Letters to the Editor
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It's the dudes, not the dogs
My parents have 2 mutts, both are part Pit Bull and were pound rescues. They are the sweetest and most gentle animals. Both are sensitive to human temperment and training. It is the pet owner and not the animal that needs to be responsible. If you can't handle your pets, don't get them.
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Pit Bull vs Yorkshire Terrier
A lot of Yorkshire Terriers are bad-tempered vicious little animals, but they tend to kill and maim less than pit-bulls, because they are not as big and strong. Sure many pit-bulls are lovable and friendly. I used to own one myself. but they are big strong dogs with powerful jaws--that is the problem. So when they bite you, you stay bitten.
Of course there are other factors. Female dogs, unlike their human counterparts, are generally less aggressive than the males, especially the unneutered males.
And then powerful, strong dogs that can bite tend to appeal to owners who have weak egos and like to make themselves feel more potent by owning a vicious dog.
Maybe all dog owners should have to carry insurance, with lower premiums for statistically more docile breeds. Certainly as things stand now, homeowner's insurance is more expensive for people who own dogs. Silly me once thought that any risk from the dog would be offset by the reduced chance of burglars, but apparently not so. So presumably ownership of a pit bull will inflate your premiums quite a bit, if they really are as great a risk as some people think.
All these kinds of issues tend to stem from politicians, local or national, looking for issues that they think voters are concerned about. In England ill defined "pit-bulls" have been outlawed, though not, I think, Staffordshire bull terriers, which are a smaller version of the breed.
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@ revinc
My sympathy to your friends.
The problem is generally with two or more. As pack animals allowed to revert to pack animal behavior, many breeds of dogs are dangerous. Pits can be extra dangerous in a pack. They do fight differently and attack differently from other breeds. No they do not lock their jaws. That is a myth. The problem is that people who breed dogs particularly for pit fighting (can apply to many bully breeds) breed them to be utterly relentless when they attack.
Most breeds rely upon a complicated language of body behavior and facial expression to communicated with other dogs. When they act ugly to each other, they only want to see who will give up first. Dogs are, in fact, designed by nature to follow a leader and to signal submission if a fight gets to tough for them. Most won't fight at all. It is all posturing. Fighting dog breeders breed their dogs to ignore all signs of submission and to attack until the other dog (or whoever is under attack) is dead or completely motionless.
Will most bully breeds (boxers for instance) do this? No! Not even most pits will do this. But some will, and when in a pack, all dogs will follow the alpha dog -- the most relentless one.
How do I know this crap? I once stumbled onto a dog fighting site. It was absolutely horrifying.
Those dogs bred to be that dangerous need to be euthanized. Some, whose behavior is do to ill treatment, can be treated, but sadly, many cannot.
The people who fight dogs are ugly, sociopathic monsters.
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Potentially bad dogs, but worse handguns
I am very sympathetic to this article, even though I think it glosses over the fact that there is a good reason that pit bulls are the dog of choice for drug dealers, dogfighting rings, and wannabe badasses.
All that being said, I find it absolutely absurd that any community would consider banning any type of dog as a way to curb violence. It's merely a politically expedient, band-aid solution; if these cities seriously wanted to curb violence, they should start with getting rid of handguns, not dogs.
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It's not the dogs, it's the owners!!!
As a proud owner of Rottweilers (another horribly maligned breed) I can relate to the bigotry that Ken Foster has faced because he chose to own a pit bull.
Last summer, I was attacked by a pit bull while walking my new Rottweiler puppy. Only because of my 30-plus years of martial arts training was I able to fend off that dog. I'm extremely proud that I did it without seriously injuring the pit bull.
(My wife had to hold me back to keep me from injuring the bonehead who let that dog loose).
Prior to that incident, I defended pit bulls from those who call for their extermination. As a result, as I related that incident to my friends and relatives, the cynophobes among them would say the same thing - "See. I told you so."
Well, I don't see.
I've known too many friendly, affectionate, obedient pit bulls to buy into that crap that they're inherently dangerous.
When I was 18, I was mugged by three African American men. Yet if I used that incident to justify hating an entire race and to call for their extermination, I would rightly be called a bigot.
So how is it any different to hate an entire breed of dog because of a few criminal owners?
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from the American Pit Bull website
Here's a quote from the American Pit Bull website:
"The American Dog Breeders Assoc's goal is the same now is at was then: to register, promote and preserve the original American Pit Bull Terrier ***FIGHTING-TYPE DOG***" (emphasis added)
Great!
Next time I cross the street while I'm walking my 10-pound, completely docile Havanese, I'll keep that in mind, rather than the author's advice to hope for the best. I've owned gentle German Shepherds and pushy spaniels, you name it, but the facts are these: the "American Pit Bull" is the only dog bred for a century now to attack and kill other dogs. It's a genetic component of the breed. I live in NYC and as far as the author's contention that poor people "deserve" them is completely condescending. Do they also deserve AK47's?
With other dogs of course it's about how they're raised, but can you take the "retrieve" gene out of a Retriever? Can you take the "dig" gene out of Dachsund? No. The question is: can you take the "kill" gene out of a pit bull? I'm not waiting to find out. I'll cross the street with my dog.