Why do I do this to myself?

[reanimatrix]

So I'm already depressed, and I get up and turn on my browser and last night I was looking at fandom secrets and Opera is set up to open the last window it was on before I closed it.

And of course the secret about Pitbulls caught my eye, and because I hate myself, I had to go look at the commentsYeah, there's a lot of people defending them, but

Comments

[ilaniel]

Don't worry about ranting, a) that's what LJ is for, and b) AMEN. Biologist here, I love animals and I love dogs, and the situation with pitbulls in this country is just sad. If you look on the American Kennel Club website for breed description it actually lists American Pitbull Terriers as poor guard dogs because they're so friendly. They were originally bred to help farmers herd and subdue bulls (hence the name pitbull) so yeah, they're big, strong dogs, they have to be, but when you have a big strong dog it's also important that they be very obedient and sweet to humans so they were also originall bred to be good-tempered. They're desired fighting dogs because when they bite, they don't let go (another breeding relic of their days as bull-herders--gotta be tough if you're going to subdue a bull

[reanimatrix]

Exactly, and I feel like even if they were to track down every pitbull and destroy it (which would be AWFUL) that would not keep people from being attacked by dogs, because the people who are overbreeding and causing all the issues above would not change. They would just move on to rottweilers or Dobermans or German Shepherds and that would be the next "bad breed" until they were all destroyed and these same people moved on to another dog. The dogs are not the root of the issue, it's the people, and until you do something about the people, getting rid of the dogs isn't going to save anyone.

[moon_reborn]

I wrote a report against Pit Bull bans in my English Comp class last year and it really set people off when the teacher gave them the opportunity to voice their own opinion. The locking jaw excuse was used a lot and I had to go over the science again and tell them that it's a myth and further more, that Pits don't bite any harder than any other breed. Their bite is bigger, but not a freakin' great white chomp. Lordy.

[reanimatrix]

It's a bigger bite, and they have more tenacity (for the reasons ilaniel quoted above) than most dogs, but actually german shepherds have a stronger bite.

The pitbull ban bugs me, because it keeps law abiding people (the type of person more likely to understand their dog) from owning perfectly good dogs, but a law isn't going to stop the "penis extension" pitbull owners. If anything it's going to encourage the problematic owners because it's a "dog so badass it's illegal! :B", and the type of person to own a dog for that reason is the last person on the world who should own any dog.

[phoenix_singing]

The scariest dog I've ever met was a chihuahua, yes, a freaking chihuahua who bit at my heels while I was walking around the neighborhood with my friend (yay for being in the sticks where fences/leashes weren't required and therefore didn't exist), and did not. go. away. until we were like half a block down the road. And its asshole owner just watched like HURR DURP DURP LOOKIT MAH DOG NIPPIN AT UR ANKLEZ.

Give me a large, friendly dog who will eat an intruder over a neurotic dog who's allowed to nip and threaten because it's mistaken as ~cute~ any day.

Or, you know, people could just train their dogs properly. Even a hyper dog can be taught to be gentle to people and can learn the difference between what should be attacked and what should not - just like they can be trained to be vicious and aggressive. Fighting dogs are the way they are because their assmunch owners teach them to be that way, not because it's ~the way they are~.

idk, idk. -_-

[reanimatrix]

Yeah, and that's an issue with small dogs too- they are high strung and nervous because of their size (which is understandable)- but it's a myth that they're nastier than big dogs. (One that I believed for a long time - my aunt had a chihuahua mix that used to nip at me and chase me until I stood on a chair as a kid and it left me biased against small dogs for a while. They still make me nervous, but it's more my own fear of hurting THEM than vise versa now) The only reason they're likely to be nastier is because they're less likely to be taught any better.

And like I said to ilaniel, the problem with blaming the dog is that it doesn't get to the root of the issue, so even if you were to get rid of all the pitbulls ever, the people who are causing the issue would move on to another breed, and people would still get attacked