I was walking with my friend and her three pit bulls at Edgewater Park recently, and I couldn’t help but notice that there were really only two reactions that the dogs evoked. There was the cooing adulation, the petting, and the “rolling around with the dogs” kind of stuff. And then there was the wariness, the questions about muzzles, and the backing away into the grass with all due haste.
She said that dichotomy of response happens all the time when she’s out walking them. Pit bulls — and this is no secret — have a long history with both love and fear in this country.
It should be noted that the dogs were kind and gentle throughout the walk, with nary bark nor bite.
There’s history here, though, with these public reactions. In that conversation, pit bulls are front and center. Dobermans, Rottweilers, German Shepherds have all been vilified to one extent or another, but no breed of dogs has been pinned against the ropes like pit bulls. With a prevailing media and government narrative of fear, pit bulls in need of a home are filling kennels to capacity across the country. (Nearly all dogs available for adoption at the Cleveland city kennel are either American Pit Bull or Terrier mixes.)
Despite the population boom at kennels and rescues, it’s not so easy to surmount the public perception and find homes for these dogs around here.
Many Northeast Ohio cities have enacted bans — Brook Park, Garfield Heights, Lakewood, Mansfield, Massillon, Parma, Put-In-Bay, Richmond Heights, for instance — and many more have legally declared pit bulls to be “dangerous” or “vicious” dogs. (As of 2012, the state of Ohio no longer considers pit bulls “vicious.”) Cities’ breed-specific legislation has long been a sore spot in the world of local public policy.
“Pit bull” is not even a breed, making the term a misnomer. The bans include any dogs whose DNA comprises at least 50 percent of the three breeds that fall under the pit bull umbrella: American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier and Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
Lakewood passed its pit bull ban in 2008, and the measure still comes up quite often in casual conversation and city council hearings. There are rumblings even now among council members that, after nearly a decade, it might be time to revisit the ban.
Zach Ehren wrote a piece earlier this year for the Huffington Post titled “My Pit Bull Turned Me into a Criminal,” in which he describes spending time in his hometown of Lakewood with his newly adopted pit bull, Calliope. He tells Scene that he had always been a dog guy, but he’d never really considered pit bulls.
“Everyone hears all the misconceptions about pit bulls,” he says. “There’s the news and all the terrible stuff they’ve had to go through — Michael Vick and pit bull fighting. I became more aware of it. But I didn’t start thinking about it a lot more until I knew I was coming home to Lakewood and I was bringing her.”
Ehren landed back in Lakewood for a month between moves, and he began learning more and more about pit bulls and their relationship with various forms of media and government. Like countless others before him, he became part of a subculture of dog owners.
He was thrilled, but bringing Calliope into Lakewood technically constituted a crime and, balanced against his dog’s lovely nature, that seemed wrong. So he started talking with city leaders and pit bull advocates, all of whom had their own perspectives and stories. The law in Lakewood and in other suburbs isn’t going to change overnight, but Ehren says that just talking about pit bulls — raising awareness — is a huge step in the right direction.
“Since I adopted Calli, I’ve realized that I don’t think I’ll ever have another breed,” Ehren says. “I’m fully into the pit bull community now. They’re amazing dogs, and she is by far — and I know I’m biased, because she’s my dog — but she’s by far the smartest dog I’ve known.”
The two camps — the love, the fear — will probably remain entrenched for some time. Such is the nature of narrative in this country. But perhaps with a brighter spotlight, pit bulls will find a bit more unity among those charged with keeping them safe and happy.
This article appears in Jun 15-21, 2016.
Stop glamorous the #1 canine killer. These sob stories don’t replace the dead people killed by pit bulls.
http://www.animals24-7.org/2016/01/21/links-to-56-reasons-why-breed-specific-legislation-needs-to-be-enforced-and-reinforced/
Lakewood’s idiotic ban is the sole reason my wife and I didn’t look to buy a house there a couple years ago. Good job, Lakewood, you drove away a stable, well-earning family looking to bury some roots simply because their dog looks a certain way and because you can’t understand that the owners are (usually, but not always) to blame for the misdeeds of their dogs, not the dogs’ general genetic makeup.
If pit bull would stop severely mauling and killing their reputation would be restored.
The vast majority of the pit bull-type dogs that severely maul or kill are family pets, and are not trained fighters.
Pit bull-type dogs are hardwired to maul and kill without warning, it is a part of the genetic code like border collies herd, labs swim, goldens retrieve, pointers point, and bloodhounds track.
Pit bulls are zero-mistake dogs. Pit-bulls are dangerous because they have the capability of inflicting life-threatening injuries in a split second.
Pit bull-type dogs are responsible for 95% of severe attacks on people, pets and livestock.
From 2005-2016, 243 people killed by pit bull type dogs. http://www.dogsbite.org/dog-bite-statistics-fatalities.php
50,000 + animals killed by pit bulls every year: http://www.animals24-7.org/2015/01/27/how-many-other-animals-did-pit-bulls-kill-in-
and http://www.animals24-7.org/2016/01/31/pit-bulls-killed-24000-other-dogs-13000-cats-in-2015/
459 disfigurements in 2015 by pit bulls.
http://www.animals24-7.org/2016/01/04/record-33-fatal-pit-bull-attacks-459-disfigurements-in-2015/
This site tracks daily severe pit bull attacks on people: http://www.nationalpitbullvictimawareness.org/
The answers are proper ownership- proper screening of adopters- leash laws- spay/neuter laws- registration requirements-laws against backyard breeding- punishment for dog fighters-animal cruelty registration requirements- fencing laws- free dog education classes for the public- education for kids in the schools- education about what a so called “pit bull” even is- getting rid of BSL so that the shelters can actually do their job and adopt out these animals to good owners more easily- and creating places for proper socialization in our communities instead of creating an environment in our society where pit bull owners feel the need to “hide” their dogs away only fueling the problem…these suggestions will help make a positive impact on this issue. The problem isn’t the dogs, it is that right now there are irresponsible people who sometimes own these types of dogs (or any dog for that matter) and create a bad reputation for others and we haven’t created a society that makes it easy for even responsible owners to feel comfortable to properly socialize their animals.
