July 11 ~ International Lennox Day
On 11th of July, 2012 Belfast City Council murdered Lennox. The world was mourning.
Lennox, our boy, will never be forgotten!
We - Occupy for Animals - declare July 11 "International Lennox Day",
the day for worldwide actions to draw attention on the injustice of BSL
(breed-specific legislation)
Beyond the Myth
A film about breed discrimination
Official release date: September 18th, 2012
Beyond the Myth is about dog breeds commonly referred to as”pit bulls” and those who love these breeds. Viewers are taken on a journey to four U.S. cities where Breed Specific Legislation focusing on “pit bulls” has profoundly impacted people and animals: Denver, Miami, Cincinnati, and San Francisco.
The documentary intelligently explores the contributing factors behind the public’s generalized fear of “pit bulls”, and examines the conflict existing between advocates and opponents of breed discriminatory laws, commonly referred to as breed bans.
It investigates the myths associated with these breeds, challenges the idea that they are inherently vicious, and presents eye-opening research regarding the media’s role in influencing people’s opinion on dog attacks.
What is a BSL?
BSL stands for Breed Specific Legislation. A BSL can be anything from requiring special licensing of a breed or breeds (breed restriction) to the total elimination of a breed (breed ban).
Why is BSL bad?
BSL fails to target the problem: bad dog owners. Those who are causing the problems with their dogs will not care about the law. Either these owners will continue to own the breeds mentioned in the BSL or dump the dogs, get a new breed and continue the cycle. Or, a restriction will make the breeds more attractive to those who get a feeling of power by intentionally breaking the law. Some owners are simply poorly educated and do not know what it takes to properly raise, train, socialize and manage any dog. Owners who are intentionally bad or owners who are undereducated and irresponsible are the problems that need to be addressed. Also, BSL are tough to enforce, expensive and often very vague with their descriptions and how to identify a dangerous dog.
Aren't the dogs mentioned in BSL dangerous?
Any dog can be a risk. Even small breeds have seriously injured and killed children. An American Pit Bull Terrier in a good home is a safer dog than a Dachshund in a poor home. Humans decide how safe the individual dog will be. In the majority of dog problems, there is the owner to blame. The dog ends up as much of a victim in many respects. Is the dog to blame? No, he is just reflecting the owner. You can tell a lot about a person through his dogs.
If any dog can be dangerous, why are only certain breeds targeted?
These breeds are targeted because of a lack of education. Legislators and the general public do not take the time to learn the truth behind many breeds mentioned in BSL. Instead, they believe hype and information from undereducated and unreliable sources.
The people creating the most problem with dogs are:
- those using dogs as status symbols for the wrong reasons;
- under educated owners who do not realize the time it takes to properly raise any dog;
- those who unintentionally allow undesired behaviors to grow and fail to address them.
How many people let tiny pups play tug of war with their hands or feet? Are they aware that this actually teaches the pup it is good to bite humans when playing?
Children often unintentionally or intentionally do things that can lead to a bite: teasing, inappropriate play, trying to pat strange dogs, scaring dogs, etc.
It looks better for lawmakers to ban a breed than to target the true source of the problem with supposedly killer breeds: often young, unsupervised, poorly raised kids or the irresponsible adult looking for another status symbol to prove machismo.
There is little personal accountability any more. If something is being used for the bad, take it away from all as opposed to targeting the source of the bad – the human.
Let's make an analogy: as this is being written there is a lawsuit against fast food restaurants: they are being blamed for obesity. A person can find salads, juice and milk at these fast food places or choose a smaller burger, fries and drink. Yes, the employees try to sell super-sized stuff, but you do not have to buy it. A person can eat unhealthily at any restaurant from Beverly Hills to Boston. Yet only fast food places are being targeted. Where is personal accountability? What lawmaker will jump on the bandwagon and try to restrict fast food places and what they can serve? Can you make the analogy? Any dog can be a problem. It is the human that decides what the dog becomes – regardless of the breed. Personal accountability. Who is in control of the dog?
If it is the human causing the problem, why not target the owners?
That is what people opposed to BSL are trying to do: get legislators to address the root of the problem without punishing the good. But legislators are often poorly educated and/or use the wrong sources for their information. They go by what is printed in the media and not reality. It looks better in the eyes of the undereducated to blame the dog than the human.
What if a lawmaker states they can positively identify a dangerous breed?
