Pit bull myths ::
The outdated debate, "It's the owner, not the breed," has caused the pit bull problem to grow into a 30-year old problem.1 Designed to protect pit bull breeders and owners, the slogan ignores the genetic history of the breed and blames these horrific maulings -- inflicted by the pit bull's genetic "hold and shake" bite style -- on environmental factors. While environment plays a role in a pit bull's behavior, it is genetics that leaves pit bull victims with permanent and disfiguring injury.
The pit bull's genetic traits are not in dispute. Many U.S. courts agree that pit bulls pose a significant danger to society and can be regulated accordingly. Some of the genetic traits courts have identified include: unpredictability of aggression, tenacity ("gameness" the refusal to give up a fight), high pain tolerance and the pit bull's "hold and shake" bite style.2 According to forensic medical studies, similar injuries have only been found elsewhere on victims of shark attacks.3
Perpetuators of this myth also cannot account for the many instances in which pit bull owners and family members are victimized by their pet dogs. From 2005 to 2009, pit bulls killed 82 Americans, about one citizen every 22 days. 44% (36) of these attacks involved a family member and the family pit bull.4 As demonstrated by the 2009 fatal pit bull mauling of Carter Delaney, who had been the dogs' caretaker, the genetic trait of "pit bull dog-aggression" caused his horrific death.
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Pit bull advocates frequently claim that the average person cannot correctly identify a pit bull. As discussed in the Pit Bull FAQ, the pit bull is a class of dogs made up of several close breeds (See: What is a pit bull type dog?). This false claim is designed to confuse the public just as the pit bull breed's history of changing names is intended to do (See: Disguise breed name). As recently told to us by a top U.S. animal control enforcement officer, "If it looks like a pit bull, it usually is."
Pit bull advocates have even created "online tests" (Find the Pit Bull) to further confuse the media, policymakers and the public. These tests are inaccurate and intentionally crafted to show that the average person could not correctly identify a pit bull. DogsBite.org has created a more realistic test that shows a variety of popular dog breeds. Once one begins to understand the frame, posture and distinct head and jaw size of a pit bull type dog, identification is immediate.
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Pit bulls in the news
Given the enormous amount of press coverage of Michael Vick's pit bulls, television shows devoted to pit bulls, such as DogTown by National Geographic and Pit Bulls and Parolees by Animal Planet, and the constant production of "positive pit bull" stories by the pit bull community, it seems unlikely that the average person cannot identify a pit bull. Pro-pit bull groups cannot on one hand parade such imagery and on the other hand say the public cannot identify a pit bull.
The only two instances in which pit bulls are "misidentified" (according to pit bull advocacy logic) is after a serious or fatal attack or if a breed-specific law is involved.
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Historically, it is believed that dogfighters removed human-aggressive pit bulls from the gene pool. "Man biters," as dogmen referred them, were "culled" to prevent dog handlers from suffering vicious bites. However, dogmen themselves and pedigrees show a different story. As far back as 1909, George C. Armitage shares a story in, "Thirty Years with Fighting Dogs." He describes Caire's Rowdy as not a mere man-biter, but as a "man-eater," the most dangerous biter of all.5
In more modern years, a substantial number of champion (CH), grand champion (GR CH) and register of merit (ROM) fighting dogs carry the title of a man-biter or a man-eater. These pit bulls were championship-breeding stock, whose famed owners never for a moment considered culling the dogs. Some of the most well known dogs include: Adams' GR CH Zebo, Indian Bolio ROM, Garner's CH Chinaman ROM, Gambler's GR CH Virgil and West's CH Spade (man-eater).6
In 1974, after a series of high profile news articles written by Wayne King and published by the New York Times, the image of the ferocious fighting pit bull moved from the shadowy world of dogmen into the mainstream. This period, between 1975 and 1979, is known as the "leakage period" when the breeding of pit bulls drastically increased through gang members and drug dealers, who wanted the "toughest dog" on the block, as well as by pet pit bull breeders.7
While some dogmen of the past may have culled human-aggressive dogs to keep their stock free of man-biters, once the leakage period began, there is no evidence that similar selective pressures were maintained.8 As early as 1980, pit bull attacks begin headlining newspapers, "Another Pit Bull Attack Reported; Boy, 8 Slashed," as well as reports about pit bull owners trying to bolster the breed's "deteriorating" public image, "Pit Bull Attacks As Owners Fight Image."
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Pro-pit bull groups argue that the 20-year fatal dog attack study (from 1979 to 1998) issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in September 2000 is inaccurate because the study relied "in part" on newspaper articles. Pit bull advocates say that pit bull fatalities are more extensively reported by the media, therefore the authors of the study (most holding PhD credentials) must have "miscounted" or "double counted" the number of pit bull fatalities.9
As stated in the CDC report, the authors collected data from media accounts as well as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) registry of fatal attacks. Also, all five authors, Jeffrey Sacks, Leslie Sinclair, Julie Gilchrist, Gail Golab and Randall Lockwood, openly oppose breed-specific laws. This bias is clearly reflected in the CDC report as well.10 If discrepancies were made in the report, it seems more likely that fatal pit bull attacks were underreported not over reported.
