Take these two stories:
A lost American Bulldog wandered into a school in Fairbanks Alaska- where the staff reacted by locking the animal in a bathroom for "fear it was a pit bull." The family dog (identified later by microchip) was not threatening anyone, was retrieved easily and called "friendly" by animal control. Because the staff thought it was a pit bull- they locked it in a bathroom. (read more here.)
In 2003 one of the Queen's many welsh corgis was bitten by Princess Anne's bull terrier- the bites to its legs were severe and the dog had to be put to sleep. Not surprisingly- this article reports the corgi was "killed by a pitbull." Firstly, the bull terrier only injured the dog- and the dog had to be put to sleep later that evening by the vets- the bull terrier did not kill it. Secondly, the dog was a bull terrier!! a completely different breed than a pit bull. Thirdly, it was later disclosed that the bull terrier wasn't even responsible!! The media jumped to the conclusion, but it was one of Princess Anne's other terriers that bit the corgi.
Found your blog through Two Grad students and have been catching up on your life with your precious pitties, first of all good luck in raising funds for miss Winnie! Second I love how you are so dedicated to raising awareness about these amazing dogs and I also am delighted that your the epitomy of a non-steriotypical-pit-bull-owner, people are so misinformed not only about the breed but also about the owners of these dogs. If more people see pits in households of regular ol' people maybe they could imagine one in their lives.
ReplyDeleteI found you through Pets Blogroll. People seem to know little about breeds and guess. For most of us the ignorance is annoying but not harmful. My shelties are not collies, but since collies are not feared the ignorance is annoying, not dangerous. Unless we have rampaging collies, my shelties rarely suffer from the comparison.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunatly, people do fear larger breeds and they often do get lumped together, and not just pitties and their similar look cousins. Labs, german shepards, and other dogs are often mistaken for one another. Dogs get misidentified as being guilty of attacks or biting because someone doesn't know which black dog bit them and identifies they see most often.
It is not as if we are conducting DNA tests for most of these attack reports.
Education is important.