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The Dog Attack Issue
The issue of dog attacks can be framed many different ways. In the past 30 years there has been a tendency for the media to frame the issue in terms of dog breeds. Earlier in the 20th century and back to the 19th, the media would report on dog attacks in their full context, often with a moral lesson about approaching strange dogs, approaching dogs while they're eating, or mistreating dogs.
Coincident with the popularity with pit bull type breeds in the 80's, the media began framing these stories differently. They concocted a mythological beast, a dog that had abilities beyond other dogs, and that was uniquely unpredictable. They continue to propagate this story, often choosing and omitting facts to suit the legend. Incidents that in the past would have been too trivial to report, such as dogs killing cats and goats, and dogs chasing but not biting anyone, are reported--as long as the dog involved can be named as a pit bull.
In my google news alerts I get stories containing the words 'animal attacks.' There are usually a couple stories about dog attacks, on people, dogs, or other animals. This week I got two interesting stories that deviated from the pattern a little.
Pet dies after dog attack in town park
This is a story about a small dog killed by a big dog in a dog park. It probably happens hundreds of times a year, but it's only reported upon when the big dog is a pit bull, or if the big dog also attacks a human. The surprise this time around is that the big dog is a 'golden labrador' which must be one of those designer mutts that hobbyist breeders come up with. I can only guess that this newspaper is in a small news market, justifying a 'dog bites dog' story.
Dogs on the loose causing problems
This one really surprised me. The story is that in this locality, dog owners are not obeying the state and local leash laws, causing trouble for the understaffed animal control officers. The emphasis is on the danger that puts the dogs in, from motor vehicles and other dangers. When pit bulls are mentioned, as is inevitable, it's in the context of dogs' health. An animal shelter worker recalls a loose pit bull brought in with such bad malnutrition, mange, and ringworm that it had to be euthanized. Oh my god, they actually wrote a news story where we are supposed to feel sympathy for a pit bull!
Maybe I should write a thank you letter to Michael Vick.
Coincident with the popularity with pit bull type breeds in the 80's, the media began framing these stories differently. They concocted a mythological beast, a dog that had abilities beyond other dogs, and that was uniquely unpredictable. They continue to propagate this story, often choosing and omitting facts to suit the legend. Incidents that in the past would have been too trivial to report, such as dogs killing cats and goats, and dogs chasing but not biting anyone, are reported--as long as the dog involved can be named as a pit bull.
In my google news alerts I get stories containing the words 'animal attacks.' There are usually a couple stories about dog attacks, on people, dogs, or other animals. This week I got two interesting stories that deviated from the pattern a little.
Pet dies after dog attack in town park
This is a story about a small dog killed by a big dog in a dog park. It probably happens hundreds of times a year, but it's only reported upon when the big dog is a pit bull, or if the big dog also attacks a human. The surprise this time around is that the big dog is a 'golden labrador' which must be one of those designer mutts that hobbyist breeders come up with. I can only guess that this newspaper is in a small news market, justifying a 'dog bites dog' story.
Dogs on the loose causing problems
This one really surprised me. The story is that in this locality, dog owners are not obeying the state and local leash laws, causing trouble for the understaffed animal control officers. The emphasis is on the danger that puts the dogs in, from motor vehicles and other dangers. When pit bulls are mentioned, as is inevitable, it's in the context of dogs' health. An animal shelter worker recalls a loose pit bull brought in with such bad malnutrition, mange, and ringworm that it had to be euthanized. Oh my god, they actually wrote a news story where we are supposed to feel sympathy for a pit bull!
Maybe I should write a thank you letter to Michael Vick.
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I know you and Alexis have been dispelling those myths for years, but I always see it as small bits here and there and an overall gestalt of your life with your pit bulls. How about writing a piece briefly laying out the history of the breed and how they came to villainized in the media, as well as dispelling the myths point by point?