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Pit bulls have the highest propensity and frequency of any dog breed to be involved in a catastrophic mauling. Members of the media understand this and are quick to report such attacks. The reason why "Child Suffers Minor Dog Bite" does not dominate dog attack news headlines is due to the lower degree of injury inflicted. In 2008, the death of 2-month old Zane Alen Earles, who was killed by the family's Labrador puppy, captured over 1,000 news headlines and countless blog postings.11
Recently, a writer from British Columbia commented on the "media conspiracy" claim voiced by pro-pit bull groups. In a charming, yet biting piece, writer Andrew Holota, points out the ridiculous nature of this claim:
"Yessir, there are oodles of poodles popped by cops all the time, and the press does not report it. And attacks by psychotic shih tzus? Covered up. Muzzled, so to speak. Children savaged by Scottish terriers? Quashed. Hushed puppies, if you will. Oh yes, the conspiracy runs deep indeed."12
What is true is that there is an absence of media regarding the collective damage inflicted by the pit bull breed since the early 1980s. In a recent 5-year period alone, from 2005 to 2009, pit bulls killed 82 Americans, about one citizen every 22 days. Of the total recorded deaths due to dog bite injury in this period (148), pit bulls were responsible for 55%.13 By 2014, pit bulls are expected to maul 200 Americans to death. Major news agencies are AWOL on these important issues.
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Despite pro-pit bull claims that pit bulls are not unpredictable, the breed frequently attacks without provocation or warning. It is well documented by humane groups that to excel in dogfighting, pit bulls were selectively bred to conceal warning signals prior to an attack. For instance, a pit bull may not growl, bare its teeth or offer a direct stare before it strikes. Unlike all other dog breeds, pit bulls are also disrespectful of traditional signs of submission and appeasement.14
According to expert Randall Lockwood, pit bulls are also liars. In a 2004 law enforcement training video, taped when Lockwood was vice president for research and educational outreach for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), he shares the following story:
"Fighting dogs lie all the time. I experienced it first hand when I was investigating three pit bulls that killed a little boy in Georgia. When I went up to do an initial evaluation of the dog's behavior, the dog came up to the front of the fence, gave me a nice little tail wag and a "play bow" -- a little solicitation, a little greeting. As I got closer, he lunged for my face."15
If a pit bull can fool an expert such as Lockwood, how can the average citizen anticipate a pit bull's future action? In a separate example, animal behavioral expert Peter Borchelt was sued after the pit bull he was training for a client "suddenly" attacked an ex-fireman. After encountering Gabriel Febbraio on the street and assuring him that the pit bull was friendly, the dog broke free from Borchelt and attacked Febbraio. The jury awarded Febbraio $1 million dollars.16
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Pro-pit bull groups continuously attempt to debunk the pit bull "locking jaw" expression that is often used by the media and the public. A pit bull's jaw may not physically lock, but due to selective breeding for a specific bite style -- to hold on and to shake indefinitely -- we consistently hear in news reports that the dog "would not let go." DogsBite.org has recorded numerous tools used to try to get a pit bull to release its grip including: shotguns, hammers, pitchforks and pipes.
Learn more in our Pit Bull FAQ: Why do people say that pit bulls "don't let go?"
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Pit bull advocates often claim that by World War I, the pit bull had become the "most popular dog in America." A source is never cited with this claim. In 2006, the publication Animal People tested this claim. By searching the classified dogs-for-sale ads between 1900-1950 on NewspaperArchive.com, the group discovered that huskies and St. Bernards were the most popular dogs of that period followed by the setter family. Of the 34 breeds searched, pit bulls ranked 25th.
Due to the different names that pit bulls are known by, Animal People ran searches on three names: pit bull terrier, Staffordshire, and American bulldog. As the group states, "The exercise was skewed toward finding more pit bulls rather than fewer, since multiple searches were run to try to find pit bulls under a variety of different names." The combined sum of these three breeds came to 34,770; 1% of the sampling of nearly 3.5 million breed-specific mentions of dogs.17
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In 1977, Alfons Ertel designed the American Temperament Test in hopes of creating a uniform temperament test for dogs. Of the 75 million dogs that populate the U.S. today,18 about 933 are tested per year (0.001% of all dogs). The temperament data published by the group is not based upon scientific random sampling of any dog breed. It seems it would be virtually impossible to develop such a reliable study, as the base population source group is unidentifiable.
Due to the temperament data being objectively statistically unreliable, it is also completely misleading. Pit bull advocates frequently use this misleading data to point to the breed's good temperament and to advocate against breed-specific laws ("Pit bulls pass the ATTS test more often than beagles!"). Yet anyone one who has a minimal understanding of critical statistical analysis should be able to see that the ATTS "breed statistics" temperament data19 is essentially valueless.
The 12-minute test stimulates a casual walk through a park with a range of encounters. The test focuses on stability, shyness, aggressiveness and a few other factors. According to the group, the overall pass rate (the combination of all breeds) is 81.6%.20 Unlike the Canine Good Citizen test, the ATTS test is not performed without the dog owner present. It also fails to evaluate the most basic scenario that leads to aggression: How a dog reacts when it sees another dog.
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The slogan often voiced by pit bull advocates, "Punish the deed not the breed," works to the benefit of pit bull breeders and owners who accept the large collateral damage pit bulls inflict upon the public and have been for the last 30-years. The slogan also accepts that a "new victim" must be created prior to punishment. The goal of breed-specific laws is to prevent the deed, as civil and criminal recourse for victims "after the deed" may be difficult or impossible to achieve.
Much like the outdated myth #1, "It's the owner not the breed," this last myth lies at the heart of archaic and insufficient U.S. dog policy. The modern answer to this final myth is to develop policy that prevents future victims from being created.
Prevent the deed, regulate the breed!
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