Pits on PARADE

PARADE magazine has published a series of articles on pit bulls recently:

Michael Vick’s Pit Bulls: Where Are They Now?
Can You Teach a Bad Dog New Tricks?
Top 5 Myths about Pit Bulls

Hehehehe. Amazing how many pit owners have the same “HE/SHE DESTROYED AN ENTIRE SOFA!!!” story. PRO-TIP– Pits that get walkies every morning and every evening dont eat sofas. Thats why rain makes me nervous… Arnie + Cabin Fever = Something getting destroyed, LOL!!

Remember, folks– The Humane Society of the United States wanted each and every one of those dogs killed. They want all pits killed. Just like PETA president Ingrid ‘Bitchface’ Newkirk.

I once again ask ERV readers who are animal lovers to contribute to and volunteer at local shelters, not these organizations. I always take old sheets/blankets/towels to the OKC animal shelter when they need to be tossed– no skin off my nose, and its a little something shelters need.

And a BIG kudos to the Texas Freethought Convention— the official charity for the convention weekend is Straydog, a local shelter that takes in all animals, including pits.

Comments

#1 ImprobableJoe
September 11, 2010

Pardon my language here, but FUCK PETA. In my experience there’s very rarely a bad dog, but there are a whole mountain of bad owners. The idea of people basically advocating exterminating an entire breed just makes my blood boil.

On the other hand, I’m on board with making abusive owners live in a tiny cage for a fairly long stretch. It would make me pretty happy.
#2 The Curmudgeon
September 11, 2010

I donno about pit bulls. Never owned one. I’m sure their behavior depends on the owner. I’ve got two Dobermans. They’re from a Doberman rescue outfit. Best dogs in the world. I’m sure pit owners feel the same. “From my cold dead hands!”
#3 Suzanne
September 11, 2010

Go PARADE magazine!

I volunteer at my local pound/shelter all the time. What a lot of people who aren’t paying attention just don’t seem to get is that pit bulls are very popular pets. They’re everywhere, in the shelters and around YOUR town. Out of the (dozens? Hundreds? I’ve lost count) of ‘pit bull’ and apparent pit mixes I’ve met, I’ve only met one I didn’t like.
#4 Shane Killian
September 11, 2010

Would it work to put a pit bull on a treadmill? If so, it might pay for itself before the second easy chair…
#5 The Curmudgeon
September 11, 2010

Oh wait — I misread the title of the thread. It’s Pits on Parade. Pits, with a “P.” Sorry, I misunderstood.
#6 jose
September 11, 2010

It’s always fun knocking down stereotypes. I can’t believe a supposedly animal rights association wants to erase entire groups because of some individuals’ actions.

LOL the sofa destroyer thing! All kinds of dogs destroy things when they are bored or have too much energy to burn though. Pits are pups after all! I have a french braco cutie and she eats the legs of the tables and chairs if I don’t take her to a big abandoned area near home every day, where she runs like crazy and loves it.

Can I ask you guys something? I have this little idea about dogs that if you just live with them and feed them and stuff, they will just put up with you but in a “meh, whatever” way. But if you exercise with them, take them jogging, play chasing each other and you and them get tired together frequently, then they will really like you and see you as someone to care about.

All dogs I’ve known are hunting dogs: bracos, pointers, brittanys… maybe it’s a breed thing. Have any of you guys found something similar in your experience?
#7 windy
September 12, 2010

from the PETA rant:
The pit bull’s ancestor, the Staffordshire terrier, is a human concoction,…

These dogs were bred by humans! Shocking revelation there.
#8 Azkyroth
September 13, 2010

So, Abby, basically…

Pits or GTFO? 😀

It’s always fun knocking down stereotypes. I can’t believe a supposedly animal rights association wants to erase entire groups because of some individuals’ actions.

PETA are professional attention whores first, last, and center. Animal rights is somewhere between “a means to an end” and “camouflage.”
#9 Prometheus
September 13, 2010

“The monster’s ancestors, Mr. and Mrs. Newkirk, were human concoctions,…”

Fixed that.

What a load of crap. How is it we don’t have an even greater obligation to sustain the lines of animals that we manipulated by generations to complete dependence upon us and to the end of fulfilling our own wants and wishes.

I want a Molossus dammit!

