Friends Fur Life

Ask anyone what they think about pit bulls and they are bound to give you an earful.  Unfortunately, many of what they have to say will be negative.  However, I am here to affirm that pit bulls are actually some of the sweetest, most gentle dogs on the planet.

Case in point: Michael Vick (boo! hiss!).  This person bred and fought pit bulls for years.  Now it is common belief that dogs rescued from fighting rings are inherently vicious and must automatically put down.  Yet of all the dogs they rescued from Vick’s property, most of them pit bulls, do you know how many they had to euthanize?  Two.  That’s right, two.  The rest have all been rehabilitated, one even to the point that he is now a certified therapy dog, going into hospitals and retirement homes, giving comfort to the sick and elderly!  How’s that for a vicious brute for you?  The only vicious brute in this case was Vick himself, along with all of his despicable cohorts.

In reality, because so many pit bulls are bred to fight, there is a possibility they made be aggressive to other animals, especially dogs.  However, there is absolutely no reason they should be aggressive to humans.  How would the dogfighters be able to train them if they were too vicious to handle?  They breed them to fear humans, and perhaps even to love them, because abuse and depravity is all they know.  So if they are tame with those who abuse them, why on Earth would they be vicious with those who show them love and affection?  It just doesn’t add up.

Pit bulls have not always been abhorred.  Think back to your childhood and remember how much you loved the Little Rascals.  Did you use to wish you had a dog like Petey?  Adorable, sweet Petey that wouldn’t hurt a fly?  Yup, that’s right, Petey, one of America’s favorite dogs, was in fact the same breed that many Americans are now wanting to eradicate.

Now something else to chew on.  What would you say would be the ultimate American dog, sweet, loving, loyal, great with kids?  Did the image of a Golden retriever pop into your head?  Well, get this.  In a comparison study of CGC (Canine Good Citizen) tests, pit bulls scored HIGHER than Golden retrievers!  That’s right, you are more likely to be bitten by a Golden than a pit bull!  Only difference is, Golden bites don’t make it onto the front page news.

Yet people ignore this and listen only to what the media tells them.  They don’t realize that for every “VICIOUS PIT BULL ATTACKS CHILD!” story, there are dozens more stories of dog attacks and bites that don’t get air time.  And don’t always take the news story at face value either!  The truth might be that the dog was perhaps only one-sixteenth pit bull, he only briefly snapped at the child, and the child was poking him with a stick at the time.  But “CHILD IRRITATES DOG” isn’t exactly news-worthy, now is it?

The truth is, banning pit bulls won’t stop dog attacks from happening.  Pit bulls aren’t mean, people make them mean.  If pit bulls are exterminated, the thugs that train them to attack will only move on to the next breed of dog, then we get to start all over again!  And since when is it acceptable to discriminate against a breed of dog but not an ethnicity of person?  Saying, “Pit bulls are responsible for some attacks, so let’s kill all pit bulls” is akin to saying “(Insert ethnic group here) are responsible for some murders, so let’s kill all (ethnic group).”  That would raise an uproar, but breed bans are going up all over the country without so much as a whimper.

Here’s another analogy for you.  Like I said before, pit bulls don’t kill because of their own free will, they are trained to do so by people.  So in actuality, people are responsible for most dog attacks.  Did you know that one of the biggest killers in America is car crashes?  Car crashes kill far more people than any dog bite.  So why don’t we ban cars?  They are much more lethal than dogs!  Because a car with a responsible driver, who is alert, focused, knows how to handle the car and knows proper maintenance to ensure the car is running at peak performance, has little likelihood of doing damage to anyone else.  On the flip side, a car with an irresponsible driver, who doesn’t care about traffic laws, who doesn’t care for his car to the point it might break down or cause problems, who is only using his car as a status symbol, is a lot more likely to hurt someone else.  Why can we punish irresponsible drivers, yet not irresponsible dog owners?  If Colonel Mustard hadn’t been in the library, the candlestick would have hurt no one.

So no, pit bulls are not the evil beings of mass destruction that the media and the public so love to make them out to be.  They are simply sweet, loving, misunderstood souls.  The next time you nod your head in support of a breed ban, just keep in mind, it could be your dog next.