Megan McGraw
4 November, 2015
Article 1, Draft 1
Opinion [I thought this was going to be Feature but I got preachy]
WIP: Pitt Bulls
1. Introduction
a. I’ve had three pet pit bulls. One’s name was Homey, and he liked to guard my door as
I slept to protect me from anyone. Another’s name was Rumor, and he was sweet and
loyal until he was put to sleep. My last pit bull’s name was Genghis, and he used to
curl himself around me when I was sick. None of them ever attacked anyone. They
were protective, but all very gentle towards their family. I would start out my article
talking about them.
b. A common misperception is that pit bulls have a hair-trigger temper. Having a pit bull
is viewed as a bad idea due to their being inclined to attack. Neighbors are more
watchful, insurance rates increase. In some cities, the breeding of pit bulls is banned
all together. They hold such a bad reputation, when really, there’s nothing wrong with
pit bulls at all.
c. In this view of pit bulls, we sort of reveal something as people and our tendency to
generalize.
2. First point- Pit bulls are not more aggressive, promise.
a. In the past, Doberman pinschers, then rottweilers, then German shepherds were
viewed fearfully by the general public. Now, it’s the pit bull. Before the mid-80s,
reports of pit bull attacks were almost nonexistent, though if the media reports are to
be believed, pit bulls are constantly attacking humans to the point where victimized
communities feel the need to place a breed-specific ban on them.
b. I’ll compare the odds of dying to other odds. I’m pretty sure you have a higher chance
of dying from getting hit by a coconut than an attack by a pit bull. I’ll also compare
the rates of attacks between breeds.
c. I’m not sure whether or not to talk about the rates of attacking humans and children.
Pit bulls are noteworthy because the odds of being attacked do not change much
between adults and children. This could be explained away that the dog “snaps” and
attacks without warning, but that’s not true. Dogs always give many signs before
lashing out or have pent up frustration to the point of attacking strangers. It’s not that
pit bulls attack without warning; it’s that people ignore the signs. So perhaps one
could argue, like I do because I love pit bulls, that they aren’t just inherently mean
and like to fight to win, because then they’d attack more children. They attack things
bigger than them, which suggests there’s another cause; like feeling threatened or
extremely annoyed.
d. No breed of dog has a locking jaw, by the way. Pit bulls have the exact same jaw
mechanism of a Chihuahua.
e. People like to say that pit bulls are more likely to be aggressive. Pit bulls had a
passing rate of 82% of better in tests conducted by the American Temperament Test
Society, compared to only 77% of the general dog population. An unneutered dog is
2.6 times more likely to bite than a neutered one, and a chained or tethered dog is 2.8
times more likely to bite. So unchain those pit bulls! Freedom!
Second point- Pit bulls are extremely good with kids.
a. An effect to the societal stereotype that pit bulls are monsters is that people
instinctually don’t trust their kids around the dog. Which is sad, because most dogs,
regardless of breed, love children.
b. Unless a Pit Bull is poorly bred or purposefully trained to attack humans or abused,
they generally love people. They love you, people! Love them!
c. To any dog, literally any, a baby’s cry may trigger excitement or a canine prey drive,
along with small children running and screaming. Unexpected actions trigger a fear
response in dogs, causing them to bite. So generally don’t leave your children alone
with any larger dog. However, the safety of any breed of dog is determined solely by
parental guidance. Raise your dog right, raise your kids right. Easy.
d. It goes beyond how they were raised too. While being abused and/or raised into dog
fighting will make the odds of an attack higher, if you are careful and treat them with
love and compassion and pay attention to any warning signs, you will be a-ok and I’m
sure the dog would appreciate that.
e. I have been raised around pit bulls. I have never been attacked by a pit bull. My pit
bulls have never attacked a person. Rumor chased after a small dog once but didn’t
even touch it. Rumor was also once threatened by two other large dogs that hopped
the fence and started coming at him. He literally just puffed his chest out and stared at
them and they ran away. Not sure if I should include that little anecdote, but I like
that story.
Third point- Criminals and abuse.
a. Pit bulls are a popular choice among dog fighters. Dog fighters generally exploit
several breeds of strong, large dogs, but pit bulls are a favorite due to their
intelligence and loyalty. Drug dealers are also fond of them as guard dogs for the
same reasons.
b. Pit bulls are quick to learn and very eager to please. Once a pit bull accepts you as
their master, they will gladly do anything to please and protect you. They are
extremely determined animals and that combined with unshakable sense of loyalty
makes them easy targets for cruelty by humans.
c. Dog fighters also generally beat their dogs to toughen them up, and with a pit bulls
loyalty, no matter how badly they are beaten, they will offer total forgiveness. It is
usually a human’s actions that is to blame for a dog’s behavior.
d. There are no bad dogs. Only bad people.
Fourth point- What these stereotypes reveal.
a. There is a stereotype that pit bulls are inherently vicious and that is generalizing and
condemning an entire breed based on the actions of a few bad dogs that were
produced by cruel humans. Each dog should be evaluated by his own merits, not his
breed.
b. Dobermans, Great Danes, German shepherds, and Rottweilers are frequent biters as
well, and the dog that recently mauled a woman so badly that she was given the
world’s first face transplant was, guess, a Labrador retriever.
c. “When we say that pit bulls are dangerous, we are making a generalization, just as
insurance companies use generalizations when they charge young men more for car
insurance than the rest of us (even though many young men are perfectly good
drivers), and doctors use generalizations when they tell overweight middle-aged men
to get their cholesterol checked (even though many overweight middle-aged men
won’t experience heart trouble). Because we don’t know which dog will bite someone
or who will have a heart attack or which drivers will get in an accident, we can make
predictions only by generalizing.” (Malcolm Gladwell, Troublemakers).
d. Gladwell makes the argument is that behind each generalization is a choice of what
factors to leave in and which ones to leave out. And those choices can have a
profound difference on the generalization concluded from the information.
e. So we generalize an entire breed (or several breeds considering that the pit bull is a
general term for several breeds with a similar body type and ancestors) based on a
couple, and don’t take in account environment, influences like the owner, other
factors, ect. Isn’t that quite similar to racial profiling? We base our assumptions on
the actions of only a couple members of, not even a specific race, but of a general
skin color. When something goes down, it’s not just a dog bite by a big or aggressive
dog, it’s not just an attack by a person with a certain shade of skin. It’s the perfect
storm of bad interactions- the wrong dog, the wrong person, the wrong background,
the wrong history in the hands of the wrong person in the wrong environmental
situation. It’s not the dog sleeping by the fire that snaps, it’s not the person with
access to opportunities and hope.
f. “I’ve been involved in many legal cases involving fatal dog attacks, and, certainly,
it’s my impression that these are generally cases where everyone is to blame. You’ve
got the unsupervised three-year-old child wandering in the neighborhood killed by a
starved, abused dog owned by the dog fighting boyfriend of some woman who
doesn’t know where her child is,” says Randall Lockwood, senior vice-president of
the A.S.P.C.A. On the same idea, you’ve got the person stuck in a bad area, getting
constantly told by society that they’d never amount to anything, surrounded by people
stuck in the same ditch and going down the only paths they can, like crime. It’s a
huge ball of factors that can’t ever be fully explained.
g. Nobody is inherently dangerous.
Conclusion
a. Stop generalizing people and dogs! I don’t know how I got to this point. I was just
going to talk about how cute pit bulls are, but somehow this whole idea of profiling
got in here. I could take it out if you think it’s too much.
b. Evaluate everyone based on their own merit, not their breed, not their race, not other
people’s actions. Pretty easy.
c. Pit bulls are adorable, tbh.