We've all seen the hype and push to sell pit bulls to just anyone this month with Pit Bull Week, Pit Bull Awareness Day, and Pit Bull Awareness Month. And we’ve all seen at least one of the hundreds of articles entitled “The Truth about Pit Bulls” or “Pit Bull Myths” telling us that pit bulls have an undeserved bad reputation and make great pets for just about anyone and please go get one today.
Other breed clubs have the equivalent of "The Truth About Pit Bulls" information pages. But, while "Truth About Pit Bulls" pages are created to encourage just anyone to impulsively buy a pit bull by distorting history, making false claims and just plain lying, Truth pages written about other breeds serve to protect the breed from being abused in the hands of those same kinds of impulsive, low-information, naive potential owners.
Bouvier des Flanders
Ronald Reagan's Bouvier, Lucky
The grandma of Truth pieces is "Don't Buy a Bouvier" by Pam Green (1992), perhaps written after the Bouvier des Flanders breed jumped slightly in popularity after people saw Ronald Reagan with his Bouvier, Lucky. As the title indicates, it was written to warn off impulsive, uncommitted potential owners from buying Bouviers thus preventing Bouviers from being abused, neglected and prematurely killed. There are 9 Bouviers listed for adoption in North America on Petfinder. Though Bouviers are a large, dominant, protective breed that have been used for police work, Clifton's "Dog Attack Deaths and Maimings" report lists zero Bouviers killing or maiming a person in North America as of 2014.
The breed is strong, can be aggressive and potentially dangerous in the wrong hands. But the breed is rare and few dogs end up in shelters, so it presents virtually zero threat to public safety and Bouviers can live long and happy lives in the hands of committed and responsible owners. That is called breed stewardship. Stewards and protectors of a breed do not want their dogs to become popular or to pawn their dogs off on just anyone by lying about the characteristics of the breed because that gets people injured or killed and hurts the dogs, too.
The breed is strong, can be aggressive and potentially dangerous in the wrong hands. But the breed is rare and few dogs end up in shelters, so it presents virtually zero threat to public safety and Bouviers can live long and happy lives in the hands of committed and responsible owners. That is called breed stewardship. Stewards and protectors of a breed do not want their dogs to become popular or to pawn their dogs off on just anyone by lying about the characteristics of the breed because that gets people injured or killed and hurts the dogs, too.
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The gold star of breed stewardship and advocacy goes to the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America. Their Truth page pulls absolutely no punches. They push back hard against the increased public awareness and potential impulse buyers that followed Eddy's (Frasier TV show) and Wishbone's appearances on TV. They carefully explain how a dog actor gives a very misleading impression of the real Jack Russell Terrier's temperament. They even made a logo with the slogan:
Contrast that with this pit bull pushing craziness:
Here’s a sample of other breed clubs that have adapted or been inspired by “Don’t Buy a Bouvier”
Contrast that with the pit bull pushers and the myths and lies they perpetuate to sell pit bulls to any and everyone with disasterous results when they should be screaming to the rafters for Mandatory Spay and Neuter and demand that pit bull ownership be regulated:
The Truth About Pit Bulls - Nat Geo Wild - dead link
Pit Bulls are Noble, Loving, Loyal, Playful - Ed Boks - dead link
Pit Bulls Are Wonderful Family Pets - dead link
We Were Wrong About Pit Bulls. Learn the Truth - Best Friends - dead link
fantastic and timely reminder of what responsible ownership and breed advocacy should look like.
ReplyDeletei activated the link at the original 2011 post in case anyone is interested.
Other breeds with truthful advertisers (vs. the cowardly liars pushing pit bulls)
ReplyDeleteShiba: http://www.yourpurebredpuppy.com/reviews/shibainu.html
which I found while researching Akitas (before I adopted one from teh pound, and BOY did they not want to adopt that dog out): http://www.akitarescue.com/Facts%20about%20Akitas.htm
And my favorite, which I also researched before adopting my first one: http://www.ewenityfarmsbch.com/so-you-think-you-want-border-collie/
Pit Bull advocacy stands alone with their lies and deception about the breed. Why? Dunno, maybe because they LIKE to hear about 'their breed' mauling and killing pets, livestock and humans. They are enthusiasts of the best blood sport dog ever created, after all.
