Have you heard about Lennox? Lennox is, or I should say, was, a 7 year old mixed breed dog living with his family in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Two years ago, Lennox was seized from his family by a dog warden who thought he looked like a pit bull terrier, a banned breed in Northern Ireland and the UK.  Lennox was put to sleep this morning. He had committed no crime. He was simply murdered because of his looks.

Lennox’s owner, Caroline Barnes, had complied with every rule regarding dog ownership in the city. He had his tags, his shots, his registration. He even had a DNA test proving he was an American Bulldog mix and therefore not a banned breed. But the standard for breed identification in so many places unfortunately involves no science, merely judgement by uneducated humans who think any dog with a square jaw is a killer. Because of this, Lennox met his gruesome fate.

How does this relate to social media? Well, over the last two years, there have been many attempts to stop Lennox from being put to sleep. There have been online petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures, multiple facebook groups and lots of conversations on Twitter. The outpour of public support for Lennox and his family over the last month has been staggering.

Over 200,000 people appealed to Belfast City Council, the leader of the DUP and even the Royal family. Celebrities even stepped up to show their support.

 

 

Unfortunately the public outcry was ignored. Some people, myself included, are inclined to believe Lennox was put to sleep a long time ago, hence the tight lips from Belfast City Council. Why else would they deny the owners one last visit with their beloved pet? Refuse to return the deceased dogs body to the family? Or deny a little girl having her murdered dogs collar as a keepsake?

You may think this is a lot of hoopla for one little dog, but rest assured Lennox was not just one dog. He was a symbol of inequality, discrimination and all that is wrong with our world. I can only hope that the amount of backlash against the City of Belfast raises awareness and starts a discussion about changing breed specific legislation. This does seem to be the case – if you look at the hashtag #wearelennox on Twitter or Instagram, you’ll see many people and pups showing their support, regardless of breed. My own dog, an American Bulldog, is definitely one of them.

Whether you believe in banning certain types of dogs or not, I think we can all agree that Belfast failed in dealing with this public relations catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of people across the world are tweeting with the hashtag #boycottbelfast and calling for an international boycott of tourism. Belfast City Council’s reaction? Shut down their Facebook page, stop answering their phones and not reply to a single mention on Twitter. In fact, their obviously automated Twitter account is showing business as usual, reminding people about bank holidays and garbage pickup times!

The City of Belfast’s actions will not soon be forgotten. In a country that has dealt with more than its fair share of discrimination and racial profiling, governments and authority figures are rarely trusted. There is already great mistrust in this council and the secrecy and silence that responded to such a public inquiry will do nothing but breed more contempt. Especially since the planned boycott of Belfast will likely impact tourism in an already struggling economy. I don’t think the new slogan for Belfast Tourism “Belfast; Spending taxpayers money on animal abuse since 2010!” will be much of a crowd pleaser.

But back to the dogs: this issue is not specific to Northern Ireland, and I have spoken about it before here. This ineffective and discriminatory legislation is in effect in many countries. It’s very prevalent in North America and Ontario has some of the worst legislation in North America.  Every year, many family pets are taken and murdered just because they look like what someone thinks a “pit bull” is. Not only that, breed specific legislation is a waste of taxpayer money.

Pit bulls are not the most dangerous animals on earth – humans have held that title for centuries. Rest in peace, Lenox. I hope your untimely death can bring positive change to this world.