Dogs Bite, and so do I

Today I came across a website that made me mad enough to spit.  If you know me, you know that’s no mean feat.  My temper flares occasionally, but it’s quickly extinguished.  It’s rare for me to be hopping mad for longer than a few minutes.

What has made me so angry? Well… let me tell you…

I subscribe to a blog called KC Dog Blog - Unofficial Watchdog on Animal Welfare Issues.  They cover all sorts of things dealing with animals, and as an animal lover, I find it informative and interesting to stay up to date on current animal events.  As a Pit Bull owner, I also find it imperative to keep up to date on the Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) that’s being passed across the country.  I’d hate to be driving through a city with Jack in the backseat, only to be pulled over and lose a family member (for the record, I will never be visiting Denver for just that reason unless the BSL there is repealed).

Every weekend, the blog does a weekly round-up, linking to media stories that they were unable to cover during the week, and it was in reading one of those stories that I discovered the website that pissed me off so badly.  You see, Glendale, AL recently passed a law banning Pit Bulls, and of course the city’s pit bull owners protested the new legislation.  In the article covering the protest, the author mentioned the website in question as a source for some quoted statistics.

I’m not going to link to the website, just in case you were wondering, because I usually do in such cases.  Why?  Because I don’t want the owner to see any hits on Google Analytics coming from my blog.  I debated my stance on this long and hard, because part of me would love to have it out with the owner of said site.  From the comments on the blog portion of the website though, I’m pretty sure that my sane and rational arguments would fall on deaf (and perhaps criminally stupid) ears.  So in the end I decided that I didn’t want to give the site any more advertising than it deserved. 

Now back to my story… I went to this site thinking that it would be an impartial website, listing the statistics of dog attacks in the US.  I believed that mainly because the name of the site made it appear to be nothing more than that.  However, the name was a touch misleading.  When I got there what I found was hate mongering, aimed at pit bulls and a few other large breed dogs, a site filled with misleading information, and mangled statistics.

In all honesty, it made me sick to my stomach.  In fact, I’d really like to meet the author so that I can vomit on her shoes.

To put it simply, the entire argument that you can breed widespread aggression into a dog is a total load of bull s***.  To believe that is to believe that all African American’s are violent, all Hispanics lazy, and so on and so forth.  While we’re at it, women shouldn’t be in the military because their constitution is too weak, mentally disabled children should be institutionalized because they can’t be functioning members of society, and anyone without blonde hair and blue eyes should be put in internment camps and gassed to death (dripping sarcasm, just in case you weren’t sure).

Yup, you read that right, I made that leap.  I’m comparing the website owner to Hitler and the eradication of the Jews, because it’s based on the same flawed logic.  The human animal is not the sum of its DNA, our thoughts, actions, and beliefs are based largely on our life experiences.  People become violent when they live with violence, is it really so hard to believe that a domesticated animal is any different?

Apparently, for some, it is.  Yet we’re talking about animals who have lived side by side with humans for thousands of years.  They rely on us for food and shelter, and in fact cannot live well without human intervention.  Instinct for them, is to protect and love their human pack mates because without them they cannot survive. 

So why do dogs (not just pits) sometimes turn on their owners, or attack other humans?  In some cases it’s for the same reasons that people sometimes do the same thing.  They are abused, neglected, or twisted in some form at an early age.  They go insane chained in a small area, just like a human would if imprisoned in a small room from an early age.  Some are abused by the people who should be the ones caring for them, turning the dogs into psychopathic killers like we see in human form on the news so very often.  When it happens to a Chihuahua it’s unfortunate, but not often deadly, when it happens to a large breed dog, the outcome is tragedy.

However, the website in question says that argument isn’t true, that happy, healthy, well cared for pit bulls will snap, and attack for no reason at all.  No perceived threat, no history of abuse, no anxiety or aggression behaviors prior to the attack.  Again, I call bull s***.  Frequently we don’t hear about the background of the dogs who attack, because if you learn that the dogs had been abused and neglected you might just blame someone other than the dog.  All dogs will show signs of aggression in their behavior prior to attack.  The problem begins when the people around them fail to recognize those signs and signals.  If a dog growls when someone walks near their food, that’s a sign, separation anxiety is a sign, territorial behaviors over toys, space, and people are a sign.  There are always indicators in the history of the animal that lead up to attacks, no dog just snaps and bites as the website would like you to believe.

Additionally, almost all of the negative statistics quoted on the site are notated as if they were from official outside sources, but if you take the time to follow the links, you’ll find that they link back to articles on the site; not outside resources as the author would have you believe.  The links that do go outside the site, are to positive press for pit bulls that have been misquoted and twisted to suit the authors views.  In fact, one of the links goes to the United Kennel Club site, where they state:

“The essential characteristics of the American Pit Bull Terrier are strength, confidence, and zest for life. This breed is eager to please and brimming over with enthusiasm. APBTs make excellent family companions and have always been noted for their love of children. Because most APBTs exhibit some level of dog aggression and because of its powerful physique, the APBT requires an owner who will carefully socialize and obedience train the dog. The breed’s natural agility makes it one of the most capable canine climbers so good fencing is a must for this breed. The APBT is not the best choice for a guard dog since they are extremely friendly, even with strangers. Aggressive behavior toward humans is uncharacteristic of the breed and highly undesirable. This breed does very well in performance events because of its high level of intelligence and its willingness to work.”