Breed identification is tough. The descriptions lawmakers use to try and identify "dangerous breeds" are often vague:
(1) The XYZ is a strongly built, medium-sized, short-coupled dog possessing a sound, athletic, well-balanced conformation that enables it to function… Physical features and mental characteristics should denote a dog bred to perform as an efficient... The most distinguishing characteristics of the XYZ are its short, dense, weather resistant coat… a clean-cut head with broad back skull and moderate stop; powerful jaws…
(2) The ABC should give the impression of great strength for his size, a well put-together dog, muscular, but agile and graceful, keenly alive to his surroundings. He should be stocky, not long-legged or racy in outline. Head: Medium length, deep through, broad skull, very pronounced cheek muscles, distinct stop; and ears are set high. Muzzle: medium length, rounded on upper side to fall away abruptly below eyes. Jaws well defined.
What can I do to stop BSL?
When you hear of a BSL anywhere, start writing letters, faxes, phone calls, emails, etc. In a calm, rational and non-insulting manner, try to educate lawmakers about why BSL are not the way to go when addressing dog issues.
Push for laws that target the owner regardless of the type of dog owned. Encourage them to create leash laws and see they are enforced. Increase penalties for animal abuse, cruelty and the use of animals as weapons. In many communities it is a misdemeanor to neglect or abuse an animal. Lastly, encourage owners of breeds not mentioned to become involved with the fight.
The above text has been taken from the website of 'America against BSL'. For more information on the topic, please click here!
For over hundred years Americans knew Pit Bulls for what they did best: Babysitting
by Yonah Ward Grossman
Astoundingly, for most of our history America’s nickname for Pit Bulls was “The Nanny Dog”. For generations if you had children and wanted to keep them safe you wanted a pit bull, the dog that was the most reliable of any breed with children or adults.
The Nanny Dog is now vilified by a media that always wants a demon dog breed to frighten people and LHASA-APSO BITES MAN just doesn’t sell papers.
Before pit bulls it was Rottweilers, before Rottweilers it was Dobermans, and before them German Shepherds. Each breed in it’s order were deemed too vicious and unpredictable to be around people.
Each time people wanted laws to ban them. It is breathtakingly ironic that the spotlight has turned on the breed once the symbol of our country and our national babysitter.
In temperance tests (the equivalent of how many times your kid can poke your dog in the eye before he bites him) of all breeds the most tolerant was the Golden Retriever. The second most tolerant was the pit bull.
Pit Bull’s jaws do not lock, they do not have the most powerful bite among dogs (Rottweilers have that honor), they are naturally neither human or animal aggressive (in fact pit bull puppies prefer human company to their mother’s two weeks before all other dogs), and they feel as much pain as any other breed (accidentally step on one’s toe and you’ll see).
The most tolerant, patient, gentle breed of dogs is now embarrassingly portrayed as the most dangerous. It would be funny if the new reputation did not mean 6,000 are put to death every day, by far the highest number of any other breed euthanized. That’s a lot of babysitters.
Astoundingly, for most of our history America’s nickname for Pit Bulls was “The Nanny Dog”. For generations if you had children and wanted to keep them safe you wanted a pit bull, the dog that was the most reliable of any breed with children or adults.
The Nanny Dog is now vilified by a media that always wants a demon dog breed to frighten people and LHASA-APSO BITES MAN just doesn’t sell papers.
Before pit bulls it was Rottweilers, before Rottweilers it was Dobermans, and before them German Shepherds. Each breed in it’s order were deemed too vicious and unpredictable to be around people.
Each time people wanted laws to ban them. It is breathtakingly ironic that the spotlight has turned on the breed once the symbol of our country and our national babysitter.
In temperance tests (the equivalent of how many times your kid can poke your dog in the eye before he bites him) of all breeds the most tolerant was the Golden Retriever. The second most tolerant was the pit bull.
Pit Bull’s jaws do not lock, they do not have the most powerful bite among dogs (Rottweilers have that honor), they are naturally neither human or animal aggressive (in fact pit bull puppies prefer human company to their mother’s two weeks before all other dogs), and they feel as much pain as any other breed (accidentally step on one’s toe and you’ll see).
The most tolerant, patient, gentle breed of dogs is now embarrassingly portrayed as the most dangerous. It would be funny if the new reputation did not mean 6,000 are put to death every day, by far the highest number of any other breed euthanized. That’s a lot of babysitters.
Rich or poor, American parents knew exactly what Pit Bulls were famous for.
Being great with kids.
by Yonah Ward Grossman
There are few things quite as obnoxious as rich parents. Be it a $3000 stroller or Louis Vuitton diaper bags the well off don’t want their little angels to be seen with anything an average middle class rugrat might have, let alone a child who might be, gasp, POOR! So is it now, so ever has it been in America. EXCEPT FOR DOG BREEDS.
