A Dogo Bite = A Pit Bull Attack

Again, the media is misrepresenting a dog attack as a pit bull attack.
Recently, a dogo argentino bit the face of a reporter who was reporting on his amazing rescue from the Ice in a Colorado reservoir.

Nor surprisingly, the media pounced on this story an portrayed the dog as a pit bull- which would be impossible because pit bulls are not allowed in Denver, anyway (and usually aren't 85 pounds!)

This story prompted responses from both sides on ABC's webpage such as...

"The reporter is at fault. Why would should put her face down into a strange dogs face? He clearly felt threatened and she should have known better. The dog is not at fault and she owes her viewers an apology. I tell my children to respect a dogs space and they are 3 and 7 and know this why didn’t this woman? I feel bad for the dog and owner and hope nothing bad happens to the dog because of her ignorance."

and...

"IT WASN’T THE REPORTER’S FAULT. THAT TYPE OF DOG IS AGGRESSIVE, AS ARE PIT-BULLS AND THE LIKE. STOP SAYING THAT THE HUMANS ARE ALWAYS THE BAD ONES OR THE ONES AT FAULT!!! IT’S OLD–REAL OLD!!!!"

See the video here- where the owner describes the dog as an Argentinian Mastiff right before he bites the reporter. Unfortunately, you can see that the reporter was leaning in, petting him all over his face, and goes in for a kiss- which is not how you want to approach a strange dog. I hope this is a lesson for parents and individuals out there who need to learn that dogs are animals- pit bull, dogo, or any other breed- they are animals and they are unpredictable and can get nervous in any situation. Dogs to not have words or hands to defend themselves with- so when they feel threatened, they use their mouths.

Read more.

McDonald's Pit Bull Ad

Finally McDonald's pulled a radio ad that said that eating a Chicken McBite was less dangerous than petting a stray pit bull. Thanks Mickey D's-- but my dog was a stray pit bull once, and I can assure you, petting him is a lot safer than eating your "meat."

Listen to the add here.

First of all, why did they need to air a radio ad saying how safe eating their food is? Well, perhaps because this photo of the "pre-chicken nugget "meat" paste that they use to make their nuggets was leaked onto the internet. Read about how its made below:

Someone figured out in the 1960s that meat processors can eek out a few more percent of profit from chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows by scraping the bones 100% clean of meat. This is done by machines, not humans, by passing bones leftover after the initial cutting through a high pressure sieve. The paste you see in the picture above is the result. There's more: because it's crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia... Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color. Read more.

Not only does their food barely qualify as "food," their advertising agency clearly is failing as well. Due to an overwhelming internet response, McDonald's had to issue the following apology:

"The ad was insensitive in its mention of pit bulls. We apologize. As soon as we learned of it, we tracked the source and had the local markets pull the ad immediately. We'll do a better job next time. It's never our intent to offend anyone with how we communicate news about McDonald's," Ashlee Yingling, spokesman for McDonald's Corp.

Good job boy!

HEY MCDONALDS- My Rescued pit bull was a stray!

No "Bones" about it...

NBC's Bones' creator and author of the best-selling "Bones" series, Kathy Reichs, has a prejudice against Pit bulls. As a faithful watcher of her show and a loyal reader of her book series (I've now read about half of them), I've started to pick up on some distrubing trends. I love her series and her books, but this is yet another example of the pit bull stereotype being propagated without any basis and without really adding much to the story. It is unclear how much experience Reichs has with pit bulls, but based on the way she describes them, I doubt she has much.

Whenever Reichs refers to a strong, threatening or menacing character, she says he looks like a pit bull. I'd say it happens at least once-three times per novel.

Recently, while reading Fatal Voyage, I came across this scene:

A tow-truck has just picked Dr. Temperence Brennan up and she is entering the shop with her dog, Boyd, a chow-mix, who is described simply as "protective" when growling at the pit. (FYI- a breed that also may have some difficulties getting adopted because of its bad breeding practices that have led to some aggressive tenancies- read more)

"The flesh on Boyd's snout compressed against his gums. His body tensed. The growl deepened [...] Bowman met us with a length of rope. 'Had this in back,' he said. 'Flush can be peevish.' ... Crossing the lot, I stepped through the door and circled Flush. An ear twitched, but he didn't look up. Maybe pit bulls are calm because they are secure in the belief that they can kill anyone or anything that provokes them. I hoped Boyd would keep quiet and keep him distance [...] Boyd was straining at his collar, every fiber focused on the pit bull. Flush was either sleeping or playing possum, waiting for the chow to approach."

Sarcastically, she adds... "The garage had the usual tasteful garage appointments. A calendar ... a cigarette machine [...] Three kitchen chairs. A pit bull."

This fine art photo is for sale by Etsy photographer Andra Lara for $25, click here.

So so many things about this passage disappoint me as a pit bull owner, who knows that my dogs are not different from other breeds (particularly Chows), and neither of whom would be as well behaved as Flush is described. (Winnie would attack Tempe with wiggles and jump on her waist, and Bruno would bark and wag, alerting everyone of the stranger present.)

Nothing in the passage about Flush was menacing, and yet, because he is a pit bull, something is conveyed to the reading audience, that she or Boyd are in danger. Even while laying sweetly, he is somehow described as suspicious... playing possum perhaps.

I seriously recommend Kathy Reich's books, they are intriguing, scientific, have great character development, and get me through me 3 hours of commuting each day, but hope that perhaps with a well-written letter (and a picture of my sweet pit bulls) I can convince her to stop referring to them so negatively in her best-selling books.