My dog will take pride of place at my wedding.

wtf??? What is it with people treating dogs (and other animals) like they are human?? Get over it people, they are animals, they don’t love you, they don’t understand every word you say and they don’t need to wear a coat and boots to go outside in the rain!!!

Now, don't get me wrong, I have a dog and I love her to bits, she's called Bella and she's a collie/rottweiler cross and she's all of 9 months old, but I don't treat her like a child because she isn't one! 

She gets dog food to eat because it contains the right amount of vitamins and minerals for her. She gets doggy treats when she is a good girl, not human sweets and tidbits because they contain salts and sugars that are bad for her (not to mention that chocolate contains something which in large quantities is poisonous to dogs!!) she sleeps on the floor not on my bed because she periodically picks up fleas and she is taken outside come rain or shine for a poo (or a wee) because if she isn't she'll eventually do it on the floor! She has her own toys to play with and she isn't allowed to play with mine. 

In short I treat her as what she is - an animal; one that I love and consider part of our family, but still an animal at the end of the day. You may think that your pet looks adorable in a hoody, or a tartan coat or in the latest pooch boots, but where is the dignity in that for your pet? If you want to dress something up buy a dolly - or go the whole hog and have a baby!! but for goodness sake give your pet the respect it deserves and leave the clothes for the dolls!

Anita 'naked pets' Kelly

Belfast

Rioters... AAARRGGH!!!

OK, I tried, I really did... I wasn't going to do this online, I was gonna keep my ranting to myself but i'm sick to the back teeth of people trying to excuse the disgusting behaviour of the looters over the last week... the fact of the matter is this is not 'poverty stricken youth rebelling against a world that doesnt accept or understand them' - its a group of people of all ages and ethnic/cultural backgrounds who thought it was acceptable for them to go out, create havoc and steal whatever they wanted just because they could!

I was raised on a council estate, i had my first child at 17 and I had 2 children by the time I was 19... I was the typical unmarried mother, on benefits, living in a council house, its not an easy life but i was very aware of whose fault it was that my life was difficult - MINE!! I was grateful that i got subsidised housing, that the taxpayer paid for me to be able to feed my kids and keep them warm and dry. I got married at 21 and went on to have another 3 children by the time I was 25. My kids weren't born with a silver spoon in their mouths, my ex-husband was unemployed for the first 10 years we were married - but we behaved like normal, civilised human beings, we didn't riot, we weren't a pain in the ass for our neighbours and we made an effort to get along with people. My ex finally got work in NI back in 97 and we moved to Belfast where we were finally - after 15 years of marriage - able to buy a house but even then we didn't have much money. It was a usual occurrence for us to spend £500 on our kids for Christmas... £500 between them, that is!!
We split 5 years ago and are both remarried meaning my kids come from the prime 'rioting' recruitment group - inner city kids, raised in 'poverty', from a broken home.... yet none of my kids were out rioting.
They may have been raised in poverty but they were also raised to respect authority, to respect other people (and other people's property) and to respect themselves!
Why do these people think they can do what they have been doing? Simple - because they can!! they have learned from an early age that the police can arrest them but they'll generally get away with a 'slap on the wrist' as our prisons are already full to overflowing... they have learned that teachers can't touch them, that even their parents can no longer chastise them without being accused of abuse! these people know more about their rights than what IS right and i have only two questions:

1. who is to blame for this state of affairs?
2. what are we gonna do about the future??

the answer to 1 is simple - the same social services and youth workers who have spent the last couple of decades drumming 'rights' into people's heads - any society where a burglar can sue his victim when he injures himself during the robbery is not just broken but smashed to pieces!! I am not in favour of beating the crap out of anyone, much less kids but smacking children isn't abuse - its correction! it teaches kids that if they do wrong their are consequences and those consequences are unpleasant! fluffy hippy types who effectively outlawed smacking but didn't replace it with anything for the majority of people are directly responsible for this attitude among the populace... we need to get back to parents being able to chastise their kids to keep them in line and the parents being punished (or at least reprimanded) when their kids are out of control!

the answer to 2 isn't so simple - in short i don't know what the answer is... how can you now take these people who span all cultural/ethnic backgrounds and about 4 or 5 decades, and change the way they think? how can you make people feel like they have a community and a responsibility to that community? how can you make people realise that, no matter what their gripe with the government, smashing up other peoples property, people's livelihood and, in some cases, other people, is wrong? and more importantly, how can you stop these same people from seeing any changes now brought about by the people or by the government as a reward for their criminal behaviour??

answers on a postcard to 10 downing street please...

Anita 'Law&Order' Kelly
Belfast