Thanks anon, for the links. I've added them. I looked for a border collie page, and didn't find this. And I like your Akita facts page better than the one I had. thanks!
ReplyDeleteIt is impossible to understand pit bull pushers except in the context of greed, hubris and stupidity.
Thanks, Dawn, for re-adding the link it got lost in my font color problems.
What part of 'The Little Rascals' being a TELEVISION SHOW don't people understand? And if you actually watch a few episodes they show Petey chasing, gripping and shaking. The dog is rarely shown in the same frame as the children. Just THINK about that.
ReplyDeleteonly weak lazy shallow illogical thinkers can promote a fictional dog character portrayed by multiple dogs, some with questionable histories, as some kind of proof that they make the ideal pet. they do this with their list of famous pit bull owners too. their heroes often have criminal records or had pit bulls with a record of aggression or non-pit bulls whose breed was hijacked.
ReplyDeletesome famous pit bulls and famous owners.
Good article. I deal with the same thing when people find an orphaned wild animal and want to keep it as a pet. I know from experience by the time the wild baby turns five months it will be so wild that they will toss it out in the woods where it will die. It will probably bite and claw people before that. It's also a felony to keep wild animals over 48 hours. The main reason is public safety from animal attacks and zoological diseases. Only experienced and permitted people are allowed to have them under very strict conditions.
ReplyDeleteIf someone actually cares about animals and people, they would give honest advice. There are many dog breeds. Not all breeds are suited for all people, same with cats and other pets.
Years ago Tia Torres used to give honest advice about pitbulls. She told me in 2005 their prey drive is very high and shouldn't be in a home with small pets. Because of what she said I didn't adopt one as I have small pets. Since then she's changed her tune. Nowadays she's become part of the pit propaganda machine. She and her minions viciously attack anyone who dares question the fitness of a pit in a household with children and small pets. I know as I was on the receiving end and instantly got death threats. For the sake of the dogs they really need to be honest with the public.
Tia Torres is a nutter extraordinaire, and I hope that some day, she will earn her Darwin Award. I saw an episode of her TV show where they were testing a pit bull around a trampoline. It looked like the pit had been forced to drag the other nutter extraordinaire, "Cesar Milan" around on a skate board for 3 hours. The pit was so wiped out tired, that it was not even aware that there was a trampoline full of children. I didn't watch the whole episode, so I don't know if that particular pit bull had a "trampoline issue." The pit bull was deemed safe, and was probably pawned off on some unsuspecting nutter family.
ReplyDeleteNutters are incapable of being responsible for their breed in every capacity. It is not surprising that they are not protective of their breed. When I used to look on petfinder for a new dog, it was not uncommon to come across a statement saying something about preferring to adopt a Chihuahua to an experienced Chihuahua person. Nutters are more than happy to home a pit bull regardless of whether or not it's a good fit.
What pisses me off more than nutters spreading pit bull DNA everywhere, are the damn lawmakers that act like there's nothing that can be done to solve the issue. It's so freaking easy, but the way nutters portray it, you'd think it was an ethnic cleansing or something? No one is going to go around euthanizing pit bulls walking down the street, in their backyards, or at dog parks. However, that is happening to normal dogs now, only they're not being humanely euthanized. They're being ripped apart by pit bulls like it's a fashion statement. Nutters want to prevent what is already happening to everyone else.
BSL could grandfather in currently registered pit bulls, and then not allow new pit bulls in the future. Every pit bull would be spayed or neutered, microchipped, insured, vaccinated, and properly contained. Then all dogs, cats, and whatever other living thing (especially humans), would have a safer world to live in. Instead of that fairy tale with a happy ending, we get to live in the nightmare world created by dog fighting men of yore, and nutters of today.
