btw...that’s not the argument I am making. I am saying there are pit bull owners all over America whose dogs have never hurt anyone. It is as unfair to blame them for the actions of other peoples’ dogs as it is to blame innocent gun owners for the acts of criminals who use guns. But I made that fairly clear earlier in the thread.
There were Ford Pinto owners all over America whose cars never hurt anyone. And the government didn't actually take away anyone's Ford Pinto. But when the news got out, people stopped buying Ford Pintos and Ford stopped making them.
Pit bulls are approximately as dangerous as Pintos, according to this author. But people keep buying them and breeders (and the dogs themselves) keep making them. Apparently the news hasn't got out in a way that changes people's minds. Barbara Kay is trying to change that.
“It is as unfair to blame them for the actions of other peoples’ dogs as it is to blame innocent gun owners for the acts of criminals who use guns.”
A case of classic faulty comparison fallacy.
It might be a bit hard for you to understand, but pitbulls are living things that act on instinct, which is to kill. Guns do not have any instinct, since they are considered inanimate objects, aka non-living things. I know, pretty complex stuff.
I agree, there are some very good dogs that are pit bulls. There are some aggressive pit bulls same as there are aggressive of other breeds.
I think the biggest problem is building the fear into people, fear will get you antagonized by a dog and perhaps even attacked, quicker than anything else will in my opinion.
I think that there are people who refuse to fix a dog that tends towards aggression and will still breed that dog. I know enough to know that I don’t know enough to be a dog breeder. But I can pick out a dog that shouldn’t be bred.
Boxers are the dog for me but I have run into the occasional boxer that is aggressive. I actually have a foster at the moment and this dog is very dog aggressive (she’s also very, very small for a boxer—barely 35lbs and full grown), she’s a lot of work but getting better. I think she is going to stay with us.
Funny, my large boxers scare the poo out of many people even though they are stable, well mannered, don’t bark, growl, raise hair or any of that. People will almost always want to pet the foster because she is small and cute as hell. The foster doesn’t want to be touched by strangers—she will go as far away from them as her leash allows. Most people form opinions and make decisions about dogs for all the wrong reasons.
It is my belief that there are too many people who don’t know enough to be breeding dogs and we end up with many dogs with the worst traits passed down. I also think some of the commercials showing the pitiful abused animals and asking for money would do better if they spent the money teaching the public about dogs and dog behavior.