01-28-2009, 08:03 PM
I see myself making arguments on both sides of this issue. With regard to temperament, pit bulls of one variety or another have been bred for fighting for at least a couple of hundred years. To suggest that they are no different than any other dog is to say that the people who bred greyhounds to run 50 mph succeeded quite obviously but somehow the people who worked just as hard at breeding a better fighter not only failed but never noticed that they were failing to make progress towards their goal. You can't have it both ways. Certain varieties of pit bull have more of a hair trigger and also I believe have a reduced ability to feel pain. If over a hundred generations you kill every dog that refuses to fight and keep patching up those that do fight, you could not get anything else really.
On the other hand, you can condition any dog to be dangerous, and I am sure that you can train and socialize almost any dog to behave properly. It is impossible to separate the innate tendencies of the dog itself from the effect of being chosen and trained by someone who selected the dog specifically with an eye towards accentuating those tendencies. Mostly, I don't see how government can deal with determining what breed a dog is unless it is a pure breed. Ironically, I think that pure bred American Pit Bull Terriers are recognized by those that know as being of stable temperament.
The real answer is enforcing responsible dog ownership. However dog fighting is already illegal but it still goes on. I don't support a ban because it is really just a band-aid, but for my own sanity I need to stop hearing people pretend that hundreds of generations of concerted breeding effort has conveniently failed in the case of pit bulls while it has miraculously succeeded in the case of irish wolfhounds and dachshunds.
On the other hand, you can condition any dog to be dangerous, and I am sure that you can train and socialize almost any dog to behave properly. It is impossible to separate the innate tendencies of the dog itself from the effect of being chosen and trained by someone who selected the dog specifically with an eye towards accentuating those tendencies. Mostly, I don't see how government can deal with determining what breed a dog is unless it is a pure breed. Ironically, I think that pure bred American Pit Bull Terriers are recognized by those that know as being of stable temperament.
The real answer is enforcing responsible dog ownership. However dog fighting is already illegal but it still goes on. I don't support a ban because it is really just a band-aid, but for my own sanity I need to stop hearing people pretend that hundreds of generations of concerted breeding effort has conveniently failed in the case of pit bulls while it has miraculously succeeded in the case of irish wolfhounds and dachshunds.