In this wildly irrational world, pit bulls are considered the Cù-Sith.
Almost all jurisdictions have statutes or bylaws that prohibit keeping certain kinds of animals as pets, including, usually, large reptiles (snakes and alligators, and the like) and cats, apes and chimps, and certain breeds of dogs. The dogs are prohibited because they are too aggressive and cannot properly be controlled. The “pit” in pit bulls is because they were bred to attack and fight (other dogs and bears) in pits, so that they are inclined to be aggressive, to attack without warning and, having begun an attack, be impossible to stop. They are vicious animals and should never be kept as pets.
I am a Lakewood resident and have a purebred pit (Staffordshire Terrior) she is a support dog so Lakewood cannot do anything to her but this does not protect the other dogs that like mine, were raised to be a family dog and not cause havoc on the community. If you train your dog right and socialize it, it will not be a danger to society. Even if you know your dog doesn’t get along well with other dogs be responsible for it, don’t just let it loose in the dog park to cause trouble that’s only ensuring the ban will stay. Leash it, walk it keep it in the yard. This should be common sense. I am in active pursuit with city council members behind be me to repeal the ban. If anyone would like to help or support the cause it would be much appreciated. Think about it, how would you like to be ripped out of your home with an unknown fate based on your genetic makeup? Not a pleasant thought is it.
Pit bulls are not bread to be vicious, fight and attack…as Chris Vogall so ignorantly stated above. It is not in their genes, they are no more genetically predisposed to this than any other dog. It is, indeed, how you raise the dog, no matter what breed. If u train a dog to attack and fight, it will. If u train a dog to be kind and gentle, which is how pit bulls truely are by nature, it will. It’s unfortunate the breed has such a poor wrap due to peoples miseducation and ignorance.
Thank you Eric Sandy! My Pit Bulls, Lorain County Pit Crew and Forrest thank you for this article. Get in touch with me so I can tell you all about our pit advocacy group and what we have in motion!
“Stop glamorous the #1 canine killer. These sob stories don’t replace the dead people killed by pit bulls. “
Stop glamorizing not; “stop glamorous”
Glamorous being an adjective and glamorizing being an adverb. Or stop making them glamorized.
Try consulting a dictionary for some decent English before posting a stupid comment.
My mistake glamorizing is a verb and glamorously is the adverb.
I watched a pit attack a golden retriever this morning on my way into work. They couldn’t pry them apart. It was awful and heartbreaking. I hope you never have to see anything like it. If I trusted dog owners to manage the aggressive nature of pits toward other dogs, I’d be fine with them in the community. But I don’t. People seem to forget dogs are animals and prone to doing whatever it is they were bred to do. The nature of pits is to fight with other dogs. Sorry. You can’t keep a sheepdog from herding or a retriever from going after birds in water. Why do you think you exist in some plane above nature where you can love the instinct out of your pup? I hope your dogs never do this, but I also hope you expect they will. Shame on you for failing your dog if you think otherwise and put them in a position to fail.
Pitt Bulls are absolutely more aggressive toward other DOGS and to a large extent cats due to their prey drive, but people seem to be absolutely ignorant and think they are somehow a danger to people. If a “Pitt Bill type” dog bites a human that doesn’t deserve to be bitten, it is 99% a fault of the habdler, not the dog. They were used for bull/bear baiting BECAUSE they were extremely unlikely to bite humans. This is what makes them superb family dogs, as long as all of your family members are older than 4-5 years old.
I love my APBT, but I also recognize that owning and properly training an APBT or other PB type dog is a never ending part time job. The problem with aggressive PB type dogs is they weren’t continuously brought to the dog park, purposefully exposed to large groups of people/house parties, and properly trained to walk casually on leash in public places such as outside busy malls, then they ARE definitely capable of becoming overly protective of their handlers (yes, handlers, as being simply an owner of a PB type dog is NOT enough for these type of dogs to thrive).
If Lakewood actually cared about reducing PB type dog related violence and/or injuries, they should have required PB type registration with the city that involves completely free/subsidized socialization classes for say 3 months straight, minimum two classes per month. Then when the PB type dog is a certain age, say 1yr old or 1yr since registration if it’s an older rescue, these types of dogs should be required to take a tempermemt test to prove the handler’s degree of control over the dog. If the dog can’t pass the tests, then the handler should be required to keep it on a short leash at all times, and must be muzzled if it’s not leashed (in a fenced in dog park, in the airport before being transported, etc.)
Such a system would be infinitely better than breed based discrimination. Because PT type dogs are even less likely to bite people than improperly trained labs, BSL laws are the canine equivalent of banning black people because of their crime rate per capita.
PB type dogs aren’t any more dangerous than many of the other large common working breeds. We might as well require the same system for another dozen or so breeds to make it fair.