their pleas for sympathy and possible legal claims are greatly strengthened if the incident in question involved the “dreaded pit bull.”
Human-aggressive “Pit Bulls”
Throughout this book, the name American Pit Bull Terrier or APBT refers only to actual dogs that are of that specific breed. “Pit” or “pit bull” (used here only in lower-case letters) is used to indicate dogs of less certain heritage. Anyone can choose to call his or her dog anything. This misnaming has greatly contributed to the bad rap legitimate APBTs have received. When any medium-sized, short-haired mongrel is misidentified as a “pit bull” or as a “part-pit bull,” that information may be the only thing that the listener or reader remembers.
Pit dogs could conceivably be of any breed. The irresponsible street pit fighters of today are constantly crossing, recrossing, and cross-crossing to gain some sort of perceived or imagined fighting advantage. Because the key ingredient in any pit dog must be gameness, this resorting to non-game breeds is foolish. Where, in years gone by, the APBTs of actual fighting strains were aggressive only toward other pit dogs, the mixed pit dogs of today are often aggressive toward dogs and humans. These dogs account for a vast proportion of the terrible dog bites and fatalities that so greatly contribute to the “pit bull terror” that seized the American psyche.
Certainly there have been horrible attacks by dogs said to be “pit bulls.” Some of these, especially involving children, have indeed been gruesome and tragic. Strangely though, even as the reputation of these dogs headed into the cesspool of public opinion, the popularity of the “pit bull” in some elements of the community grew at a phenomenal rate. Most of these new pit people wanted vicious dogs for a variety of unwise, unsavory, and illegal reasons. They began to indiscriminately breed their dogs. Viciousness and aggressiveness became prized commodities in a new type of pit dog. Soon, human-aggressive APBT-type dogs became fairly common. Human-aggressive APBTs and similar dogs had been extremely rare until the 1970s. Poorly bred, poorly socialized, and poorly trained animals suddenly grew into many thousands of these powerful and temperamentally unsound “pit bulls.” These poor imitations of the true APBT are responsible for the vast majority of the actual dog bites and attacks blamed on this breed.
The Media
Some print and broadcast journalists saw the name “pit bull” as a way to insure a wider audience for their news stories. Rather than zheck out the actual kind of dog involved in a dog bite, or the circumstances under which these bites occurred, some newspeople were content to take the first version of an incident that they heard. Unfortunately, a class of “killer dogs” developed in the public mentality from their poor reporting. Suddenly, as if in a self-fulfilling prophecy, every dog bite became a “pit bull” attack. Boxers, yellow Labs, and all short-haired, medium-sized mongrels were transformed into “pit bulls” or the equally vague, “pit bull-mixes.”
American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Bull Terriers, Boxers, Bull Mastiffs, and other breeds suffered right along with the APBT. The public believed what they heard or read about this new canine scourge, a sort of Attila the Hound. A War of the Worlds mentality took over as headlines on the evening news read: “Two pit bulls terrorize small town” or “Policeman savaged by pit bull.” Combined with all the false “pit bull” stories or accusations were legitimate accounts that did actually involve some APBTs, Amstaffs, Staffy Bulls, and others. Unable and perhaps unwilling to put the “pit bull” genie back into the bottle, a media avalanche swept away the nearly 100 years of good reputation that the American Pit Bull Terrier had earned.
Branding Owners
People, who weren’t dog-friendly even before the hype began, started to speak out against these fearsome creatures that were a plague to all decent people. Law enforcement spokespersons told about the use of the “pit bulls” by drug dealers and other criminals to intimidate citizens and guard clandestine drug labs and marijuana patches. If you happened to own an APBT, or a dog that even remotely resembled an APBT, you were often branded at the worst, demonic, and at the best, crudely eccentric. If you owned two such dogs or happened to have a litter of APBT puppies, some labeled you as the kingpin of a dog-fighting ring located in your garage, basement, or guest room. Occasionally, operating on an anonymous tip, vice cops and animal cruelty officers would raid a household suspected of being a haven for pit bulls, only to discover an aging Boston Terrier or an arthritic Pug as the only dog living in the home.
Criminals and Gangs
This hysteria strangely had an added bonus for the people who so greatly caused it—drug dealers, gang members, and other street criminals. They gained immeasurably in terms of added reputation and intimidation potential when their pit-type dogs instilled fear in the general communities. These thugs often created situations in which the savagery of their dogs could be prominently displayed.
Owning the most feared dog on the block became a goal. These street punks-turned-dogfighters were far removed from the pit dogfighters of the earlier part of this century. This new dog-fighting element quickly outraged the American people in a way the traditional fighters never had. Accounts of renewed fights and actual crimes using “pit bulls” as weapons were duly reported, and the dog breed with the wrong name at the wrong time—the APBT—gained a completely undeserved reputation as a canine monster. This myth grew and grew.
Some communities have piously tried to sweep their streets of the effects of the drug dealers and criminals. In a time of enlightened civic responsibility, these cities banned the dogs they most closely identified with the punks and criminals. Since the leaders of some cities were content to remain in a state of ignorance in response to a public outcry, they banned all APBTs and certain judiciously selected other breeds.
Rediscovering This Breed
People are often interested in new breeds, exotic breeds, breeds from long ago or far away. One excellent way to gain a new look at any breed is to approach such a breed as if it had just surfaced. Breeds such as the Dogo de Argentino, the Akita, the Tosa Inu, the Anatolian Shepherd, and others are large, sometimes quite aggressive dogs. Unfortunately, the supporters of these dogs often fail to mention (or perhaps consider) aggressiveness or problem potential. These breeds have been heralded as “new” even though some of them are actually very ancient in heritage. Each is much larger than the APBT and could inflict substantial injury to humans or to other dogs. Interestingly, these large and aggressive “new” breeds don’t yet face the prejudice confronting the American Pit Bull Terrier.
Let us observe the APBT as if we had never heard of or seen the breed before. This breed may look quite different if we view it without any preconceived attitudes and we would probably herald it as the next wonder dog. There are many reasons that this “new” breed would gain immediate positive acceptance:
• It has a medium-length, low-maintenance coat, and is remarkably hardy.
• It is athletic, capable of many versatile roles and activities.
• It has an eye-catching, sturdy frame, available in many color and size variations.
• It is highly intelligent
