Saturday, December 8, 2012

pit bull myths - loyalty

As pit bull fans like to say, pit bulls are special - much more special than any other dogs. (but at other times they claim that pit bulls are exactly the same as any other dogs, leaving one wondering exactly what they really think). When pressed to come up with some particular way in which pit bulls are special, it often boils down to amazement that pit bulls can act like normal dogs. In other words, the things that make pit bulls special are those particular scenarios in which they act like normal dogs - as opposed to killing the cat, scalping the baby, or de-gloving grandma's hand.

A calm pit bull, apprehended after killing its owner

I'm truly puzzled when pit bull fans claim that "pit bulls are the most loyal dogs of all", or that "no breed is more loving with its family" - in view of the bloody record of pit bulls attacking their own family members, one has to question their particular definition of loyalty.

The aftermath of a pit bull attack on its owner

Indeed, pit bulls do enjoy a distinction of sorts, in areas related to loyalty - i.e. suddenly, with zero warning, and apparently at random, attacking, mauling, and (if help is not nearby) killing their owners. After several of the mauling deaths over the past year, investigatiors happened to discover that the deceased had previously been treated for wounds inflicted by their own pit bulls . But the victims kept it quiet and didn't report it, ostensibly to avoid leaking any type of pit bull news that was not positive. The lengths to which some people will go "for the pitties" is remarkable, to put it mildly.

A victim of pit bull attack

On the other hand, if reports are to be believed, the pit bull belonging to Bad Rap activist Darla Napora had never shown any sign of aggression previous to the day it suddenly attacked her. Raised from a puppy with love and care, an indoor pet that slept in bed with her, it turned on her one day with zero warning and mauled her to death. So severe was the attack that Ms. Napora was unable to even dial 911 - a story which we have covered here previously.

Killing the owner is an act completely alien to a normal dog. But in the US, there has been a case of a pit bull killing its owner every few weeks during the past year or so. What's going on? Is it that pit bulls are so big and powerful that a playful bite is deadly? Well, that doesn't seem to add up, because there are for instance livestock guardian breeds which are much larger and much stronger than pit bulls, with higher bite force. But they never kill their human pack, and the flocks under their care are also completely safe - which could be reasonably ascribed to the difference between a type of dog bred to guard and protect livestock, and a type of dog bred to torture livestock.

Livestock Guardian Dog protecting the sheep

No, the problem with pit bulls is not their strength, as we have noted above. They are certainly not the biggest or strongest of all dogs, and they do not have the most powerful jaws. What they do have is a set of genetically determined motor patterns owing to selective breeding over hundreds of years of violent blood sport for those specific qualities which suit them to the business of killing, which amount to a craving for combat. A well-bred, game pit bull will attack the opponent without warning and without mercy, and will continue the attack, ignoring submission signals from the victim, and ignoring pain, regardless of injury suffered. it doesn't matter if the victim submits, tries to run away, or fights back - the pit bull continues the attack to its conclusion, one way or the other. For the pit bull, the act of exercising its characteristic motor patterns is self rewarding.

The forgotten shoe of a badly mauled jogger

This purposeful breeding program has naturally created a number of neurological differences between the pit bull and normal dogs. These differences, not nurture or environment, are the chief factor in the off-the-charts record of serious injuries and deaths to humans from pit bulls as compared to all other types of dogs. A normal dog may bite, but a pit bull doesn't just "bite" - a pit bull engages in a sustained attack which can easily last 20 minutes or more, if help does not come.

For the most up-to-date information, please refer to the article linked below on the subject of pit bulls killing their owners. Whatever your opinion of pit bulls, it should be of interest to see these facts in context, with full source citations.

Without further ado, here is the link - Occupy Maul Street: Darwin attacks

31 comments:

  1. So many women say the pitbull makes them feel safe but they totally disregard the stories of women put in prison because of the over protective actions of their pitbulls.. or the women like Darla Napora killed by their own never abused, sweet, raised from a puppy pitbull that had no prior aggression. If you need a dog to feel safe there are dogs that inhibit people from coming in the house becuase os their size, and bark that are not so unpredictable.

