Which of these is true?
a) Pit bull puppies can cost $2,000 to over $20,000.
b) Pit bull dogs are killed at a higher rate than any other dog breed in the US.
c) All of the above.
The answer is c). For many years, pit bulls have had a reputation as strong, fierce, loyal dogs. They have been popular as pets; then unpopular; then publicized as dangerous dog-fight dogs; then popular again.
Periodically, the pit bull image has a setback. In the late 1980’s, Anheuser-Busch used a bull terrier they named Spuds MacKenzie to sell their light beer. They dressed him in cute shirts, surrounded him with tall, fawning human babes and called him the “ultimate party animal”.
The New York Times reported that between 1987 and 1988, ads featuring the dog helped increase light beer sales by 20%. When that ad line was discontinued, in 1989, it was rumored that it was because the dog was a pit bull, and pit bulls had lately come to be seen as mean and vicious. The official reason given by the company, according to Wikipedia, was that “the character’s image had started to overshadow the product.”
To many, pit bulls are a status symbol. Can anyone explain status symbols? I can’t, any more than I can tell you why anyone would want a Cabbage Patch doll (expensive ugly!), or a pair of Jimmy Choo stilettos (expensive pain!). Sometimes, when a thing is something you think you can’t have, you want it more. Sometimes, when you finally do get it, you want everyone to know you got it.
To some, having a pit bull by their side is a symbol of strength. If I can control this beast, I must be strong, right? For some, having a pit bull in the house is security against intruders. Sometimes the detail about teaching the dog the meaning of “intruder” escapes the buyer.
I recently watched an old episode of a trainer-solves-dog-problem TV show. The family had bought a pit bull puppy for their grandmother, who had no experience with dogs. A year later, the dog was barking at everything and everyone, and the family couldn’t have anyone over to the house without locking up the dog to prevent it from lunging at the visitor. So the trainer got to work, teaching the dog that not all non-family humans who visit are bad.
On camera, at least, no one sits the family down and says, “You got your grandmother a puppy, with no plans to train it?! WTF were you thinking?! And who sold you this dog?!” After intensive training, the TV trainer has gotten the dog to accept close family friends into the house without incident. Lawsuits, bloodshed averted in this case.
There are companies based in the US that have turned pit bull breeding into big business. If you’ve got the cash, you can have a super-sized pit bull flown to you, anywhere in the world. According to one dog-shipping company’s website, the dog or puppy can be brought right to your door, escorted by a trainer to get you started. Presumably, if you have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on a luxury dog, you can follow that up with a few thousand more to teach the dog that you are their family, among other skills.
In the metro Atlanta area, there is a dog kennel that breeds a few varieties of dog with “bull” in the name — including French bull dogs, and pit bulls. The niche this company has made for itself, to establish its brand, is that its pit bulls are bred to have short legs. Is there an advantage for a highly muscular and energetic dog to have short legs? Certainly not for the dog. How would it help a dog, to need to take twice as many steps to get anywhere? What is the advantage of building a locomotive body, and then putting it on tricycle wheels? Brand recognition, is the only answer I can come up with.
The sole purpose of this adaptation is to make the dog recognizable as a product of PitFall Kennels. PitFall Kennels is run by James Patton, brother of the musician who goes by the name Big Boi. Selling dogs with short legs is what sets their kennel apart. I did not do any sleuthing to find this out – I heard Big Boi himself describe his dogs, and how he got into the dog breeding business, while he was appearing on NPR’s radio news quiz show, “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” It’s easy to find video clips of the brothers, and the kennel, on YouTube and elsewhere on the internet.
To its credit, there is information on line that PitFalls Kennels also does rescue work for dogs. Specifics on that aspect of the business are not as easy to find.
Evidence is everywhere that there are already far too many unwanted pit bulls in this country. Dog shelters post pleas for help on social media, often with specific expiration dates under dog photos. The “rescue by” date is the day on which the dog is scheduled to be euthanized.
A quick search on Petfinder.com today lists 3,100 available dogs (in shelters or foster homes) within a 100-mile radius of my zip code in Western Massachusetts. Of these, 475 are listed as pit bull terrier.
Typically, if a dog is of mixed breed, such as Labrador retriever mixed with pit, pit bull terrier becomes the secondary breed listed in the dog’s description. Or ‘pit’ may not even be mentioned if unknown. Therefore, a search for “pit bull” does not yield listed mutts. So, while only 15% of these Petfinder-available dogs are listed as pit bull terrier, the percentage of pit-mix dogs is certain to be much higher.
Petfinder (http://Petfinder.com) is a leading resource for anyone looking for a pet to adopt. But some animals, due to poor health, or poor socialization, are not deemed to be adoptable, and don’t make it onto Petfinder’s site. Some animals don’t last a week in a crowded shelter, before they are euthanized, to make space for another animal that has better adoption potential. Many of the dogs euthanized, or put on death row, are pit bulls.
Training a puppy from scratch takes a ton of time and work. Training any dog that has been abused, trained to fight, starved or neglected takes time, patience and resources that sometimes are just not available. Even a dog that has been fed and taken to the vet, but not trained to be a good citizen, is a challenge. Every dog needs to be taught who the Good Guys are. If they are left to guess, they may end up defending against a hapless passer-by.
According to Save-a-Bull rescue (http://saveabullmn.org), studies estimate that up to one million pits are euthanized per year, or 2,800 per day.
Right now, status symbol dogs aside, the supply of pit bull-type dogs far exceeds demand. Conditions in the US do not support an increase in demand. Would it be too much to ask for a decrease in supply?
Puppies are Jerks 