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Don't they have incredibly stronger jaws than most other breeds? That's my objection to them. Any animal can be unpredictable. Any normal, healthy dog can be made to be an adoring pet or a vicious killer, or both, depending on how it's treated and trained. In fact, the breeds I've found to be most aggressive and ill-tempered are the Chow and the Dachshund, not any sort of bull terrier.
My objection to the breeds collectively referred to as "pit bulls" is that if one latches onto me, I know I'm not going to come out of the situation intact. In fact, unless I have a deadly weapon in a free hand, I wouldn't count on coming out of it alive at all. If I see a retriever or a German Shepherd grab a child by the face, I know I can pull that dog's jaws apart and subdue the dog. My hands may get pretty mangled, but I know I can get it off the kid. I have no such expectations if the dog is a pit bull.
It's not just pit bulls, though. I feel similarly about Rottweilers. I used to know a Rotty breeder whose dogs played fetch with a bowling ball, and those dogs were a good deal larger than a pit bull. The breeds aren't "evil" or anything like that, but they are dangerous, similar to the way in which people privately owning cougars or crocodiles is dangerous (not quite the same, as wild animals are less likely to interact well with people, but they're just as deadly should they decide to attack). It's just too much animal to have out among people without tightly controling it.
My neighbors have two pit bulls (not sure what the actual breed is). Nice people, but not good dog handlers. They got the dogs--get this--because the Labrador they had was "too much work" for them. So these folks who's idea of raising a dog is just letting it out of the house to run around in the back yard when they get home from work decided it would be a good idea to get not one, but two, pit bulls. And the fence separating our back yards was about three feet high at the time. I'm not saying I'd be comforted by the sight of a collie lunging towards me, standing on the fence, and barking every time I go into my yard, but before our neighbors added to the height of their fence, I was afraid to even take my little boy out into our yard to play.
Pit bulls are legal here, but it's required that they be "contained," meaning that if they're outdoors, they have to be in an enclosure with a top. I tend toward the civil libertarian side of the law, but I don't think this is an unfair regulation. If guns could get up and move around and fire all on their own, I'd want to limit the size of the caliber people could own or require that they keep them contained. Why is this unreasonable if the deadly weapon they're keeping for self-protection is a dog?
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they hold on tightly, as all bulldog breeds do, and dogfighters and some other pitbull owners carry 'breaking sticks' which they use to pry dog jaws open when they are holding onto something. i'm not certain if that is a useful tool or another symbol of toughness.
i think keeping a dog or any other animal as a weapon is asinine. unless you are a professional animal trainer, and even then, the risk to yourself and the people you want in your home is far worse than any protection benefit. guard dogs are for the paranoid and those with low self-esteem.
a roofed enclosure seems a little like overkill--after all, if the dog gets out and causes any damage, the owner is liable, no matter what the enclosure is like. the people most likely to be killed by a dog are the small children of people visiting people who own chained guard dogs. we hope to have enough land to have a fenced run for our dogs, but we won't move to a place that will require us to put a roof over our yard.
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that rottweiler was hopefully very aware of what is a bowling ball and what is human skin. dogs might be stupid but they're not THAT stupid.
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Myths of Mythical Beasts
(Anonymous) 2008-04-21 02:40 am (UTC)(link)The so called rottie breeder that allowed their dogs to play with a bowling ball are not responsible dog owners or breeders.The damage alone to the teeth would be extensive AND expensive.The breed was NEVER designed for dog fighting and is a herding dog not a protection dog.
There is no doubt dogs of various breeds have different drives but that does not mean genetics alone determine the dogs social nature.
Surely if this was fact,then there would never be a bite by a labrador nor an Am Staff,Staffie bull or APBT or mixes of the three because ALL 3 breeds were designed to be human friendly.Sort of blows the theory out of the water that just becuase the dogs were bred decades ago to fight other dogs that ,that remains true to the breed now.
It is because of man that this non breed refered to as the "pit bull" gets into the hands of those that lack love for man or animal and just look for a way to boost their flagging self confidence.In their hands any dog can and will inflict harm.
