This month, pit bull dogs have once again become the focus of media attention. Following a shocking June attack on an 88-year old Walnut Creek woman by her neighbor's dog, a column in The San Francisco Chronicle by journalist C. W. Nevius, entitled "Pit Bull Apologists, Wake Up" (July 6), assailed pit bulls as dangerous and aggressive.
Unfortunately, pit bull dogs do have a history that casts them in a damaging light. They were originally bred for the "sport" of dog fighting: they had formidable strength, were tenacious and able to tolerate pain, and were trained to aggress readily against other dogs, but not against humans. Dog fighting has since been outlawed in many countries, including the United States, but the practice has not disappeared - it has merely gone underground. And because of their reputation, pit bulls attract more than their fair share of irresponsible owners and backyard breeders who foster fighting and viciousness in these dogs.
It should be recognized, however, that in the United States only about 1,600 American Staffordshire terriers, commonly known as pit bull terriers, are registered each year. Nevertheless, all shelter indicators show a marked increase in the population of dogs of a certain physical type, typically labeled "pit bulls." In many urban environments any short-coated dogs that is stocky and muscular with a wide, short nose is identified as a pit bull. It is clear that calling a dog a pit bull is now, to a large degree, meaningless. At the same time, since the breeding of these short-coated, stocky dogs is so haphazard, there is no reliable way to determine their behavior based on appearance. And since a significant proportion of dogs of all descriptions bite, the large numbers of these particular dogs can lead to a misperception that they bite more often than other breeds.
Sweeping negative statements about pit bulls dogs unfairly stigmatize countless well-behaved, loving dogs and their owner/guardians. Like humans, dogs are individuals whose behavior is shaped by more than genetics. A dog's tendency to bite is governed in large part by how it is raised and trained. People play a crucial role in determining whether a dog turns out to be safe or dangerous. Safe dogs must be responsibly bred, humanely cared for, spayed or neutered, adequately trained and socialized, and carefully monitored by their owners to identify and correct behavior problems.
Thankfully, savage dog attacks, such as the one that prompted the article in The Chronicle, are rare. However, they tend to spark misguided efforts to outlaw pit bulls or other breeds deemed "dangerous." Breed specific bans are not the answer. They are difficult, if not impossible to enforce. They punish dogs when owners are usually to blame for an animal's aggressive behavior, and they don't eliminate vicious dogs from the community. In the face of a breed ban, people determined to misuse dogs as tool of violence simply move on to exploit some other breed. The solution to the problem of unsafe dogs is to put the onus where it belongs - on irresponsible dog owners.
