Coming from my now 2 years experience being around these guys is that you are at danger of kisses, love, and devotion from this breed. Can you handle that?
While I applaud this local station for attempting to show another side to pit bulls, I couldn't help but feel defeated after watching this story- it was like they couldn't just paint a positive reflection, every good comment had to be followed with doom and gloom.
No one breed is completely devoid of merit. There are bad eggs in every bunch. But as always, it's the individual animal itself. If you really wanted to be a well rounded and educated sort, you would dig deeper and ask about the circumstances surrounding a negative story involving a critter. Pitbulls are a very loyal breed to their family, and as such, people with bad intentions will use that trait against the dog, and teach them to engage in fighting, etc. Any animal needs proper socialization- stories of attacking pits are often ones in which the dogs were kept chained, locked away...to have sudden access to freedom and strange people can result in chaos/tragedy.
Every decade has its own blacklisted dog...in the past, german shepherds and rotts were the bad guys. Now it's the pit bulls who society is turning against. At work, we have grown weary of folks who come in with nothing more than just perception causing them to ignore many of the dogs in our care. We now keep track of the animals that are coming in for aggression issues, and more often than not, it's going to be your small breed dogs like chihuahuas/shih tzus, etc...the sensitive beagles...or the golden retrievers. It truly is more of a rarity to have a pit come in for something like that. However, stories in the media about the golden gone bad don't sell. The vicious pit who rips from limb to limb? Film at 11!! The tv and newspaper communities can be a big ally in shifting that stereotype by not always falling for the big bad pit story...or by fleshing it out and presenting another side in the piece. When you see a video next time of a reporter discussing a pit that attacks a neighbor....if they talk to the dog owner, pay attention to that environment and demeanor of the person. Are they out in the open, actively engaging in a dialogue? Are they hiding behind the door, keeping their conversation limited to short, testy replies? How does the home and yard look? Clean and safe with proper boundary limitations? Unkempt with shards of glass bottles and large rock chunks littering the dog's play area? The owner's interview and appearance of the environment will be very telling....
And, I hate to say it, but if a dog has teeth, it has the ability to bite. The key is to a) properly socialize and engage your animal if you are the owner and b) watch constantly for signals being given if you are approaching an unknown dog or even playing with a familiar dog.
No comments:
Post a Comment