Letters to the Editor
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Pit Bulls
All the pit bulls I have known are smart and sweet. Bella, a little chocolate brown pit bull who lives down the street, never fails to greet me enthusiastically when I am walking to my friend's house. She has a happy little face and a huge smile that makes the day seem brighter.
To this day I am haunted by the image of a sweet and seemingly lost pit bull who wandered the downtown streets of my college town looking for his owner or simply for some help. He came right up to me and sat down in front of me and stared into my face. I was unable to take him home so I simply gave him some kind words and some petting then called the Humane Society to come pick him up. I hope I did the right thing and that he found his home.
As for the knee jerk solution of euthanizing all pit bulls because of their breed, I will quote my mother who said, "People will some day pay for the horrible things they do to animals."
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The secret is in how you train them ....
..., NO not Michael Vick but the pit bulls. Talking about Michael Vick, How does one go from $100 million to pleading guilty to dog fighting gambling charges?
http://osi-speaks.blogspot.com/2007/08/breaking-news-michael-vick-cops-plea.html#links
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@ Hell's Liberal
While I agree with you about breed bans, your analogy towards the end of your post is a bit strained. People, of all races, are not breeds. They are evolutionary accidents. Breeding requires human intervention. The problem with the bully breeds goes a ways back to when the first guy who enjoyed gambling on dog fighting decided to deliberately breed dogs that were "game."
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The author likes pit bulls. So what?
The argument put forth by those who love these dogs is always the same - if you provoke any dog, they'll bite. Therefore, they say, these dogs are no more dangerous than any other.
While it's true that any dog can be provoked into biting, you never read of anyone being killed by a toy poodle or a Chihuahua.
I'm not really a dog guy, but all things being equal, I'd rather not be around breeds that have the ability to kill me when provoked.
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I'm With WillNYC
It's not for myself that I cross the street when walking my dogs and I see a pit coming our way. Or crossing to the other side of the park if a pit enters. I have met enumerous friendly, gregarious, sweet, and even goofy pits. However, they are bred to be aggressive, particularly as to other dogs/animals. I just don't understand when people try to contest this basic fact, and argue that "it's not the dog, it's the owner." No. It IS the dog. That is the breed, and as numerous people here have commented, you can't "train" out something that breeders have spent generations perfecting. I have seen too, too many incidents in dog parks involving pits. A poster earlier said it best - most of the interaction involving dogs is all posture. As soon as one acts submissive, the "game" is over. Pits, however, do not stop when the other dog tries to submit. And from there, it goes rapidly downhill.
No, I cross the street for my dogs' safety. I mean no offense to the owners of the pits when I do this; but I simply will not expose my dogs to the unpredictability of pits with other dogs.
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Stats?
I know that statistics can be misleading, and I don't have any to offer here, but I do remember learning, during an orientation at PAWS, that pit bulls do not account for more attacks that any other breed per capita. Yes, there are more pit bulls attacks per year than any other breed, but there are more pit bulls out there than any other breed.
Now, one of my neighbors has two pit bulls that are sweet, and genuinely docile. And the only dog that I've ever met who has been dangerously aggressive was a hunting dog. I'm willing to cut the pit bull some slack.
The author's lack of willingness to consider the cultural and economic status of the pit bull is especially troubling. Oh, so a few movie stars are now adopting pit bulls because they're the maligned animal of the moment? Some suburban ladies are catching on? That doesn't discount the fact that the vast majority of pit bulls are bred and raised by people who view the dogs as either as a money-making scheme (through selling or fighting) or as a statement of their extreme bad-assness. Whether or not the people are the problem or the dog is the problem, it's still a problem.
I wish animals had greater protection under our constitution. That would make it so much easier to prosecute the assholes who treat them like their lives are worth nothing.
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It's a control issue
Self-control on the part of the dogs. The difference between toy poodles and german shepherds is not just one of size. Toy poodles are small and have been bred to be cute pets. They tend to be more aggressive because they are so small that their lack of self-control has never been a major problem so it has not been "bred out" of the line. German shepherds are working dogs, and (like all working dogs) have been bred to be obedient and disiplined. This is why German Shepherds are often used by police. They certainly are not the largest or most vicious dogs, but they are easy to train and to control and rarely attack unprovoked.
Pit bulls have, in many cases, been bred to be aggressive. Not all pits are vicious, but many have been specifically bred to be fighters, and their genes have mixed with the general population. The fault isn't the dogs, it's the fault of the people who bred the dogs. But it's a reality that we have to deal with. If a flaw is found in a breed, it has to be bred out. The problem is that we can't see the fault in pit bulls. It's a subtle tendency to be easily provoked into violence. You can't test for this. A child might pull the tail of a pit bull and be mauled. This can happen with other breeds, but itisn't nearly as likely. And pits are built to kill. Their strong jaws and heavily muscled bodies make them efficient killing machines, should they lose control. If a toy poodle bites, then it probably won't hurt anybody permanently. A pit bull can easily kill.
I don't think there is an easy solution. I'm not in favor of forcing people to kill their pets (that's just crued), but I do favore requiring sterilization of pits and banning their breeding. As for dog fighting, I think that anybody caught participating should be treated as a murderer, since they are indirectly responsible for the death of every person who has been mauled by a pit bull. By breeding aggression into dogs, they have made an entire breed a threat to human beings, and the punishment should be severe.