Sunday, June 7, 2015

Pit bull myths: "forced to fight"


From back in the days when I used to accept the pit bull propaganda with which we are all continually bombarded, one of the most sympathetic claims I can remember was that pit bulls deserved our pity because they were "forced to fight", an assertion typically presented along with some sort of disturbing dog fight imagery, or a picture of a pit bull that had been disfigured by another pit bull. Naturally, someone sympathetic to dogs, but knowing nothing about pit bulls specifically would surely be roused to action by such dramatic appeals. Typical of this type of propaganda are images of battle scarred pit bulls with especially smarmy, sentimental and anthropomorphizing captions:

This is the myth

If only it were true that pit bulls don't want to fight...



Reality: poor Garth had a pit bull for a neighbor

As any pit bull owner will readily admit to fellow pit bull fans, pit bulls are all too eager to fight. The real trick would be to somehow stop them from wanting to fight. But pit bulls engage harmless little dogs in one-sided fights every day, with heartbreaking results. 

Poor little "Soup" was one of the lucky ones

The following video (warning - if you have any compassion for animals you will find it quite disturbing) is typical of the sort of carnage that is occurring in our communities, as pit bulls do precisely what they were designed and bred to do:


Pit bull kills harmless dog while bystanders cower


Shortly after being "rescued" from Michael Vick's dog fighting operation, a "Vicktory" pit bull at the Best Friend's Animal Society chewed through 2 fences to attack and tear the head off of another dog, named Bean, who was kept there, before attacking another "Vicktory" pit bull, resulting in serious injuries.


That pit bulls have demonstrated an enormous appetite for the blood of harmless, non-threatening animals comes as no surprise to anyone who knows of the of centuries of breeding by the animal abusers of the old UK, in order to produce a type of dog that would eagerly, happily and relentlessly tear apart weaker or more vulnerable animals which posed absolutely no threat to them.

Ironically, now that dog fighting is outlawed (supposedly for humane reasons) the number of animals harmed by put bulls every year is at an all time high, which begs the question: what is the point of outlawing dog fighting while allowing these fighting dogs to proliferate?


So we now have this oversupply of "working dogs" whose "work" is now considered a crime, so long as it occurs in a formal setting. If 2 willing pit bulls are allowed to square off in the ring, it's a crime. But if a pit bull "goes to work" on an unwilling animal, tearing the victim apart, it's not a crime. How is that in any way humane?


Livestock and farm animals also suffer from the oversupply of "rescued" pit bulls. A rancher might discover a sheep missing one morning, and realize that there are hungry wolves or coyotes in the vicinity. That's an unfortunate incident, although one from which they can recover. But imagine coming home to your ranch, to find every last sheep tortured, mutilated, dead or dying; faces chewed off, legs broken, victims disemboweled in a heart breaking, gruesome tableau. Thanks to the abundance of pit bulls in the hands of owners who have no ability to contain them, this is happening all too often. 


Use your search engine of choice and you will find a seemingly endless number of savage mass killings of sheep, goats, alpacas and other animals by loose pit bulls. It's not that the pit bulls are hungry - it's the confident, well fed pit bulls that escape confinement, find a pasture full of helpless victims, and spend an agreeable afternoon mauling the terrified victims. Sadly, there is seldom any justice in these cases. Most often, the pit bulls continue to terrorize local animals, and the pit bull owner faces nothing more than a slap on the wrist in the form of a trivial fine for "unleashed dog" or "failure to vaccinate" - or perhaps, in an extreme case, a sternly worded post-it note, left on the pit bull owner's door.

Some are quick to claim that "any dog" could attack an animal, but the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of serious attacks on animals are committed by pit bulls. The best estimates are that pit bulls were responsible for 96% to 99% of canine attacks on animals last year. Not only dogs, cats, rabbits etc, but sheep, goats, alpacas, pigs, miniature ponies, and other animals continue to be brutalized by "out of work" pit bulls. Tens of thousands of such attacks are committed every year, the majority of which are so severe that the victim does not survive.


The fact is, pit bulls are different because they were deliberately made different by the dog men of the old UK, over centuries of breeding for hair trigger aggression, relentless drive to attack, insensitivity to pain and injury, and for the compulsion to execute the killing bite, as sport. 


In closing, let me make one final point: All of the long time pit bull breeders/dog fighters I've ever heard from have been unanimous in the statements that they never, ever had to force a pit bull to fight. The only dogs "forced to fight" are the tens of thousands of normal dogs every year, dogs like poor Garth or poor little Soup, who are forced to fight for their lives in hopeless, one sided battles with "out of work" pit bulls, and most of whom die of their injuries. 


That is exactly what one would expect to happen when you outlaw "dog fighting", while continuing to breed fighting dogs.


In loving memory of Cowboy, Bandit and Sugar Butt

References -


Yard accident at best friends 'sanctuary', dog killed
Its a slaughterhouse out there

Pit bull home invasion killings
Heritability of Behavior in Abnormally Aggressive Dogs
Regarding pit bulls: the testimony of the experts
Forum: neighbor's pit bull attacked my dog
Forum: my dachshund violently killed by neighbors pitbull

8 comments:

  1. Superbly written and, sadly, all too true.

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  2. Here is another victim, FEMA K9 Carver (April 2013)

    http://myfox8.com/2013/04/20/pit-bulls-attack-specially-trained-border-collie-in-winston-salem/#ooid=YwbWczYjq-k8DJ-wfgRiRQAlEGuCysP0

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here is another victim, FEMA K9 Carver (April 2013)

    http://myfox8.com/2013/04/20/pit-bulls-attack-specially-trained-border-collie-in-winston-salem/#ooid=YwbWczYjq-k8DJ-wfgRiRQAlEGuCysP0

    ReplyDelete
  4. Words from a Pit bull breeder, "He says you don't train a pit bull to fight because they're bred that way." "You can't teach a pit bull how to fight," he said. "Any dog man would tell you that is animal cruelty." http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3794480.shtml#.VVdd37lVikr

    Words for a pit bull fancier:
    In this Truth series topic I am going to discuss the TRUTH about "Its not the breed its how you raise them", which was brought to my attention recently by Beatrixkiddo in another topic on this forum.

