“Our dogs are fed on Jehovah’s Witnesses”
1 August 2006 by Sean
Woman in doghouse over Jehovah’s Witness signLONDON (Reuters) – A British woman has been ordered by police to take down a sign on her garden gate which read “Our dogs are fed on Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
Janet Grove, who owns a terrier puppy called Rabbit, insisted the sign was a gentle joke to discourage callers at her front door.
Her late husband put the sign up more than 30 years ago when members of the church called at their house on Christmas Day.
But police were forced to act after receiving a complaint.
“We were informed by a member of the public who found the sign to be distressing, offensive and inappropriate,” a police spokesman said. “Officers attended the address and the sign was voluntarily taken down.”
Thanks to Lisa.
1 August 2006, on 12:42 am
Ah, censorship at its’ finest. WTF?!?!?!
1 August 2006, on 1:39 am
“But police were forced to act after receiving a complaint.”
“We were informed by a member of the public who found the sign to be distressing, offensive and inappropriate,”
Since when can one person dictate what is offensive and what is not. What if I complain that a tree in front of someone’s house is offensive? Would the police be forced to take action and have them cut it down? I suppose it’s too much to ask for the complainer to just ignore the sign.
1 August 2006, on 1:51 am
This woman was interviewed on CBC radio. It was just a wee little blurb, but she was very pleasant. Said the officers dispatched to her house apologized for bothering her tea, explained the problem and asked her politely to remove the sign “to alleviate any further bother.”
She said that in that context, she didn’t mind taking down the sign, but was still quite surprised that it took 30 years to offend someone.
She was so sweet, really. What kind of bully asshole would have complained about that? Oh, wait a minute… I think I know the answer to that one.
1 August 2006, on 7:51 am
Not a lot of JWs in my neighborhood, but we’re swarming with Mormons for some reason. Still, I haven’t been bothered by one since the day two 18-year-old “elders” showed up to try to get me to join, and I said I would… once poly marriages were back on the table, on the condition that I get to start my harem with them. Both of them. For starters. Did my best impression of “horny old bat” and I haven’t been bothered by them since (was 37 at the time, ancient to a teen).
1 August 2006, on 8:34 am
By the same logic, couldn’t the woman claim to be offended by the JWs and have the officers remove THEM from the town?
Oh, if only it were that easy….
1 August 2006, on 10:05 am
The Lady and Her Sign.
1 August 2006, on 11:00 am
You know, it’s implied in everything they do, but I’m waiting for them to announce an outright attack on humor. It’s coming, folks, you know it is. And also laughing, and joy, and,. . . it’s too scary to consider.
1 August 2006, on 11:52 am
“We were informed by a member of the public who found the sign to be distressing, offensive and inappropriate,” a police spokesman said.
Many of us find being bothered by Jehovah’s witnesses and other religions proselytizers to be every bit as distressing, offensive and inappropriate when they come on our own personal property and knock on our doors and steal our time with their self-righteous nonsense. It’s also offensive to have to drive around and see huge lighted execution symbols on tops of churches and other places, and signs that say non-believers are going to burn in hell, and all of that hateful stuff. Phelp’s groups can carry their signs at funerals of soldiers while grieving families must try to ignore the signs, but even a humorous sign on one’s own property referring to some sort of religious sect is not allowed.
Lucky our village has a ban on door knocking of any kind now. It’s been so peaceful since they started that a few years ago.
1 August 2006, on 12:41 pm
Many of us find being bothered by Jehovah’s witnesses and other religions proselytizers to be every distressing, offensive and inappropriate when they come on our own personal property and knock on our doors and steal our time with their self-righteous nonsense. It’s also offensive to have to drive around and see huge lighted execution symbols on tops of churches and other places, and signs that say non-believers are going to burn in hell, and all of that hateful stuff. Phelp’s groups can carry their signs at funerals of soldiers while grieving families must try to ignore the signs, but even a humorous sign on one’s own property referring to some sort of religious sect is not allowed.
Lucky our village has a ban on door knocking of any kind now. It’s been so peaceful since they started that a few years ago.
Ramen, Star! We don’t have any such ban here in the SF Mission and the thumpers come around once every month or so. They are usually surprised to see a big white guy poke his head out the window and go “What??” That’s usually enough. They are here to convert male Latino day laborers on guilty, hungover Sunday mornings. And in some ways I welcome that. I see the same guys who were drunk on my doorstep a few months ago down at the chapel in buttoned up shirts singing Latin Gospel and I think “There but for the grace of Gawd go I.” I don’t hold it against them. It’s just the cultural shit they are in right now.
But that’s exactly it. I have managed to avoid the grace of Gawd and am damn happy for it. So Sunday morning, when my loud-ass door buzzer rings eight times and I leap out of bed (half-asleep or in the middle of interrupting some other thing best described in Latin), I have been known to scream out of my window “Go fuck you and your invisible sky daddy! I was SLEEPING!*”
Slowly it has started to catch on that my doorbell is not the one to poke.
*Or dreaming, or eating frosted wheat chunks out of a lovely belly button. Got milk?
1 August 2006, on 12:44 pm
catherine Says:
You know, it’s implied in everything they do, but I’m waiting for them to announce an outright attack on humor. It’s coming, folks, you know it is. And also laughing, and joy, and,. . . it’s too scary to consider.
Laugh-Crime?
1 August 2006, on 4:29 pm
This is what happens when you criminalize “offense”. The law becomes offensive.
1 August 2006, on 4:59 pm
Egad, if I had known it would be that easy, I’d have complained to the cops about all sorts of trivial things years ago!
1 August 2006, on 7:35 pm
It’s a pretty stupid story. And good on her, she put the sign back up again once the police had left :p
(By the way, sorry to self-plug, but I too covered the story on my blog with a bigger pic of the lady if anyone’s interested)
1 August 2006, on 9:14 pm
I find all those 10 commandment signs offensive which are stuck into every other front lawn here in the gloriously offensive bible belt. Shall I call the cops? Oh brother.
1 August 2006, on 9:42 pm
Is the pic of that hilarious door-knocker from one of the scary movies? I want a knocker like that!
1 August 2006, on 11:44 pm
I should make a sign that says “I leave no Witnesses!”
2 August 2006, on 10:27 am
-A heads up on the Jehovah Witness-
There is no Armageddon that will annihilate 6.5 billion people,and install Watchtower leaders as world rulers.
The core dogma of the Watchtower organization is that Jesus had his second coming ‘invisibly’ in the year 1914.Their entire doctrinal superstructure is built on this falsehood.
Jehovah’s Witnesses door to door recruitment is by their own admission an ineffective tactic. They have lost membership in all countries with major Internet access because their false doctrines and harmful practices are exposed on the modern information superhighway.
There is good and valid reasons why there is such an outrage against the Watchtower for misleading millions of followers.Many have invested everything in the ‘imminent’ apocalyptic promises of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and have died broken and beaten.
Every Jehovah’s Witness member will grow old and die just like everyone else.
—-
Danny Haszard Bangor Maine ‘expert witness on the Jehovah’s Witness’
2 August 2006, on 4:55 pm
One of my neighbor’s Dachshund recently jumped on a JW that bent down to pet it. The JW then hard the nerve to file a false police report that stated the dog bit her. The dog had to be quarantined for a week. Apparently the JW was not quarantined for her part in the incident and was allowed to continue to roam the neighborhood like a stray slut high on jee-HOE-va.