Erika Abrams, daughter Claire Abrams-Myers, and husband Jim Myers at the Animal Aid hospital & sanctuary in Udaipur, India.
An open letter from Animal Aid Unlimited co-founder Erika Abrams
Dear ANIMALS 24-7:
I want to applaud your perseverance in bringing light to the numerous sorrowful fatal consequences of pit bull/mix attacks.
I am aware that you have adversaries who claim among other things that your statistics are questionable; that breed “profiling” is similar to racial profiling; that the problem is law enforcement not the breed.
Erika Abrams & calf. (Facebook photo)
Pit bulls are not an organic breed
Pit bulls are not an organic breed who even existed before they were created by pathetic people wanting to create fighting dogs for their entertainment and to “use” as guards. They have been selectively bred for aggression.
When they exhibit the characteristics they have been bred to manifest, ANIMALS 24-7 is accused of “profiling.”
Erika Abrams & two dogs at the Animal Aid hospital & sanctuary in Udaipur, India.
The very notion–the concept, the execution of the concept– in the willful establishment of dogs bred to fight means pain and suffering for the dogs. It often means confinement to small rooms or on chains. It means behavioral problems resulting in their own death by “euthanasia” or killing for want of adoptive homes.
“One death is a tragedy; hundreds are diabolical”
The supposed dog-advocacy public who challenge the integrity of ANIMALS 24-7 statistics about pit bull-related death are quibbling over nothing significant. One avoidable death is a tragedy. Hundreds of avoidable deaths are diabolical.
ANIMALS 24-7 is right to focus intensively on this issue––and many more people and organizations should join in––until this issue goes away.
Erika Abrams’ memorial to a favorite dog.
(Animal Aid photo)
“No dog breeding is right”
No dog breeding is right in a world where millions of dogs are killed because no one wants them. Animal protectors should instinctively know that the era of human-engineered dog breeding must end if animal rights are ever to be achieved.
To quarrel about pit bull-related breeding rights is a pastime of those who force the dogs to fight, who gamble on the dogs, who abandon the dogs, who make money on the dogs, who terrorize them, chain them, whip them, exploit them and breed them for more of their sadistic “pleasure.”
Thank you ANIMALS 24-7 ––I hope you won’t slow up until this breed disappears. The monsters of course are not the dogs. Pit bulls are definitely victims. The monsters are those who keep advocating for their proliferation.
––Erika Abrams, President
Animal Aid Unlimited
Udaipur, India
www.facebook.com/animalaidunlimited
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Standing ovation! Thank you Ms. Abrams.
Absolutely and unequivocally agree!
Erika, I’ve already sent two small donations to Animal Aid Unlimited and am hoping to come there for a couple of weeks in the “intermediate future’ to help out. I just got the info packet from you a few weeks ago.
You guys are one of my all-time favorite pet charities and get so much done with so little. I’m really happy to find we’re also on the same side with regard to pit bulls. In my opinion, true pet lovers cannot support the continued breeding of pit bulls as pets, as pit bulls kill 24,000 other innocent pets a year in the U.S. alone, in addition to being responsible for the majority of disfiguring/fatal attacks on humans.
Keep up the great work!
Now she sounds like a true animal lover! And she lives in reality! A breath of fresh air.
The Bear! Thank you for a clear, concise explanation of the reality of these dogs.
Well stated. One of the key issues, however, is not addressed herein, and that is what to do with existing pit bulls and pit bull mixes. How do we address the situation with mercy and compassion, in light of the view that A. fighting dogs are victims of a narcissistic, self-indulgent subset of humanity, and B. clearly, not all pit bulls are aggressive?
All breed-specific legislation passed to date in either the U.S. or Canada has “grandfathered” pit bulls who are licensed, vaccinated against rabies, and sterilized. They may be kept for the remainder of their lives if they do not attack anyone.
The notion that “not all pit bulls are aggressive,” unfortunately, is more a theory espoused by pit bull advocates than the reality demonstrated by data. Approximately one pit bull in 100 kills another pet or hoofed animal in any given year, according to the exhaustive ANIMALS 24-7 analysis of authenticated dog attacks on other animals: see Pit bulls killed 24,000 other dogs & 13,000 cats in 2015. Pro-rate this over the average 10-year natural lifespan of a dog and one pit bull in 10 can be expected to eventually kill another pet or hoofed animal. But in view that most pit bull attacks on other animals in their own homes go unreported, the actual total may be much higher. Fatalities are just the extreme end of the curve for dangerous behavior. Also indicative is that nearly one pit bull in three will enter an animal shelter in any given year, at an average age of 18 months, about two-thirds as owner surrenders for behavioral reasons, one third as impounds, often after the pit bull bites someone. Since about a third of pit bulls are under one year of age at any given time, and puppies presumably are not yet flunking out of homes, the data indicates that about half of the total adult pit bull population is failing in a home, mostly for behavioral reasons, each and every years. For all other dogs combined, the failure rate is about 5%.
It pains me to see merit in an argument to do away with such a majestic breed of dog. However the arguments are compelling and more individuals of the breed have been a victim of instincts which has been carefully bred into them by us humans.
A thorough spay and neuter program may be carried out. However a few individuals who have the skills and the mindset to channelize the agression of the dogs into playfulness may be allowed to keep a few individuals under strict licensing and periodic check ups. A case in the point is someone like The Dog Whisperer.
It may be difficult to implement and a risky idea. But policy makers can give it a thought too.
Since pit bulls are not a species, nor even a breed in the traditional sense, but rather a category of dog bred to function by intensive inbreeding to emphasize functional traits, with only occasional outcrossing to add size, there is no rational argument for continuing to breed any. Since the genetic evidence indicates that the same genes produce both the behavioral and physical traits of pit bulls, it is unlikely that either a dog looking like a pit bull but behaving perfectly safely or a dog behaving like a pit bull without visible pit bull physical characteristics could be produced––at least at the present state of genetic science. (See The science of how behavior is inherited in aggressive dogs, by Alexandra Semyonova.) Meanwhile, the ability of The Dog Whisperer (Cesar Millan) to safely handle pit bulls has come into question, including in cases currently before U.S. courts. (See Cesar Millan walks: what was the L.A. County prosecutor thinking? , Will Cesar Millan be charged for “hog-dog rodeo”?) and What on earth was Cesar Millan thinking?)
Because of their own unique, twisted psychology nutters will do anything to avoid facing the reality of bred to kill dogs. And with pit lineage leaking into normally biddable breeds buying a dog from a breeder is becoming the only way to guarantee a temperamentally sound pet.
I don’t believe in animal rights. I believe in animal welfare.
I believe in animal rights, but I still support mandatory spay/neuter for all pits. Why? I believe in the right of animals–including human animals–not to be mauled to death by fighting breeds, and I believe in the right of dogs not to be bred into creatures who take pleasure in killing their own kind.
Many rural shelters and breed-specific rescues have non-fighting breeds up for adoption.
Finally I have found someone saying what I have been saying- we don’t have the right to breed a dog into anything that happens to amuse our vanity and egos. It is bad enough when people breed a dog with a nose so flat the dog can’t breath or back legs so short he can’t walk, but to bred a dog into a configuration that happens to maul and kill children, the elderly, mothers, fathers, friends, neighbors and owners alike. It is just beyond sick especially when you figure in all the dead cats, dogs and other animals mauled and killed by bully breeds. As much as it breaks my heart when the bully dog kills a family member or a child in the family, it bothers me so much more when it is an innocent neighbor’s child that gets killed. That parent had no choice and the other can only pled ignorance.