Rapid Response

The incident Monday was not a pit bull issue.

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The article in the Amarillo Globe News (Tuesday Oct 4th, by Yann Ranaivo) followed by one day the death of an 11-day old infant after it was attacked by a pit bull. Ranaivo's piece is well written and stylistically sophisticated. In many ways  it is representative of typical pit bull advocacy articles following an attack.

The article is divided into two parts, which are nearly equal in length. The first half consists of the recent history of dog attacks in Amarillo. According to the article, pit bulls account for three times as many bites as the the breeds with the next-highest reports of attacks.

Then, in a remarkable transition, the article closes the first section with a barrage of undisguised advocacy statements, beginning with the line at the top of the page. It continues:

This was about an animal and an infant. . . . . It could have been any dog that was not properly introduced to the infant.

This transition is one of the more adroit pit bull advocacy maneuvers witnessed by SRUV, and one of the most effective. It not only ignores all the preceding dog bite data: it displaces it and attempts to make it irrelevant.

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The second half of the article then goes on to interview three pit bull advocates at length.

* Shannon Barlow, Assistant Director of Amarillo Animal Control
The first of three advocates presented in the article is Shannon Barlow. The incident, as Shannon Barlow refers to it in the line at the top of this page and in the excerpts above, is the death of an eleven-day old infant, which Barlow otherwise fails to mention. Ms Barlow would have us believe that although a pit bull attacked a child and the child died, it is not a pit bull incident.

Readers of SRUV are aware of previous uses of the Any Dog argument used by Ms Barlow. In her efforts to take our attention away from the fact that a pit bull killed a child, Ms Barlow would have us believe that it could just as well have been a Yorkshire Terrier than mauled the infant to death. Theoretically, yes, it could have been any dog that killed the infant, and pigs might fly. The fact remains that it was a pit bull that mauled the infant, one of two infant deaths from pit bull attacks within a week, and one of sixteen fatal pit bull attacks during the current year. Pit bull advocates are seemingly incapable of acknowledging these deaths.

* Cydney Cross, President of Out of the Pits
Ms Cross is called upon to convince us that "pit bulls aren't naturally aggressive." Although the article gives only seven sentences to Ms Cross, she manages to repeat six of the basic refrains of pit bull advocacy. There is nothing new under the sun, and  SRUV will not bore our readers by repeating them. Ms Cross represents one of dozens (if not hundreds) of pit bull advocacy groups around the country. Members of these groups are called upon to defend their breed of obsession after similar attacks, in what is apparently an organized rapid response effort. We wonder what these people do for a living.

* Loralei Zwitt, dog behaviorist and owner of My Dog and Me
The interview with Ms Zwitt is dominated by the canine psychobabble that has unfortunately become more prevalent recently.  Ms Zwitt's comments essentially find an excuse for any poor behavior on the part of a dog. SRUV will remind Ms Zwitt that high-pitched sounds and similar annoyances do not provoke other breeds to kill infants.

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As we have noted elsewhere, after nearly every pit bull attack articles similar to this one appear like mushrooms. But Mr Ranaivo's piece is different, in its scope and intent. Few articles call upon more than one or two pit bull advocates. Few articles integrate dog attack statistics to disarm the reader, then dismiss the data so cavalierly. Few articles that follow an infant's death are so callous in presenting pit bull advocacy. Mr Ranaivo is hereby nominated for the SRUV Hall of Shame.

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Related post: Natural Consequences
Source: Amarillo Globe News

Ax3 Redux

The APDT is fully aware that any dog can bite,
 any dog can maim, and any dog can kill.

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Readers of  SRUV will recall Michael Linke's memorable phrase Any dog is capable of any act, at any point in time. We thought Mr Linke's phrase so excessively . . . grandiose, that we've given it a kicky shortcut, Ax3.

Now SRUV has learned that the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) has coined a phrase that also employs the triple repetition of the Any meme. The APDT claim that  Any dog can bite, any dog can maim, and any dog can kill is, if anything, even more deluded than Linke's statement.

What is it with pit bull advocates and the adjective Any?

And what is it with the ritualized, prayer-like phrases that are meant to convey that there are no differences between breeds?

