(Beth Clifton collage)
And what are pit bull advocates?
by Beth Clifton
Photos, memes and videos posted to social media and the Internet by pit bull advocates continually share and amplify the message that pit bulls are not monsters, despite the rapidly rising body count associated with them.
We are urged to believe instead the myth that pit bulls are gentle giants who would not hurt anyone or anything.
But consider what the pro-pit bull imagery evokes. The iconic visuals include babies with pit bulls, small innocent animals nestled close by their sides, and photos of beautiful young women affectionately posed with their pit bulls, plus videos combining all of the above.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Staked out for sacrifice
Consistently these depictions promote the theme that “The lion shall lie down with the lamb,” simultaneously reminding us that a pit bull is in truth a large, dangerous animal with the huge jaws and musculature of a dragon, and seeking to reverse the viewer’s initial perception that a child, small animal, or damsel in such proximity to the beast has been staked out to be sacrificed.
Ironically, many of the children, animals, and young women posed in such visuals have in truth been killed or disfigured by pit bulls on later occasions. ANIMALS 24-7 has documented many such instances, including the tragic deaths––some would say self-martyrdoms––of BADRAP volunteer Darlene Napora, Best Friends Network photographer Rebecca Carey, vegan blogger Tracy Patterson Cornelius, and ardently pro-pit Facebook warrior Bethany Lynn Stephens, the latter pair killed within 15 days of each other in November and December 2017.
(See What pit bull advocates don’t learn from their own maulings, Virginia pit bull fancier, 22, sets new record for pit bull deaths in one year, “Second chance” pit bull mauls pit advocate groomer at PetSmart.)
(Julie Edwards-Matango photo)
This begs the simple questions which must be asked about the true nature of pit bulls, as well as the nature of those who promote and defend them.
Why are we so conflicted?
Are pit bulls indeed monsters, as the often violent imagery that pit bull breeders use in their advertisements encourages us to believe, or are they just dogs, as pit bull advocates insist to the public?
Why are pit bull owners and advocates so determined to reinvent the very image that breeders work so hard to advance?
Why does the pit bull image need re-inventing, or need an increasingly well-funded and mobilized political lobby to defend?
(Beth Clifton collage)
And why has the concern for the sentience and compassion for the suffering of ALL living beings espoused by much of the humane community fallen dead before the altar of the pit bull?
(See Best Friends, the ASPCA, & HSUS: rethink pit bulls!)
Contradictions
Why do so many humane movement leaders believe it is acceptable to sacrifice the lives of tens of thousands of other animals, and dozens of humans, each and every year, just to save pit bulls who have typically been surrendered to shelters, or impounded, after already demonstrating violent proclivities?
I believe the answer to this is not nearly as complex as pit bull advocates would have us believe.
There are huge contradictions in some of the behavior we see in pit bulls, who often veer back and forth from affectionately “sweet” and “goofy” to inflicting mayhem, and yet these contradictions occur consistently in practically all pit bulls. We see in these dogs a lack of impulse control, hyper reactivity, fearfulness and anxiety, among their most basic and universal traits.
Just some of the recent human & animal victims of pit bull attacks.
I can attest to this myself, having been exposed to a great many pit bulls in my former capacities as animal control officer, veterinary technician, former pit bull owner and rescuer, and now outspoken advocate for public safety, including effective breed-specific legislation.
(See Why pit bulls will break your heart.)
“Poor babies!”
Speak the words “pit bull” to others and you will trigger a myriad of responses from people running the entire spectrum of human emotions, from “poor babies!” meaning the dogs, to “poor babies” meaning children such as Jase Fohs of Lusby, Maryland; Kamiko Dao Tsuda-Saelee of Las Vegas, Nevada; Susannah Jean Murray of Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Barrett Hagans, of Knox County, Ohio. All were killed by pit bulls in 2017 before reaching the age of one year old.
(Beth Clifton photo)
The “poor babies!” response from pit bull advocates unfortunately tends to reflect not genuine empathy for an animal whose very nature most deny, but rather self-centered projection of personal identity issues. Such advocates identify with pit bulls and express sympathy for them by perceiving pit bulls as mirrors of their own difficult life experiences and personal dilemmas.
