“Are Pit Bulls Aggressive?” by Jacob L.
Why is it that pit bulls are the cause of 62% of dog related injuries? Many people believe that this breed is naturally aggressive and should be eradicated; however, these people are missing the real cause - people who get pit bulls without understanding the breed are the cause of pit bull attacks.
Owners must spend time and effort to understand their dog's personality. Due to the nature of dog breeding, pit bulls can't be put into one category. Dog breeds have been combined in so many different ways that purebreds are rarely seen anymore. Every dog has specific needs that must be met for the dog and owner to have a successful relationship. Each dog must be treated as an individual with their own personality, similar to how one would treat humans. Some dogs may be more physically capable of causing damage due to genetics, but genetics don’t make them more dangerous to humans than other dogs. Pit bulls and other dogs that often attack humans need to be raised so they won't want to attack humans.
So why do pit bull attacks get pointed out by the media so much? To answer this question it's important to look at both the origin and treatment of pit bulls. The pit bull's descendant was the original English bull-baiting dog. This dog was bred to be able to hold big animals like bulls and bears for hunting. Once baiting large animals was made illegal, people made these dogs fight each other. They were then bred to become faster and more lethal. This gave the dogs their physical ability to hurt people, but genetics isn't the reason that pit bulls attack people. Pit bulls attack people because of the way they're raised.
The sad truth is that dog fighting still exists today; when dogs are forced to fight each other, they're probably not being taught the social skills required to maintain healthy relationships with humans and other dogs. Obviously not all pit bulls that attack people were raised to fight other dogs; however, it's doubtful they were raised in a way that exposes them to the proper amount of human socialization. All of these factors contribute to pit bulls having a bad reputation. Humans place this negative stereotype on a breed of dog that doesn't deserve it so they can pretend that they're not the cause of the problem. No one can be blamed for dog attacks but the irresponsible owners who don't properly train and socialize their dogs.
