bull Mastiff, "Beefy". These owners should face some kind of jail time. Beefy needs to be put down so the neighborhood can get back to normal. We should have zero tolerance for vicious animals.

We have dominion over the animal kingdom, and not the other way around.