I was surfing the web the other night, and came across a site where a suggestion is made to ban the breed of Pit Bulls. Needless to say, I have an opinion on the topic, and rather than take up LOTS of space replying to the comment that I saw, I figured that I would post my thoughts here and leave a link in the comment box for people to come here for my opinion if they so desired.
I'll do best to restrain myself here, but one person that commented on the suggestion, made a highly ridiculous suggestion that ONLY ONE KIND OF PERSON buys a pit bull. Such a notion is off the wall and extremist.
But I digress to my thoughts on banning pit bulls. I can say that it is understandable to be frightened of a pit bull. I'll also take extreme caution when around one and will certainly clear the area immediately if one is around when I have my children with me.
What I don't get is how someone can claim to be an animal advocate, admit that many IDIOTS mistreat pit bulls, and even described the breed caringly and lovingly, and then suggest that the BREED should be banned. And if one would argue that it should be banned in even one State, then they must believe that the breed should be banned in the entire United States...and throughout the world for that matter. After all, surely someone wouldn't believe that a pit bull was too violent to be allowed in one state, but it's ok to have the violent beast in other states or parts of the world. So to make an arguement to ban a breed in one state is to argue for it's extinction!
So it just isn't possible for someone to call themselves an animal advocate but call for a ban on an animal, which is logically congruent to extinction.
A great person has described children and pets as God's pure innocents. I have read no suggestions to the contrary. In fact, many say that the breed is not at fault...SO why eliminate the breed??!!
Is that logical? How's this for logic? Humans murder. Murder is horrific. Thus, all humans should be banned. It fits the exact same argument posed for the elimination of pit bulls.
My suggestion, since I know people that own pit bulls that don't fit into the category of ONE KIND OF PERSON, is that pet ownership should be regulated, if not in all breeds, certainly ones that are prone to miscreant owners.
One comment that I will absolutely agree with is that any breed that is half bred with a Wolf, should be banned. As anyone knows, Wolves are more wild than any pet on earth could imagine, even a pit bull. Wild animals have an entirely different set of engrained behavior and survival skills that have no business trying to be tamed. Oh sure, there are all kinds of wild animals in captivity used as pets, but as Roy Horn can attest to, at any second, any wild animal can be overcome with it's own engrained instincts and anything in it's way can be killed quickly.
So ban animals as pets that have wild instincts in them? Yes! But ban pets, such as pit bulls, who have been marred by huge amounts of bad publicity, largely due to owners with evil intentions? Absolutely NOT!
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6 comments:
you say to ban hybrids but not pit bulls? doesn't make any sense. the only reason why i'd like the breed to be banned is there will ALWAYS be idiots in the world. and those idiots will but a pit bull. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME THEN GO VISIT YOUR LOCAL POUND. AT ANY GIVEN TIME APPROXIMATELY 50% OF THE DOGS THERE ARE PITBULLS. yes, i am an animal activists and it breaks my heart to see these animals suffer becuase of the idiots in the world and there will ALWAYS BE IDIOTS WHO THINK PIT BULLS ARE BAD ASS SO THEY MUST HAVE ONE. and then, of course, they let them wander, breed and hurt things. do you think these idiots say "let's get a bad-ass chihuahua today, ho!" nope! but even if they get a rottie, you rarely hear of a fatal rottie attack. i say rarely, becuase it's happened. but pit bulls They have the ability to bite, lock and maim/kill/devastate.
now, i honor your love of this breed so i ask you to go to your local shelter every week and adopt every pit bull there. THAT'S putting your money where your mouth is..
do you eat meat? I'll bet you do...
i don't think eating meat has anything to do with this, i really don't. most meat eaters don't eat spotted owls or dodo birds, they eat cows, chickens and fish, for the most part.
in my personal, mostly unresearched opinion, what has happened with the pit bull terrier is the same thing that would happen if we domesticated any animal that wasn't designed by God for domestication. some would argue that no animals were designed for domestication. but clearly, sharks, rattle snakes, bald eagles, coyotes, hippopotomus' etc. (i could go on, just insert any animal that is aggressively violent toward humans here) were never meant for domestication.
does that mean we should go out and ban rattlesnakes because they kill humans?
do people know what would happen to our forests if coyotes became extinct? you'd have a house full of rats in about a week.
same with pesticide usage. all we are doing is building super bugs.
the current problem of violent pit bulls unfortunately may be out of control. we can't go back and fix it.
my hope is that we will, as humans, stop playing God and start letting animals act like animals. stop domesticating wildlife.
don't complain five years later when the dingo you brought back from austraila eats your baby.