In America one dog breed historically became known as the dog for people who are afraid of dogs.
One dog breed achieved such a rock solid reputation with children that for 150 years it was known as America’s “Nanny Dog”.
One dog breed became so trusted that despite the fact that no Kennel Club or Association recognized it, despite the fact that it could be found on the poorest farms and bleakest city neighborhoods with kids who didn’t know where their next meal was coming from, rich people acquired them in droves because they were simply the safest, most tolerant breed to have around their gilded progeny.
Rich, poor, and everything in between, until recently Americans agreed that there were only a CERTAIN TYPE of people who would own a Pit Bull…PEOPLE WHO LOVED THEIR CHILDREN.
America’s Nanny Dog is the victim of a smear campaign that has turned common sense upside-down and robbed us of our historical memory. The dogs that we trusted with our children’s lives are now deemed too vicious to live among us. The dogs that in two World Wars were the symbol of the United States military itself are now ordered off its bases.
The Pit Bulls haven’t changed at all. Only the owners have.
There are few things quite as obnoxious as rich parents. Be it a $3000 stroller or Louis Vuitton diaper bags the well off don’t want their little angels to be seen with anything an average middle class rugrat might have, let alone a child who might be, gasp, POOR! So is it now, so ever has it been in America. EXCEPT FOR DOG BREEDS.
In America one dog breed historically became known as the dog for people who are afraid of dogs.
One dog breed achieved such a rock solid reputation with children that for 150 years it was known as America’s “Nanny Dog”.
One dog breed became so trusted that despite the fact that no Kennel Club or Association recognized it, despite the fact that it could be found on the poorest farms and bleakest city neighborhoods with kids who didn’t know where their next meal was coming from, rich people acquired them in droves because they were simply the safest, most tolerant breed to have around their gilded progeny.
Rich, poor, and everything in between, until recently Americans agreed that there were only a CERTAIN TYPE of people who would own a Pit Bull…PEOPLE WHO LOVED THEIR CHILDREN.
America’s Nanny Dog is the victim of a smear campaign that has turned common sense upside-down and robbed us of our historical memory. The dogs that we trusted with our children’s lives are now deemed too vicious to live among us. The dogs that in two World Wars were the symbol of the United States military itself are now ordered off its bases.
The Pit Bulls haven’t changed at all. Only the owners have.
For over 150 years Americans knew what
Pit Bulls were famous for. Babysitting!
by Yonah Ward Grossman
Here’s yet another glimpse back (and the nearly 100th vintage photo) from a time when pit bulls were considered the “Nanny Dog”, the seventh most popular breed in America. Oh, how that’s changed.
Maligned and legislated against, these dogs need to reclaim their position of trusted symbol of American fidelity.
While there has always been a small-minded and vicious group of people who fought pit bulls, through most of America’s history they were considered the safest and most reliable dog to have around kids. It was a 1970 cover story in Sports Illustrated magazine that exploded the ownership of these innocent animals to every nut-job and wannabe bad-ass across the country. People who wanted to raise a monster dog all bought pit bulls. (Sports Illustrated has since retracted their calumnies against the breed in a wonderful article about what happened to the Michael Vic dogs.)
When the worst elements of society all go out and get one breed of dog, you can guarantee that breed, be they golden retrievers or poodles, will end up with the lion’s share of court cases and damages done. This has been the sad lot of the pit bull for the last forty years. One hundred and fifty years of good and loyal service undone.
(Some anti-pit bull sites have recently taken to putting up photos of children with alligators and tiger cubs to prove people will put their kids in danger with wild animals and take photos of it. Point proved. What that handful of pictures by certifiable parents does not do is adequately compare juvenile wild animals or reptiles with 100 years of photographs with trusted and beloved family pets.)
DOGS AND CHILDREN ARE A VOLATILE MIX. PERIOD.
Pit Bull or Chihuahua, know your dog, know your child, everybody wins.
…and one of the all time MOST ferocious pit bulls, Petey, with the Little Rascals.
The cruelest trick ever played on a breed of dog!
WHAT BREED OF DOG DID CORPORATE AMERICA BANK OWN AS THE SYMBOL OF FIDELITY, RELIABILITY, INTELLIGENCE AND UTTER HARMLESSNESS TO CHILDREN? PIT BULLS!
by Yonah Ward Grossman
Let’s pretend…
…that you’re the owner of a large, national company that makes only children’s shoes. No adult shoes. Just kid’s.