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  2. I am always amazed when a pit bull advocate, with out taking a second for a breath, can call those of us who note that these are atypical dogs "RACISTS", and then go on to say they are the most loyal, willing to please dog, the only purposely bred for non-human aggression.

    I don't know why, but when I hear of a pit bull murdering their own human in this context, I'm reminded of an account of Gala, the wife of Salvador Dali. They were going on vacation, and she didn't know what to do with her beloved rabbit, she loved it too much to leave it with anyone else. So she butchered it, and served it for dinner. Salvador Dali was horrified and reportedly threw up the stew.

    I'm sorry if this seems to be a disgusting surreal tangent, but the concept of man's best friend attacking their own human is surreal. Perhaps the pit bull loves so much, they need a true blood union. It's the only possible explanation.

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  3. Unfortunately the owners you don't hear of being attacked are the professional dogfighters. They do have warning signs and these guys know them. Completely still, head lowered, ears cocked, eyes locked on target, tail raised, still or wagging and making no sound. The new petbull pitiots have no clue and even less chance of reading these dogs. They also lack sufficient judgment and gray matter to choose wisely. It is long past time for fighting breeds to vanish into history. Humans created this horror show and now we need to end it.

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    1. It's not only pitiot naivety. I've seen this 'warning' you say pit bull types give. It often only lasts a millisecond. If you so happen to not be looking at the pit bull, you won't see it. Besides this, they don't always give it. I've seen pit bulls nudge people in a friendly way, then morph to attack without any signs at all -- unless you consider getting excited in any way or to any extent a sign of intent to attack. I've also seen them do what Lockwood described -- give play bows, then go straight into full attack.

      I think the idea that dogmen would always be able to tell when a pit bull is intending to attack is a new myth we don't really need. I expect that incidents with them will be even more under-reported than with other pit bull owners. I also expect that if they really get mauled or killed less than other people, it's more likely because they always take precautions -- not because they're special and can always see an attack coming.

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  4. "humans created this horror show and now we need to end it"

    the types who created this horror show walk among us still and are the ones who are still attracted to the breed. never mind the bullshit, they know and like what pitbulls are.

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    1. So true. I wonder how psychotic they truly are to entertain keeping such a dangerous animal as a pet. It is absolutely crazy

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  5. "A calm pit bull, apprehended after killing its owner"

    of course he's calm. all he needs now is a cigarette.

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  6. I have to wonder what the attack statistics would became if Kangals and Ovtcharka's became as popular as Pit bulls though.
    Their more powerful and have been used in dog fighting.
    Some videos to show that these dogs can become grippers,in fact any dog might come one. Pit bulls could be replaced.
    http://smotri.com/video/view/?id=v23642520b37#


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  7. I have a pit bull service dog. She walks amongst the world on a daily basis. She even attended a metal concert at a bar filled with 300+ screaming drunk fans of the band playing. The air was thick with smoke from burning cigarettes and beer was spilled all over the floor. She never denied anyone the opportunity to snuggle and get a kiss. If you have an issue with me using a pit bull as a service dog hears my e-mail address: Lolaservicedog@yahoo.com

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    1. Lauren, genuine service dogs do not interact with the public while they are working. If drunken bar patrons are snugging and kissing your dog she is not a service dog, she is a pet that you take to bars.

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  8. Hi lauren - the pit bull service dog scam is a serious problem for legitimate service dogs. Even if your pit bull has not yet turned on, it remains a ticking time bomb endangering those around you. Even if it never turns on, you will never know for sure until the day it dies.

    As far as the "snuggle and kiss" you speak of, absolutely any dog would be the same. The difference is that a normal dog would be less likely to kill another animal, or even turn on you.

    You'll no doubt say that your pit bull is different, that because of your fierce love it will never do what it was bred to do, but that way lies a very real risk. Don't you think all of the trusted "family pit bulls" that have maimed and killed had owners that similarly trusted them?