To add to the rampant misquoting, there is a healthy dose of missing information.  For instance, attacks and fatalities perpetrated by other breeds are completely absent from the website.  It’s a little funny if you ask me, because in researching the dog attacks that made the media in the last week we find that seven attacks occurred in the US this week, and only one was reported to have been perpetrated by a Pit Bull.  One was by a Jack Russell Terrier, three were by Labradors, and the rest were mixed breed dogs.  Now, let’s broaden our search and look at world wide dog attack fatalities in the last week, and we find that two Rottweiler's, three Bull Mastiffs', and five mixed breed dogs were responsible for killing three people world wide in the last seven days.

Then we have an attack in California where mistaken identity played a major role in supporting the Pit Bull stereotype.  From KC Dog Blog:

“And the most popular story of the week came from San Bernardino County, when a family was attacked by 5 dogs, leaving a five year old girl in critical condition. The evolution of the story has been interesting to watch, as originally all five dogs were reported to be 'pit bulls'. Then, it was said that they were a Mastiff and four "pit bull mixes' -- with the Mastiff causing the most damage. And has since evolved to being a Mastiff, a 'pit bull' and three 'mixed breed' dogs.”

So if this website is supposed to be providing information about dog attacks, then why are the stories about the Labs and the Mutts missing from the pages of the site blog?  Oh, because it’s a hate blog parading as a legitimate source of information, that’s why.

However, according to the site, I’m just a “lion tamer.”  Someone who gets one of these horrible vicious dogs and trains them to be a “breed ambassador” to lull people into thinking they’re great dogs so that you’ll get one and allow it to chew of your children’s faces.  I obviously cannot be trusted.

It’s pretty clear the website has an agenda, but that begs the question why?  It turns out that the owner was bitten by a pit bull a few years ago, and has since been on a mission to eradicate the breed.  She was hospitalized with a fractured bone, because as I’ve said before; pits are strong and when they bite, they’re going to bite hard.  Why was she bitten?  Who knows, she doesn’t deem the particulars of the attack important enough to describe on her website.  Had the dog been mistreated, did it perceive her as a threat?  Was it being controlled on a leash by a responsible owner?  Again, those are details she doesn’t care to share with the rest of us.

No matter the reason though, it’s probably a good thing that she wasn’t attacked by a German, or I’d be in trouble.  That whole Nazi thing a while back is proof that as a race we’re just not to be trusted.  You can’t put a single one of us in a room with a Jew and not expect some bloodshed.  (Hi Lisa!  *kisses*)

Now just in case the site owner does manage to stumble across my humble pit bull loving blog, I do have a few words for her…

You, Madam, are among the worst sort of fear mongering coward.  You were randomly attacked by a big dog, and while I sympathize with the fear that incident instilled in you, I cannot abide you trying to pass that fear onto the entire population.  Posting graphic pictures of the worst sort to instill fear and hate towards creatures that are mostly victims themselves, you should be ashamed of yourself. 

Terrible things happen every day, women are raped (and yet not every man is a rapist), children are abused and killed by the parents who should love them (yet not every parent is a child killer).  You were attacked by a Pit Bull, and while I know how much I would be afraid if the same were to have happened to me, I would still have the sense to understand that not every Pit Bull is an attacker.

If (as I have been sarcastically implying throughout this post) you had been attacked by a person would you go after the entire race for the behavior of one?  No, nor would you be allowed to do such. 

There is an estimated 5.3 million pit bulls alive today.  In 2009 there were 600 estimated pit bull attacks, 12 of them fatal.  broken down, that means only .001% of the pit bull population were responsible for the attacks, and of those .000022% responsible for fatal attacks.

And, my dear Madam, those are your cold, hard numbers.

Is it reasonable or responsible to wipe out an entire race for the actions of .000022% of the population?  No?  For .001% of the population?  let’s step outside reality and say the numbers were higher, 1-2%? 5%?  Again, a resounding NO!

“we are the only source of information on this topic that is not owned, controlled, or funded by pit bull breeders, owners, veterinarian or animal welfare groups.”

Perhaps it’s time to turn your “educational website” over to a more unbiased source, for you are on an emotional mission to punish millions of individuals for the crimes of a few.  Because while you may not be owned by someone who cares about a dogs welfare, you are not without your own agenda.

For everyone else, if you are interested in reading a non-biased, scientific research paper on Breed-ism (based on over 150 years of reported dog attacks), and the stigma that seems to surround certain types of dogs (what causes it, what encourages it, and how it evolves), I highly recommend the Pit Bull Placebo.  It’s available for free download by clicking the link.  In it you will find that many breeds have been deemed dangerous by the public over the years, including Blood Hounds (yea, with the droopy ears and soulful eyes.  I bet you didn’t know that underneath that innocent appearance they were hiding the souls of vicious brutes.)  It is a very informative, yet entertaining book.

Thanks for sticking with me and reading this novella in it’s entirety.  Jack loves you for it, and so do I.

Hugs,