Unlike most other businesses, your customer profile is extremely narrow. Pretty much only kid’s Moms buy kid’s shoes. You’ve named your company after a cute seven year old boy and you want that little boy to have a dog. There’s nothing more wholesome than a boy and his dog, but which breed should it be?
You know dog breeds have different dispositions. German Shepherds, for example are vicious, unreliable, uncontrollable and a movement has been formed to ban them altogether. You know this because the newspaper told you so.
What you need is a dog universally known to be good with children. A dog that not even the most easily scared, overprotective mother in the country would fear might harm the boy he’s pictured next to on every box of shoes you produce and a dog she has no fear would harm her child should he encounter one. You need a dog that is loved by everyone and known as being the absolute safest with kids. The reputation of your company depends on it. What breed do you choose?
Let’s pretend…
…that you’re the owner of a large, national company that makes only children’s shoes. No adult shoes. Just kid’s.
Unlike most other businesses, your customer profile is extremely narrow. Pretty much only kid’s Moms buy kid’s shoes. You’ve named your company after a cute seven year old boy and you want that little boy to have a dog. There’s nothing more wholesome than a boy and his dog, but which breed should it be?
You know dog breeds have different dispositions. German Shepherds, for example are vicious, unreliable, uncontrollable and a movement has been formed to ban them altogether. You know this because the newspaper told you so.
What you need is a dog universally known to be good with children. A dog that not even the most easily scared, overprotective mother in the country would fear might harm the boy he’s pictured next to on every box of shoes you produce and a dog she has no fear would harm her child should he encounter one. You need a dog that is loved by everyone and known as being the absolute safest with kids. The reputation of your company depends on it. What breed do you choose?
…that you are a famous Hollywood director and you want to make a series of films about little scamps running about getting into all kinds of mischief. They need a dog to come along on their misadventures.
You’re going to need a smart dog that learns tricks quickly. Time is money. You need a dog that no one is afraid of. You’re shooting comedies. Most of all, you need an obedient dog that can work long hours in difficult conditions with a rotating cast of up to a dozen 5- 9-year-olds who will, as kids do, pull its tail, tug at its ears, and poke it in the eye at any given moment.
What would be best is if you could find a dog that had an obvious identifying mark, like a circle around it’s eye. That way you could use different dogs of the same breed by just painting the mark on any similar-looking dog that’s available.
You need a breed that will take all sorts of poking and prodding and not nip any of the nippers or your whole career could go right down the drain. The headline, “DIRECTOR OF CHILDREN LETS VICIOUS DOG ON SET” is haunting your dreams. What breed can you safely rely on?
You’re going to need a smart dog that learns tricks quickly. Time is money. You need a dog that no one is afraid of. You’re shooting comedies. Most of all, you need an obedient dog that can work long hours in difficult conditions with a rotating cast of up to a dozen 5- 9-year-olds who will, as kids do, pull its tail, tug at its ears, and poke it in the eye at any given moment.
What would be best is if you could find a dog that had an obvious identifying mark, like a circle around it’s eye. That way you could use different dogs of the same breed by just painting the mark on any similar-looking dog that’s available.
You need a breed that will take all sorts of poking and prodding and not nip any of the nippers or your whole career could go right down the drain. The headline, “DIRECTOR OF CHILDREN LETS VICIOUS DOG ON SET” is haunting your dreams. What breed can you safely rely on?
…that you are head of a large, cutting-edge corporation, producing the world’s finest audio equipment.
To show just how advanced you are, you want your trademark symbol to be a dog listening to what he believes is his owner’s voice coming from your product. Sound fidelity is what you’re selling so you want a breed identified by it’s fidelity. You also want it to represent intelligence, trustworthiness, and patriotism.
What you need is a dog that the whole country thinks of as “America’s Dog,” ever-faithful to his master’s voice. Which dog do people see as the country’s mascot?
To show just how advanced you are, you want your trademark symbol to be a dog listening to what he believes is his owner’s voice coming from your product. Sound fidelity is what you’re selling so you want a breed identified by it’s fidelity. You also want it to represent intelligence, trustworthiness, and patriotism.
What you need is a dog that the whole country thinks of as “America’s Dog,” ever-faithful to his master’s voice. Which dog do people see as the country’s mascot?
For over 100 years, pitbulls were “America’s Dog,” known for intelligence, faithfulness, sweetness of disposition and most of all, the quality they became renowned for, being the safest and most trustworthy dog with children.