BAM
Ugh, I wish border collies (especially working lines) had more pages like the jack russel. I have a neighbor who got a pup and does nothing with the poor thing and wonders why it tears up the house. Now imagine a fighting breed with a clueless owner >. < I told her the dog had to be word and she just walks the poor thing up and down the street from I have seen, no leash manners at all. Maybe if she gets tired enough I can buy or get the poor thing. So sad when people get dogs and don't understand. Also have another neighbor who has a pit (young) and keeps taking it to the apartment dog park and does not get why it doesn't get along with other dogs. It has seriously injured another lab and she still insists on taking it in (it's against apartment lease to have a pit but it's an "emotional support dog". I don't bother going in there now except in early (like 5 am) hours. We have one owner with a pit that's smart enough to muzzle it, and it seems trained to a t. It will look at at a dog but she can can immediately draw it's attention away. At least that owner gets it, and she NEVER brings it into the park. It's a shame people have to worry when using it.
ReplyDeleteI have a neighbor with three large, disheveled looking dogs. They have NOTHING to do with them other than a food and water bowl. The dogs spend most of their time barking like explosive diarrhea and have frequent loud dog fights. NO quality of life at all. Why people like this are allowed to keep dogs I'll never know.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm going to try and put into words what has been in my head for the last couple of days.
ReplyDeleteHow many times have we heard, "Man biters were culled?" We're supposed to believe that pit bulls are safe around humans, because the dog fighting handlers needed a pit bull that would not turn on them in a fighting ring. So any pit bull that would bite a human would be dirt napped.
Yet time and time again, the pit bull breed stewards of today go against this doctrine and fight to keep any man/woman/child/baby/grandma/invalid biters alive. They can't even follow their own handed down rules that supposedly deem pit bulls safe.
BAM
The only man biters that were culled were the ones that failed in the pit. The ones that won were too valuable to put down. Craven did a great article on that titled 'Man Fighters'.
ReplyDeletei wrote about man-biters twice, sarcastically and seriously.
ReplyDeletethere are also posts about vintage man-biters on america's dog.
tropical storms wrote about man-biters HERE. about a year after she wrote that piece, she told me that she remembered one winning pit fighter that was dirt napped after biting the dogman's kid. the pit was yellow john and the dogman was irish jerry holcomb.
you can google it. yellow john was bred by tant, owned by chavis and later holcomb.
Meanwhile... When they shout 'manbiters were culled', they are actually stating that they admit that the pathological behavior is genetic, thus hereditary, thus subject to artificial selection. And not only that, but also that it's hereditary into the tiniest details, namely what exactly a frankenmauler will frankenmaul.
ReplyDeleteI read all the horror stories about border collies (and a lot of other breeds including German Shepherds my former favourite) before I went to the local shelter. In my head I was going "so definitely I can't have a border collie because they're CRAZY". I had heard they'd wreck your house, bark all day and night, run in circles, nip anything that moved, run across roads and chase cars and bicycles the first chance they got etc.
ReplyDeleteI got to the shelter and there was a border collie staring deep into my eyes.
Yeah I went home with that dog....
And you know what? He was the BEST dog I could possibly ever have wished for, and NOTHING like the stereotypes and horror stories. He lived in my tiny 1 bed apartment with me in a city with no parks or green spaces and he never once chewed anything up, he never barked in the house and he never developed neurotic "tics" or OCD behaviours.
I think it's great to have pages explaining the negative traits of a breed so you can know what you're getting into before you get one - but not every individual of the breed is going to display all of those traits, or ANY of those traits...
And if someone is REALLY dead set on getting a particular breed no amount of off putting negative stereotype is going to stop them.
But you see, the problem is, nutters don't put any negative stereotypes on their breed of choice. If anything, they throw tutus on them, and tell lies about them being nanny dogs. Shelters push pit bulls on people that have no business owning a hamster. There is no negative anything, it's all positive, and rosy, and peachy, and perfect, and wonderful. Heck, there are some shelters that don't even disclose that the pit bulls they adopt out have negative histories.
ReplyDeleteI understand what you're saying, but with pit bulls it's not your apartment that's at risk, it's your life.
