Pit Bull Awareness Day

October 25th is Pit Bull Awareness Day. Carmen Machado, a former A Softer Image photographer, volunteered to write a guest post in honor of the day, and since she and I both have pit bulls I was stoked. Today is a post about the history of the breed, and on Tuesday we’ll have lots of PICTURES!

Oliver

He came right up to me, his tail beating the air so hard his whole butt rocked back and forth and threatened to tip him over.

Tracey had found him on the freeway, and he looked it. Scratched, bleeding, and filthy, his legs were covered in thick, rough patches of skin when he’d been sleeping on pavement. We stood in the courtyard of her library employer, looking down at this misunderstood behemoth of a dog. He stuck his nose in my hand. His tail never stopped moving.

“Do you have a name for him?” she asked.

I’d been contemplating names the entire trip to San Jose, but as I stood there, only one name made sense.

“Oliver?”

His tail wagged, if possible, even harder than before. I fashioned a makeshift leash out of rope and guided him to my car, where he clambered in without the slightest hesitation and began to drool all over my seats, his huge paws muddying the upholstery.

My heart broke with affection.

I’d been wanting a dog for ages, but Oliver came to me like an over sized guardian angel, sudden and unexpected and ungainly. He ate the stuffing out of pillows, attempted to swallow chicken bones that’d been left in the street, peed on the furniture, dragged me into the bathtub during his baths, stuck his nose into my face at the crack of dawn, howled at strangers passing by my door in the wee hours of the morning, and regurgitated the stuffing back onto the only carpet in the entire apartment.

I love this dog.

His gentle nature is in direct contrast to his size and appearance. He looks fearsome - at seventy pounds, with a broad, wide head and a massively muscular chest and shoulders, he is the epitome of the dog that you are supposed to fear. But his sweet disposition, inexplicable inability to lick, love of learning new things, and slightly dumb but completely earnest enthusiasm for everything enamored him to me like no other dog I’ve ever known.

I met Lara Swanson’s dog over a year ago, back when I lived in Washington, DC. She predicted that I would love Moses, and she was right. He was friendly and sweet, gregarious and adorable, and I wanted to take him home with me. It wasn’t until I began to familiarize myself with the plight of pit bulls - the bum rap that they receive - that I realized that Moses was, indeed, a pit bull. I became determined to fight against the flood of misinformation that exists about pit bulls - for the sake of Oliver, for the sake of Mo, for the sake of wonderful pit bulls and their owners everywhere. And in recognition of Pit Bull Awareness Day, here are a few facts and refuted stereotypes of bully breeds.

History of Pit Bulls

Historically, pit bulls were America’s dog - pit bulls were used on propaganda posters in WWII to represent American loyalty and courage. The Little Rascals’ dog was a pit bull. Theodore Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Mark Twain, and Thomas Edison all owned pit bulls. Pit bulls appeared on the cover of Life Magazine three times - more frequently than any other breed. They served as police and search and rescue dogs.

Then, some time around the mid-eighties, the media began to stereotype pit bulls as dangerous animals, and pit bull attacks became highly publicized. People began to believe that pit bulls were monsters, and the stereotype caught on. The once beloved all-American pit bull went from well-loved breed to hated and reviled. Various cities, regions, and countries began to establish BSL (Breed Specific Legislation), which often banned pit bulls from city limits and punished the bullies that were found within the area by killing them, no matter the disposition or temperament of the specific dog.

The Michael Vick case brought renewed energy to the pit bull debate. Detractors expressed sentiments that this was proof that pit bulls were vicious monsters beyond rehabilitation; others espoused the idea that they were “just dogs” and that indignation on their behalf was pointless.

In contrast to these ideas, many of the Vick dogs were rescued by various organizations (including the Bay Area’s own BADRAP ) and now live as family pets.

Stereotyping

Anyone with a television knows the kind of stereotyping that pit bulls face. Pit bulls are widely associated with all dog bites (regardless of the actual breed involved). Stories of pit bull bites are far more likely to make the news than that of any other breed, regardless of severity. Despite the fact that cocker spaniels, chihuahuas, dachshunds, jack russell terriers, akitas, and chow chows (to name a few) are far more likely to bite a human than a pit bull, a person who would let their child handle a small dog (far more likely to be aggressive toward humans) will also pick up their child and cross the street to avoid a pit bull. Similarly, people will sometimes buy pit bulls as status symbols, or as a way to represent themselves are fierce or someone to be feared. Pit bulls owners are sometimes stereotyped themselves, often as “thugs.”

Properly raised, pit bulls have gentle temperaments with very low instances of dog-human aggression. Dog-dog aggression is sometimes common with this breed (due to the historical use of pit bulls in dog fighting), but these types of aggression are different and should never be confused. People often make the assumption that pit bulls that have been used in illegal dog fighting are likely to be human aggressive, but nothing could be further from the truth.

“The supposedly troublesome characteristics of the pit-bull type—its gameness, its determination, its insensitivity to pain—are chiefly directed toward other dogs. Pit bulls were not bred to fight humans. On the contrary: a dog that went after spectators, or its handler, or the trainer, or any of the other people involved in making a dogfighting dog a good dogfighter was usually put down. (The rule in the pit-bull world was “Man-eaters die.”)” - Troublemakers, Malcom Gladwell

The stereotyping of pit bulls has manifested itself in many different ways. Often overbred, pit bulls fill animal shelters, where they are often put down in mass numbers. Pit bulls are often blamed for dog attacks where the attacker was a completely different breed. BSL legislation is constantly being proposed all over the United States and the world, which focuses on discriminating against the breed without taking irresponible owners (the true villans) into account. Pit bulls are also often excluded from natural disaster pet rescue efforts, for no other reason other than their breed.

Resources for Pit Bull Lovers

BADRAP, the Bay Area’s pit bull rescue group, has compiled an excellent list of resources for pit bull owners, including low-cost shot clinics, where to obtain free or low-cost spaying or neutering for your pit bull, how to rent with a pit bull, pit-friendly and familiar trainers, and training tricks and tips for your dog. They also have a guide to what to do if you find a stray pit bull, pros and cons of owning bully breeds, and a comprehensive history of the breed.

Not Just Dogs

Recently, in Alabama, there was a raid on a suspected dog fighting ring. The dogs rescued were chained up and scarred. Many of them were puppies. Remarkably, the Attorney General of Alabama made an incredibly insightful comment.

“I was asked the other day… what would you say to somebody who says well they’re just dogs. I’d say to somebody who says they’re just dogs - that’s probably somebody who would say they’re just kids or they’re just seniors. We can not allow the defenseless among us to be abused and hurt and caged and chained as we see here.” - Attorney General Troy King<