This remarkably tolerant breed, once the country’s mascot and its canine babysitter, we are now told are vicious, uncontrollable monsters so dangerous they need to be legislated against.
The dogs of course are exactly the same.
Only the owners have changed.
This remarkably tolerant breed, once the country’s mascot and its canine babysitter, we are now told are vicious, uncontrollable monsters so dangerous they need to be legislated against.
The dogs of course are exactly the same.
Only the owners have changed.
Beside Wells Fargo, (top pic) here are a few more ads from a past, before media hype made us afraid of what was once the seventh most popular dog breed in America…
Back when people thought the number and the puppies were harmless, the 666 Iron Supplement Company used three pit bulls as the “666 Trio” with an iron-deprived baby conductor.
Vicious lemons, anyone?
Faithfully waiting for servicemen at rail stations on the Milwaukee Road
Knew how to have fun long before “Spuds” McKenzie!
An American soap ad with a little girl playing hide-and-seek with her pit bull. Oh, how times have changed for these loving dogs.
* WARNING: Beware of irresponsible pit bull owners!
Although pit bulls are specifically bred for human tolerance, dim-witted and evil people fight these dogs or keep them as bad-ass accessories to bolster dangerously low self-esteem. They have savaged this breed’s reputation and their abused and neglected animals are often dangerous. Before you “kiss a pit bull today” get to know it’s owner. Then kiss away!
Although pit bulls are specifically bred for human tolerance, dim-witted and evil people fight these dogs or keep them as bad-ass accessories to bolster dangerously low self-esteem. They have savaged this breed’s reputation and their abused and neglected animals are often dangerous. Before you “kiss a pit bull today” get to know it’s owner. Then kiss away!
You're facing a German Shepherd, a Rottweiler,
a Dobberman Pinscher and Pit Bull...
*Things being equal, which dog is least likely to bite you?
|
* * *
|
by Yonah Ward Grossman
This probably isn’t going to be a good day for you, but if it happens the dog you should be most worried about is the Shepherd. He has the second hardest bite of the four dogs (the Rottweiler has the hardest) but the Shepherd is the smartest and brains are generally more dangerous than brawn alone.
While you’re strategizing your defense, the Shepherd is probably strategizing his attack, and after herding, attacking is what he’s bred for. He’s an attack dog, more politely called a guard dog, but despite the nomenclature the method of guarding is not passive resistance. Be it bear, wolf, or prowler, a guard dog will attack what’s uninvited. Aggression is specifically bred for in guard dog breeds. If someone’s breaking through your window the last thing you want is a tolerant guard dog. You want a very smart, very aggressive one so beware of the German Shepherd first.
The second most dangerous dog is the Rottweiler because the Rottweiler not only has by far the hardest bite of any other dog breed but weighs as much as the Doberman and the Pit Bull put together. What’s more, he knows exactly how to throw that massive weight behind him when he charges. When a Rottweiler hits full speed, it’s VERY hard to stop him, and like the Shepard, he’s a guard dog, bred for aggression.
Damage-wise, I’d worry next about the Pit Bull, who has a slightly harder bite than the Doberman, but Doberman Pinschers score only average in temperance tests, where as Pit Bulls score right at the top, so the Doberman is probably already lunging at you.
Like I said, a bad day, but while all this has been going on the Pit Bull has probably gotten bored and gone in to babysit Junior because the Pit Bull is NOT a bred ATTACK DOG or a GUARD DOG.
The Pit Bull is a fighting dog, and in a TRULY GROTESQUE IRONY fighting dogs are not only NOT bred for aggression, human aggression is specifically bred OUT of fighting dogs.
Fighting dogs must be constantly separated by their handlers and handlers don’t want to be bitten so for most of their history the slightest human aggression seen in a Pit Bull was handled by immediately putting the dog down… and putting down the entire litter it came from… and putting down both it’s parents.
THIS, sadly, is the reason Pit Bulls have for most of their history been “The Nanny Dog”, the best and safest breed to be around both children and adults. Dog fighters don’t want to be bitten by the animals they are torturing, so lineage after lineage of these dogs was wiped out to ensure the MOST HUMAN TOLERANT BREED possible.
It’s a funny world we live in.
*All things are unfortunately for Pit Bulls, not equal.
Despite glaring headlines there is ABSOLUTELY NO statistical way to tell which dog breed bites the most or which is currently the most dangerous to humans and here’s why.
