Everysinglefrickingday.

That's how often I am astounded by the dichotomy of human nature. I see amazing things, and I see startling things that make me want to install a turret on my roof.  More than anything else on this Skeptic's list of things I hate about people is sheer ignorance. When I say "sheer ignorance" it's the blank, uneducated, doesn't want to know, uninterested, blanket ignorance. There are an astounding amount of people that fall into this category, and one such reminder for me everyday is the deluge of nonsensical laws surrounding breed ban legislation, as well as breeders and the general flippancy of society to love one moment a breed and villainize it the next.

I do some rescue work, and the one creature on earth that I fully trust with my unconditional love is the canine. Any canine.

I find it, then, horrifying, that as a society we have created/over bred/loved/maligned specific breeds.  Any guess where I'm going with this?

My heart breaks at the mass slaughter of dogs in our shelters.  Over 7 million/year in California are killed, and it's largely because people are too idiotic to fully grasp the overpopulation concept for both themselves and their pets, and while we play God with the domestication of these animals, only to abandon them later, the state holds a large bill and a large karmic footprint in these deaths.  If breeders didn't over breed them in the first place, and if people adopted rather than bought, we'd decrease this situation infinitely.  But that's another day...

Today, I'm thinking about Pit Bulls. If you aren't among the above ignorant bastards, you probably know that "pit bull" means American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and a million mixes of medium sized but strong dogs that look like these breeds.  They were heroes early in the century, posing in posters with children and fighting alongside our soldiers. Stubby, a pit mix, is the most decorated war dog ever.  Ever...

Stubby. Decorated War Hero. Pit Bull.

And yet, in the last few decades the only images you see of pit bulls are in the news, having bitten someone, having been used for fighting, etc, etc.  After Michael Vick's disgusting criminality with these dogs, I thought more research and more understanding may surface.  If you take a little time learning about the breed, particularly in the tear-jerker account Lost Dogs, you'll find that most of the dogs confiscated from the Vick compound were actually rehabbed, and adopted into homes. There were a few that just had it too rough, and they weren't savable, but upwards of 90% made it. That's HUGE. You couldn't rescue people from a situation like that and expect them to be anything but batshit crazy, and yet these dogs were saveable and still trusted human beings after a remarkably short time. Unbelievable!

So in that case, why are certain counties in the US banning them altogether? Why are they the #1 dog on the euthanasia list at virtually every single animal shelter in the US?  Where are the people standing up for them?

Well, among the ridiculous uses of Facebook for posturing and the "look at my fabulous life" pictures there are some amazing, charitable and aware uses, like advocating for animals and networking against the backwards bureaucracies imposing Breed Bans. That helps, but it isn't enough.

These dogs need someone in Public Relations. We need a way to spin it back to the times that they were considered the Nanny Dogs of North America.  How did we go from that to now, with the pit bull the international symbol of crack houses everywhere?




How did we get to this point from here, the Nanny Dog?



     

It came from their popularity, partially.  Over breeding is the start, that first domino down.  Lots of people breed these dogs, and lots of people buy them.  With overbreeding comes an onslaught of health problems and the other issue of just too many damn dogs.  Then you have people buying them for fighting, for protection in drug houses, et al, and suddenly the reputation is marred forever by really, really, bad owners.

Rotties got the same reputation years ago, though I hear less about it now.  I do know that renting with these dogs is damned near impossible, and that prevents a lot of potential adopters from pulling them out of the shelters and saving their lives.  I lived with the problem of breed restricted housing with my Rottweiler. My solution? I died her brown bits black with all natural hair dye and said she was a lab mix.  I lied.  It worked.

Its harder with the short, compact and muscular pit bulls.  They can't be disguised as pomeranians, so we're at a point where we can't lie. We just have to fight for them, because they deserve it. 

And that means educating the lazy, ignorant assholes that clamor into the mob with their pitchforks at the ready, no matter what the mob is going after.  This idiot Mob Mentality is so incredibly pervasive that it's infiltrated even the loftiest groups (like Congress). Defy it by arming yourself with information, and defy it by throwing down your pitchfork and researching the matter.  I'm skeptical about the amount of people that will, actually, research something before drinking the Koolaid, but hell...it's worth a try to at least ask. 

And I ask because I hope that as we become more informed, I'll open Facebook and there will be less dogs to save, less dogs killed in the shelters, less Pit Bulls in pictures staring at me soulfully, hopefully, only wanting to have someone rescue them from their terrifying jail cell, still trusting and loving despite all of the betrayal committed against them.

Everysinglelfrickingday.  That's how often I watch the mob gather, hunting down some other Frankenstein that the mob blames for some current evil. It's disturbing, particularly when it's so evidently and irrefutably misinformed, as in this case.  I am providing some links for basic research into this...because when you drop out of the mob, you'll feel really silly, and you'll want to know the truth.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Stubby
http://www.pbrc.net/faq.html

And then buy this:
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Dogs-Michael-Rescue-Redemption/dp/159240667X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325888718&sr=8-1


Skeptically Yours.