Charles Danten, former veterinarian
Going to the root of things is always a good idea
if you really intend to change things.
Let’s
start with pit bull advocate Anne-Marie Goldwater’s delirious
statement: “We use derogatory words to identify a certain subgroup of
dogs which does not form a ‘race.’ Like blacks, Latinos, Arabs... these
aren't races. Just like there is only one race, the race of human
beings, there is only one ‘race’ of dogs, it's called dog: canis lupus familiars.”(1)
Not
so, Ms. Goldwater. The dog is in fact a domesticated subspecies of the
wolf, itself divided into more than 450 breeds or variants, easily
identified by their morphology (phenotype) and able to predictably
produce offspring true to type. No one has ever seen a couple of
registered pit bulls such as the american staffordshire terrier produce a litter of poodles.
Breeds
in dogs, just like races in humans (2)(3), are an inescapable reality,
and this reality is not limited to appearances, but also concerns
behavior.
Genes Versus Training
People
often say: “there are no bad dogs, but only bad masters.” Bill Bruce,
for example, the deceased author of the current canine municipal
regulations of the city of Calgary, was a staunch believer of the above
saying as the following quote demonstrates: “We believe that canine
aggression is essentially a human problem, and if we solve the problem
at its source, the canine problem will resolve by itself.” (4)
This
is in fact, the solution that was recently adopted by our present
liberal government: more surveillance and the obligation by dog owners
to keep their pets on a leash, but without a muzzle, in the case of pit
bulls. In other words, since breeds and behavior are a social construct,
it would be unjust to discriminate against one or another canine.
But
would it really be unjust? Of course not! As most honest breeders,
agronomists, and veterinarians can tell you, genes play an important
role in aggressiveness, even if the acquired or training aspect of
behaviour also matters. (5) All dogs are not born equal. The favorite
saying of the pro pit bull advocates, copy-pasted
from Jean Jacques Rousseau's preposterous theory of the noble savage,
“there are no bad dogs, but only bad masters,” is completely untrue.
Depending on the breed and purpose, breeders will select at birth or
shortly after, the most docile specimens of a litter for company, and
the more aggressive ones, for protection. The others are sold for
reproduction to a puppy mil or simply culled.
Does
this mean that all pit bull dogs are dangerous? No. An undetermined
number is not (see below). But since there is presently no test for
effectively separating the wheat from the chaff, it would be safer to
banish them all together. These born killers have a very heavy genetic
past. They were made by mating extremely aggressive breeds that were
selected for thousands of generations for their gameness, strength,
overdeveloped predator instinct, high pain threshold, and impulsiveness.
These factors combined with the incredible power of their jaws cause
extremely serious injuries. Furthermore, pit bull attacks are by
definition unpredictable and incredibly violent.
The
most dangerous pit bulls are those that are trained to be aggressive by
mostly ill-reputed individuals, such as drug dealers or gang members or
even ordinary persons who like to scare or intimidate others. Although
law prohibits them, dogfights still occur and dogs are still bred for
this purpose. Only the most aggressive dogs are used while the other
less performing subjects are sold on the market where there is a high
demand for pit bulls. Others are sold to breeders, both black market and
legal, where they are reproduced cheap by the dozens without any
consideration for their behaviour traits as long as they are true to
type. Unsuspecting clients end up buying these Jekyll and Hyde's without
knowing where they come from. Many of these dogs are quite innocent
looking until the day they change without warning into the monsters they
really are.
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