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.
