Written by: Heather Clemenceau
After Tommy Chang’s dog Blu escaped, bleeding-heart pit bull fanatics, who consistently ignore empirical data on nanny-dog attacks, marched in protest in a show of extreme entitlement and disregard for others. Found running at large with cropped ears, Chang and others claimed that Blu was “not a pit bull,” even though most people would say that he looks exactly like a pit bull with his large brachycephalic head and stout, muscular body. Indeed, the “pocket bully” and other monikers are widely used order to get around breed restrictions in Ontario’s Dog Owner’s Liability Act (DOLA).
“If the dog looks like a pit bull, if it behaves like a pit bull and people recognize it as a pit bull, that’s enough to say that you’re dealing with a pit bull.” —Dr. Barry Pless, Professor Emeritus at McGill University
Within days of his release by Vaughan Animal Services, amid public lobbying and media exposure, the subject of the intervention went on to bite a Tae Kwon Do student on the face at Chang’s studio. It was as if the dog, who had no business reason to be at the studio, had its own agenda to ensure that BSL advocates would be proven right yet again.
This is the privilege of the vocal few who are insisting on their right to make lousy decisions that imperil the public. They marched to “prove” that this dog and others like him are harmless and misunderstood, and they manipulated politicians and the media to get the dog returned.
The pit bull advocacy movement can justifiably be compared to obstinate anti-vaxxers – the more you tell them to leash their dog, the more they “need” to take the dog in public, off-leash, encouraging people to interact with them whether they want to or not. And if you are attacked or bitten, it’s your fault because you must have misunderstood them. Blaming the victim (the practice of questioning what a victim could have done differently in order to prevent some undesirable event from happening) in this scenario is exactly what many of them went on to do…
This is where pitbull owners diverge from owners of other types of potentially dangerous dogs. Nobody puts flower crowns on German Shepherds or Akitas and tells people that “anybody can handle them.” Any bad experiences that involve pit bulls are due to “irresponsible,” or “bad owners.” But why do only pit bulls have bad owners? We rarely hear of serious attacks by the many more popular breeds, even though “bad owners” exist across all demographics of dog ownership. What is it about this phenotype of dog that has created such a monopoly on bad owners? If a particular vehicle caused 70% of all accidents, would we all blame the driver?
The pit bull advocacy group Justice for Bullies promotes “teaching people to read a dog’s body language” in order to avoid or de-escalate bite risks. “Successful communities identify those most at risk of getting into an altercation with a dog – for example, children, mail carriers, meter readers, and delivery people. While it is the responsibility of the owner to contain and manage their dog, you can reduce bite risk by teaching people how to read a dog’s body language, how to approach them safely, and how to de-escalate a confrontation. When there is a serious dog-on-dog injury, it’s fair to report it and the owner of the attacking dog should expect consequences. But the media needs to make an effort to understand dog behaviour and look for sensible quotes rather than sensationalizing the story with the “what if a child is next?” trope.”
It’s not a trope. A child is often next, as was the case with Muhammad Almutaz Alzghool. What pit bull promoters don’t explain is, what will be the pathway to gaining this elusive understanding that will de-escalate dog attacks? What agency or government entity will be responsible for teaching people, especially children, how to read a dog’s mood? And how will it help people or pets who are not only NOT seeking interaction with a dog but are being actively pursued by some random loose dog? It’s really just another form of “soft” victim-blaming – shifting the focus to the dog bite victim instead of lobbing criticism where it belongs. Opponents of Ontario’s BSL were hard at work pushing out theories that Blu had not sufficiently “de-compressed” after being in the Vaughan Animal Shelter for several weeks. As if that were an excuse – no one would be safe adopting ANY dog from a shelter if they consistently attacked people within days after leaving. And if the dog was “not himself” after his stint at VAS, why wasn’t he just kept at home? I wonder if Blu was “not himself” after having his ears cropped? Pit bulls are frequently described as dogs that “didn’t have enough training” whenever someone is attacked. What I consistently hear is that pit bulls not only require special training, but singular accommodation and consideration in order that they behave like practically every other dog that is well-integrated into society and doesn’t pose a serious risk to people and other animals.