BAM
If you are talking about "breed stewards" as the typical AKC maven, then someone better explain why kennel clubs and AKC groups have been at the center of pit bull advocacy and anti-BSL (as well as doing things like weakening dangerous dog laws) for many decades
ReplyDeleteIt was those "responsible dog owners" of the AKC who initiated the state anti-BSL laws a long time ago ,and still are behind them advancing
That's your responsible dog owners for you
In fact the earliest pit bull advocacy and lobbying groups that made up most of the myths and lies now tossed around were AKC people and they called these groups Responsible Dog Owner groups (because they were hiding the pit bull lobbying)
The show they put on the surface is not what is going on behind the scenes. The "responsible dog breeder" clowns are front and center in creating and enabling the pit bull mess
Hey guys, don't bother. Anonymous @Nov 12 6:39 is just another nutter showing up with a made-up story that it ever owned some other type of dog. Plug in chihuahua and you have the standard nutter fiction of the day. Nutter 6:39 would have added 'my border collie is the only dog that ever attacked me, while my pit bull was always so sweet and farted butterflies' -- but it doesn't want to admit that in fact it's just another pit freak trying to look 'impartial'.
ReplyDeleteAs a dachshund owner, I am happy to give a long list of reasons they're not for everybody. They bark A LOT, they're prey-driven, they can hyperfocus on prey to the point they ignore cars and attempts to call them back, they're hard to housetrain, they're supposed to be active dogs and need more exercise than most people realize, they can be bad with kids and may bite, they might attack and kill the family cat, they're stubborn and very clever to the point where training them is a matter of how well you can outsmart them, they're prone to back problems that can be very expensive to treat, they're basically two dogs in one - hounds and terriers with all of the baggage both breeds bring.
ReplyDeleteI was at the park with my dachs and met a couple who were thinking about getting a small dog. He asked me about my dachshund. The first question I asked was, "Do you live in an apartment." He said, "Yes." I said, "Don't get a dachshund. They bark and bark and bark and the neighbors will hate you." He crossed dachshund off of his list. I did my good duty for the day.
National Animal Control Association (NACA)
ReplyDelete“Dangerous and/or vicious animals should be labeled as such as a result of their actions or behavior and not because of their breed.Any animal may exhibit aggressive behavior regard-less of breed.Accurately identifying a specific animal’s lineage for prosecution purposes may be extremely difficult.Additionally, breed specific legislation may create an undue burden to owners who otherwise have demonstrated proper pet management and responsibility.Agencies should encourage enactment and stringent enforcement of dangerous/vicious dog laws. When applicable, agencies should not hesitate to prosecute owners for murder, manslaughter, or similar violations resulting from their animal’s actions, and their owner lack of responsibility. Laws should clearly define “dangerous” or “vicious”, and provide for established penalties. Penalties may include fines, imprisonment, and/or the relinquishing of total privileges to pet ownership. If a dangerous/vicious animal is allowed to be kept, laws should specify methods of secure confinement and control. A dangerous/vicious animal when kept outside should be confined in an escape-proof enclosure which is locked and secured on all six sides. Signs should be posted at property entrances and be visible from the nearest sidewalk or street.The licensing record could include a notation which will immediately identify an animal which has been deemed dangerous or vicious.”
National Animal Control Association (NACA)
ReplyDelete“Dangerous and/or vicious animals should be labeled as such as a result of their actions or behavior and not because of their breed.Any animal may exhibit aggressive behavior regard-less of breed.Accurately identifying a specific animal’s lineage for prosecution purposes may be extremely difficult.Additionally, breed specific legislation may create an undue burden to owners who otherwise have demonstrated proper pet management and responsibility.Agencies should encourage enactment and stringent enforcement of dangerous/vicious dog laws. When applicable, agencies should not hesitate to prosecute owners for murder, manslaughter, or similar violations resulting from their animal’s actions, and their owner lack of responsibility. Laws should clearly define “dangerous” or “vicious”, and provide for established penalties. Penalties may include fines, imprisonment, and/or the relinquishing of total privileges to pet ownership. If a dangerous/vicious animal is allowed to be kept, laws should specify methods of secure confinement and control. A dangerous/vicious animal when kept outside should be confined in an escape-proof enclosure which is locked and secured on all six sides. Signs should be posted at property entrances and be visible from the nearest sidewalk or street.The licensing record could include a notation which will immediately identify an animal which has been deemed dangerous or vicious.”