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if Pit Bulls really were the most dangerous dogs currently (and for the reasons above, there is no remotely reliable evidence that is the case) but over the last 30 years far too many of the people who got Pits did so because they LIKED the idea of having a “monster” as a pet (it doesn’t take Sigmund Freud to assess the minute size of the genitalia of such people), and monsters is what they raised. Most of these people are unfit to own a goldfish and a 60 lb. dog bred to fight is like a loaded gun in their hands.
It is a tribute to this breed that given their numbers, far more carnage isn’t caused by them. If any of the other 3 aggression-bred dog breeds above had been owned by these same rural or urban self-esteem challenged hillbillies, I think we would have seen a canine-human fiasco.
This probably isn’t going to be a good day for you, but if it happens the dog you should be most worried about is the Shepherd. He has the second hardest bite of the four dogs (the Rottweiler has the hardest) but the Shepherd is the smartest and brains are generally more dangerous than brawn alone.
While you’re strategizing your defense, the Shepherd is probably strategizing his attack, and after herding, attacking is what he’s bred for. He’s an attack dog, more politely called a guard dog, but despite the nomenclature the method of guarding is not passive resistance. Be it bear, wolf, or prowler, a guard dog will attack what’s uninvited. Aggression is specifically bred for in guard dog breeds. If someone’s breaking through your window the last thing you want is a tolerant guard dog. You want a very smart, very aggressive one so beware of the German Shepherd first.
The second most dangerous dog is the Rottweiler because the Rottweiler not only has by far the hardest bite of any other dog breed but weighs as much as the Doberman and the Pit Bull put together. What’s more, he knows exactly how to throw that massive weight behind him when he charges. When a Rottweiler hits full speed, it’s VERY hard to stop him, and like the Shepard, he’s a guard dog, bred for aggression.
Damage-wise, I’d worry next about the Pit Bull, who has a slightly harder bite than the Doberman, but Doberman Pinschers score only average in temperance tests, where as Pit Bulls score right at the top, so the Doberman is probably already lunging at you.
Like I said, a bad day, but while all this has been going on the Pit Bull has probably gotten bored and gone in to babysit Junior because the Pit Bull is NOT a bred ATTACK DOG or a GUARD DOG.
The Pit Bull is a fighting dog, and in a TRULY GROTESQUE IRONY fighting dogs are not only NOT bred for aggression, human aggression is specifically bred OUT of fighting dogs.
Fighting dogs must be constantly separated by their handlers and handlers don’t want to be bitten so for most of their history the slightest human aggression seen in a Pit Bull was handled by immediately putting the dog down… and putting down the entire litter it came from… and putting down both it’s parents.
THIS, sadly, is the reason Pit Bulls have for most of their history been “The Nanny Dog”, the best and safest breed to be around both children and adults. Dog fighters don’t want to be bitten by the animals they are torturing, so lineage after lineage of these dogs was wiped out to ensure the MOST HUMAN TOLERANT BREED possible.
- German Shepherds make wonderful family pets and they’re bred for aggression.
- Rotties make wonderful family pets and they’re bred for aggression.
- Dobermans make wonderful family pets and they’re bred for aggression.
- Pit Bulls have had human aggression specifically (and brutally) bred out of them, but somehow today we’re told they’re too vicious to be around people.
It’s a funny world we live in.
*All things are unfortunately for Pit Bulls, not equal.
Despite glaring headlines there is ABSOLUTELY NO statistical way to tell which dog breed bites the most or which is currently the most dangerous to humans and here’s why.
- States have no unified system or criteria to collect dog bite information. Some states report only hospital visits, some only bites reported to the police, some have different reporting requirements in different counties and cities in the same state. None of these are currently coordinated.
- There is no accurate count of dog breeds in this country. Only officially registered dogs are counted and most pets aren’t registered. It is estimated for example that there are more Pit Bulls and Pit mixes in the U.S. than German Shepherds, Rottweilers, and Doberman Pinchers combined. If true, that means purely by force of numbers Pit Bulls would be expected to cause the most bites. If you have in your small town 200 GS’s, 200 Rotties, and 200 Doberman’s, and 1,200 Pit Bulls, tolerant or not you’ll see more Pit bites because there are just more Pits on the ground.
- The 3 non-Pit breeds mentioned above are expensive to purchase (although you should be rescuing, not buying your dogs) and wealthier people tend to have better control over their dogs be it better fencing, training, or just more time to spend with the animal. 6,000 Pits are put to sleep every day in the U.S. alone, so while stupid people do pay for Pit Bulls, you can find ANY color, size, or shape of Pit Bull for free in any state you live in. If your local rescue doesn’t have exactly what you want, come by next week or get on the internet. There’s no shortage of about to be euthanized Pits of ANY type. Poorer communities tend to have more Pit Bulls because Pit Bulls are free but poorer people have less resources to handle large breeds safely.
