It is the owner not the dog. Any blocky headed dog, or any mix of breeds that is between 35 and 100 pounds and upwards of 30 individual dog breeds may currently fall in this broad category through the use of visual breed identification. They are the most wrongfully feared and legislated against. Many say that any pit bull raised in a non-aggressive environment by gentle and knowledgeable owners will not attack. However, one personality trait of the Pit Bull breed is determination. Unpack this problem for us, as police in America today seem to be shooting more than just innocent dogs. But the trigger-happy mentality is pretty bad. You’re unstoppable. But that doesn't prove anything. Dog fighting is on the decline in the United Sates due to tougher laws and better surveillance. They all share more than 99.8 percent of their DNA. I know that sounds odd because I spent all this time writing a book specifically about pit bulls, but I really did come to appreciate that all dogs are the same species. THE COLORS ARE AMAZING AND THIS DEAN RUSSO DEFINITELY KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT PITBULLS! My cat has bitten me as has a yellow labrador. [Laughs] You can’t make broad generalizations. In fact, the UKC's official breed standard for the American Pit Bull Terrier states that "most APBTs exhibit some level of dog aggression." Not just pit bulls but dogs as a species. How did they go from mascot to monster? The truth about pit bulls . The officer claimed that he was shooting a vicious pit bull. The following is basic breed information for anyone who is interested in acquiring a Pit Bull. Just look at the human animal and the violence we have created in our world. Some states and cities have acted on the research: The state of Maryland has determined that pit bulls are \"inherently dangerous\" and all owners are liable for any injuries they cause, according to the Baltimore Sun.Even the U.S. Army has acknowledged that pit bulls are high-risk dogs; they are therefore prohibited in some military housing units.Pit bulls join several other breeds on the list of dogs that are reco… Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Pit Bull breeds generally have a high play drive, and they require a lot of physical exercise. Let’s use an oversimplification to explain: Let’s say in a town there are 100 Pit Bulls and 10 Pugs. If they don't get vigorous exercise for at least an hour per day, whether it's games, dog sports, work of some kind, a jog or a brisk walk, they are apt to invent something to do. She is gifted, insightful, and her writing addresses uncomfortable ... full review ... Shows are much more prone to bite before a pit bull. In that same town, all 10 Pugs and 20 Pit Bulls bite someone. To others, they are victims of prejudice and misunderstanding. It’s such an individual thing. A June 20th Time.com piece by Charlotte Alter called “The Problem With Pit Bulls” elicited a flood of protest mail from supporters of the breed. They will always be a powerful symbol. Important conversations are happening now. You’re informed. Dog breeds are characterized by certain physical and behavioral traits. Tell us about your own experiences with pit bulls. When people say, “Oh, these dogs are bred for fighting,” it’s true that the original breed, the American pit bull terrier, which originated in 1889, was developed for fighting. In some areas, regulated breeds also include a variety of other dogs like American Bulldogs, Rottweilers, Mastiffs, Dalmatians, Chow Chows, German Shepherds, Doberman Pinschers or any mix of these breeds—and dogs who simply resemble thes… Pinto had been in an animal control facility, fairly isolated for the first six months of his life. I grew up in the 1980s, and I was always terrified of them. A self-taught canine behaviorist, I have been studying the pit bull controversy for many a year. Find the dog that is right for you and works for your lifestyle. When she started, most shelters in the U.S. denied pit bulls without giving them the chance at adoption. Of course, the process of domestication has led to wonderful canine companions for the most part; hence, “man’s best friend.”. Today, Mickey is living in an air-conditioned cell in an Arizona jail with a thousand-dollar webcam so people can see what he’s doing. WELCOME TO THE PAGE!!! The truth is pit bulls are loyal to their owners and will do whatever their owners want them to do to please them. It’s a long, involved story. With similar characteristics, pit bulls are generally broad in stature, powerful in bite ratio and sporting a large square head. In 2014, while playing near his house in Phoenix, Arizona, four-year-old Kevin Vicente was savagely attacked by a pit bull named Mickey. One pit bull we gained custody of, named Asia, looked like a skeleton covered with skin when PETA released her from the 15-pound chain that had restricted her for years. I wouldn’t say get a dog just because it’s a pit bull, just as I wouldn’t reject a dog out of hand just because it’s a pit bull. And what advice would you give to our readers if they are thinking of owning one? PEOPLE is rerunning this 2016 article about pit bulls to address and clear up some myths about this group of dogs. People who have studied these cases, like Jeffrey Sacks at the CDC, have shown that when it comes to fatalities caused by pit bulls, the breed identifications are often not accurate. The incident illustrated the bitter divide in perceptions of pit bulls—as Bronwen Dickey, author of Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon, has discovered to her own cost. All dogs are special, but living with a pit bull really is different. It is difficult for experts to label these as “non-pit bulls.” Originally bred as fighting dogs, pit bulls were used to hold the heads of larger animals, including bulls. Have you owned them? Given the staggering amount of press coverage of Michael Vick's pit bulls, television shows devoted to pit bulls, such