While Linke's phrase is simply silly, the APDT version is dark, ominous. It speaks to us only of mayhem. Should we fear all of our animal companions? Linke's phrase, a hyperbolic elaboration of the long-time favorite All Dogs Bite, implies that pit bulls are no more dangerous than chihuahuas, which experience tells us is false. The APDT construction, on the other hand, inverts logic by implying that chihuahuas are every bit as dangerous as pit bulls, that they can maim and kill just as readily as a pit bull. The phrase strikes fear into our hearts, regardless of the intention.

With this statement the APDT has, perhaps without fully realizing it, acknowledged how dangerous pit bulls are.

Here is the full passage:

The APDT is fully aware that any dog can bite, any dog can maim, and any dog can kill. A dangerous or vicious dog is a product of a combination of individual genetics, upbringing, socialization, and lack of proper training. The solution to preventing dog bites is education of owners, breeder, and the general public about aggression prevention, not legislation directed at certain breeds.

The APDT has strained to construct an argument against BSL and in so doing has defied reason and ignored their own words. They understand that dogs are a product of, in part, their genetics, but in the next sentence the APDT assigns all responsibility for aggression to the owners, breeders, and the general public.

By this logic, the victim of a pit bull attack (presumably a member of the general public) is responsible for his own injury.


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Statistics:
Statistics quoted on SRUV are from the nation's authoritative source for current dog attack statistics, the 32+ year, continuously updated Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada.
View or download the current PDF

Record 33 fatal pit bull attacks & 459 disfigurements in 2015

Pit bulls killed 24,000 other dogs & 13,000 cats in 2015

2015 Dog Bite Related Fatalities (Daxton's Friends)

Fatal Pit Bull Attacks

Today's pit bull attacks

Definitions:
SRUV uses the definition of "pit bull" as found in the Omaha Municipal Code Section 6-163. As pit bulls are increasingly crossed with exotic mastiffs, Catahoula Leopard Dogs and other breeds, the vernacular definition of "pit bull" must be made even more inclusive.

Sources cited by news media sometimes refer to "Animal Advocates" or sometimes "Experts." In many cases these words are used to refer to single-purpose pit bull advocates who have never advocated for any other breeds or species of animals. Media would be more accurate to refer to these pit bull advocates as advocates of fighting breeds.

Similarly, in many cases pit bull advocates refer to themselves as "dog lovers" or "canine advocates" and media often accepts this usage. The majority of these pit bull advocates are single-purpose advocates of fighting breeds.


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RSPCA Act

Any dog is capable of any act, at any point in time.

  -- Michael Linke, CEO of the RSPCA, ACT

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We have all heard the following phrases:

• Judge the deed; not the breed
• It's not the dog; it's the owner
• It's all how they're raised
• And above all, All dogs bite

When listed together we are struck by just how defensive these phrases are. Following a sensational attack one or more of these phrases are invariably hauled out to defend the breed of obsession.

Following the recent death of Ayen Chol at her mother's feet Mr Linke (the owner of a pit bull) abandoned these overused phrases  and struck out for something more impressive. He came up with the wildly imaginative phrase in the header of  this post. SRUV will henceforth refer to his construction as Ax3.

Any dog, Any act, Any time; Any trebled, or cubed. Mr Linke's statement is an exponentially improved version of the tired old meme All dogs bite. Not only will any dog bite, given the chance, or perhaps even maul you to death, but according to Mr Linke any dog is likely to do, or at least capable of doing, anything, at any time.

I believe Mr Linke's intention with Ax3 is that we shouldn't fear a pit bull attack any more than we fear a nip from a chihuahua. Indeed, this is the way much of the advocacy rhetoric functions: by making specious comparisons that are blatantly dishonest, but insanely effective.

If we further deconstruct Ax3 we might believe that my chihuahua could write a symphony on a par with Mahler's Night Music; she might even write it tonight.

Pit bull advocates have been coming up with similar nonsense for years. SRUV has discussed elsewhere on these pages how pit advocates have used these phrases to frame the debate. It begins with a casual mention, like Mr Linke's statement to a member of the press following the death of a child. Then it spreads and takes hold, like a virus. Other pit bull advocates read these phrases, believe them despite their absolute lunacy, and repeat them. And eventually they are accepted without question.



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Sources:
The Herald Sun, Point Cook Weekly, and The Australian, among others.

Statistics in SRUV:
Statistics are from the 30+ year, continuously updated Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, published by Animal People. To view or download the current PDF click here. This page may also include information from Dogsbite and Fatal Pit Bull Attacks.



Google News: Today's pit bull attacks



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