Wednesday, November 13, 2013

New ASPCA study shows SPCA workers can correctly ID a pit bull 96% of the time.

"The ASPCA Shelter Research and Development department designed a study and provided a grant for Richmond SPCA to act as the shelter laboratory for this work."

The Mars Wisdom Panel agreed to work with the ASPCA on the project because, I'm guessing, if it went as planned, Mars Wisdom Panel would be selling millions of tests to shelters and rescues.

Alas, things did not go as planned.  The RSPCA believed that if each pit type dog available for adoption had a DNA test done and the results displayed on its cage, the pit types might get adopted faster.  They planned to divide dogs that were visually identified as a pit type or pit mix into two groups.  One group would get the DNA test done and the results would be shown on the cage for potential adopters to see and the other  would be labeled pit mix or pit type as usual.

For this to work, the RSPCA workers must have expected to see wonky DNA results showing that the pit type dogs were actually black Russian terrier x tibetan terrier x dandie dintmont terrier x pembroke welsh corgi x duck tolling retriever x whippet x briard mixes.  After all, that's what usually happens.

But the whole experiment ran off the rails when it turned out that the RSPCA workers' visual identification of pit bulls agreed with the Wisdom Panel DNA results 96% of the time.

How do I know Sugar is a pit bull?
Because she looks like one.

I still don't believe that three large breeds, two of which have long fur, could produce this little short haired dog with all that white flash.  But there still are questions about the accuracy of a test that doesn't even profile APBT DNA to identify pit bulls.

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

if it looks like shit , has an asshole owner and wants to shred anything else with fur , it probably is a shitbull . just my own opinion .

Meals on Wheels said...

That's some Chow mix on the bottom there....

vintage said...

Just like on a Miami election night, a sad trumpet sound was heard as the staff opened the test results...


Waa..whaa...waa...whaaaaa...

These maniacs spent thousands in tax exempt money and nutter manpower on this...Meanwhile, mauling victims are holding blood drives to pay for surgeries.

Hopefully...one day, class action will liquidate them.

scurrilous amateur blogger said...

c'mon snack, i mean ONLY 96% of the time can they be identified. what about the other 4%?

ROTFLMAO!


DNA tests are a joke and the nutters know it, they just exploit it when it suits them.

scorched earth said...

I'm with Meals on this one, the analysis on Sherman is ludicrous.

Small Survivors said...

This is a great thread showing the nutters at pit bull chat explaining and demonstrating how inaccurate the tests are and how they get the tests done to have proof that their pure bred pits aren't pits.

http://www.pitbull-chat.com/showthread.php/77675-DNA-test-Has-anyone-got-it-done-and-does-it-work

Packhorse said...

Music fans, here's another one for you in case you missed it:

http://pitbullpoetlaureate.blogspot.com/2013/08/dead-game-mature-content.html

DEAD GAME by dogfighting fan and BSL opponent Albany Lou!

Forget Protest the Hero and that wimpy "Pit Bull Blues" song, here's one about the reality of pretty pittie.

If you listen to this song on Youtube, it is preceded by an ad for VET TECH COLUMBUS!! LMAO.

Miss Margo said...

I think this is hilarious.

scurrilous amateur blogger said...

great thread. they closed the comment with:

Again she used a test that could not recognize the breed she tested. LMAO how does that make any sense?


nothing the nutters do makes any sense. they contradict themselves continually.

Anonymous said...

That was painful to read Packhorse, on many levels.

Albany Lou has also got a song called "Cull'Em". In the youtube description it says:

"ALBANY LOU WITH ANOTHER CONTROVERSIAL COMPARISON BETWEEN MAN AND DOG THROUGH A RARE POETRY LIKE NONE OTHER."

LOL

orangedog said...

Oh yeah, definitely Irish Setter x Chow - because those are two breeds you see more than pit bulls. Hahaha
Not only that, two long haired breeds with no white markings. Do they think we are idiots?

scurrilous amateur blogger said...

"Do they think we are idiots? "

yes. it's called projection. lol.

DubV said...

This looks very bad for their "no one can identify a pit bull" meme.

Next, someone needs to do a realistic picture test where 50 common breeds are shown in high quality photos and a random sample of people are asked to spot the pit.

I'm sure others have already done this, but I've saved that aspca page. It will likely be taken down once the nutters catch wind of it.

Small Survivors said...

"Do they think we are idiots? "

yes. it's called projection.

LOL LOL!!

I did save it DubV - I thought exactly the same thing. Although, the ASPCA are nutters, so I'm not sure what's going on.

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't trust Sugar as far as I could throw her, but she *is* kind of cute... for a pit bull.

I really figured the Irish Setter/Chow Chow "cross" had to be a joke. Apparently it's not a Photoshop job though, it's direct from the site and they're serious...? Yeesh.

What a load of BS.

Small Survivors said...

Anon, I can't see Sugar as cute. I know that that smile you see is merely there because she is pulling her lips back over those enormous muscles that will allow her to crush my forearm with ease.

The "chow mix" is cuter to me. I don't understand how people can look at that dog and think oh, that's what a chow x irish setter x great dane looks like! Instead of thinking - that test must be BS.