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Molossian_Hound,_British_Museum.jpg

BTW

Here is an awesome organization: The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy http://albc-usa.org/
#10 cynical1
September 13, 2010

Hey I just wanted to put in a plug for the Best Friends Animal Society (www.bestfriends.org) who condemned the Humane Soceity’s decision to euthanize the pits from NC in the link above. I’ve been supporting them for years. They take in animals (all types) that no one else will adopt – blind, lame, ect. Of course, they were also heavily involved in relocating and rehabilitating all the animals stranded during Katrina. They are an amazing organization, one of the few where I don’t wonder whether my donations are being well spent.
#11 JustaTech
September 13, 2010

I’ve never had a pit (Though as a kid we did have a racist, sexist, food-protective dog. She was sweet, but no one would allow her to be adopted out now.), but my neighbors had one and she was the sweetest thing ever! They called her a “bull terrier mix” around fearful people, but I was never nervous around her. Her people had great toys for her: solid wool all the way through, so there was no “stuffing” to pull out.

People really need to get over the whole “breed makes them scary” thing. I was running with a friend’s rescue pit, who was superbly behaved, when this little tiny white ball of fluff charged us. Everyone was on leashes, so it was fine, but I knew if anything had happened the other people in the park would have assumed it was Lola who was the aggressor. Which is why dogs need to be leashed in public.
#12 sinned34
September 14, 2010

My dachshund can be just as destructive as any pitbull. I’m forced to chase that short-legged freak around for at least a half hour a day to run off some of his energy. Despite my attempts to keep him occupied, I’ve seen him destroy those inch thick tug-o-war chew ropes in under 30 seconds. Thankfully, with the exception of a single shoe two days after we got him and a four-inch diameter wooden table leg, Frankie’s never chewed anything other than the toys we give him. In the two years we’ve had him, he’s amassed a large pile of destroyed dog toys: kongs, ropes, nylon bones, large-dog grade stuffed toys – none of it lasts in the jaws of that little twerp. I don’t even want to hazard a guess on how much we’ve spent on that spoiled mutt.

Thankfully, nobody’s calling for a massive wiener dog cull.
#13 Sangria
September 19, 2010

Here’s another shocker: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the very organization that is trying to get you to denounce the killing of chickens for the table, foxes for fur or frogs for dissection, supports the shelters’ pit-bull policy, albeit with reluctance. We further encourage a ban on breeding pit bulls…These dogs were designed specifically to fight other animals and kill them, for sport…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…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 with names like “Murder” and “Homicide” have torn the faces and fingers off infants and even police officers trying to serve warrants…Over and over again, I waded into ugly situations and pulled pit bulls from people who beat and starved them, or chained them to metal drums as “guard” dogs, or trained them to attack people and other animals. It is this abuse, and the tragedy that comes from it, that motivates me. Those who argue against a breeding ban and the shelter euthanasia policy for pit bulls are naive, as shown by the horrifying death of Nicholas Faibish, the San Francisco 12-year-old who was mauled by his family’s pit bulls. 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 pit- bull breeding. They can go to the shelter and save one of the countless other breeds and lovable mutts sitting on death row.

That’s where Abby’s link takes you. Ingrid Newkirk is talking absolute sense, which is why you would rather call her names than refute her assertions. Thanks to PETA we are forced to come up with excuses for violence inflicted upon animals, all that facile rationalization (Hey, I am a part of the food chain; We oughta’ we havta’ experiment with animals, because we can’t advance medicine otherwise) indicates a small step towards acknowledging guilt, as against the religious hokum that is offered in justification (animals don’t have souls humans do) or the worse still practice of sadistic animal cruelty for food and clothing.

I am always amused how atheist PETA haters and Bible thumping PETA haters (J. Wesley Smith f’rinstance) use the same human exceptionalism argument.

I look forward to the day when science and our sensibilities help us minimize our dependence on animal cruelty for our well being. In the last 100 years we have gotten around using animals for transportation and clothing. Maybe in another century we will not need to use them for food and medical research.

Ingird Bitchface? Abby Pottymouth.
#14 windy
September 19, 2010

Over and over again, I waded into ugly situations and pulled pit bulls from people who beat and starved them, or chained them to metal drums as “guard” dogs, or trained them to attack people and other animals.

And you think a breed-specific ban is the solution? *facepalm*
#15 Hel
September 21, 2010

In Spain you need to pass a psicological test to be the owner of a pit bull, like you need a psicological test to buy a gun. I think that it is a goog idea.
#16 miss smart
September 22, 2010

Bitchface? Are you kidding me. You are so crass and idiotic. You haven’t even finished your degree yet, you’re nothing but a big bully. You’re, rude, ugly on the inside and out and super dumb on top of it all. Not a good combo, Peta has done good work they’re not perfect but they have helped many animals.