    This saying is used a lot by many A.R. activist and people that THINK (self proclaimed gurus on the breed LMAO) they know the real truth about pitbulls like most of the programming on that Animal channel show like the Dog Whisperer, Pitboss, and Pitbulls and Parolees etc....guess what they ARE all full of $#@!.

    You see its not determined by how you raise them but by the breed and that particular individual dog itself.

    If it was by how you raised them THEN there WOULDN'T be any accidents if that was the case BUT ITS NOT. This is one of the main reasons why the EXPERIENCED APBT fanciers cringe when they hear of a INEXPERIENCED person who has no knowledge of this type of breed of dog but wants to buy and own one, that is like a accident/disaster waiting to happen.

    Its also the reason WHY most of us on this site cant stress enough about people asking if its alright to take there APBT to a dog park. Majority of inexperienced people dont realize that even though your APBT might not start a fight , it WONT back down from a fight and will most surly try to finish it if the other dog tries to intimidate and dominate him. For example a big rottweiler that is a regular at a dog park gets along with all the other dogs ONLY because the other dogs submit to him, but when a game bred APBT who happens to come to that Dog park and is NOT intimidated by the Rottweilers actions a fight will purse and at the end of all of it the pitbull will be the one to blame regardless if the Rottweiler is the one that started the fight. No matter how tame or friendly your APBT may seem to other dogs NEVER assume they WON'T ever fight.

    The MISCONCEPTION that the APBT is trained to fight is TOTALLY WRONG as dog men dont have to train them , THEY ALREADY KNOW and have that fighting instinct in them from Birth hence why even some puppies will fight each other as young as 6 weeks old.

    I have even read some A.R. activist claim that dog fighters force there dogs to fight which is SO ABSURD as no one can force a animal to do something they DONT want to do. They either will fight or they will flee but there is no forcing involved as its all up to the animal and done all on the dogs own free WILL.

    You see I dont believe in Animal Rights but I do believe in a Animals Free WILL and what that said animal will ENJOY. Border collies Enjoyment is to be a herding dog, Hound dogs enjoy to track scent, Terrier breeds enjoy to hunt small animals, Catahoula crosses enjoy to hunt wild boar, Grey hounds enjoy to race, and the APBT's enjoy to FIGHT.

    The counter excuse A.R. activist like to use is even though APBT's enjoy fighting its cruel for them to be hurt after.....GUESS what in ALMOST EVERY single physical contact sport like Football , Boxing , MMA, Hockey no matter how much they enjoy that sport there is always going to have some degree of injuries after wards when its over. In this age the younger generation of people like to get a adrenaline high by doing all types and sorts of DANGEROUS activities to get that RUSH AND HIGH regardless if the consequences could result in serious injury and or DEATH.

    Animals like humans have the free will to choose what they like and want to do as well as what they dont like and dont want to do.

    I can no more impose/force a Gay persons will to become straight then I can to make a Beagle become a game fighting dog LMAO.
    http://www.game-dog.com/showthread.php/68951-TRUTH-Series-Its-not-the-breed-its-how-you-raise-them-myth

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  5. For one dog to kill another dog is completely abnormal behavior in dogs-unless that dog is a FIGHTING BREED which has had bite inhibition selectively BRED OUT to enhance it's bloodsport performance.

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  6. This is what the FOUNDER of pit advocacy has to say: DIANE JESSUP, pit bull expert, breeder, former ACO
    "Jessup, the animal control officer in Olympia, uses two pit bulls to train police and animal control officers on surviving dogs attacks.
    Unlike dogs who are nippers and rippers, her pit bulls are typically "grippers" who bite down and hang onto their victims."

    Jessup believes that much of dog behavior comes from their genes. “I truly believe that a dog is about 90% genetics,” says Jessup.
    on protection sports
    This difference in “sheepdog versus bulldog” mentality in a trainer is best understood when training the "out!” or release command. It is common practice for those training shepherds and sheepdog types to use force such as hard leash corrections or electric shock to get the dog to release the sleeve. Sadly, I had one young man come to me because a club trainer was slugging his little Am Staff bitch in the nose, till she bled, trying to get her to release the sleeve. She would not! And of course she would not! She was a good little bulldog, hanging on for dear life, just as her bull and bear baiting ancestors of old did. She was a super little gripping dog, who took the pain she experienced as just “part of the job” once her owner set her upon the sleeve. And this is the response from well bred pit bulldogs—to ignore pain while gripping. It is, after all, what they are bred for!

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  7. Awesome article and awesome comments ... sheads so much truth about pit bulls and their behavior ... my gsd often gotten aggressively approached by pit bulls at the dog park, and I'm just very angry at the stupid irresponsible owners thinking that their pit bulls are just playful sweaty pies who wouldn't hurt a fly. Stupid and careless people should never ever get a pit bull.

    ReplyDelete

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