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  9. Having a pit bill is as risky as surfing, flying in an airplane or even having children. How many children have murdered their own parents, grown to be rapists and child molesters? Even shooting up elementary schools? Do you suggest we eradicate pregnancies and births? Don't like pitbulls? I have a simple solution, don't own one. Who cares if you think they're dangerous? Who cares if they frighten you? Get a life, get some friends and move on. Use your energy on fighting something more pressing, because this really isn't.

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    1. @wysteria drinkard -

      Ah, a teachable moment -

      Here we have a pit propagandist using several of the talking points that they are taught to present. All of them are easily dismissed with just a bit of rational thought, but let's take a look at the most egregious statement this person makes:

      "Don't like pitbulls? I have a simple solution, don't own one."

      Great advice, Einstein. But tell me, how does this advice help those who are attacked by other people's pit bulls? It would be bad enough if pit bulls only ever attacked their owners, but sadly, they also attack others. You may or may be aware that hundreds of people have suffered disfiguring attacks so far in 2013 from other people's pit bulls.

      Just today pit bulls in Chicago busted out of their yard to maim a young man walking past the yard on a public sidewalk.

      Yesterday we learned that pit bulls broke into a 96 years old man's yard to torture his chihuahua to death, and when the old man tried to save his little companion, the pit bulls tortured him to death too.

      So what's your advice to these victims, wysteria drinkard? "don't get a pit bull"?

      What so you tell more than 20 of my friends who have seen their beloved animal companions tortured to death in their own yards by other peoples pit bulls? You just tell them "don't get a pit bull", right?

      Clearly, you haven't thought this through. You're just parroting the trite little phrases you picked up from the pit propaganda sites.

      BTW if you think pit bulls frighten me, you're sadly mistaken. I just hate to see the innocent victimized.

      Just who are you to tell us not to care about the torture and slaughter of sweet, docile, innocent dogs? You claim it's a waste of energy, and yet here you are trolling us and leaving snarky, dumb ass comments. Do you really have no more pressing business than trying to suppress the facts?

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    2. Herzeleid, the most pressing business any pit bull fan has is...suppressing the facts. They know that. That's why they troll around trying to censor everyone. That's why they bully and often even terrorize people who state the facts. They know that when enough people understand the facts, their ambulatory IEDs will be taken away from them.

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    3. hear hear herzeleid! Not even the best round of mental gymnastics can attach any form of reason to wysteria's textual diarrhea. "One problem is far bigger than another, so therefore we should ignore all the 'lesser' issues"?? Colon cancer kills fewer people than heart disease... so let's ignore colon cancer and not bother wasting anyone's energy anywhere on addressing/studying/treating the condition?? How about this... annually, fewer people are killed by sharks than by pitbulls, so Wysteria should quit wasting his energy advocating for pitbulls and focus on shark ownership.

      Yeah... told ya; no logic or reason in that fool's domain. truly.

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  10. The "pitbulls" you see on the news attacking their owners are not true game bred pitbulls. They are scatter bred mutts who resemble pitbulls. A real pitbull is a small athletic 30 to 40 pound dog on average. What has happened is that cowardly people from the streets and gangs have crossed the pitbull with larger mastiff type dogs and bred for HUMAN AGRESSION. A real pitbull that ever displayed human agression would immediatley be discarded by a dog fighter as they would never want this trait in their dogs. 90 percent of what you think are pitbulls are actually NOT pitbulls but pitbull types, watered down with HUMAN aggressive dogs. Pitbulls make horrible guard dogs, they'll lick you before attacking you. If you want a guard dog or HUMAN aggressive dog get a German Sheppard.

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    1. Kudos for showing up and dutifully reciting the same old discredited pit bull talking points. I'll give you an "E" for effort but you folks really need to come up with some new material. The old "no true pit bull" argument is particularly dated.

      I know it's futile to think I could change the mind of a pit zombie with facts, but for the sake of honest and open minded folks who might stumble across this in future, let me address your points.

