#dontbullyanybreed

Pitbulls. They stir up a lot of controversy so I’ll give you the facts and from there you can decide whether you agree or not. Really, I can’t make you believe my point of view or the evidence, but I will post it here to educate those who actually want to learn a thing or two. (WARNING! Really long!! Skim through as you please) But read the whole thing, or at least check out some of the sources before arguing. Seriously. be educated first before trying to criticize me or make a snap response with something you heard or read. —————- Pit bulls are not inherently aggressive or vicious. Ok, allow me to rephrase. Gotta look at the facts, after all. Pit bulls were used for dog fighting which means some were bred for aggressiveness toward other animals, but extreme loyalty and docility towards humans. Why? If the dog fighter had to pull the dog out of the ring during an intense dog fight or the like, but the dog turned around and snapped, that dog fighter may not have arms anymore. Therefore they were bred to be friendly towards humans. You need to be cautious around other animals, sure, but many do perfectly fine if they are raised right and socialized properly (what about Cesar Millians 40ish pitbulls that all get along living in one space! Some even have a history of aggression! Even if you don’t like Cesar, that is not the point, the point is they coexist PEACEFULLY! It can be done!) which is the OWNERS responsibility if they are going to get a pit bull or any other dog for that matter. When somebody chooses to get a dog as a pet they have an obligation to take care of it and train it properly. Some are perfectly fine anyway, and wouldn’t dream of hurting anyone. (Ever see those cute pitbull and cat or pitbull and kid videos?) not to say they couldn’t because they are animals and are unpredictable, let’s not be naive. But that applies to any animal. Horses can hurt people. Parrots. Cats. Cows. Labradors. That’s the risk you are willing to take when you get an animal. You just have to be knowledgeable, do your research and take proper measures to reduce that risk as much as possible. It’s not the ‘breed’ it’s the individual dog. Other breeds can (can, not necessarily will) kill other animals anyway. I know a Boxer who is gentle as can be with cats, chickens, guinea pigs, mice, birds, horses and goats. Keep in mind boxers were once and still are prized for their hunting skills. It’s “in their genetics” (a common anti-pitbull argument explaining why they attack people/animals) yet he apparently doesn’t act on these ‘genetics’ due to the owners training and socializing him very well Cats crawl all over him, literally and I feel kinda bad for the poor guy as he just sits there and tolerates it. Same can be for pit bulls. Stop blaming genetics or pure instinct because there are many other factors and that is very rarely the sole cause of a vicious attack. Saying all pit bulls are vicious in any sense of the word is BREEDist! It’s like saying all black men are criminals. Some are, yes but NOT because they are black, or men! Pit bulls CAN be vicious and aggressive dogs—with the wrong owners and/or environment. Same goes for: Golden retrievers, poodles, border collies, German Shepherd, chihuahuas, greyhounds, Labradors, Australian shepherds, Rottweilers, beagles, Dobermans, Bichon Frise, Shih Tzu… get what I’m saying? Truth is ANY dog can be vicious if raised wrong. I’m repeating myself here a bit because so many people don’t get that. My 5 month old puppy got viciously attacked by two Purebred Great Pyrenees while we were on a walk. It was the classic the dog ‘just snapped’ scenereo. Which is actually subtle signals that humans fail to notice, such as a stare or micro expressions with their body language and face. NO dog “just snaps.” yes, a dog fight can happen within seconds, but there are still signals, subtle (a certain look) or not so subtle (growling, baring of teeth.) Should Great Pyrenees be banned because two individuals almost killed my dog? Let’s see here: They were left alone in the yard all day and had escaped because they were not properly contained. Seems like they weren’t socialized, exercised or given much attention either. They’d done this before but the owners admit to doing nothing about it. The living environment was all wrong for them and they were likely bored and frustrated. Who’s fault was that now? hmmmm? STOP blaming breeds, and START banning IRRESPONSIBLE owners!! Many pitbulls live a normal life, never attacking anyone except with huge slobbery kisses. Of course the media dosn’t want you to pay attention to that, but rather demonizes them and reporting any unknown attacking dog as a “pit bull” to get more views. Someone even called a new station after they reported a stray ‘pitbull’ attack. They were asked if they could verify if the dog in question was actually a pit bull. They said no. “How can you report a pitbull attack if you don’t know if the dog was a pit bull?” They were asked. After that, the news station didn’t answer. Another news report had a story about a Border Collie killing a child. The picture in the article was of a pit bull, and most of the comments below were anti-pitbull. There was another article about a pack of dogs attacking a human. Some of these were clearly not Pit bulls, but the only picture shown was of the one dog who was a—you guessed it, pit bull. Then there was an article about a Jack russel killing a baby. The comment section was again, all about how bad pit bulls were. Really though, do you think they DNA test every attacking dog? If it looks like a pit bull, it’s a pitbull. Except when it’s one of the other 24 breeds (you read that right) that commonly get mistaken for pitbulls. If you lump such a broad and random category of dogs together, of course the numbers will be higher! It was even admitted that there is no official well.. ANYTHING for authenticating dog bite reports. That means somebody could report something and add it to the numbers, even if it’s not accurate. That is the truth behind the number of pitbull attacks being higher than other dogs. They even did an experiment where 7 dogs identified by the SPCA they were