part one: of pit bulls and morons and bigots

“A common myth most of us intuitively accept is that there is a negative correlation between intelligence and belief: as intelligence goes up belief in superstition or magic goes down. This, in fact, turns out not to be the case, especially as you move up the IQ spectrum… once people commit to a belief, the smarter they are the better they are at rationalizing those beliefs. Thus: smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for nonsmart reasons.” ~Micheal Shermer, The Believing Brain - How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths

"I will use whatever argument I think will help get my personal bias/belief across." DR ANDREW ROZSA

every now and then, i come across the author of a pit bull blog, forum thread or an on-line comment that grabs my attention. these pit bull advocates come from all walks of life. some of these pit zealots are teenaged girls, some are unemployed, tattooed losers living in their parent's basement, some are felons, many are housewives and occasionally they are successful, educated, professionals. the rainbow of pit bull advocates always share the following traits; they are new converts completely indoctrinated in the propaganda and completely hand themselves over to the crusade. in essence, they have contracted pit bull fever. this blog post is about one such pit bull advocate.

this is the story of DR ANDREW ROZSA.

on august 21, 2010 i was researching pit bulls when i found his blog, of pit bulls and morons. within minutes, i could see this was one of those devout neophytes we commonly see in pit bull advocacy. ROZSA had a grandiose on-line presence and his arrogance screamed: accident waiting to happen. the more i read, the more i realized this is the kind of pit bull owner who makes headlines. i created a folder and put links and pdfs in it and saved it for a rainy day. i've only done this about a dozen times over the years but this was the first.

as i delved deeper into ROZSA'S on-line pit bull persona, ayjayar, i was almost salivating. i found that ROZSA had signed up for 4 pit forums. even before bringing home his first of 2 pit bulls, he was trying to establish himself in the pit bull community. his intros were garrulous and narcissistic.

his pitbullforum intro was a herculean effort and worthy of its full reproduction here since PBF closed their doors to the public right after the ATTS exposé:

Howdy, folks. Let me introduce myself. I am Andrew; I live in Shelby County, Alabama in a gentrified rural area about 16 miles South of Birmingham. In this area, our major problems are slow moving turtles on the Crest, opossums, squirrels, raccoons, horse people ambling around with their neat little hats and fancy britches. We only have wood fences to keep horses in. The locals call Indian Crest Critter Alley. Dogs are everywhere. No leash laws. I have wanted a dog for years, but never had the time or dedication. Got a little Chow-Husky mix for my son about 12 years ago (from the Shelby Rescue), but he, being the child that he was, took the doggie for granted, not spending much time training her or grooming her. So we ended up with a stinky yard dog with a totally sweet disposition, but with nary an ounce of discipline or training. Not an enjoyable dog for me, but it suited my son. Birtie died last year of kidney failure at age 11. I realized that, although I never really worked with her, I missed her a lot. My wife is a cat person and she is quite allergic to cats, dogs, and most animals. So, because she loves animals, she puts up with her sniffles. The possum that is sharing the food with our outdoor cat seems innocuous, but I had to be very firm with her about not petting the little fossil.

I have a couple of vet friends and I asked them about a dog that I could have, that didn’t shed (there went my German Shepherd), that was intelligent, strong, in a need of firm handling and training, and one that would be happy sitting at my feet while I cruise the Net or work on my hobbies (fixing vintage watches and fountain pens, listenng to prog rock an, jazz, and classical music, and reading). I know dog breeds real well. Originally, being of Hungarian origin, I thought about getting one of the Hungarian breeds: Kuvasz, Puli, Komondor, or Vizsla, but I ended up eliminating them one by one, for a variety of reasons. I studied the Great Pyrenee, and Bouvier de Flandres, Then switched to the Molossers like the Argentine Dogo, Cane Corso, Fila Brasiliero, the Rottweiler, and the Presa Canario. One of the vets suggested I look into a pit bull. For the last 6 months I have read everything I could lay my hands on, watched dozens of videos, and talked to many APBT owners. I knew I found my dog breed. First weekend in October I’ll be picking up an APBT puppy from Tennessee. I did look at local rescues, but I couldn’t come up with a dog that tolerated cats (one of the cats we have, a Ragdoll, is very skittish) and was young enough to allow me to work with from scratch After reading about the plight of the APBT (and other “dangerous” breeds) I still wanted to make home for a “discard.” I also was working up the courage and commitment to walk a dog twice a day for many years, spend a minimum of 30 mins a day training, and going to weekly classes, for months on end. Out of the blue, my son’s friend tells me about his uncle who has decided to quit breeding a pair of APBTs. The dogs somehow “got together” anyway and he ended up with 11 puppies that he doesn’t know what to do with. Coincidence, you say? I think not. ;-)

I am so excited about this coming new member of the family I can hardly wait. I am postponing picking up the puppy by two weeks because we are going (flying) out of town at the end of September and don’t want to leave the puppy behind. He will be better off for 2 extra weeks with his breeder’s family - who socializes the puppies from get-go by keeping them in the house with is family and his other pets.