      1. Your insistence that "real" pit bulls are only 30-40 lb dogs: There is great disagreement among the pit advocacy as to what is a "real" pit bull. I don't really care about your arguments. A "pit bull" is a type of dog, and what makes it a pit bull is that it is a descendant of the specially bred livestock torturer bull dogs of the old UK, which were re-purposed as pit fighting bull dogs (aka pit bulls) after bull baiting was outlawed in 1835. These bulldogs were mixed with terrier for a more compact attacker, referred to as "bull & terrier" but make no mistake, these were the same livestock torturing genetics in a smaller package. While it has apparently escaped your notice that there are many pit bull type dogs that are much larger than your ideal size, they do in fact exist. The vast majority of pit bull type dogs today are 50 lbs or more.

      2. Your claim that man biters were culled. Sorry, that's a nice fairy tale but like most fairy tales it has absolutely no basis in fact. If a pit bull was successful at killing dogs, it was prized, man biter or not. The nephew of the infamous pit breeder John Colby was mauled to death by one of Colby's "prize" pit bulldogs. Did Colby kill it? Of course not, that thing was a winner, and he bred it like crazy and sold hundreds of it's offspring. If you take a peek into the news archives you'll see that pit bulls have been killing Americans since 1851.

      3. Your insistence that all aggressive pit bulls are not "real" pit bulls, but have been bred with a more human aggressive type of dog: pardon me, but this is so muddled as to beggar description. What sort of dog do you cross with a pit bull to create a more human aggressive dog? If you would be so kind as to identify that mysterious breed, we could verify that it maims and kills people at a higher rate than pit bulls. But obviously there is no such breed, since pit bull type dogs are responsible for more disfiguring or fatal attacks on humans than all other breeds combined. If there were a more human aggressive breed, it would show up in the stats.

      4. You claim that a pit bull makes a horrible guard dog - I agree, not because they will "lick you to death" but because pit bulls are just as likely to maim and kill family members as anyone else. Have you been living under a rock? Just a few months ago, Claudia Gallardo came into a friend's yard and the friend's pit bull proceeded to torture her to death, while Claudia kept calling the dog's name and begging it to stop.

      5. I agree that German Shepherds make better guard dogs, because they are more intelligent, more trainable and more biddable than put bulls. There's a reason police departments use GSD and Malinois, rather than pit bulls.

      Here are the facts of the matter. So far this year, pit bull type dogs have committed over 360 fatal or disfiguring attacks against humans, while serious attacks by all other breeds combined are a small fraction of that number, and you folks are in serious denial about the facts of the matter.

      Sadly, the rate of serious pit bull attacks against innocent animals is 10 or 20 times higher than the rate of attacks on humans. Every day, pit bulls break out of containment and go on killing sprees, torturing and killing innocent animals, often in their own yards or inside their own houses. None of this is due to "gangsters" breeding pit bulls with some other mysterious breed. It's just a result of good, game pit bulls doing what they have been breed to do.

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    2. your full of crap

      http://www.scribd.com/doc/31272682/Dogmen-Conversations-About-Man-Biters-and-Man-Eaters

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    3. Sort of pointless.. If a gun killed you ... would it matter if it was a Vintage Smith and Weston gun killed you..or a newer model? Nope. Dead is dead, mauled is mauled.

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  11. Jay, you are using pit bull talking points without thinking about what you are saying. Please read what has been written by the dog fighters who developed the breed/type as we know it. None of them culled a winner. Manbiters were very common and as long as they did well in the pit they were not only kept but used in the yard's breeding program. Google the names Bolio, Tombstone, Honeybunch, there are many others. These dogs were VERY highly regarded and also known manbiters. Google John Colby, one of his dogs killed his two year old nephew and he kept the dog.

    The public is absolutely qualified, and able to identify pit bulls. They are pit bulls not unicorns.

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  12. The grandma and uncle of the boy killed by pitbulls in Cailifornia this week were arrested on child abuse charges.. and possibly will get manslaughter charges as well... and the pitbulls were owned by the husband.. so any woman who thinks pitbulls keep you safe will have to spend some time with women put in prison because of pitbulls. The risk is too high.