- The vast majority of dog bites are committed by dogs the bitee knows. Be it friend’s, neighbor’s, or their own family’s, if it’s known the dog has a clean medical record MOST bites aren’t reported unless they require stitches, so most bites never make it into the system. (Cesar Milan, TV’s Dog Whisperer, and many other professionals who work with many breeds claim that it’s small dogs, particularly Poodles and Chihuahuas, that are far more likely to bite humans than large breeds, but small dog bites are rarely officially reported.)
- People bitten by strange dogs almost all go to the hospital and THOSE bites are most reported. The trouble is, not many people are adept at identifying dog breeds. I live in a city with A LOT of Pit Bulls and I find about 50% of people HERE (***) have trouble accurately identifying my dog. (It’s also not unreasonable to believe than many people, unable to track down a strange dog that bit them, often misidentify the offender as a Pit Bull. It makes a much better story than having been bitten by a “really intimidating looking Basset Hound”.)
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if Pit Bulls really were the most dangerous dogs currently (and for the reasons above, there is no remotely reliable evidence that is the case) but over the last 30 years far too many of the people who got Pits did so because they LIKED the idea of having a “monster” as a pet (it doesn’t take Sigmund Freud to assess the minute size of the genitalia of such people), and monsters is what they raised. Most of these people are unfit to own a goldfish and a 60 lb. dog bred to fight is like a loaded gun in their hands.
It is a tribute to this breed that given their numbers, far more carnage isn’t caused by them. If any of the other 3 aggression-bred dog breeds above had been owned by these same rural or urban self-esteem challenged hillbillies, I think we would have seen a canine-human fiasco.
Breeds don't make bad dogs. People make bad dogs!
Pit Bull
Each year in America:
- 410,000 people are killed directly from smoking cigarettes
- 35,000 are killed from second hand smoke
- 26,000 are killed by illegal guns
- 25,000 are killed by drunk drivers
- 3,500 are killed in backyard swimming pools
- 17 are killed by dogs
- 3 of those are killed by Pit Bulls, so Pit Bulls must be banned.
- 35,000 are killed from second hand smoke
- 26,000 are killed by illegal guns
- 25,000 are killed by drunk drivers
- 3,500 are killed in backyard swimming pools
- 17 are killed by dogs
- 3 of those are killed by Pit Bulls, so Pit Bulls must be banned.
Given the overwhelming abuse Pit Bulls endure, and the undesirable people who too often own them, it’s astonishing that number is so low.
Pit Bulls aren't dangerous to humans. Owners are.
"Pit Bull" label often wrong, DNA testing shows
One of the many reasons that breed specific legislation is a ridiculous idea (the first being that there is absolutely no statistical evidence that pit bulls are more dangerous than any other dog, in fact, they regularly test among the most tolerant breeds on earth) is that without a genetic history, most people, even experts, can’t tell what a pit bull even is!
As the following chart shows, Lucas County Ohio dog wardens couldn’t get it right. Neither can your local ASPCA, meaning literally hundreds of thousands of dogs that have NO pit bull in them whatsoever are euthanized each year because they are mistakenly identified as pit bulls.
On this chart, Wyckliffe, the only dog that’s mostly pit, looks less like a pit bull than the other five, three of which have no pit bull in them at all.
As the following chart shows, Lucas County Ohio dog wardens couldn’t get it right. Neither can your local ASPCA, meaning literally hundreds of thousands of dogs that have NO pit bull in them whatsoever are euthanized each year because they are mistakenly identified as pit bulls.
On this chart, Wyckliffe, the only dog that’s mostly pit, looks less like a pit bull than the other five, three of which have no pit bull in them at all.
It’s time we stop this pernicious legislation. Because pit bulls are NOT inherently more dangerous than other breeds. Because bad owners will just replace pit bulls with other large breed dogs and make them monsters. Because unless you know the breeding history
you can't even be sure which dogs are Pit Bulls!
If the experts can’t tell, how can the legislatures.
Punish the deed, not the breed, and leave my poor dog alone!
Yonah Ward Grossman
you can't even be sure which dogs are Pit Bulls!
If the experts can’t tell, how can the legislatures.
Punish the deed, not the breed, and leave my poor dog alone!