Pit bull advocates do not extend their sympathy to all sentient beings, and indeed typically deny the sufferings of others. Not only do they tend to refuse to recognize the damage that pit bulls have inflicted upon humans and other animals, but tend as well to blame the victims for having allegedly done something to bring about their own suffering and often death––even if the victims never knew the pit bulls existed until they were under attack.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Monster” defined
Are pit bulls monsters? Consider these two definitions of “monster” from Merriam-Webster:
a : an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure
a mythical monster
a sea monster
b : one who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior or character
an immoral monster
Both definitions seem applicable.
Monsters & immoral monsters
Reality is that pit bulls have been bred methodically for centuries by immoral monsters (definition b) to fight and kill or be killed in dog fighting pits, whilst other immoral monsters wager money on the dogs and watch them tear each other apart.
Through such breeding, pit bulls had already become monsters (definition a) by the time Queen Elizabeth I preferred watching dogfights at the Paris Gardens while much of her court attended premiers of William Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe Theatre right next door.
Emmet, who recently mauled Lucas Harrison, age 15 months. See Anatomy of a disfigurement by a misidentified shelter pit bull.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Five centuries later, disfiguring and fatal attacks committed by pit bulls on both humans and animals increase in number each year, eclipsing the estimated volume of mayhem in Elizabethan times more than a decade ago.
Yet pit bull owners, advocates, and humane organizations continue to gloss over and reinvent the true nature of the pit bull, thereby becoming immoral monsters (definition b) every bit as much as pit bull breeders.
Sacrificial cult
Pit bull advocacy has superseded concern for preventing human and animal suffering and protecting public safety to the extent that you and I and our animals have all in effect been staked out for sacrifice.
No matter who is disfigured or killed, the Pit Bull God or Goddess must be appeased at any cost.
Merritt & Beth Clifton
In that light, the stocky, muscular, block-headed dogs in tutus and pearls much resemble the bejeweled priesthood of a sacrificial cult.
They are coming to a neighborhood near you. Will you, your family, your friends, or your pets be the next victims?
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I beg to differ with the opinion that these dogs are any different than the chihuahua that bites a child. The only reasoning anyone has is because these breeds of dogs get publicized so much for these attacks, yet who is going to call in an attack from say a cocker spaniel or a miniature poodle for instance? NO ONE that’s who.
Chihuahuas, spaniels of every sort, and poodles of every size combined amount to 6% of the U.S. dog population at present, according to our 2017 survey of 3.4 million classified ads offering dogs for sale or adoption. Together, chihuahuas, spaniels, and poodles have inflicted no human fatalities on record in either the U.S. or Canada, and probably none anywhere else. Pit bulls, who with all of their mixes and variants are 5.3% of the U.S. dog population, have killed at least 407 people in the U.S. & Canada just since 1982. Inasmuch as novelty is central to news, if a chihuahua, spaniel, or poodle ever kills someone, the incident is likely to become the most publicized dog attack in history.
It is very simple .
The Pit Bull is not like a Chihuahua , or for that matter most other breeds , because it is a game fighting breed . It is their gameness that makes them impervious to pain and impossible to stop in an attack . This quality is lacking in all non fighting breeds .
Comparing chihuahuas to pit bulls is like comparing iguanas to alligators.
Sure, they may be related in that they’re both reptiles, but the similarities don’t extend much beyond that.
There’s a reason why you never hear about vicious “iguana attacks”. But whenever an alligator attacks, it makes the news. Why? Because of the level of damage that results from such an attack.
The primary reason that pit bull attacks are publicized so often is simply because they do the same type of damage as alligators, if not worse. (For the record, alligators killed 0 people in 2017. Pit bulls killed nearly 40).
Pit bulls are DEADLY animals. Chihuahuas, while extremely bitey and aggressive, can hardly be classified as anything more than “annoying”.
See the difference?
Chihuahuas usually don’t bite the hand that feeds them, i.e., their owners, but rather are simply protective. In comparison, as Beth pointed out in the article, pit type dogs regularly maim and kill their family humans and owners.
