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Pit Bulls Should Be Banned
January 27, 2000|By Ingrid Newkirk Guest Columnist
Most people have no idea that at many animal shelters across the
country, any "pit bull" who comes through the front door goes out the
back door - in a body bag.
>From San Jose to Schenectady, many shelters have enacted policies
requiring the automatic destruction of the huge and ever-growing number
of "pits" they encounter. This news shocks and outrages the
compassionate dog-lover.
Here's another shocker: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the
very people who are trying to get you to denounce the killing of
chickens for the table, foxes for fur, or frogs for dissection, supports
the pit bull policy - albeit with reluctance.
The pit bull's ancestor, the Staffordshire terrier, is a human
concoction, bred in my native England, I'm ashamed to say, as a weapon.
These dogs were designed specifically to fight other animals and kill
them, for human sport. Hence the barrel chest, the thick hammer-like
head, the strong jaws, the perseverance and the stamina. Pit bull dogs
can take down a bull weighing in at over a thousand pounds, so a human
being a tenth of that weight is small potatoes to them.
Pit bulls are perhaps the most abused dogs on the planet. These days,
they are kept for protection by almost every drug dealer and pimp in
every major city and beyond. You can drive into any depressed area and
see them being used as cheap burglar alarms, wearing heavy logging
chains around their necks (they easily break regular collars and
harnesses), attached to a stake or metal drum or rundown doghouse
without a floor and with holes in the roof.
Bored juveniles "sic" them on cats, neighbors' small dogs and even
children. In the PETA office we have a file drawer chock-full of
accounts of attacks in which these ill-treated dogs have torn the faces
and fingers off infants; they've even gone after police officers who
were trying to serve warrants.
Today, organizing dog fights is a federal offense in this country, yet
pits are still king of the ring. Humane officers and other law
enforcement agents routinely break up rings in New Mexico,
Massachusetts, Michigan and Florida. They confiscate dog-fighting
paraphernalia, including treadmills used to build doggie endurance and
drugs used to numb pain from injuries inflicted by opponents and to
"jazz up" the dogs.
Officials find mesh bags in which kittens, rabbits, puppies and other
small prey are suspended over the dogs to encourage fighting spirit. Not
uncommonly they find what's left of dogs that have lost their battles.
They are not always dead.
Those who argue against the euthanasia policy for pit bull dogs are
naive. One dog I know who was adopted out to a new family suddenly
clamped his jaw onto the thigh of a 7-year-old boy. Two grown men had a
hard time getting the dog off and the child suffered permanent nerve damage.
Tales like this abound. I have scars on my leg and arm from my own
encounter with a pit. Many are loving and will kiss on sight, but many
are unpredictable. An unpredictable chihuahua is one thing, an
unpredictable pit another.
People who genuinely care about dogs won't be affected by a ban on pits.
They can go to the shelter and save one of the countless other breeds
and lovable mutts sitting on death row through no fault of their own.
We can only stop killing pits if we stop creating new ones.
Legislators, please take note.
Newkirk is president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,
which is based in Norfolk.
Source
January 27, 2000|By Ingrid Newkirk Guest Columnist
Most people have no idea that at many animal shelters across the
country, any "pit bull" who comes through the front door goes out the
back door - in a body bag.
>From San Jose to Schenectady, many shelters have enacted policies
requiring the automatic destruction of the huge and ever-growing number
of "pits" they encounter. This news shocks and outrages the
compassionate dog-lover.
Here's another shocker: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the
very people who are trying to get you to denounce the killing of
chickens for the table, foxes for fur, or frogs for dissection, supports
the pit bull policy - albeit with reluctance.
The pit bull's ancestor, the Staffordshire terrier, is a human
concoction, bred in my native England, I'm ashamed to say, as a weapon.
These dogs were designed specifically to fight other animals and kill
them, for human sport. Hence the barrel chest, the thick hammer-like
head, the strong jaws, the perseverance and the stamina. Pit bull dogs
can take down a bull weighing in at over a thousand pounds, so a human
being a tenth of that weight is small potatoes to them.
Pit bulls are perhaps the most abused dogs on the planet. These days,
they are kept for protection by almost every drug dealer and pimp in
every major city and beyond. You can drive into any depressed area and
see them being used as cheap burglar alarms, wearing heavy logging
chains around their necks (they easily break regular collars and
harnesses), attached to a stake or metal drum or rundown doghouse
without a floor and with holes in the roof.
Bored juveniles "sic" them on cats, neighbors' small dogs and even
children. In the PETA office we have a file drawer chock-full of
accounts of attacks in which these ill-treated dogs have torn the faces
and fingers off infants; they've even gone after police officers who
were trying to serve warrants.
Today, organizing dog fights is a federal offense in this country, yet
pits are still king of the ring. Humane officers and other law
enforcement agents routinely break up rings in New Mexico,
Massachusetts, Michigan and Florida. They confiscate dog-fighting
paraphernalia, including treadmills used to build doggie endurance and
drugs used to numb pain from injuries inflicted by opponents and to
"jazz up" the dogs.
Officials find mesh bags in which kittens, rabbits, puppies and other
small prey are suspended over the dogs to encourage fighting spirit. Not
uncommonly they find what's left of dogs that have lost their battles.
They are not always dead.
Those who argue against the euthanasia policy for pit bull dogs are
naive. One dog I know who was adopted out to a new family suddenly
clamped his jaw onto the thigh of a 7-year-old boy. Two grown men had a
hard time getting the dog off and the child suffered permanent nerve damage.
Tales like this abound. I have scars on my leg and arm from my own
encounter with a pit. Many are loving and will kiss on sight, but many
are unpredictable. An unpredictable chihuahua is one thing, an
unpredictable pit another.
People who genuinely care about dogs won't be affected by a ban on pits.
They can go to the shelter and save one of the countless other breeds
and lovable mutts sitting on death row through no fault of their own.
We can only stop killing pits if we stop creating new ones.
Legislators, please take note.
Newkirk is president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,
which is based in Norfolk.
Source
