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!

Winner and Loser of the Week

Winner: Gap, Inc.


Pit Bulls in Main Stream Advertising


In an effort to "democratize fashion" and boost authenticity of its 1969 brand (launched in 2009) the Gap has gone behind the scenes- showing their offices in recent advertisements and even including their office-dog, Louie, a caramel-colored pit mix! Their new market? "Downtown, semi-hipster, artsy folk" (might I also add, Pit bull owners?)

Louie, now named the "Denim Mascot" has received mostly positive press. While 238 people "like" his commercial on facebook (below), one user wrote "I don't think a Pit Bull in a Gap commercial is a great idea for an international company as it's illegal to have them unmuzzled in public or breed from them in the UK."  (Funny thing- because this article from the dailymail.co.uk doesn't seem to have a problem featuring an adorable shot of Louie in its article.) Luckily, her comments was met with rebuke and the rest of the comments were all positive.

Read more here.



Loser: Pitbull, the Rapper

Mis-using the Mis-understood

This man sadly has chosen the name Pitbull for himself.

Singer/Rapper Pitbull (aka Armando Christian Perez) is said to have chosen the name pitbull because, "they bite to lock. The dog is too stupid to lose. And they're outlawed in Dade County. They're basically everything that I am. It's been a constant fight."(Washington Post, 2004.)

All completely false. First of all, they do not bite to lock- no animal's jaws can actually lock, but they do have a very powerful bite and can hold on longer than most dogs and actually has a lower "pressure per square inch" than German Shepherds and Rottweilers. (Watch the bite force competition here.)

Also, they are not "too stupid to lose"- they are dedicated to their owners and will do what they are told when manipulated with drugs, starvation, and lack of companionship. They are in fact capable of many things other than fighting. TheRealPitBull.com writes, "The truth of the matter is that the Pit Bull is one of the most versatile of canines, capable of excelling at just about any task his owner asks him to complete. This breed is routinely used for: obedience trialing,  conformation showing, weight pull, Schutzhund (a German sport which requires dogs to perform in obedience, tracking and protection phases of a competition), agility, and have even been known to participate in herding trials, search and rescue work, and a variety of other tasks including police and armed services work. But fanciers will argue that the task this breed performs best of all is that of beloved companion."

The long and the short of it? Buy Gap and not Pitbull's music!

Urgent Part 2 on the news:

16 thousand Fans in less than 1 year, hundreds of dogs saved from euthanasia and finally some publicity!

 

View more videos at: http://www.nbcnewyork.com.

Unfortunately, in these video- Julie Blank (ACC) feels facebook pages and rescue groups encourage people to adopt dangerous animals. Not true. Most of the animals saved were sick - and dogs that have severe ratings- are not taken lightly- most are in fact put to sleep, and if by some chance they are rescued- it is because someone trusted the words of volunteers who had first hand knowledge that the dogs evaluation was wrong.
Also, I haven't heard of any of these rescues back firing-- what I have heard is stories about how the temperament tests were wrong and how lucky the rescuers are to have these animals as part of their families.

To read Urgent's response to Julie Blank- who apparently has nothing nice to say about the thousands of dogs saved through face book, click here.

New about Pits

A brief google news search yields many unfortunate stories about "Pit bull attacks." But many of them are misleading, and many of the dogs alleged to have "attacked" are mis-labled.

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.