Lol! The bite by a pit bull is often fatal. They kill or injure over 24,000 dogs each year in the U.S., 19,000 cats, 15,000 hoofed animals, and injure more than 600 humans, killing 36 in 2017 alone. They are banned in 800 cities. They need to be banned everywhere. Also, if your pit kills another human you should get life.
I live in the Texas gulf coast and I have a different outlook on this problem – I completely agree that pit bulls are wired differently, however I honestly believe they should be banned from the general public because of the lack of control breeding these dogs – I have been in breed rescue (not pits) for over 20 years, and in that time I have been in hundreds of shelters across 4 states – I can count on less than both hands the number of dogs in these shelters that are not pit bulls or pit bull mixes (and quite a few chihuahuas) – also, if you see a dog dead on the road, 9 times out of 10, it’s a pit bull – in any parking lot that allows it, pit bull puppies are indiscriminately sold – it seems the people owning them just be the most irresponsible pet owners, or they just don’t care and consider them disposable because there are so many of them.
We are not talking about biting. We are talking about deaths and maulings!
Excellent article! I wonder when common sense will prevail. At least the lawmakers should sit up and take notice. Was so hopeful when the former mayor of Montreal enacted legislation to protect the public. But with his recent electoral defeat the ban was immediately dropped by the new mayor who campaigned partly on the back of the pitbull lobby. I am extremely concerned by the direction we are headed in here in Canada.
Any dog can bite, but the damage inflicted by a pitbull is a whole different story. I have had to stop taking my golden to the dog park because of the aggressive behaviour exhibited towards him and other breeds by pitbulls ONLY. In the last 11 months I’ve witnessed reactive dog attacks at the park committed by pitbulls where at one incident it took 4 people to pull a pit off of another dog. That could have been a small child. I’ve personally been charged by a pit while out walking my dog (the owner got there in time). I’ve seen the face of a woman aged 21 torn out by the ‘friendly’ family pit (required 200 stitches). Therefore I carry a gun while walking my dog. If we are charged..I will shoot to kill. They are a dangerously unpredicatable breed.
I think a reason why some pit bull advocates passionately defend pit bulls against negative perceptions is the fact that these dogs are the non-consenting victims of human manipulation. They have been genetically forced to reflect human aggressive impulses for which they suffer the blame. Anthropomorphically, these dogs have been bred, and often reared, to embody and act out elements of our species. As usual when we ruin the lives of other creatures, it is they, not we, whom we blame and punish for the consequences we don’t like.
I think it is mistaken and unfair to refer to our animal victims as monsters. These animals did not ask to be the genetic bearers of humanity’s compulsively destructive instincts and behaviors. Back in the 1980s and early nineties (and maybe still today in some quarters), chickens and other animals bred miserably for meat were characterized, within our own movement, as “monsters” and “freaks.” We genetically injure our fellow creatures, we project ourselves obscenely into their inmost being, then insult and impugn them with rhetoric. However undesirably aggressive we have forced pit bulls to be, against our arsenal of words and other weaponry, they can never defend themselves.
This is not a defense of pit bull mauling and killing, but a reminder that WE are the culprits and originating cause of the attacks. Pit bulls did not ask to be “pit bulls.”
Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns http://www.upc-online.org
That makes it OUR responsibility to do something about them.
The increase in maulings is disturbing of late. Yes any dog can bite. Years ago children were instructed not to put their face into, or grab paws, ears or bones. Maulings of random people in the street did not happen.
The misunderstood gentle giant has long been a trope of American entertainment, as is the magically gifted individual who tames the savage beast. There’s something about these stories that appeal so strongly to certain people, particularly those who feel like outsiders in their everyday lives. Young adults who have grown up with entertainment such as “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and the like are now trying to transform these fictional tales into their own reality, using readily available risky dogs.
Pit bulls are not monsters. Advocates who insist they are “ordinary dogs” and no more dangerous than a Chihuahua or a Cocker Spaniel and convince those entrusted with public safety to keep the status quo with their half truths and lies, these are the monsters.
Whatever they are, they need to go away.