as Pit Bulls and Parolees, now in its tenth season, Cesar Millan's Dog Nation, co-branded with a pit bull, and the constant production of "positive pit bull" campaigns on the Internet, it seems unlikely that the average person cannot identify a pit bull. There have been many highs and lows, they have come through so much, and they are still with us. In order to do that, they partnered with the media to put dog fighting on the front page of every newspaper in America. All were historically bred for two purposes: to control vermin and to fight. I would never state that one should or shouldn’t own a pit bull. Dickey consulted dozens of animal experts and pored over mountains of data before emerging with a conclusion as mundane as it is profound: Pit bulls are just dogs. In April 2007, law-enforcement officials raided a 15-acre property owned by Vick in rural Surry County, Virginia, and discovered dozens of pit bulls, … He was temporarily blinded in one eye and his jaw was broken. You visited a place called Animal Farm Foundation. Pit Bulls are the most misunderstood dogs there are. We don’t know the exact figures, because no one’s required to keep a comprehensive list of dog shootings, but we can probably guess there are thousands every year. This type of canine is used today as catch dogs to hunt and drive livestock, to gather semi-wild hogs and cattle, and as family companions. There’s a great book about this by Radley Balko called, The Rise of the Warrior Cop. This stressed to me how resilient animals are, in general. This is a child who really suffered, his family suffered, and that deserves an incredible amount of compassion. It seems to be shoot first, ask questions later. Pit bulls in the news. Immediate surgical exploration is required to prevent catastrophic outcomes, especially limb loss. Pit bull type dogs include breeds such as Staffordshire bull terriers, American pit bull terriers, and American Staffordshire terriers, amongst others. Her bookstore appearances now require security, and her home has been equipped with surveillance cameras. All breeds can and do attack as they are the domestication of select breeding of the wolf. Part of HuffPost Environment. So your chance of being killed by any type of dog in the U.S. in any given year is one in 10 million. Kevin Vicente was severely bitten. Everyone thought the dog would be euthanized. So are a handful of other breeds and mixed breeds. Yeah, if we aren’t careful we are. Shouldn’t they be banned here? It happens both in the country and city. Please share this video with your family and friends [Laughs] I guess it’s dueling anecdotes. But once a dog becomes a symbol like that, people can act in ways that are not rational. They are banned in the United Kingdom and several other countries. In the U.S., we have 320 million people and between 77 and 83 million dogs. … Breeds such as the American pit bull terrier, the American staffordshire terrier the American bully and the staffordshire bull terrier are all included. Fatalities are incredibly rare. When developing a breed, breeders selected only those dogs that performed their job best to produce the next generation. Pit bulls make up only 6% of the dog population, but they’re responsible for 68% of dog attacks and 52% of dog-related deaths since 1982, according to … The total of reported Pit Bull bites doesn’t reflect the likelihood of a Pit Bull bite. With all the pit bull controversy, it is interesting to note that one is most likely to be bitten by one of these breeds; dachshund, chihuahua, and the jack russell terrier. Yes, any dog can attack their owner. They are the only breed I avoid when walking my Dalmatian. In doing so, they encouraged wild speculations about these dogs that were not based in science or historical fact—things like they have 5,000 pounds of jaw pressure. That’s a good thing because the more it’s pushed out the better. The short version is: The dogs were really popular during WWI and the Depression, when there was this nostalgic feeling around the average blue collar working Joe. Treat your dog with kindness like your children. Bred by combining the tenacity of the terrier and the power of the bull dog, pit bulls have also shown their prowess as bear-baiters. Facebook page for The Truth About Pit Bulls blog. Be aware, you may face some issues with housing and insurance. Hear in lies the dichotomy… “IF” one is bitten by the more likely biters, it can be fairly straight forward to see that they are of small stature and can be fought off. A study on fatalities between 2000-2009 in the journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association found that in over 80 percent of those cases there were four or more significant factors related to the care and control of the dog. When we caught up with the author by phone, she explained how her own pit bull, Nola, confounded her fears of the breed; how the story of the pit bull is deeply interwoven with the history of the United States; and how a foundation in upstate New York is trying to restore the reputation of this most polarizing breed. You will learn here that while Pit Bulls make great family companion… We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! I am. They consistently achieve excellent temperament scores, are successful as service dogs, therapy dogs, K9 police dogs, and as family pets. We … The owners of this page are apart of a community called F.A.H. I mainly want to put a little bit of everything about pit bulls such as history, health care, feeding and actives for a pit bull, as well as maybe uploading some more pictures. But, by focusing on the dog in front of you, you will make the best choice. It was a major media spectacle. All rights reserved. You use the term “battlefield mentality” when discussing the number of dogs shot by police. A true story about a pit bull dog that's honest - no gushing, just the facts - that demonstrates once and for all, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that pit bulls are DOGS like any other dog. It's impossible to determine breed by appearance alone. It wasn’t until I started to meet some that I began to question those assumptions. Those problems are real, and they’ll take a while to solve. Reality: Pit Bulls do not have any special physical mechanism or enzyme that allows them to “lock” their jaws. In fact, the dog was a registered black Labrador. Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter. Would you trust them around your children? Attacks by Pit Bull Terriers are more likely to cause severe morbidity than other breeds of dogs. But when the authorities threatened to euthanize Mickey, public opinion swung behind the dog, not the boy. In truth, bully breeds are goofy, loyal, lovey dogs, by and large fantastic with children. Simon Worrall curates Book Talk. [Meet the United States' most popular dog breeds.]. That was one of the things that troubled me. All rights reserved. What I love about pit bulls are the same things I love about dogs. 5.0 out of 5 stars The unvarnished, unbiased TRUTH about pit bull dogs, once and for all. There was a case in Idaho recently where a policeman shot a dog in a car because it barked at him. Animals are unpredictable. There is professional dog fighting, which has traditionally been white and rural. Photograph by William Albert Allard, Nat Geo Image Collection, The Most Feared Dogs May Also Be the Most Misunderstood, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/07/pit-bull-ban-aggressive-dog-breed-bronwen-dickey.html, Kevin Vicente was savagely attacked by a pit bull named Mickey, a heroine for the pro-pit bull community and the target of threats and harassment, Chinese festival where dogs are on the menu, when it comes to fatalities caused by pit bulls, the breed identifications are often not accurate, the United States' most popular dog breeds, policeman shot a dog in a car because it barked at him. It mostly comes from fear. Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase. There’s the Staffordshire bull terrier, which has been a conformation breed since the 1930s; and the newer breed called the American bully, which was derived from the American Staffordshire terrier in the 1990s. But it still happens, as the wounds on the head, neck, and leg of this pit bull in North Carolina demonstrate. Thank goodness, after the attention the case received, the Vicente family has had more donations. Each breed was developed to perform a specific job, whether that job is hunting rabbits, retrieving downed birds, herding livestock or sitting on peoples laps. And for those who already have one or more and would like to learn more about the breed, or simply for anyone who would like to understand these great dogs…..read on. All breeds can and do attack as they are the domestication of select breeding of the wolf. In the 1950s, with the consumer boom after WWII, there was a huge push toward kennel club breeds and the pit bull fell by the wayside. Obviously, the police have a very difficult job. I always hesitate to invoke that example because the fact that mine is wonderful doesn’t negate the fact that there are really nasty dogs out there! Kathleen Gemmell is an animal rights proponent and an author. Originally bred as fighting dogs, pit bulls were used to hold the heads of larger animals, including bulls. Follow him on Twitter or at simonworrallauthor.com. The fact that they get lumped in is part of the problem because we’re basing things on what they look like and not necessarily what they are. Four-year-old Kevin Vicente was attacked by a pit bull named Mickey in Phoenix, Arizona. Who's right? This page discusses the most notable traits of Pit Bull type dogs, including the potential for dog aggression. They don’t have that heritage. 108K likes. Genetically speaking, the pit bull may have some aggressive tendencies in their blood line as may rottweilers, doberman pinchers and a variety of shepard breeds. In a word: no. Recently, a woman in Connecticut was mauled by two pit bulls and she ultimately lost her struggle to survive. Dog Aggression vs. Human Aggression Tell us about this rescue operation and a dog called Pinto. Pit bulls were originally used for bull- and bear-baiting, and later were bred to fight dogs in an arena. She is seven and is extremely affectionate, wonderful, and smart. It is not uncommon to hear such a story where this type of dog is concern. Add your voice. Ten months later, he still bears the scars. This interview was edited for length and clarity. While the average score of the 231 breeds tested was a mere 82.4 percent, Pit Bulls scored a 86.5 percent (the higher the score the better). I'm thinking about adding to this page. Stronger animal control laws, public education and responsible … The Truth About Pit Bulls. Dog aggression is a common issue in pit bulls. Pit bulls, like these in Oxford, Mississippi, arouse strong passions. November 16, 2013. You care. Secondly, there’s no science that bears that idea out. With similar characteristics, pit bulls are generally broad in stature, powerful in bite ratio and sporting a large square head. The first thing I did when I was consulting this book is reach out to the experts in the animal sciences to talk about what’s going on with these incidents and how best to prevent them. You tell us that pit bulls used to be among America’s favorite breeds—Petey, the famous dog who was part of Our Gang/The Little Rascals was a pit. Standing for … My own pit bull is called Nola. Eventually the use of dogs in blood sports was banned in many countries, but unlawful pit bull fighting still occurs in many a back alley. Then you have urban dog fighting, which is more a one-off, “I want to see if my dog can beat your dog.” Both are forms of torture and need to be eradicated. It is commonly accepted that "pit bull" is not a breed but a loosely defined and general category. 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