The Common and Heart-breaking Misconceptions of Pit Bulls
There are no bad dogs, only bad owners
Pit bulls are one of the world’s most misunderstood and maligned dog. Due to the dated and discriminatory laws that make it nearly impossible and extremely difficult for these dogs to find a forever home.
Pit bulls are stereotyped and generalized as big, strong, aggressive dogs. When in fact they can be one of the most loving, loyal and friendly dogs out there.
However, contrary to popular belief, pit bulls are not a breed. But rather it’s a generic term referring to a wide array of mixed breed dogs of similar physical type. Some of the pit bull type include the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, American Bully, and Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
A rough approximate number of pit bulls euthanized at shelters range from anywhere between 800,000 to a million every year in America alone. However, it gets worse. Hundreds of jurisdictions all over the world have placed laws banning and even restricting the ownership of pit bulls.
This leads to dogs being taken away from their families simply due to their appearances, and families will have to live in fear of losing their beloved pets.
But even in countries or cities that do allow ownership of these dogs, looking for a house can be difficult to find, especially when dogs or certain breeds of dogs are not accepted.
It is a common myth that all pit bulls are inherently vicious and naturally aggressive because pit bulls are a common dog used for dog fighting and fighting other animals. Due to the fact that they were easy to train and eager to please, and their athletic build made them the breed of choice.
But remember, aggression is not a breed characteristic or a personality trait, and it is not specific to any one breed of dog.
Decades ago, when dog fighting was more common, purebred dogs such as the American Staffordshire Terrier and the American Pit Bull Terrier were bred to be extremely friendly and gentle with people. This is so that during a dog fight, handlers will be able to get hold of their dogs without getting bitten. Due to this trait of human friendliness, over a century ago, pit bulls were very popular dog breeds among the Americans and British.
The American Temperament Test Society, which is an unbiased organization dedicated to testing the predictability and safety of all dog breeds, has found that pit bull type dogs had a passing rate of 87.4%.
This was a higher rate than dogs such as the Siberian husky, which has a passing rate of 86.8%, golden retrievers which has a passing rate of 85.7%, and greyhounds which has a passing rate of 79.7%.
These temperament tests consisted of putting a dog through various unexpected situations, some even involving strangers. Any signs of unprovoked aggression or panic would result in failure of the test.
Another common myth that everyone believes is that pit bulls have locking jaws, which means they have the ability to “lock” their top and bottom jaws together. However, this is an entirely false claim. Pit bulls, like all other dogs, do not such a mechanism which allows them to have “locked” jaws. If they did, they would be classified as another species.
In fact, pit bulls do not even have the strongest bite force compared to other dog breeds. In a bite pressure test, the American pit bull terrier came in at 235, while dogs like the German shepherd and the Rottweiler came in at 238 and 328.
Unfortunately, to make matters worse, there are many other dog breeds such as the American bulldog, the dogo argentine, and the cane corso that look very similar in appearance to pit bull type dogs.
Therefore even dogs that look like pit bulls in countries that ban the ownership of such dogs may be taken away. Such dogs in shelters are also very commonly mislabelled, discouraging people from adopting them.
Every dog is an individual, no matter the breed. You can take one of the friendliest and docile dogs such as the golden retriever and still train them to be aggressive fighting dogs. There are no bad dogs, only bad owners.
This is eye-opening because my hometown actually tried to institute a pit bull ban and indeed, many attacks in our town were from pit bulls including our neighbor's dog which viciously attacked our own dog. But you are absolutely right that it's the owners fault, not the dogs. Our neighbors kept their dogs chained up all dog and I never saw them walking their dogs. Most likely they were not very kind to their dogs, either, and might have even trained them to be aggressive.
ReplyDeleteYyyyaaasssssss, Audrey! Thanks for pulling these words out of my mouth!
ReplyDeleteGreat Post
ReplyDeletePit Bulls still have a terrible reputation around here where we live. The reason is because last year a little girl was attached. Wasn't the dogs fault but that doesn't seem to matter.
ReplyDeletePit bulls have been given a bad name which is true. Personally I don't care to own one. The owner that have pitbull do train them to be aggressive. Personally I blame the owners of pitbull is how the treat them is horrible.
ReplyDeleteWow those unbiased test on comparing pitbulls to other types of dogs was eye opening. Not surprising, but would have never put much thought about it until I read your post. Learned something today, thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteThose are some useful information on Pit bulls and untangling the facts from myths.
ReplyDeleteThis information doesn't surprise me because I have read about the training of attack dogs that weren't aggressive before being trained... all quite sad.
ReplyDeleteIt is absolutely true that it's the owners and not the dogs. Pit Bulls can be so sweet and loving if raised correctly!
ReplyDeleteabsolutely agree! it's the owners that make their pets bad. Pitbulls are wonderful and lovely dogs to have. I wish I had one!
ReplyDelete