The reality is that training can only minimally influence many of the natural breed traits in a dog. So, I usually ignore excuses from people who don’t take genetics into consideration when discussing behaviour and aggression. In an owner assessment of 14,000 dogs, researchers from four American universities observed that for traits such as chasing and aggression, DNA accounts for approximately 60 to 70 per cent of variability between breeds. Most honest dog trainers didn’t need this study to tell them that the pit bull is not only more aggressive, but inflicts greater damage in assaults than other breeds, but as well because of its distinctive, well-documented “kill bite,” which can quickly rend flesh to the bone.
“(A)bout 25 years ago, my colleagues and I started to see disturbingly different types of injuries,” wrote Dr. David Billmore, professor and director of the Division of Craniofacial and Pediatric Plastic Surgery at Cincinnati’s Hospital Medical Center. “Instead of a warning bite, we saw wounds where the flesh was torn from the victim. There were multiple bite wounds covering many different anatomical sites. The attacks were generally unprovoked, persistent and often involved more than one dog. In every instance the dog involved was a pit bull or a pit-bull mix.”
A dog trainer who “gets it:”
“90% of aggressive dogs are genetically aggressive. There’s a huge misconception that aggressive dogs were mistreated which made them that way. I find that statement to be absolutely false with very few exceptions. The sweetest dog in the world can’t be taught to be aggressive. In fact dog fighters always look for the naturally aggressive dogs because it increases their chances of a successful fighter. Dogs were wolves and have the same aggressive tendencies as them. The dominant male wolves are highly protective of food, females and territory; the three main elements of survival. If you look at it from a numbers standpoint from a litter, it’s basically no different with wolves or domestic dogs. Many litters come with one dominant personality, typically being male. Keep in mind this is very important in a wolf pack because the dominant males are the protectors and lead hunters in the pack. Without these aggressive personalities the wolf pack wouldn’t be as successful. This trait often trickles down into domestic dogs. These dogs are born with aggression but you won’t see it till they hit the adolescent period (around 9 months). Puppies are almost always sweet and get along with everything. But when they hit the adolescent stage things change drastically. 9 times out of 10 when someone comes to me with an aggressive dog the first question I ask them is when did they start noticing the problem. Overwhelmingly most people tell me it started when the dog hit around a year old. I tell them it’s nothing they did wrong, it was in your dog’s genetics. So the big question is how do you fix it? I find most aggression can’t be fixed, just managed. This means making executive decisions. If I know I have an aggressive dog the last thing I want to do is take it to a dog park. It’s risky and not worth the risk. My Chihuahua Lulu is very aggressive with children. For years I tried to acclimate her to kids with little success. When kids come over I simply put her away. It’s an executive decision that to date has gotten no children bitten. Knowing your dog’s personality traits and being realistic with the situation I feel is the most important element of understanding your animal.” Brandon McMillan (3 x Emmy® Winning Television Host, Animal Trainer)
Pit bull phenotypes are a direct result of breeding terriers with bulldogs for their “gameness” characteristic – biting and not releasing like most breeds, and ignoring their own pain when victims try to stop attacks by force. Pit bulls in general, don’t tend to submit to other dogs, they ignore submissive signals, and are therefore are less likely to respond to a submissive animal, including a person. Pit bull owners consistently deny the logic of BSL and are often clouded by their personal feelings. Many keep their dogs under the radar in areas with BSL, but lifting a breed ban turns the radar off. More dogs will run at-large and people start dropping their guard. Only after an attack do they receive legal scrutiny and this will be half-hearted due to the same breed advocates who pushed to lift BSL. Whenever they are reminded that they advocated to “punish the deed,” they find excuses to do anything but.
Without BSL, victims of pit bull attacks must dig into their own pockets to seek legal remedies that they must initiate themselves, while the offending dogs are housed at taxpayers’ expense for months and even years. The province and taxpayers must absorb the cost of treatment for dog injuries, and the victims suffer pain and disfigurement that could otherwise be avoided in many cases. Ontario would no longer have this proactive public safety law – someone has to suffer before action is taken and the harm is already done. Reactive law waits for the creation of a victim instead of preventing one.
Private Members Bills over many years have consistently failed to remove Ontario’s BSL. No one can or will put forth a proposal to “ban bad owners” because no test exists for “responsible dog ownership” and no one knows who the “bad owners” are until their dog attacks someone or another animal.
heatherclemenceau 