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  13. All black people steal, all jews are trying to take over the world, all pittbulls attack...Welcome to the ice ages children, back to square one.
    With the use of the internet these days I can compile a whole site dedicated to any breed attacking and mauling people. Just google Labrador attack or german shepherd attack and you will find more then enough evidence to create a website just like this one on that one specific breed. Also while your at it google all black people steal...Lets ban the rest of them from existence...LOL you get my point don't ruin life for the millions of happy dog owners out there who have lived with the breed for years enjoying them as a companion like any other.

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  14. @E mann -

    First of all, could you explain the point you're trying to make with your comments about "blacks" and "jews"? I mean, exactly how in your mind does speaking out about the torture and slaughter of the innocents equate to holding ignorant stereotypes?

    I hate to beak it to you, but you aren't as internet savvy, or as savvy in general, as you suppose. Did you even try those google searches you suggested? Clearly you didn't, or you'd see that you're hurting your own cause with the damning evidence.

    It's not labs or german shepherds forcing their way into people's houses and torturing the animals inside to death. Pit bulls are doing that. It's not labs or german shepherds jumping out of moving cars or second story windows to torture and kill innocent little dogs. Pit bulls are doing that.

    So feel free to dedicate a site to lab attacks. It's going to be snoozeville.

    Then again with the racist crap, you really are hung up on these stereotypes, aren't you? Your point makes no sense because you're profoundly confused and ignorant of the facts of the matter.

    Finally, you say "don't ruin life for the millions of happy dog owners..." My, aren't we dramatic - how exactly does writing to raise awareness of a problem somehow "ruin the lives of millions"? Come on, get real. You want to talk about ruining lives? You pit freaks are responsible for ruined lives every day, when the breed you worship attacks, tortures and kills innocent family pets. Hey, we don't hate the breed, they're just doing exactly what they were bred to do. What we hate is idiots like you who continue to inflict these nightmares on us.

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    1. well said.. these happy dog owners.. Pitbull owners that the writer is referencing have a NEED to discount and outright Ignore the plight of very real people that are suffering horribly for LIFE because of someone's choice of owning a pitbull. They don't want to really meet and see the pain and suffering of all of these victims first hand. They minimize the numbers, reduce the maulings to 'bites" and the deaths to normal occurences that are minor .. So sad. Self directed wants are supreme and the suffering of others is not an issue. SICK.

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  15. Jake, this is one of your best blog posts, imo. Keep up the good work. I really enjoy reading your contributions :)

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  16. i love my pit and will always own 1 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,

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    1. Thanks for sharing. Nobody really cares how you feel about your pit bull. What we care about is that you keep it confined and don't allow it to do what it was bred to do. I have no objection to your loving your mauler as long as you agree to be a responsible owner - to wit, If your "pibble" gets loose and mauls someone's beloved animal companion, the pit bull gets put down, no questions asked, and you face felony animal cruelty charges. Deal?

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  17. Herzeleid people like you are the problem I have a pitbull he is the most loyal dog I have. I have 5 different dogs he is my favorite all those pitbull's that attack are fighting dogs you need to know how to raise them if u don't know u don't deserve one those pitbulls that attacked was raised by people's that didn't know how to raise them

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    1. Michal Kisch, a good number of pit bull owners have said those famous last words. I have a friend who said the exact same things about her pit bull that she had for 8 years and was the sweetest dog ever. Then one day, it turned on, went pit bull and tore apart her baby boy. There was no warning.The pit bull had never shown any sign of aggression before. This sort of thing happens fairly often with pit bulls. It's virtually unheard of in non-pit bull type dogs.

      Now, pray tell, explain, if you can, how people like me, people who do not have pit bulls, and who do not inflict these nightmares on their communities, are "the problem" as you put it?

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    2. Michal, other dog breeds do not need to be extensively trained in order to not maul and kill people. There are many bad and irresponsible owners with Labs, Collies, and German Shepherds; yet, attacks from these breeds are extremely rare. Furthermore, in many instances, Pit Bulls that have killed someone have been lovingly raised and coddled all their lives -- simply put, the environment they were raised in was no match against their genetics. Once their genetic switch suddenly and unexpectedly flips on, disaster ensues. Like owning a Tiger as a domestic pet, Pit Bulls are similarly ticking time bombs.

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