I don’t have any children myself. But I consider their protection to be the highest human moral duty–with the protection of animals a distant but related second. Both are the only true innocents on a lovely planet–as opposed to us adults, who, if we merit that term at all, must take responsibility for our own actions in order to assume a protective role for the true innocents among us who cannot.
If I did have kids, then, I would consider it my duty as a good parent to do anything that would improve their safety without substantially limiting their learning and growth–let alone endangering them in its own right.
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Imagine your own neighborhood at night. Beneath your darkened bedroom window crouches a silent, unrepentant, lifelong offender with a nasty addiction, a soulless man who has somehow singled out your house for the money and valuables that will get him another fix. Imagine he reaches slowly for the screen on the window and, just on the other side of this window, a very cute, ten-pound dog perks up from sleep and instantly erupts into frantic barking.
A light comes on in the bedroom window–and falls upon an empty yard: He has fled–and likely will never come back to this house again. The police have already been called, as far as he knows.
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If I had kids, and unless one of my family members had a strong allergy to them, I would consider it to be immoral of me not to have a dog–of any size–in the house for their protection. One can argue about whether keeping a gun in the house poses a higher risk to kids than the risk of home invasion–that would depend upon the carelessness of the parents.
But an alert, protective family dog has proven to be a powerful yet friendly deterrent to threats against innocent children quite literally for millenia.
Parents, do what any loving, moral parents must: lock your windows and doors at night–and seek for your children a loyal, reliable, four-legged friend.