Stroll the streets of Steveston for a while and you might just come across Peanut, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross.
It’s more than likely the three-year-old has drawn a small crowd wanting to pet her or just say hello.
But it’s more than just her good nature and cute looks attracting the attention — it is the special badge she often wears in public on her harnesses and vests.
It’s a blind dog badge. And her owners, Leanne and Shaun Bird, are hoping an online petition they’ve posted will help earn Peanut and other dogs such as her, an exemption from the City of Richmond’s breed-specific bylaw labeling her a dangerous dog, a classification which forces her to don a muzzle in public.
Like most dogs she’s uncomfortable with it strapped around her face.
But in Peanut’s case, it also inhibits her spacial senses, something she relies on heavily because of her blindness.
“It’s especially difficult for her because it blocks those whiskers she uses to get around,” Leanne Bird said. “It’s all those really small ones (whiskers) around the front of her face and chin that pick up the air currents and detect things before she hits them.”
The Birds’ online petition (click here) for a bylaw change went online Monday (Aug. 10) and as of Thursday morning it had the support of nearly 1,600 people.
The Birds got Peanut as a rescue dog when she was just six months old and soon noticed she would often bump into things, but put it down to clumsiness of youth. But, as she got older, serious concerns were raised.
“When my husband took her for a walk, and she ran full-on into a fence,” Bird said. A vet finally confirmed about a year and half ago that she was blind.
The special blind dog badge she wears helps people understand not to startle her if they want to approach and pet her.
“She’s really popular in our neighbourhood and has almost become a breed ambassador,” she said. “We have commands we use, like ‘say hi Peanut,’ so she knows she’s going to be introduced to somebody.”
To view the petition, visit change.org, click the search tool and type “Leanne Bird.”
— Philip Raphael
