The Trouble With Pit Bulls

The Trouble With Pit Bulls

In some ways I tend to admire folks who love their pets as they would children. I must admit though, that I love animals most when I am positioned at a healthy distance, with the exception of small, cute dogs. I hope to own a bison frise one day or one similar calm breed of dog that could fit neatly in my arms. I actually used to be a cat lover until I realized that they have few qualms about scratching one’s eyes out if they feel cornered or threatened in some way.

Whether I’m in the minority or majority with my views on animals and pets, I’m just glad that there are people out there who genuinely care for them because animals should be treated with respect. The way a human being treats an animal is a good indicator of how they will eventually treat the people around them. Protection and respect for the lives of animals is extremely important in social and environmental terms.

Last Friday night I was driving down Lincoln in San Francisco and was surprised to see several ribbons of yellow police tape flapping in the wind as it stuck to two or three tall lampposts. A few police cars and a fire engine lined the streets for a couple of blocks and the driver of a truck in front of me almost ran up on the center divider as he tried to figure out what was going on. He wasn’t alone in his curiosity – I slowed down to try to catch a glimpse of bystander’s faces but it was just too dark. I was able to contain the questions in my mind until I sat down at my computer hours later.

His name was Nicholas Scott Faibish and he was twelve years old when his family’s two eighty-pound pit bulls, Rex and Ella, mauled him to death in the family’s home. The boy had been left alone with the animals and police have yet to determine what triggered the violent attack.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/04/MNGCUD3O661.DTL&hw=pit+bull&sn=005&sc=703

Many of the neighbors described the two dogs as friendly and good-natured. Only a couple of people in the neighborhood had noticed signs of aggression. And so the city is similarly divided – many fear that pit bulls will be discriminated against from this point on, and others can’t figure out what there is to argue about – they perceive the dogs as a threat and feel that ownership of them should be restricted. I consider myself to be a member of the latter group, and I’ll tell you exactly why.

In looking up the definition of pit bull, I found two entries. The first entry was ‘American Staffordshire terrier’ which was further described as ‘A strong muscular terrier of an American breed with powerful jaws, a broad skull, and short hair, originally developed for dog fighting’. The second entry was considered slang but stated ‘One who behaves in a markedly aggressive or ruthless manner’. To be fair, I also utilized the same reference to look up descriptions of Doberman Pinscher, German Shepherd, Rottweiler and even Chihuahua. No where, and I do mean no where in the descriptions of these breeds did I find words or phrases such as ‘powerful jaws’, ‘dog fighting’, ‘markedly aggressive’, or ‘ruthless’. These are descriptions typically reserved for wildlife such as sharks, alligators, lions and tigers.

San Francisco Bay Area residents are known for their fondness of pets. Dogs can be found in abundance on the streets of San Francisco and Berkeley, and I know at least two people personally who own at least eight or nine cats and one or two dogs. I have seen a man relaxing at a street café with a parrot on his shoulder, another with a rabbit on a leash, and it wasn’t unusual when I was in high school for one of my classmates to bring her pet snake to class. As I bring to mind images of Noah’s Ark, I can’t over-emphasize the magnitude of the problem with pit bulls. Their very name engenders fear in many, and their presence in our neighborhood too often produces violence and death for our children. Four years ago Shawn Jones of Richmond, California, was attacked by three pit bulls in which he lost his ears and has since endured several painful surgeries. He was only ten years old at the time of the attack and has just returned to school and a public life only about a year ago. JaQuan Rice Jr., an eleven year old from Concord, California had his arms and legs chewed by two pit bulls this past March. If these acts of violence don’t classify pit bulls as wild animals, I suppose I’m not sure what a wild animal is exactly.

I’m fully aware that it is difficult to single out a breed of dog, because other breeds of dogs are more than capable of attacking a human being under the right conditions. I was watering plants on my porch recently when one of the neighborhood kids jumped over my next-door neighbor’s porch railing and onto mine. I thought he was playing with his friends when it turned out that the Rottweiler from across the street was about to help himself to a chunk of the poor boy. Luckily the owner rescued him, but if he hadn’t me and the boy would have been faced with a vicious dog to deal with.

I heard a statistic recently that out of 355 dog attacks in the past year here, around fifty percent of them were by pit bulls. Need I say more? But I guess it will take a few more tragedies before people wake up.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
www.AdrolitePress.com
www.ChandraAdams.com