Not everyone is a dog person and if you are a dog lover that doesn’t mean you will like every breed of dog out there. Hell, I’m a dog owner and there are some breeds I personally would avoid based on personal preference.
However, what I will never support is the outright fear based propaganda by BSL advocates. What is alarming is the rate they attempt to spread their ignorance and what is even more disturbing is how quickly they attempt to validate it even after EXPERTS tell them that they are wrong.
Over & over we read (or listen) to BSL advocates rant “Pit Bulls are inherently aggressive & dangerous!” without a shred of scientific data to prove that, unless you are Merritt Clifton- then you can claim a “aggression/rage” gene specific to pit bulls floats around in some fabricated laboratory somewhere.
What is Inherent?
Obviously aggression is not a permanent characteristic of any breed of dog. Reality shows that there are individual aggressive dogs either caused by genetics, environment or both.
Nope. No matter the breed and science supports that.
The next question that follows it usually is-
Every dog has the potential and capability of being inherently dangerous. Common sense tells you that. Dogs are animals. Dogs are carnivores. Dogs have jaws filled with teeth that can inflict great damage. Have you seen a dogs body??
Even with dogs being domesticated they all- each and every breed- have the capability of being inherently dangerous.
And that’s the hitch in the BSL argument. Instead of acknowledging that each and every dog have the potential to seriously injure or even kill a human being they focus on one. The irony is- they focus on in on one breed(s) that happens to be in millions of homes living happily and minimizes the damage that other breeds can inflict.
Uh… Yes. “My toy poodle bites harder then my pit bull!” no pit bull advocate as ever said. In fact, if you ask ANY pit bull advocate or rescue if pit bulls have the capability of inflicting massive trauma and/or death they will tell you ABSOLUTELY. They will also tell you that these dogs can be dog aggressive, they can have a high prey drive, that some of them will do better in homes without children, or a home were they need to be the only dog.
However, they will also tell you with proper training and responsible ownership these dogs will be the best dogs you could ever have. Every single breed of dog has pro’s & cons- pit bulls are no exception to that.
The obvious ignorance of animals and the understanding of what “inherently aggressive” & “inherently dangerous” really is when they talk and compare animals. Especially when they do this:
Do you ever wonder WHY it’s so ridiculous to compare a pit bull to a great white shark? Unlike pit bulls that love to snuggle up comfortably and watch a episode of Grim with you- Great Whites have never successfully been kept in a captive setting. If you truly want to see the visual definition of “Inherently aggressive” just glance at a Great White shark- the perfect killing machine.
Interesting tidbit- The one female great white shark who was viewed by aquarium visitors for 198 days before she was released into Monterey Bay was the longest one held in captivity.
They refuse to be fed by humans, leading them to either die of starvation or be released into the wild. As predators , great white sharks are natural hunters and need the thrill of the hunt to survive – they will not survive on already dead small fish.
Also, Great White Sharks are incredibly expensive to keep as they kill and eat all other creatures in their tanks.
Sorry, comparing great whites & pit bulls just exposes their ignorance once again. Although I do have to agree, having a shark as a pet is not a great idea, I much prefer my pit bull.
Hi — I really love your blog, but my animal behaviour nerdiness forces me to leap to the defense of the great white shark. They’re highly endangered because people perceive them as “inherently dangerous” and “killing machines”, but that’s a lot of media hype (sound familiar?) — sharks don’t even like eating humans, we’re too bony to be worth the trouble. Virtually all attacks on humans are cases of mistaken identity and/or experimentation (sharks give up when they discover we’re not seals and we’re not tasty either, which is why there are so many shark attack survivors), and many even become quite friendly with the biologists who study them!
Some links that might shed some light:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/the-truth-about-sharks-far-from-being-killing-machines-they-have-personalities-best-friends-and-an-exceptional-capacity-for-learning-9887898.html
http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/picks-from-the-past/191391/sociable-killers?page=5
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/forget-jaws-now-its-brains-48249580/?sessionGUID=43720c49-32ea-9a75-21aa-9062e83999a5&webSyncID=b2868c69-13d5-49be-a1db-28138d648735&page=1
I realise you’re just using humour to make a point, and I certainly don’t think they’d make good pets ; )…but actually, great whites have a lot in common with dogs: these sharks each have distinct personalities, individuals vary widely in levels of aggression and human-friendliness, and they are intelligent and highly social creatures.
And, above all, they’re JUST animals…animals that people have demonized as a “threat,” when in fact humans kill many thousands of the animal to every one human that the animal kills!
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LOL- yes, I do agree with but I still would rather snuggle with my pit bull than a great white. I suppose if anything was inherently dangerous it would be humans!
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Yes, I agree — that was the point I was clumsily trying to make : )
It’s so weird to me that humans impose morality on animals who are behaving naturally, and how selective they can be about it — the idea that lions and tigers are “good” but sharks are “evil”…when the reality is that they’re all just top predators doing what they’re meant to do! Meanwhile humans kill for fun and profit rather than survival, yet we conveniently don’t see ourselves as “evil.”
And I’d rather hug a pitty than a shark, too…Though I live in the UK, so it’s a bit of an impossibility : (
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I was just explaining that to my daughter! I hope one day you can snuggle with a pitty- one day laws will change, I hope. It doesn’t seem the bans are working the greatest over there?
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No, the BSL isn’t working AT ALL over here! We still hear about fatal maulings a few times a year, sadly. Malamutes, Staffies and Bullmastiffs seem to be the breed most often involved at the moment, which of course is a reflection of what’s popular rather than what’s actually “vicious.”
And last year, there was a lady who died after being bitten by her own Yorkie. The bite became infected, she had amputations and finally didn’t make it. I’m sure the scary DBO people would say that somehow this isn’t as “bad” as being mauled to death, but she was still dead at the end of, and I have to imagine that going through weeks of suffering and the loss of body parts might conceivably be WORSE than a quick death…Although of course, ideally no one would be dying at all!
What’s also happening over here is that the “status dog” breed of choice has simply shifted. Would-be macho men now have Presa Canarios, Dogues de Bourdeaux, Bullmastiffs, Cane Corsos, Alaskan Malamutes, and Anatolian shepherds…all of which are MUCH bigger than pitties and thus by DBO logic capable of inflicting more harm.
And of course, we still have Staffordshire Bull Terriers, which are one of the most popular breeds in the country — and are pretty much simply slightly-smaller Pit Bulls anyway!
What will happen we keep changing the laws to keep up with the new “bad boy” dogs is that we’ll outlaw every dog over 10 pounds…and even then, And as demonstrated by the Yorkie case, even those dogs will be dangerous in the right circumstances!
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