Diva Rant-Pit Bulls

Diva Rant-

Trashy People and Their Pit Bulls

Disclaimer***Let me begin by saying that I know that not all people who have pit bulls are trashy, so don’t write to me saying that YOU have one and aren’t trashy. This is my opinion, based on things I have witnessed directly and happen to have an opinion about. I also know that not all low-income people are trashy. When I use the term trashy, I’m referring to pit bull owners who train their dogs to fight, and breed them poorly.

Saturday, we went into a low-income ( and crime infested) neighborhood to get low cost shots for our dog. Most of the customers live in the area and walk there. DH just happens to teach in this particular area, so we do go there some. Anyway, I was disgusted when we drove up and I saw two people coming from different directions (walking in) with pit bulls on chains. When we went in, there were two people already in the clinic with them. Plus, there were two lost signs from people who had their pit bulls stolen. At that point, I thought about it and realized that I’ve NEVER seen a pit bull in my area. Growing up, I never saw a pit bull in an animal clinic (I’ve been to many b/c we always had pets. ) As a matter of fact, other than my friend Brandy’s pb, and my friend Rosie’s half-pit bull, I’d never seen one in the flesh, yet I go to a low income/high crime area and they are everywhere (and their ears are cropped, which is generally done to keep their ears from getting torn off in fights.) From this, I deduced that there is a probability that most pit bull owners are from low income/high crime areas for some reason. Many websites I found by Googling seemed to back-up this thought. Here is a quote from one, which seems to imply that pit bulls (especially vicious ones) are mostly owned by people in crime infested/poor areas:
“Many low-income areas around the nation have adopted this practice, along with dog fighting, as a means of enjoyment and entertainment. As a result, Pitbulls have fallen victim to inhumane practices and immoral treatment. Today, abuse and neglect of this breed has proved very common, while the breed alone is being blamed.”
http://student.vwc.edu/~flmyers/pitbulls.htm
I decided to send DH outside with our dog and daughter b/c I don’t like the idea of my 3yo or dog being around a pit bull. Apparently, my fears weren’t unfounded contrary to many pit bull owner’s cries. One of the dogs was on a chain, and the owner told the woman sitting next to him that the dog didn’t like strangers or other dogs. Every time the door opened, this dog would jump up and bark like crazy and show its teeth. The owner then proceeded to hit the dog (no wonder the damn dog is vicious.)

Within a minute, the owner struck up a conversation with one of the other pit bull owners. Being the nosey tart that I am, I had to eves drop. They were trying to talk in code about fighting their dogs, but they were too stupid to do it well. One of the guys said, “I’ve been losing a lot of dogs lately, if you know what I mean. I lost one last night. But I don’t fight this one, I just breed her.” I love how he’s TRYING to be subtle, but then he comes on out and says exactly what he’s talking about. He was a smart one. I continued to listen to them discuss this barbaric issue for several minutes. It really disgusted me. I said something to the clerk about it, and apparently, all the pet clinic can do is treat the hurt dogs and notify the authorities of possible fighting. But, since it’s a VERY high crime area, the police have other things to focus on.

I have read the arguments about the problem with pit bulls being with the owners, not the breed. You can go to this site to check out pro-pitbull information. It is a great site:

http://www.badrap.org/rescue/index.cfm

But, even with all that I have read, I still can’t help but to realize that I never hear about labs or standard poodles attacking and killing people, or being bred to fight. What this logically tells me is that pit bulls have an inherent aggression that can be easily bought out by sinister people who want to train them to fight. I have seen the trial stats that have been quoted by pit bull lovers comparing their temperament to beagles and labs. Yet, I still never hear about beagles or labs viciously biting someone to the death or about dog fighting with these breeds. If pit bulls aren’t inherently vicious (or some that are bred that way) why does it seem to be the dog of choice for dog fighting?? Why do we always hear about them being attack dogs? If these dogs are so great, why do they have such a bad rep? It’s b/c there is some truth to them being inherently vicious. Even the Bad Rap crew admits that these dog have inherent tendencies and that owners need to be really careful and alert. Since the sight doesn’t allow copy and paste, here’s the link to the page:

http://www.badrap.org/rescue/myths.cfm- scroll down to the myth “Don’t Pit Bulls Have to be Trained to Fight?”

My friend has a dog that is half pit bull. He is very small. They are very kind people, yet the dog still has a very vicious streak. It has attacked other animals and people, so I have a feeling that it doesn’t necessarily take bad training from sinister people to bring out the bad side of this breed. My thought (and I know it isn’t fact, just an idea) is that in order to have a pit bull without any vicious streak what so ever, one must carefully choose where they get the dog, and take extreme care in raising these animals. My friend Brandy has a wonderful pit bull that is sweet and very loyal. She has been very vigilant in raising the dog and got it from a dealer known for it’s calm pits. I do believe that there are good pits. I have seen them myself. And having had a very vicious Pomeranian that had to be given a new home b/c he attacked my child, I know that these aren’t the only aggressive- breeds, I am not claiming that. What I’m claiming is that pit bulls seem to be a breed that is attractive to low income thugs who want to fight them. I have no problem with pit bull bans if they keep the animals out of the hands of people like this. If it keeps one animal from needlessly dying, getting hurt, or from being abused, I’m all for it. I don’t like the idea of the animals being put down b/c of the breeding bans, and I have no solution to that part of the problem. It just seems like with all of the problems with these dogs and the care that must be exercised in breeding and owning them that doing without the breed wouldn’t be that much of a loss.

If you are really bored, try this site. It's loaded with ads, but it's something to do if you like pit bulls-
http://www.ratemypitbull.com/?z=1