Pitbulls: Good Dogs

I recently was able to catch a rerun of "The Dog Whisperer". One of the major stories inside this episode happened to be about pit bulls. If you have ever watched that show, Caesar happens to be a strong proponent for the breed of pit bulls. He has done a lot for that breed because he knows the good within this type of dog. He knows that the reason some of these dogs become mean it is because of some irresponsible humans. Whether some people in order to have some perceived "coolness" rub off from the dog to them or some simply get these dogs to fight an organized competitions underground and illegal. Both of these situations holds people that should never own any dog whatsoever.

So back to the episode that I was able to catch some time ago. It talked about how many pit bulls do good for the community. For example, one pit bull was able to help save a dementia suffering woman from a ravine in the rescue effort. She happened to be submerged partially underneath water. It's possible that if the pit bull did not rescue this woman, she could have drowned.

The case above does not happen to be the only case because many pit bulls are used all the time in rescue efforts. These dogs happen to be very good rescue dogs. Often times, people think of other breeds being those that help in rescue. Many would never think that pit bulls would be good for rescue... mainly because of the bad press in the media interested in hyping all the bad instances that happen due to irresponsible owners.

Interestingly enough, many times after some people hear about certain people being rescued by pit bulls, they will ask if the pit bulls bit them during the rescue. This question almost never will be asked if that happens to be a different breed of dog in the rescue effort. This somewhat frequent question helps to show the impact media has had on skewing the general community's opinion on the pit bull breed. I think it to be definitely unfair.

Here's a question you might think upon, have you ever thought about how many pit bulls live comfortably and peacefully with their human families? You'll be surprised to know that the tremendous vast majority of pit bulls living with their families inflect no physical damage on humans. Most people's perception of pit bulls has been created from a very small percentage of those dogs we see in unfortunate incidents published in the media.

Look again at the title I'd put above this section. It says "Small Percentage of Pitbull Owners Make it Bad for Others". I try to make a point of not talking about the small percentage of pit bulls even though that's also true. I try to lay blame on the owners of these dogs (see Fighting Pitbull Dogs) instead because that's where I see the problem mainly exists.

If everyone was responsible owning their pit bull breed dog, we wouldn't have all these stories in the media. If all the stories in the media talked about the vast majority of pit bull dogs who are well mannered, stable and happy pit bulls living within their human family, public's perception of pit bulls would be drastically different. Unfortunately those stories don't encourage people to read so they are generally left out of the media for the most part.

Furthermore, the unfair media portrayal of this breed has helped deliver legal ramifications like breed specific legislation. This basically disallows people in a community to own a specific breed of dog. Unfortunately, it not only prevents those irresponsible people from owning a pit bull but also those who are responsible. This kind of legislation does nothing to correct the true problem of those who irresponsibly own and care for dogs. Simply banning the breed of pit bulls does not at all take into account the dangerous problems other dog breeds have.

Any type of legislation should work towards the meat of the problem. In this case, the meat of the problem would be those irresponsible owners. Those owners should be the ones to suffer. I'm not talking about simply taking away their dogs. I'm talking about criminal prosecution being implemented. Think about it, it really does not matter what type of dog it is. If you can't handle the dog well enough to prevent it from causing destruction whether it be human or otherwise, you should not own a dog...period!

There exists many other big dogs that could cause harm on humans. Any one of these under an irresponsible owner could inflict serious harm on any person. Basically, it's almost like allowing some irresponsible person to own a gun that has the potential of firing at any time without having to pull the trigger. If you don't maintain that randomly shooting gun so it does not inflict damage, you as the owner should be liable.

So let's again talk about the good of the pit bull breed. Most who own a pit bull only have good to say about it. They happen to be one of the most loyal breeds in existence. But they also will be intelligent, lovable, children friendly, protective and easily trained. Many have the potential of being service dogs in cases of rescue and other disciplines. They have the ability to work just as well as do labradors, German shepherds and some of the other common service dogs.