30/08/2026
Last week, everyone focused on the loss against the All Blacks.
This week, the Springboks won, but all the attention, noise and focus are on a plane flying too low.
As someone who struggles to reverse in a straight line and has to turn the volume down to find a street, I cannot judge a pilot—or any plane thingies.
I do know this: the media focuses on the negative. The only time we have ever heard from publications has been following an alleged Rottweiler attack, bite, mauling or scandal.
For years, we have tried to have articles published about the plight of working dogs and the lack of resources they face. Instead, the media has repeatedly published pleas for dogs to be donated to SAPS, which has proven that it cannot properly care for them and has no retirement plan for the “assets” it claims to need.
My mind goes back to the lives saved by our heroic breed, the hospitals they have visited and the elderly people they have comforted.
I remember the preschools our dogs visited, the gyms they ran through each day and the seizures they detected.
The movies they made Oscar-worthy, the stories they could tell and the books we could all write about the journeys they made better.
These are the stories that go untold because the breed has been classified as dangerous, aggressive and unfriendly.
For years, I have participated in and read posts from community groups in towns across the country—and witnessed the disdain directed towards our black-and-tan breed.
A Jack Russell or Poodle can run wild and off-lead in a park, but the “aggressive” Rottweiler on a lead will always be seen as the problem.
How the story of our breed, our country, this airline, yesterday’s event and the current state of affairs is written and presented may not be up to us.
It is therefore important that we decide what deserves our attention and which narratives we allow to take hold.
Ultimately, we decide which story to follow.
And to celebrate the wins.
