Saturday, August 20, 2011

My Thoughts on the Pacifica Pit Bull Fatality


I used to be Somebody in the pit bull community, and had I not had kids, I probably still would be. That said, I'm not using this post as a spring board back into that world. No, too much drama and politics there, Lord knows I have enough drama and politics here in the eating and moving community. But most people who know me know I have pit bulls (three of 'em at last count), and for many of those people I'm the ONLY person they know who has pit bulls, and not being plugged into the pit bull world, the only perspective those people are likely to get is the one the mainstream media decides will sell the most ad space. So I'm going to take a minute to share my thoughts, humble though they may be, on the horrifying incident that took place in Pacifica, CA last week.

There is still much we don't know about what happened that day. So I won't speculate as to what caused this dog to attack and kill his owner. What I keep coming back to as I mull this over in my head is the other dog that was there, in the house, in the ROOM, when the attack took place. She is a pit bull too. I'm hearing a lot of panic from the general community (understandable) and a lot of finger pointing at the breed. All pit bulls are time bombs that will eventually snap and attack their owners, they say. It's a behavior that is ingrained in the breed's psyche, they say. They were created to maul, maim, crush and dismember, they say. They are all killers, they say.

So why did the other dog not join the attack? Instead she hid in terror. If aggression is ingrained in the breed's psyche, why didn't pack instinct trigger an aggressive response in the other dog?

My opinion: because dogs are individuals. Every single dog should be judged on it's own behavior and it's own temperament, period.

And that's all I'm going to say for now.

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