Label dogs dangerous or vicious because of their behavior, not because of their breed. Pit bulls just so happen to behave in vicious and dangerous ways. All the time. Not all of them, but seriously, hardly a day goes by without a report of a pit bull getting vicious and dangerous.
Any animal may display aggressive behavior, regardless of species. So what?
It's not that hard to identify a breed, but if someone is being prosecuted, I can see how a proud pit bull owner would turn into a boxer mix owner.
Breed specific legislation may create undue burden on the mythical responsible pit bull owner. Responsible pit bull owners are more rare than 3-legged unicorns. Normal pet owners experience REAL undue burdens because of pit bulls. Vet bills from pit bull attacks aren't cheap. Most nutters take off with their "never aggressive, dangerous, or vicious" pit bulls before they get stuck with the vet bill. But let's worry about hypothetical, mythical, responsible pit bull owners, because those fur mommies matter more than all the rest. Right?
You do realize that EVERYTHING you mentioned after "Agencies should encourage" is considered breed specific legislation? I know it makes nutter fur mommies feel better when they can take away the inherently dangerous, vicious, and aggressive labels pit bulls so richly deserve, but it doesn't keep the rest of us safe. WHY? Because when dear little nanny puppy decides to flex its DNA, the very first sign of aggression can result in serious injuries. So labeling a sweet pit bull aggressive, dangerous, or vicious after the fact doesn't really prevent attacks. It's better to be proactive, than what you're suggesting. Statistically speaking, pit bulls are not only aggressive, dangerous and vicious, they are far more destructive than normal dogs when they "bite."
Why on earth would anyone want an animal where it's been labeled vicious, and have to keep it contained like a wild freaking bear in captivity? There are other animals that make fine pets that don't need so much caution! An escape proof enclosure? That's a sign that the animal inside of it IS NOT WORTH THE RISK!
And just so you know, a woman was killed by her lovable pet pit bulls the other day. It's cool though, because no one put an undue burden on her. BSL would have saved her dumb ass too, but anti-pit bull people are so mean. We undue burden so many. Who are we to deny those that wish to earn their Darwin Awards?
BAM
It just dawned on me! Nutters want breed specific legislation banned, so they can get their stupid "vicious label" laws on the books. That way, the nutters that have pit bulls that haven't mauled anyone yet, can feel smug that their pibble hasn't been targeted because of their behavior. So they want behavior specific legislation, because that's the best policy for public safety!
ReplyDeleteI'm not worried because I know pit bulls will continue mauling and killing. We will get breed specific legislation eventually.
BAM
My Chow-mix was killed by a mutant American Bull Dog, and boy do I get called hypocrite by pit bull advocates. Chows are a risky breed, usually included on top ten most dangerous lists, banned on military bases. However, they have an advocacy that doesn't sugar coat the problems with the breed. Here is my blog about the Chow advocacy, which includes links.
ReplyDeletehttp://thefirstchurchofpitbullscd.blogspot.com/2012/11/casting-stones.html
ReplyDeleteI dont plan on getting a dog and especially not a jr terrier. But i wish all dog breeds had a profiler like the jr terrier website.I took the profile just for the hell of it. The profile was very honest. I appreciate that kind of dedication to their breed.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.therealjackrussell.com/breed/jrprofilerresults.php
https://m.petfinder.com/pet-adoption/OH423
ReplyDeleteRidiculous and insane...and this is our pound...lying instead of putting any decent dogs on display.
I notice the Shiba Inu article tells potential owners they may require high, non-chain-link fencing, a covered run, and fencing under the ground to prevent escape by digging. These are not accommodations that can be expected on rental properties and some HOAs will not allow them, as it is considered unsightly, and it is expensive to install these fences. I wish pit bull owners understood what is required to keep some dogs properly contained!
ReplyDelete