My wife smiles at me benignly as I accumulate adjustable crate, portable kennel, chew treats, cover for front and back seats for my car, special bully floor cover for the crate, food and water dishes, collar, leash, clickers, etc. I already picked a trainer that I am told handles bullies well and trains owners properly. I bought into Cesar Millan’s approach to Exercise-Discipline-Affection and will be getting a dog-activated treadmill for rainy or stormy days.

I am looking forward to the work that it will take to make an “ambassador for the breed.” I am also looking forward to the companionship, the play, and the pleasure a dog can give his owner. I know it will be a challenge, but I know I am ready.

It was a pleasure to find this Forum. Have been reading your postings with great interest and am looking forward to learning and, eventually, sharing my experiences with you folks.

Kind regards to all,
Andrew

a few observations.
first, ROZSA states that he lives in a rural area where loose dogs are everywhere and there are only wooden fences to contain horses, which means there are only wooden fences to protect horses from all of those loose dogs. (keep that in mind as we go)
second, ROZSA admits his stinky yard chow/husky mix was neglected and spent its life on a chain, yet had a sweet disposition until she died at age 11. he confessed that after she passed away he found that he missed her. this confession of his poor and irresponsible dog ownership habits is ignored by the PBF nutters and his dog's sweet temperament flies in the face of the propaganda ROZSA and the entire pit bull apologia love to cram down our throats, "it's all how they're raised". (more on his chaining practices and philosophy to come)
third, ROZSA'S list of potential breed candidates looks like a BSL who's who. it is abundantly clear that this man is trying to make a statement with dogs.
fourth, his first time dog owner intro directly contradicts his own "primer" which states 1. APBTs are not for everyone. Definitely not for a first-time dog owner. Ownership of an American Pit Bull Terrier demands dedication, a firm hand, willingness to commit to being responsible for every second of every minute, 24/7 of your dog's entire life. (we'll see about that.)
fifth, after he finished patting himself on the back about all of his phenomenal research on dogs and pit bulls, the pbf members chime right in with praise for his diligence and compliment him for such a great intro and they "know" he will be a great bully breed owner, while i am shaking my head and thinking the exact opposite. the camaraderie is just hysterical at the mutual admiration society, especially if you know the not-so-happy ending to the beginning of this bucolic pollyanna tale.
SPOILER ALERT: basing your research on your vet friends' advice and CESAR MILAN, KAREN DELISE and JANE BERKEY'S propaganda will NOT prepare you for the real world of pit bull ownership!

a screenshot from ROZSA'S blog

i'd really like to know... is the acceptance of chaining chow/huskys but not pit bulls a form of reverse discrimination favoring the superior master race of pit bulls?

you can read the rest of ROZSA'S primer here.

lion tamer ROZSA has had a couple of mishaps with his pit bulls. on pitbullforum.com, he started a thread titled "the picture is the answer" with the following image and caption:


barf bags are advised for ROZSA'S blatherings about how his dog's "chomps are sweeter than most women's kisses ('cept my wife's). ;-)" and "Everything Sandor does delights me, even if, sometimes, I have some blood on my arms."

hmmm... everything? keep that question in mind as we go.

ROZSA'S time on gopitbull.com was short lived and even shorter lived on game-dog.com, where the serious dogmen didn't even acknowledge him. like me, it didn't take very long before the more experienced pit bulldog owners at gopitbull to recognize ROZSA as a pompous idiot and a liability to the breed and they ran him off. a couple of the members had some fun at his expense. be sure to click on that link, it's a short but fun read. here's a taste:


ROZSA did not have much of a presence on pitbull-chat.com. i suspect he felt alienated on this forum, as this is one of the more serious, more honest forums. (more is a relative term) but ROZSA did contribute and one pitbull-chat.com thread in particular is worth mentioning.

