As recently as 50 years ago, the pit bull was America’s favorite dog. They were everywhere. They were popular in advertising and used to promote the joys of pet-and-human friendship. Nipper on the RCA Victor label, Pete the Pup in the “Our Gang” comedy short films, and the flag-wrapped dog on a classic World War I poster. All were pit bulls. Since National Pit Bull Awareness Day is today, it’s a fitting time to ask how these dogs became a dangerous threat in many people’s mind.
Pit bulls as dangerous dogs
Starting around 1990, multiple features of American life converged to inspire widespread bans that made pit bulls outlaws, called “four-legged guns” or “lethal weapons.” The drivers included some dog attacks, excessive parental caution, fearful insurance companies and a tie to the sport of dog fighting.
The pit bull is strong. Its jaw grip is almost impossible to break. Bred over centuries to bite and hold large animals like bears and bulls around the face and head. It’s known as a “game dog.” Its bravery and strength won’t allow it to give up, no matter how long the struggle. It loves with the same strength; its loyalty remains the stuff of legend.
Fighting for sport
For decades, pit bulls’ tenacity encouraged the sport of dogfighting. This led to dogs to be “pitted” against each other. Fights often went to the death. With winning animals earning huge sums for those who bet on them.
But betting on dogs is not a high-class sport. Dogs are not horses. They cost little to acquire and maintain. Pit bulls easily and quickly became associated with the poor, and especially with Black men. The narratives continue and even connect pit bulls with gang violence and crime.
All 50 states outlawed dogfighting in 1976. Although illegal businesses persisted. Coverage of the practice spawned broad assertions about the dogs that did the fighting. As breed bans proliferated, legal rulings proclaimed these dogs “dangerous to the safety or health of the community” and judged that “public interests demand that the worthless shall be exterminated.”
In 1987 Sports Illustrated put a pit bull, teeth bared, on its cover, with the headline “Beware of this Dog.” The article it characterized as born with “a will to kill.” Time magazine published “Time Bombs on Legs.” This feature called pit bulls “vicious hound of the Baskervilles” that “seized small children like rag dolls and mauled them to death in a frenzy of bloodletting.”
Presumed vicious
If a dog has “vicious propensities,” the owner is assumed to share in this projected violence. Both legally and in public perception. And once deemed “contraband,” both property and people are at risk.
This was evident in the much-publicized 2007 indictment of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. He ran a dogfighting business called Bad Newz Kennels in Virginia. Even the Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals argued that the 47 pit bulls recovered from the facility should be killed because they posed a threat to people and other animals.
If not for the intervention of Best Friends Animal Society, Vick’s dogs would have been euthanized. As the film “Champions” recounts, a court-appointed special master determined each dog’s fate. Ultimately, nearly all the dogs were successfully placed in sanctuaries or adoptive homes.
Debating breed bans
Pit bulls still suffer more than any other dogs from the fact that they are a type of dog, not a distinct breed. They were once recognized by the American Kennel Club as an American Staffordshire terrier, popularly known as an Amstaff. Or they were registered with the United Kennel Club and the American Dog Breeders Association as an American pit bull terrier. Now any dog characterized as a “pit bull type” can be considered an outlaw in many communities.
But this is confusing. How can you tell when a dog is a pit bull mix? From the shape of its head? Its stance? The way it looks at you?
Conundrums like these call into question statistics that show pit bulls to be more dangerous than other breeds. These figures vary a great deal depending on their sources.
Any statistics about pit bull attacks depend on the definition of a pit bull–yet it’s really hard to get good dog bite data that accurately IDs the breed.
Over the past decade, awareness has grown that breed-specific legislation does not make the public safer but does penalize responsible owners and their dogs. Currently, 21 states prohibit local government from enforcing breed-specific legislation or naming specific breeds in dangerous dog laws.
Pit bulls demand a great deal more from humans than some dogs. But alongside their bracing way of being in the world, we humans learn another way of thinking and loving. Compared with many other breeds, they offer a more demanding but always affecting communion.
Original story
Colin Dayan is a Professor of English, the Robert Penn Warren Professor in the Humanities, and a Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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