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Loads of people love dogs, from that tiny toy Poodle to the outgoing, playful Golden Retriever, but what if I asked you about Pit Bulls or Rottweilers? Many have the opposite reaction to these breeds. These dogs have a bad reputation, are known as the killer dogs and are thought to be monsters that can never be trained. But these are all myths!
The view of some dogs as killers is simply a form of propaganda created by the media and dogs such as Pit bulls are very stereotyped and judged. Yes, they may have attacked kids before, but that can also happen with ANY BREED and so these attacks have nothing to do with the dog’s breed at all.
During the 90s, a pair of Rottweilers attacked an 11 year old girl and then all of a sudden all the Rottweilers were blamed. Newspapers called them “devil dogs” and owners of Rottweilers were scolded just for walking their dogs in public! Lawmakers wanted to protect citizens so a law was set known as Breed-Specific Legislation (BSL); a law that banned entire breeds.
The UK has banned these breeds:
Japanese Tosa Inu
Fila Brasiliero
Dogo Argentino
Pit Bulls
But somehow, Rottweilers weren’t banned.
This law also allows anyone to report a dog which is one of the “dangerous” breeds and that dogs would be separated from its owner and euthanised! It’s ridiculous! It’s heartbreaking that such tolerant, patient, and gentle dogs are being portrayed as the most dangerous. Due to their bad reputation, there are at least 2,800 Pit Bulls that are put to death everyday! This has been the highest for any specific type of dog. Dogs such as mastiffs, Chow Chows, Dobermans and German Shepherds have been banned in several places. But the dog which is banned in most places nowadays are Pit bulls. Sadly, there have been times when Pit bulls have bitten and even killed children. HOWEVER, these are sad and EXTREMELY rare events.
Pit bulls can be dangerous IF they have been mistreated, abused, abandoned, neglected, etc. However, this is the truth for all dogs. All dogs can be aggressive if mistreated.
And when news reports these events they tend to neglect the part where the dog is abused, traumatised, starved, neglected, and the child was left alone with the dog. If a dog attacks, there is always a reason for it.
Pit bulls are not even a breed! It’s a group of four dog breeds:
American pit bull terrier
American Staffordshire terrier
Staffordshire bull terrier
American bulldog
These are the breeds that make up the pit bull group. Therefore, any dog who has the ancestry of one of these four breeds, could be considered a pit bull. Or any breed with a boxy head and a muscular body could be considered a pit bull as that means there is a bit of pit bull ancestry in their DNA. This means that many people are generalising not only a breed but a group of dog breeds and every single dog with some ancestry of one of the four breeds of dogs in the pit bull group. This also means that many people are generalising every dog with a boxy head and a muscular body to being “dangerous” by just one dog they’ve heard of in the news! To understand how rare these sad events happen I can tell you that you are 25 times more likely to die by falling out of bed than to get killed by any dog. Pit bulls are also known to be used for dog fighting but they are actually abused to do it, they are forced to do it. They have no choice. If they don’t fight they die. In the dog fighting ring people don’t care about the dog. They just care that the dog would win. Pit bulls were never bred to harm humans, NEVER. In fact, there are Pit bulls who have been rescued and retrained into police dogs to sniff out drugs! Dogs should therefore be seen as individuals and not just as one breed.
Breed-specific legislation doesn’t help stop dog attacks. In fact, the number of dog attacks increased rapidly after the law was set. More attacks from dogs such as Labs and Golden Retrievers were reported. This makes owners more reckless which causes more problems with the dog and owner. There is no use in having breed-specific legislation; it just causes more problems. Responsible owners prevent dog bites as breed does NOT predict behaviour, and breed-specific legislation means millions of gentle dogs are euthanized and treated unfairly and forced to wear muzzles.
Sign a petition to End Breed-Specific Legislation!
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