in as ‘pitbulls’ were picked at random and DNA tested. Only 1 was a purebred APBT. 3 were pit mixes. Three had no pit bull at all in them. Yet if they were in Ontario or other such places they would have to be put down and/or restricted just because of how they look. (Ever heard of Lucky the Labrador? The neighbours of the owner though it looked like a pitbull so reported it. The officer refused to look at the CKC papers registering Lucky as a purebred lab. They wanted to take it away to be destroyed. This happened in Ontario. Look it up.) If they had attacked someone it would be added to the pit bull bite statistics that the pit haters so often point to. Not to mention the fact that not all dog bites are reported. If a toy or small sized dog were to bite someone, it dosn’t do as much damage. If a pitbull bites someone it is much worse because they are strong dogs. What they don’t have is a locking jaw. That’s a ridiculous myth, and if you put a pitbulls skull next to a Labradors or a chihuahua you will find they are pretty much exactly the same, except maybe different sizes. There is no mechanism that locks the jaw. That is just pure determination and high pain tolerance from the dogs part. Many towns across the US have been repealing their pitbull bans because (surprise!) it had not reduced the annual number of dog attacks. Ontario has had a pit bull ban since 2005 and yet the number of attacks have gone up! The only reason that pitbulls could up the bite statistics in a realistic way is because there are more of them. The controversy surrounding pitbulls has drawn attention to the breed, making them in high demand. The bad rap means many bad people looking for a “tough” dog will get them as a status symbol, and mistreat them, continuing the cycle of them having a bad rap. If more pitbulls are demanded, more will be bred leading to being more of them. There is also a lot of stray pit bulls (more of them in the first place=more strays) and strays are much more likely to attack people or other animals than family pets, regardless of breed. How did we come to hate pitbulls so much anyway? Many used to be called “Nanny dogs” and were left with children because they were so good with kids. (Never leave children unsupervised around ANY dog!) As well, many were used as an all around working farm dog. It’s the thugs and dog fighters who recognized the intimidating appearance and traits of the breed, and used it to their advantage in blood sports such as bull baiting and dog fighting. That’s when they started to get a bad rap. But pitbulls weren’t really considered more vicious than other dogs till the 2000s when the bite statistics (which are skewed anyway) started to rise. The American Tempermant Test Society tested many different breeds for good tempermant (friendly, non-aggressive, not shy or fearful) and pitbulls passed and were ranked even higher than the golden retriever. Pit bulls are determined and loyal and that is their downfall. Many bad owners use that intense loyalty to the owner to train them to do bad things. Their determination keeps them going, even when it’s painful. With a loving pack and a good home, these dogs are said to be very sweet and affectionate. But then again, who knows? Can’t judge a dog by its breed after all. Some are sweet and affectionate, some are more shy, some are independent, outgoing, maybe very obedient or not as obedient as you’d like… the point is they are ALL individuals and that’s what matters! BSL is getting GOOD dogs put down! Not all pit bulls are vicious, and not all vicious dogs are pitbulls! I could make this longer adding the stories off all those who have sweet, loving adorable meme ers of the family that happen to be pitbulls but I think I made my point. BSL IS BS!! HELP END THE BULLY SH*T LAWS! I leave you with some sources, a quote and a suggested search Google gave me: “are boxers and pitbulls the same?” ——— In the 70’s they blamed the dobermans, In the 80’s they blamed the German Shepherd, In the 90’s they blamed the Rottweiler, Now they blame the Pitbull. When will they blame the humans? -Cesar Millan —————————– Sources: - http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/americanpitbull.htm - http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/pitbullattacks.htm - http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/breedbansbadidea.htm - http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/breedbanslabradormistake.htm - http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/breedbanspersecutionontariostyle.htm - http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/mandatoryeuthanasiapitbullterrier.htm - http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/03/08/the-dog-breed-that-was-actually-bred-to-be-friendly/ - http://www.pickthepit.com - http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/8112394 - http://americanpitbullfoundation.com/problem-people-pit-bulls/ - https://www.google.ca/amp/s/m.mic.com/articles/amp/107398/here-s-what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-pit-bulls?client=safari - https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/LiteratureReviews/Pages/The-Role-of-Breed-in-Dog-Bite-Risk-and-Prevention.aspx#references - http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/pitbulls-used-be-considered-perfect-nanny-dogs-children-until-media-turned-them - http://www.salon.com/2013/02/05/in_defense_of_the_pitbull_partner/ - http://www.fairdog.dk/elements/documents/research/canine-behavior.pdf - https://www.ckc.ca/en/Files/Raising-My-Dog-Section/Responsible-Ownership/Your-Responsibilities-in-Case-of-a-Bite-Incidents - http://www.yourspca.org/pages/bred-to-love/dispelling-common-myths-about-pit-bull-terriers - http://tvblogs.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/19/the-truth-about-pit-bulls/ - https://www.google.ca/amp/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.3710598?client=safari - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109002331500310X - https://www.google.ca/amp/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/500558/?client=safari - http://patch.com/missouri/townandcountry-manchester/don-t-judge-a-dog-by-his-looks