Lately on Facebook, I have seen stories written by dog owners about their dog or dogs being shot multiple times. The problem with this is that in most of the stories the dogs were either outside on their lead minding their own business or running around playing with other dogs next store. The story that hit home for me was a man who shot two boxer pups and the reason he gave the police was "I thought they were pit bulls." What's unfortunate for these animals is that there are no current laws that will put this kind of action to justice, and most of these dogs are being shot because they are a pit bull or someone thought it was a pit bull.
A pit bull is a type of dog. The Humane Society categorizes pits into three different breeds: American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier and American bulldog and any purebred or mix of those breeds. A medium size, short-length hair, square muzzle, muscular body and tapered tail can classify them. I can sit here all day and tell you many different facts about pit bulls and why they are truly sweet dogs, but instead, I thought I'd make some scenarios.
Scenario One: How You Were Raised
If a dog spends its ENTIRE life locked in a cage, or chained to a fence, then one day attacks someone the automatic assumption wouldn't be because the dog has been raised to resent human beings it would be because of the dogs breed. Blaming misbehavior on a dog breed is ideally similar to trying to piece together a crime with a certain race. It's not legitimate. Saying Jamal murdered the girl because of his race when Patrick over there is covered in blood isn't at all right, so why put the blame on a certain breed?
Scenario Two: One Bad Apple Can't Speak for Others
Just because an old grandpa committed a crime and was being criticized on the news doesn't mean you're going to fear your grandpa now does it? Does is mean you should fear all grandpas out in the world? No. So just because you've heard some stories on NBC about a pit bull attacking someone doesn't mean you should fear all pit bulls. Don't allow fear to create a generalization for you, especially a breed that was actually bred to be a family companion.
Scenario Three: Stranger Danger
Growing up our parents always warned us of STRANGER DANGER. It's something that will always be in the back of my mind when going to public places. You wouldn't go up to a random stranger on the street and try to pet their head would you? No. Dogs do have boundaries, just as humans do. Some dogs may not be comfortable with a stranger walking up to them as much as other dogs because they don't know you, and that's okay. You don't like your hair pulled right? And when your hair does get pulled your first reaction is to fight back. This goes for dogs as well when it comes to children. My advice is to ask the owner if you can pet the dog if the owner says yes, let the dog sniff your hand. This is a way of letting the dog know you come in peace. And when it comes to children, make sure you tell them to be gentle with the dog and not to pull on it, because you wouldn't like someone pulling your hair or skin either.
Scenario Four: Running Around Town
When you see a stranger running around town your first instinct is probably that he is exercising and not lost or trying to attack you, right? So when you see a dog running lose you shouldn't assume the dog is running at you to hurt you, but you should approach the dog carefully. More than likely that dog got out of his gated fence and is lost. Dogs are just as unpredictable as humans, so you shouldn't try to run at the dog to save him because you wouldn't want a stranger to run at you either. Approach the dog with caution, and once he approaches you then you can check his tags. If a dog gets out of its yard it can be overwhelming because they probably don't recognize their surroundings which is scary, but they are on the other side of the fence which is exciting.
Breed Specific Legislation is wrong and causes the death of many innocent animals, and causes problems for dog owners everywhere. These scenarios given are examples of situations that happen to these animals every day, and because of their breed are automatically assumed to be dangerous and shot. My personal opinion is to get to know the dog, see if the animal is actually dangerous before you put a gun to its head. You wouldn't point a gun at a strangers head unless you were in physical danger, so why do the same to an innocent dog whose just walking up to say hello and make a friend out of you.