Well, I think that Tanya is overly upset because it was her blog that prompted my post....even though I did the most I could to mask the origin of my desire to post about banning Pit Bulls.
It is understandable to lash out when someone feels threatened, or feels like someone's comments were directly pointed towards them.
Somehow half wolf breeds became directly compared to a registered breed of dog. Let's forget about sense for a minute...let's talk logic.
It isn't logical to fight something that isn't the cause of the problem. If a firefighter is combating a house fire that is constantly being fueled by a gas line that is feeding in to the house through the oven, a fire fighter isn't going to get very far by merely continuing to douse the flames with water. First, a firefighter is going to cut off the cause of the fire...the gas line, then combat the rest of the problem.
The way that relates to pit bulls is that Pit Bulls themselves are not the problem. The way they are raised, is the problem. If you get rid of Pit Bulls, do you really think those silly owners are going to scratch their heads and think..."Hmmm, now I got nothing"?
No...they will move back to other breeds that have been known to be vicious when trained to be.
And let's step outside of California for a moment, shall we? I have serious doubts that Pit Bulls make up half of the entire dog shelter population in the United States. I will do more research on that, but my guess is that it is not even close.
I have actually never said that I love the breed of Pit Bulls, and to be honest, it would be ludricous to expect someone to adopt all pit bulls brought into a shelter...whether they were pit bull lovers or not.
But, I do love rotweilers, and if they are not raised right, they do have every bit of the ability to hurt someone as a pit bull does...more actually, but this is certainly not a bragging contest.
And finally, like Rebecca, I don't see how being a meat eater has anything to do with the argument at hand.
If anyone is interested in helping pit bulls, rather than destroying them, Pit Bulls On The Web is a nice site to start at to get more information on pit bulls.
Wow....this is a heated topic!
I don't necessarily think Pit Bulls should be banned as a breed. I do however think that dog owners should be more responsible for the actions of their pets.
For example, I have a Golden Retriever who is one of the sweetest dogs in the world. Regardless, I'm still not going to give it free reign and let it have access to your child that may be walking down the sidewalk. It's still a dog and you never know. I once had a Yellow Lab that bit my nephew for no apparent reason.
You can never be sure what an animal will do, but I do agree that some breeds (Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, etc.) tend to be more violent then others. I think that is due to certain types of breeding, but mostly due to irresponsible people and the way they train their pets.
.....and of course I am completely unqualified to REALLY know anything about Pit Bulls....just thought I'd throw my two cents in there.
Well here's a subject I can comment on really quick! Mainly because I used to own a "violent" animal... I had a ferret.
Yes a ferret. A cute little cuddly critter that a lot of people feared for a long time because of all the bad press and misperceptions of them. Pit bulls have the same reputation.
It's not the animal itself, or even our experience through exposure, it's that we been trained to fear pit bulls by the media and common myths.
Animals need to be socialized if they are to be kept as pets, or they can be a potential threat. And that goes for ANY animal. The problem isn't with pit bulls, it's with the people who choose to own them and not to socialize them for whatever reason. So if the blame is placed, it should be placed on the owner, not the animal. To exterminate (yes, that's what a ban does) an entire breed just because of a few bad owners is just not logical thinking.
If you're going to solve the problem, go to the root of the problem. Don't just go after the easiest target.
Mad Hoosier: great post. I have a similar post on my blog.
TK: I just looked at the Multnomah County Shelter's web page (http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dbcs/pets/), and most of the animals there are Labradors or Lab mixes.
And you know your line about adopting every Pit Bull at the local shelter is nuts. I'd adopt another one if I thought I could afford another dog, but I'm not made of money.
You rarely hear of a fatal Rottie attack because they're not the current "Evil Dog du Jour" like they were in the 1980s/90s. Please do visit Gone Ronin and check out my post. Any breed is capable of killing humans - even Pomeranians.
Sherri, TLBigDog, RT: thank you for your comments. Voices of reason, the lot of you.
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