What amazes me most is that the DNA test could so accurately confirm the 96% of visual IDs! How did that happen? Where did the tibetan terriers go?

Packhorse said...

Didn't you know that when a chow and an Irish setter mate, they create a black-and-white bat-eared pit bull every time! Nature certainly is amazing.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Sugar has a blue tongue?

I read the comments over there. BSL doesn't work! And how dare landlords have a problem with pibbles! That's what those good shelter people are up against! They need to keep fighting the good fight! They need to educate the idiots that don't want to adopt pit bulls! Pretty soon we'll see pit bulls wearing disguises because incorrectly labeling them as a boxer mix can only go so far.

Branwyne Finch said...

OMG...can you imagine walking around and telling people that the dog in that picture is a Chow-Irish Setter-Great Dane cross? People would roll their eyes at you, you would look like one big asshole.

I can't imagine there are many people willing to make a fool of themselves by claiming their dog, who obviously looks like a pit bull, is something else.

FYI, I was just looking at off campus housing options for my college age son, and all of the apartment complexes that allow pets have breed restrictions. Good luck telling your property manager that your dog is an Irish Setter mix, when it looks like that. Outside of slumlords and inner city, subsidized housing, no professionally managed buildings allow pit bulls, pretty much anywhere in this country.

So the solution isn't to "pretend the dogs aren't pit bulls".

Meals on Wheels said...

Immaculate conception?

That "Chow/Setter cross" must be Jesus.

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scurrilous amateur blogger said...

cait baby, time now is 12:27. i will give you 30 minutes to copy your comments so that you can resubmit them without naming dogsbite. your criticism and defamation of me is welcome but i don't allow this BS attributing this blog to lawyers, journalists or graphic designers. they have nothing to do with this blog. hurry up little girl. the clock is ticking.

Anonymous said...

The Onion on pit bulls:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/well-neighbors-just-got-a-pit-bull,33537/

I'd love to see the tidal wave of outraged Emails they got regarding that one.

Garnet

Miss Margo said...

I missed Cait Baby drama...damn!

Anonymous said...

You didn't miss much.

Well, you missed a lot, but I don't know what. TLDR.

scurrilous amateur blogger said...

just trashing people who have nothing to do with craven desires. i saved a copy of it. i might try to edit out everything except what is directed at me.

Anonymous said...


meals : god is an english setter.

Anonymous said...


english setters on the brink of extinction as pitbulls fill shelters and a million or so are euthanized every year. go figure .

vintage said...

There should be a 100 percent breeder tax on every pit bull sold to pay for the costs of housing them, shooting them of the citizenry and the trauma center bills.

The Pit Bull community is not paying its way.

PutMeInCharge4OneDay said...

I was at the vet clinic yesterday with one of my dogs and my cat.

I was glad I was on the cat side of the waiting room because the two dog patients that were waiting were a pit bull puppy and a pit mix.

As I took my dog out to the car first I saw the blue/grey puppy looking out the glass door and fix its reptilian stare on my dog.
It continued staring at my car after I closed the door and went back to get my cat. All I could think was that was that it was going to turn on quite young.

scurrilous amateur blogger said...

i find the reptilian stare especially horrifying in puppies.

PutMeInCharge4OneDay said...

I did find it especially horrifying in such a tiny puppy.

I used to think all puppies were cute.

Packhorse said...

When cataloging pit bull cinematic moments, let's not forget Carface, possibly the only animated pit bull and terrifying villain of the original "All Dogs go to Heaven" movie.

http://donbluth.wikia.com/wiki/Carface_Carruthers

Anonymous said...

Until this year I didn't know that the reptilian stare was a "thing" with pit bulls, but I'd first seen and been flustered by it a few years ago. It was in a very small adult black pit, whose face was reminiscent of a bat (and I love bats, but the features didn't endear me to this mutant). I was in someone's kitchen with the dog and she never made any noise, never wagged her tail, just stared right at my face. Ugh, even thinking about it is giving me chills. The most disturbing thing now though, is that she lived with her littermate who was a similar sized white pit, and while the black one gave me the creeps, the white one seemed sweet and happy, a "wigglebutt"... and now I realize that either one of them could have attacked. They really just can't be trusted, it's that simple.

Anonymous said...

Oops, "didn't endear this mutant to me"

:p

Last summer I saw a LOT of pits displaying the reptilian stare, especially from car windows. Doubtless they've been just as common the past several years as well but I never really noticed. Reading this blog (and others like it) has made me a lot more aware of my surroundings.

Anonymous said...

A lumpen head
like eroded and rotted concrete
of statuary meant to impress
the superstitious
but forgotten in the malign fester
of junkyard and ghetto
sullen with waiting, hulking and scraping the fetid death-dirt,
the object of depravity seems less than alive, but sufficient of evil;
and in the eyes, bored out
of the deviant substance
by a maker talented only in abhorrence
look out, dim as algaed glass
and in the darkened and web-reddened cave of vestigial sight
knows only the target and the end
and till then will wait
and stare
at the passers by the gate.