There is not one single breed that is exempt from killing or maiming humans.The smallest Chi has killed babies,pom as well........It always comes down to the quality of the owner,their ability to respect the rights of others,the desire to own theirdog responsibly.
Lee Oreilly
Interesting Post
(Anonymous) 2008-04-21 02:59 am (UTC)(link)There are many myths out there about many subjects and dogs are not exempt.
There is no evidence that any of the 3 - 5 breeds (over 24 unrelated lookalike breeds and unknown number of mongrels) to which the slang term 'pit bull' is sometimes applied are any stronger than dogs of similar size. These are not large dogs but they are terriers with high prey drive (which is inheritable). Since the facts don't support previously believed fables about certain breeds attacking more often, being 'bred' for antisocial or species-specific aggression (unsupported by science)or being disproportionately represented in bite databases, the dog-haters are now trying the 'when 'pit bulls' attack, the result is worse than when other dogs do' meme. This too is untrue and unsupported by evidence.
Dog bites are fairly rare and most are not at all serious. Attacks are rarer still and there is no breed or shape which appears more than any other. Fatalities are so statistically rare, about 1 per year in Canada on average, about 20 in the US, that it is impossible to predict a trend of any kind.
The only common factors in these unpleasant and rarely fatal incidents are owner error and victim error. This is due to a lack of education.
Media overreports anything to do with so-called 'pit bulls' because it increases audience share. Increased audience share means increased advertising revenue. Half of the stories don't involve dogs remotely resembling 'pit bulls'on investigation but corrections are rarely run and always appear at the back of the paper.
It's too bad that our only friend, the dog, is being sold down the river by radical animal rights groups, lazy media types and politicians intent on removing civil rights by fear-mongering with a very well crafted red herring.
It's not only too bad, it's tragic.
Oh, and the Pit Bull Placebo is a pretty good book.
Caveat http://caveat.blogware.com
WELL SAID
(Anonymous) 2008-04-21 07:19 am (UTC)(link)As Caveat states,there are untold numbers of mixed breeds that are broad of head,short of coat that are always identified in the media reporting as a "pit bull".
All available research which is relaible that is,readily admits that the breed is irrelevant when it comes to dog attacks.The CDC ADMITS that the data they used was gathered by rather unscientific means: a random telehpone interview of 100,000 in which questions as vague as if you were attacked what type of dog was it?was it black and brown?Do you know of anyone attacked?
And look who did the telephone survey? HSUS.
The remaining data was pooled by searching media reports.Yup we know just how accurate the media is right?
To the uneducated any broad headed short coated dog is this mythical dog called the " pit bull" which shouldnt be a surprise to any intelligent person when years ago any short dog was a heinz 57.It does NOT make it a breed.
Many of us that are among the strongest and most vocal opponents to BSL do not own "pit bulls".We firmly believe that in order to save lives and prevent harm,the owner not the dog must be held accountable.
Paranoid guard dog owner
(Anonymous) 2008-04-21 12:42 pm (UTC)(link)The best guard dog is well-balanced and socialized. It is only when directed or in circumstances that are cues for defensive behavior that our dogs react. My foundation bitch (long since gone) would greet anyone who came into our yard through the sliding glass doors of the house with a wiggle and a curl while she was watching our landlord's sleeping baby. However, if even the baby's father tried to get into the yard through the exterior fence, she would stand between the baby and the gate and growl and bounce. It was contextual training. We also spend more time on obedience and tracking than on bite work.
So please don't paint all of us "paranoid guard dog owners" with the same broad brush. We are not all macho idiots that seek to gain respect through the size and ferocity of our dogs. It is no more fair to us than it is to the "pit-bull". I will accept respect for the performance of my dogs in social and dangerous settings alike as well as for the person I am. Keep up the good work.
Glen Jesse Golden
Re: Paranoid guard dog owner