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Pit bulls: Just sayin’ … that you should have your say
By Gina Spadafori
January 13, 2009
On President-elect Obama’s Change.gov you can comment on the issues. One of those with a discussion thread — I kid you not! — is breed-specific legislation, a/k/a breed bans, mostly of pit bull terriers.
I know our Pet Connection readers believe in judging a dog as an individual. And personally, I think many of the people who want pit bulls killed one and all, no judge, jury or temperament testing, would really would like to do the same to meth dealers and other criminals. But they can’t do that, so they would like to kill the dogs some bad people like to own.
So go vote: I love me some sweet innocent pibbles. Let’s stand up for them.
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President-elect Obama’s website is change.gov, not change.org
Comment by LauraS — January 13, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
Those pushing for BSL are the same people pushing for things like mandatory neuter of pets and so forth. Were talking about AR goals which will only eventually result in one outcome, the doing away with pets entirely. The same goes for banning exotic animal ownership. These are all infringements of our constitutional right of liberty to pursue happiness. Does simply owning an animal (whatever the breed or species) effect another human being? No, it does not. Sure you have a number of irresponsible people in the world, but they will be here regardless of these propose laws, and they will continue to make bad choices, even if pitbulls and burmese pythons were not around!
We see the same people pushing these laws btw, PETA, HSUS, etc. Who are they to decide for us whether or not we can own an animal? Total animal liberation is their main objective, no pets, no animal ownership, period. How logical does that sound?
To reiterate, BSL is just the tip of the iceberg. We need to stop these unconstitutional animal ownership bans!
Comment by michelle rossi — January 13, 2009 @ 5:33 pm
Laura … fixed. Thanks!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — January 13, 2009 @ 8:55 pm
I read and enjoy all the Pet Connection posts and agree with almost all of them but this article and comments are pushing into the realm of hysteria.
Dog breeds are created over time by people selecting for ‘desirable’ characteristics and some people desire physically powerful, aggressive, fighting animals. This is not about individual dogs or their owners.
If I want to advocate for the de-selection of the pit-bull traits, I do not automatically want to kill each individual dog and it’s owner, criminal meth dealer or not, and I am not automatically a PETA supporter. So come on, get real, and stop insulting your loyal readers who choose to disagree with you.
Comment by Al Hunter — January 14, 2009 @ 1:39 pm
So come on, get real, and stop insulting your loyal readers who choose to disagree with you.
Comment by Al Hunter — January 14, 2009
Ah c’mon Al, where’s the fun in that?
Comment by Gina Spadafori — January 14, 2009 @ 1:44 pm
Sorry, guess I didn’t understand that your post was supposed to be funny.
Comment by Al Hunter — January 14, 2009 @ 2:02 pm
Still 9 votes left if anyone hasn’t voted yet who wants to.
Comment by Susan Fox — January 14, 2009 @ 2:12 pm
The post was dead serious. The comment was a lark. I really don’t like disagreeing with other people, although I have to, all the time.
You’re entitled to your opinion, and you’re welcome to disagree with me. But that doesn’t mean I’m giving you a free ride.
My opinion is that pit bulls are not hard-wired monsters who need to be eradicated, one and all. Your statement that they are bred to be aggressive is highly ignorant of the fact that the pit bull was bred to be a fighter of other dogs, but a fighting dog who could not be handled by people was unacceptable. Some true fight-bred pits are not only wonderful with people (witness the Vick survivors) but also fine with non-pits. It’s like a heavyweight boxer who won’t get drawn into a bar fight — he knows he’ll win and has nothing to prove.
My opinion is also that many (perhaps not you but many) people are consciously or unconsciously judging pit bulls based on the middle-class white person’s view of some of the people who are drawn to pit bulls. Just because that fact makes you uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s not true.
My opinions are based on my own experiences of knowing many wonderful pit bulls who deserve better than to have people cross the street in fear so as not to be near them. And in hearing, time and time again, people of my own socio-economic class and racial/ethnic makeup connect pits with people they are afraid of or don’t like.
I never said you were a PETA supporter because you share their view that pit bulls aren’t worth saving. Just as I’m not a PETA supporter because I am adamantly opposed to factory farms.
But I believe you are wrong about pit bulls, and that time is proving me right.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — January 14, 2009 @ 6:41 pm
Thank you for a thoughtful reply.
My opinions are also based my own experiences. The racial/ethnic bias you describe simply does not apply here in Toronto. The owner of the dog that attacked my husky was a white, home-owning, local neighbourhood, suburban mother.
As you say, the breed was designed to fight other dogs, which is exactly what I experienced, so I am not ‘highly ignorant’ of the breed characteristics.
I don’t want to take peoples’ pets away and kill them, and I don’t have the view that individual pit bulls aren’t worth saving, but I would like to discourage creating more dogs that are pre-disposed to dog-fighting.
I also don’t want to be argumentative and have my comments banned, but I do believe there is a need for more discussion about this without all the personal and inaccurate assumptions.
Comment by Al Hunter — January 14, 2009 @ 9:19 pm
“My opinions are also based my own experiences. The racial/ethnic bias you describe simply does not apply here in Toronto. The owner of the dog that attacked my husky was a white, home-owning, local neighbourhood, suburban mother.”
Al,
Are you aware that a husky killed a small child here in the states this last year? And that they also have caused several fatalities in Alaska over the past few years before?
No one blamed the dogs breed in these cases. There were a number of contributing factors, the same sort present in pit bull incidents.
i’ve had my dogs jumped and attacked too, but not by pit bulls. Once it was a GSD, another was a mix of this and that. And the worst was a husky whose owner had no control (second worst, injury wise was a golden).
So based on my own personal, experience, I should be advocating for the banning of a number of breeds, none of them bully related.
But I won’t. I realize that huskies are involved in a disproportionately high number of incidents in Alaska because they are very well represented there number wise AND that they are often not well socialized pets.
(And I realize that the husky who attempted to shred my dog was a frustrated, under socialized dog with a clue-less owner.)
Well, pit bulls are amazingly popular. There are a lot of them. And not always acquired or socialized appropriately, or cared for properly etc… because that is the price breeds pay for popularity. Before pibbles, it was rotties, and before that dobies and my mother recalls being terrified of vicious saint bernards, why do you think one starred in Cujo?
Pit bulls were the symbol of American fortitude and stalwart determination through two world wars. They were the nanny dog and family protector. And they have been abandoned and vilified by PeTA and HSUS and the popular media. An injury free “pit bull attack” is a headline, a mauling by virtually any other breed is described as a dog attack and relegated to the back page.
Dogs and people need to be judged individually. Instead of bad dog, I would be thinking that the suburban mother who owned the dog who attacked yours should be held accountable and needs training on how to properly raise, train and socialize a dog, because whatever she gets next is likely to repeat the performance.
Comment by Jenniferj — January 14, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
Thanks Jennifer for a sensible, reasoned response that will help me re-think my position.
Unfortunately the owner will not get help and is already repeating her anti-social dog training with a new animal. Hopefully her insurance will pay our significant costs, but nothing will compensate for the pain and suffering of both our dog and our family.
Comment by Al Hunter — January 14, 2009 @ 11:02 pm
“Unfortunately the owner will not get help and is already repeating her anti-social dog training with a new animal.”
With all due respect, I believe that you just punched a giant hole in your own argument. In this case, this is not a breed problem, this is an irresponsible owner problem. When we want to get serious about solving the problem of “dangerous” or “vicious” dogs, we will start targeting the owners.
Comment by Dutch — January 15, 2009 @ 1:50 am