My nose looks like I have been in a boxing match. Sandor – 6 months old – decided to take off in a different direction than I had intended – he was off “work” - and smacked my face against a tree.
What I want to know, how can a 40-lbs puppy mash a 6-ft, 200-lb man in good physical condition into a tree?
I am sure it does defy some law of physics.
And like the idiot that I am, I run him on the treadmill so that he can be stronger...sheeeesh

comments from others pbc members

Me, too. When I tell people that I was not in a War, was just playing with the puppy, they don't believe me.
So I decided to tell everybody that I am an abused husband.

now we know what a 6 month old pit bull puppy is capable of accidentally doing during rough play. in part 2 we'll explore what two adult unsupervised loose pit bulls are capable of.

"I will use whatever argument I think will help get my personal bias/belief across." DR ANDREW ROZSA

ROZSA fell off of my radar for a year. then last october, regular craven contributor DubV showed up on ROZSA'S blog which had criticized the nanny dog blog post and the truth blog in general. ROZSA was focused on the Goebbels' quote. he failed to see this was referencing propaganda and had nothing to do with nazism but of course took the discussion in that direction (see projection). DubV and ROZSA had been debating on pit bulls and morons about the nanny dog and then ROZSA suddenly just deleted all DubV's comments. if you can't beat 'em, delete 'em! (a pdf with the original comments can be read here) my guess is DubV is a little too sharp for this nutter but ROZSA is smart enough to know when he is losing. like ryan and hal, and so many other pit nutters, ROZSA'S only remaining weapon is the deletion of evidence. while i was finding and saving the evidence in web cache, DubV was finding the most delicious scandal to date.

DR ANDREW ROZSA has made statements comparing BSL to racism "do not pass Breed Specific Legislation that bans a specific dog because of the criminal miscreants who abuse the dog and the law – that’s tantamount to racism;" and sweeping statements that imply nature is nothing and nurture is everything "Quite simply, normal, well-cared-for, trained, neutered or spayed Pit Bulls Do NOT ATTACK people. EVER! There is not a single documented case in the history of Planet Earth. Not one!" (actually there are but that is straying from topic)

enter the truth, ie "an ugly, ugly political agenda"

the following is the last paragraph of a long-winded comment ROZSA left on a wired article. DR ANDREW ROZSA defends IQ differences among races of people.

On the bases of 30 years of education and 25 years of clinical practice, I will tell you, without hesitation, that anybody who thinks that there are no differences between races is either ignorant or has an ugly, ugly, political agenda. You want to set someone up for sure failure? Expect him to deliver something that he cannot. Maybe that's where Mr. Keim is nowadays, too, trying to deliver something that he cannot: the truth.

Respectfully submitted,

Andrew J. Rozsa

this comment sparked a followup article, in which the author lead with another portion of ROZSA'S comment:
It is a fairly primitive bit of knowledge that in any situation, including scientific research, the observer’s bias frequently determines the conclusion," commented reader Andrew Rozsa on the James Watson controversy and my dismissal of science that purports to show racial patterns of biologically-based differences in intelligence.

the exposure on wired lead to a disgruntled letter to the editor of the birmingham times drawing attention to the social security administration's consideration of a racist for employment.

in one of ROZSA'S blogs, he quotes the CDC, "But they also emphasize that one cannot ascertain "viciousness" based on breed."

so, here we have a highly educated man stating that genetics do not play a part in viciousness among dog breeds but genetics do determine intelligence among human races. hmmm.... "in any situation" one's beliefs determines one's conclusions.

"I will use whatever argument I think will help get my personal bias/belief across." DR ANDREW ROZSA

the blog i had planned for ROZSA never came to fruition for one reason or another and again he fell off of my radar, until may 27th, when the doctor showed up at craven desires and left the following comment on the alabama stand your ground blog post:

You are giving people bad legal advice. I proved it in Court only two months ago that shooting Pit Bulls it's going to cost you the MAXIMUM allowed by law. I hope that someone who follows your advice and gets put in prison for cruelty to animals (AND fined) will sue YOU.

i immediately emailed him, "please send me the link and i will post a retraction."

this lead to an interesting exchange between ROZSA and i. the next couple of weeks were spent researching alabama law and ROZSA's case. the short version is ROZSA'S two pit bulls were shot and killed by a neighbor on the neighbor's property when the neighbor found 2 of his sheep dead. the long version will be the subject of part two.

unskilled and unaware

of pit bulls and morons

projection