Yonah Ward Grossman
If you think BSL can't ever effect you and your dog...
Check this list of 75 restricted breeds!
By DogLover
If you have a dog other than a Pitbull, Doberman, or Rottweiler you probably think your safe from Breed Specific Legislation but you still may not be safe. Breed specific legislation is growing in government popularity and regularly spreading to breeds that are considered much more docile or harmless. Many of the breeds on this list I honestly wouldn’t be afraid of even if they did want to attack and kill me, after all I think I can take on a Pug.
This list was taken from the Responsible Dog Owners Of The Western States (RDOWS). The list is a collection of all dog that have been banned or restricted in the United States.
Is your dog breed on this list, there is a reasonably good chance that it is. Media is the real cause of this panic: newspapers, television, radio reports generate public opinion. People eat media and media is happy to feed them all they want. Take this example: A person reads a headline on the paper: “Golden Retriever Attacks Child”, well that’s all they usually read and they get instant mental perception that Golden Retrievers eat children, this one did and regardless of any other circumstances that’s what all Golden Retrievers must do. Even if they read the rest of the article it likely wouldn’t give a good representation of the actual situation: how the dog was raised, kept, or trained, what the child was doing or where the child was. I’m not saying that dogs should attack children and that’s ok, I’m saying that people ignore the actual cause most of the time and just blame the breed, not the individual dog or owner but the breed.
Breed Specific Legislation works different in different places. In some areas the breeds are just outright banned and restricted from ownership, when found they are taken and euthanized and owners are penalized. In other places the owners are forced to have their dogs sterilized, forced to have specialized (and often expensive) insurance, or forced to only keep dogs of a certain breed within weight restrictions.
List of 75 Banned or Restricted Dogs
1. AIREDALE TERRIER
2. AKBASH
3. AKITA
4. ALAPAHA BLUE BLOOD BULLDOG
5. ALASKAN MALAMUTE
6. ALSATIAN SHEPHERD
7. AMERICAN BULLDOG
8. AMERICAN HUSKY
9. AMERICAN PIT BULL TERRIER
10. AMERICAN STAFFORDSHIRE TERRIER
11. AMERICAN WOLFDOG
12. ANATOLIAN SHEPHERD
13. ARIKARA DOG
14. AUSTRALIAN CATTLE DOG
15. AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD
16. BELGIAN MALINOIS
17. BELGIAN SHEEPDOG
18. BELGIAN TURVUREN
19. BLUE HEELER
20. BOERBUL
21. BORZOI
22. BOSTON TERRIER
23. BOUVIER DES FLANDRES
24. BOXER
25. BULLDOG
26. BULL TERRIER
27. BULL MASTIFF
28. CANE CORSO
29. CATAHOULA LEOPARD DOG
30. CAUCASIAN SHEPHERD
31. CHINESE SHAR PEI
32. CHOW-CHOW
33. COLORADO DOG
34. DOBERMAN PINSCHER
35. DOGO DE ARGENTINO
36. DOGUE DE BORDEAUX
37. ENGLISH MASTIFFS
38. ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIEL
39. ESKIMO DOG
40. ESTRELA MOUNTAIN DOG
41. FILA BRASILIERO
42. FOX TERRIER
43. FRENCH BULLDOG
44. GERMAN SHEPHERD DOG
45. GOLDEN RETRIEVER
46. GREENLAND HUSKY
47. GREAT DANE
48. GREAT PYRANEES
49. ITALIAN MASTIFF
50. KANGAL DOG
51. KEESHOND
52. KOMONDOR
53. KOTEZEBUE HUSKY
54. KUVAZ
55. LABRADOR RETRIEVER
56. LEONBERGER
57. MASTIFF
58. NEOPOLITAN MASTIFF
59. NEWFOUNDLAND
60. OTTERHOUND
61. PRESA DE CANARIO
62. PRESA DE MALLORQUIN
63. PUG
64. ROTTWEILER
65. SAARLOOS WOLFHOND
66. SAINT BERNARD
67. SAMOYED
68. SCOTTISH DEERHOUND
69. SIBERIAN HUSKY
70. SPANISH MASTIFF
71. STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIER
72. TIMBER SHEPHERD
73. TOSA INU
74. TUNDRA SHEPHERD
75. WOLF SPITZ
That’s kind of a scary list.
Please do your own part to speak against ANY AND ALL breed specific legislation in your local area.
Keep informed in your city or state and register and vote against any such legislation. Even if you don’t feel it affects you or your dog's breed, it may just be the catalyst that will lead to more laws that will.
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