Pit bulls are being banned worldwide because they are being raised with irresponsible owners and are being trained to be vicious, causing pit bulls to terrorize communities, and attack people and dogs causing the highest mortality rate of all dog breed attacks. The way communities, cities, states, and countries are handling this, is with breed-specific legislation. Pit bull breeds are being banned which does not only target pit pets who are trained to be vicious but pit’s that are good pets as well.
I believe this does absolutely nothing to control the terror that vicious dogs are bringing to neighborhoods, because instead of the trainer being the one to blame, the animal doing what they are trained to do is being targeted against. Just because pit bull breeds are the main breed that trainers; who want a vicious, obedient, attacking fight dog favor during these times, does not mean the specific breed is vicious. The ban on pit bulls will just cause irresponsible trainers to find a new dog breed to train the same way.
There are many things to take into account before breed-specific legislation should be used in communities, including facts about the breed, characteristics of the breed, the owners behind known attacks of pit bulls, how pit bulls who are vicious are treated and trained compared to those who aren’t vicious, and how pit bulls act and react who have responsible, caring owners. When the American Pit Bull is discussed, the subject of nature versus nurture is often the primary topic.
When the parts of the public who are out raged about pit bulls hear “pit bull” the first thing that comes to mind is that they’re bred to fight and naturally vicious. Over the last ten to twenty years, thoughts have changed greatly in respect to dog fighting. Throughout history, several different types of dogs have been used for dogfighting. Ancient Romans had displays of dog fights, as well as gladiators, in the arenas long before the pit bull breeds were created. Thankfully, society has evolved, and so has the ideas behind the fighting dogs.
Fighting is no longer thought of as a game or entertainment by the majority of humans, but rather an inhumane despicable act of violence and animal cruelty. The descendants of those various animals that were once trained to fight for entertainment, have now evolved to be therapy dogs, service dogs, and beloved family pets. Regardless of the history of the pit bull breed, and the lack of knowledge of the breed, many people still agree with breed-specific legislation (BSL), more commonly in the form of pit bull breed bans. However, there are those who still believe genetics play a small role in the aggressive nature of the Pit Bull.
These individuals contend that because breeders once bred and used these dogs for fighting, that the whole breed still poses a significant danger to the public and, therefore are not suitable as family pets and should not be around children. On the other hand, there are people like myself, who do actually have experience with these animals, who feel that it is the animal’s environment which includes everything from socialization, training, and the love from their owners, which is what makes an animal behave and act in in a socially acceptable way or a socially unaccepted way.
There was a time in American history that pit bulls were very famous and popular in the US. They were known for the good in their character and their glorious achievements. There are pit bulls that were known as World War I heroes! How has history changed so drastically that we now consider these heroes as vicious monsters, banning their breed throughout the country? Each pit bull deserves his or her rights as does any other dog, and many people will agree with that. There are many reasons someone may think pit bull bans are unfair and a form of injustice.
Some of the main points those people make have to do with myths or common mistakes people make about pit bulls, the discrimination of individual dogs within a specific breed, and the effectiveness and problems with BSL. Over 700 cities in the United States have enacted in breed-specific legislation along with entire foreign countries who have banned pit bulls. Pit bulls are being banned because the attacks the media makes public causes the public to fear the breed and has angered people to demand something be done to stop the attacks. Fines have been put in place and outrageous insurance policies must be purchased simply to own a dog.
A dog is just that, a dog, until someone comes along and makes it into a monster. Why communities jumped straight to banning the breed is what I’m curious about, because it seems like no other option was even thought about or attempted before breedlegislation laws. There are many reasons people fear this dog other than media and another reason is simply because people fear what they don’t understand. There are many cases of pit bull attacks that happened unprovoked, uncalled for, and unexpected. Some of the people who have been attacked do interviews and talk about what happened during the attacks.
Janelle Manning, a woman who was viciously attacked by two pit bulls, and according to CBS news now has trouble even walking up the stairs, said “They both weren’t letting go, once they got a hold of my leg. These dogs were, like, trained to kill; trained to hurt and viciously attack people. ” It’s worth noting that no matter how the data is arranged — mixed breeds versus pure breeds, injuries versus fatalities — pit bulls consistently rank at the top of the list for attacks, and unfortunately, by a wide margin. But is it really the breeds fault for these statistics?
