|The Bullied Breed |
|By: Sharmin Hartman |
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|COM 156 |
|1/19/2013 |

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Bloodthirsty fang-toothed killing machine, or man's best friend; Pit-Bulls are seen as both. Either way I could not help myself. I had fallen in love with this animal and no matter what other people said, or how they thought about this breed of dog, I had to have one! When I first saw him brought through the door and gently placed on my carpet with his big puppy dog eyes staring at me and his hot, wet puppy breath, that first kiss on my cheek captured my heart. From there I decided to take a stand. I had to discover why so many people do not like them. It appears that though these are very expensive and time consuming animals, owners mistreat and neglect them all the time and media coverage give them a bad reputation against their already stereotyped name.

Many members of our society dislike and downgrade the breed of Pitt-Bulls. Pitt-Bulls are given a bad name in societies all across our country, and many base their opinions on media coverage and word of mouth stories. They have many rules and bans placed against their breed, and anywhere you look you can find people talking about Pitt-Bulls, anywhere from online to news coverage. As an article called Pitt Bull Misconceptions, from the web site pittbullcenterfolds.org, states “…Sadly, it seems that the term “Pit Bull” is only splashed across the headlines when the story is about these dogs endangering or ending lives, instead of featuring the stories about Pit Bulls helping, or saving lives. Unfortunately, fear and negativity sells, and this breed is paying the price for our ignorance. If more people took the time to look beyond the negative hype, they would find the truth about Pit Bulls…”. A few of the misconceptions that surround Pitt-Bulls are 1.) All Pitt-Bulls are bad. Dogs do not have a conscience; they cannot be "bad." Pit Bulls react to their world based on their breeding and training. You can't breed a dog to fight other dogs for almost 200 years and expect those instincts to vanish. 2.) All Pitt-Bulls are good. No dog is not innately "good." They simply act as their instincts and owners tell them to. To try to sell the Pit Bull to the public as a fluffy bunny does a disservice to the public, to potential Pit Bull owners and to Pits themselves. 3.) Pitt-Bulls are human aggressive. - Since Pits were bred to fight dogs in a ring, the owners had to make certain they would not turn on them when they went in to stop the fight. Imagine a dog, so riled up from fighting and very aggressive, which could then turn it off when his human appeared in the pit. When a Pit Bull attacks a person, there are always other factors involved, such as protection of food. Any dog may bite if provoked. 4.) Pitt-Bulls can cause more damage than other dogs. Sorry, Pit Bull lovers but this is sometimes sadly true. Myths such as the locked jaw have been disproved but a Pit Bull's traits make him naturally more driven. Consider these: tenacity (they often fought til death in rings), gameness, prey drive, a compact, strong, muscular body (pits can pull up to 7,000 pounds) and centuries of fighting instinct but,