"It is true that Pit Bulls grab and hold on. But what they most often
grab and refuse to let go of is your heart, not your arm." -Vicki Hearne
I was reading an online message board one day, and this caught my attention:
"but, i do think that pit bulls are bred to be especially
aggressive. it is their powerful bite that does the damage. they bite,
grab on and do not let go."
Upon reading this post, I was reminded of Lita, a sweet dog I had to
find a home for when a friend became too ill to care for her any
longer.
Her
mother had been a short-haired mixed breed dog, and daddy was a traveling man, so no one
quite knew what she was, but she certainly looked like she had
one of the breeds we call the pit bull in her. She was a docile, happy,
well-trained dog, with a sunny disposition and not a bit of dog or
people aggression, and I did find her a wonderful home, but never in my
life have I had such trouble placing a dog.
It's that whole myth of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, that the
loving, well-trained pet could change at any moment into a ravening
beast with triple-hinged jaws of death. Well, folks, it just isn't so. If there is any kind of dog with more myths out there about it than the pit bull, I have no idea what it is.
Let's start here: There really is no single breed known as the pit bull.
"Pit bull" is a category of dog, and which dogs belong in that category
is a matter of some contention and dispute. Some would place the
English bulldog there; certainly these dogs were bred originally to
fight bulls. But there is perhaps no breed of dog on earth so sweet,
calm, gentle and non-aggressive as today's English bulldog.
Some would place the American Staffordshire Terrier there, and
most dogs for sale in the newspaper classifieds in the US identified as "pit
bulls" are in fact AmStaffs. This is the breed, too, which in Britain
is known as the "pit bull," while their own version of the breed, the
Staffordshire Bull Terrier, is known as the Children's Nursemaid. Go
figure.
"Pit bulls" are any dogs of the breeds used to fight other dogs
in pits. They were usually, but not always, created from some mix of
terriers and bulldogs. The American Pit Bull Terrier, a breed
recognized by the United Kennel Club (UKC) but not the American Kennel
Club (AKC), is perhaps the truest representation of this type of dog:
bred in this country to fight other dogs, and a combination of bulldogs
and terriers. (The only catch is that there are dogs who are registered
as APBTs with the UKC and as AmStaffs with the AKC.)
There are a number of dog breeds that are often called pit
bulls, most with no more claim to the name than having a short coat.
Bullmastiffs, boxers, shar peis, Boston terriers, even many
square-headed Labrador retrievers or greyhound mixes are often mistaken
for pit bulls. A dog was killed a few years ago in England under its
pit bull laws, all expert testimony and the dog's owner as well holding
the dog to be a Great Dane/greyhound cross. So looks are indeed
deceiving.
Nor is there any scientific method for determining breed, which makes the whole concept of a "pit bull ban" pretty hard to implement, though it doesn't stop people from trying.
Genetically, there is no difference between the tiniest Chihuahua and
the tallest Irish wolfhound, nor indeed, the wolf itself. Nor does
the pit bull have a triple-hinged jaw capable of extraordinary feats of
strength. As any owner of a ball-crazy Golden retriever will tell you,
the clamp of the jaw is as much a function of psychology as physiology,
and any medium-size or larger dog can clamp down beyond the capability of a human to pry
open.
Are there rotten, mean, unpredictable dogs who would as soon
eat your pet as look at it? You bet. Are there fearful, cringing,
fear-biting dogs who can tear a toddler's face off? Sure are. Are all
these dogs pit bulls? Not a chance.
Any strange dog has the potential to bite or to be
dog-aggressive, and it's best to have the same rules with the fluffiest
cocker as with the most prepossessing mastiff: Don't run up to or touch
a strange dog. Keep your own pet on a leash and don't let it run up to
strange dogs in uncontrolled circumstances. Don't pet a strange dog
without the owner's permission. Don't let your children play
unsupervised with a dog, most especially a strange dog or a dog not
used to kids.
Sure, we all know the placid Newfoundland who lets all the kids play
pony. We all also know the neighborhood bully who pokes the dog in the
eye with a stick while giving a war whoop. So use your common sense and
be cautious, whatever the breed of dog. Dogs don't need triple-hinged
jaws to do damage to human flesh.
Once I was in the park with my dog, and a Latino teenage boy came in with his AmStaff on a heavy chain. The dog run emptied fast, even though the boy kept his dog on a leash. She had a scabbed and mottled nose, and as he passed me, I said, in the way of dog people everywhere, "What's wrong with your dog's nose?" He looked at me and said, "I don't know. The vet can't figure it out. He said it's not infected, and she doesn't have a fungus or nothing. He thought she was rubbing it, but she never does. And it doesn't itch her or nothing. It just won't clear up."
"Did you ever have her checked for lupus?" I asked. "It's an immune system problem, and it's hard to treat, but a friend of mine has a dog with it, and it looks just like that."
He went to his car and got a notebook and wrote it down. In the meantime his dog and mine were sniffing each other, while he and I talked dog food. He was giving his dog canned meats and tuna, but not a balanced diet. He wanted to give her something better then dog food, but didn't know dogs need more than just meat. As we sat there, a police car cruised by, and then stopped. It seems one of the dog run regulars had called the cops, and since Latino boys and pit bulls have about the same reputation with some people, the cops had headed right over.
Was there a problem? Nope. Just a couple of dogs smelling each other and chasing a ball while their owners talked about them. The officer came in and said, "Everything OK here?" I asked if they had a call, and he said someone had reported dog fighting in the dog run. My dog was off leash (it was a fenced, leash-free dog area), and the Am Staff was still on her leash. The officer went over and crouched next to her, and she promptly rolled over for a belly rub. The officer just as promptly complied with her order. When she finally jumped up and shook herself off, she gave his hand a quick lick and went back to her sniffing.
"Goodnight folks," said the police officer. "Nice dog," he added to the young man. He smiled and nodded as the cop left the dog run. "Why don't you let her off?" I said. He smiled bigger and let her loose. She never got more than ten feet away from him the whole time, though, except to race after the ball, which she promptly brought back and dropped at his feet, even when I had thrown it.
Are pit bulls more dangerous than other breeds of dog? To other dogs and to small animals, yes, they can be. Many terrier breeds and most pit bulls are dog aggressive to varying degrees, and I wouldn't have stayed in the dog run with the dog in my story above if she'd seemed to have an iota of dog aggressiveness in her. Many AmStaffs, especially those being bred for the AKC show ring, have been selectively bred to not be hard to house with other dogs and have very little of their ancestral fight left in them. This is certainly not true of all pit bulls, and I would generalize that nearly all of them are dog aggressive, but there are many exceptions to this rule.
Are pit bulls dangerous to people? They historically were bred to be tough as hell on other animals, but quite docile with people. Pit fighting is, after all, a spectator sport, and none of these guys wanted mankillers. They wanted dog killers. So a well-bred pit bull might have been death on other dogs and death on your cats, but would have usually been quite trustworthy with you and your family members, and people in general.
Of course, as has happened with many other breeds, assholes have deliberately sought to create a dog in their own image, and ended up with badly bred, mistreated, mishandled dogs who are extremely dangerous. This is not a problem unique to the pit bull; in fact, this is really a problem of people. It's the deed, not the breed, has long been the mantra of pit bull defenders, which is not to say that there aren't many pit bulls who are pretty dangerous. There are. But this is not because of something intrinsic in the pit bull, nor is it something that can be wiped out with a breed ban. Get rid of pits, as many people want to do, and the assholes will just go find some other breed to ruin.
If you want to support a ban on assholes, well, I'm willing to talk about that.
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