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Sitting
on the fence? Please read the following exchange between
an animal right activist and someone questioning the
sport
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Q: I've
gained most of my knowledge and respect for this breed by
reading books from pro-fighting authors. I can understand
there pro-fight argument but in the back of my mind, I can't
positively say matching these dogs is needed. So, I am asking
you to "persuade" me. Give me the other side of
the story that I don't hear from these dogmen. I recently
just started looking through these PitBull websites and I'm
astonished at the number of dogmen listed. I don't know whether
their enthusiasm is in the breed or the "sport".
If you've got the time, help me come to a conclusion. Thanks.
A:
You state that you have seen many web sites on the Internet
devoted to dogmen and their ideas on breeding and treatment
of American Pit Bull Terriers. I too, have seen the web sites.
You should be aware that no special understanding of morals,
or understanding of proper relationships between animals and
humans is required to launch a web site. The reality of the
situation PitBull dogs face is much different from the picture
dogmen paint of dogs "wanting" to fight. Another
reality is that anyone with compassion for animals for one
second would not try to justify what these scumbags do to
the animals they raise.
First
of all, these animals are born into the situation these dogmen
create for them. They never know real companionship. They
are EXPLOITED. These dogmen demand aggression from these animals,
and it is the only trait which is acceptable, and the only
trait which, after continued culling, is tolerated. What do
you think really happens to a dog that does not meet those
expectations? I can tell you that it is done away with, either
just set free in some community, to become the responsibility
of some rescue person, or worse, then it is picked up by some
animal control officer to become the ward of some shelter
with a "kill" policy regarding Pitbulls and PitBull
mixes, or, they simply take it out back and shoot it, if they
have no immediate need to make a "bait" dog out
of it. I'm sure you know what a "bait" dog is, and
the moral implications of that.
These
people are, for the most part, just as cold and heartless
toward humans as they are the dogs. Most are bigots, some
are even felons with long rap sheets you can verify just by
asking any law enforcement personnel to run their record.
Moreover, it is the lack of human compassion that allows these
cowards to feel that two dogs tearing themselves apart are
competing is some "noble sport". Even if they were,
these scumbags steal the glory the dogs exhibit, and wave
it around as if it were their own. What kind of human could
consider that an accomplishment? In reality, they use it to
bolster their own useless ego.
I
have been involved with PitBull rescue for only six months,
and I have met several of these idiots. No thinking, compassionate
individual would want to be associated with them. You need
not ask that someone help you make a decision about the worth
of this lifestyle choice. All you need to do is walk into
a kill shelter and look into the faces of seized PitBull dogs
who have no chance of being adopted because of the reputation
dogmen give them, and the fear that the general public has
of PitBull dogs, because of the utter mess these scumbags
have made of the breed.
It
is a shame so many of the dogs are put down, because I can
take a dog away from one of them and in six months totally
reeducate it and resocialize it so that the animal aggression
these scumbags have tried so hard to instill in it can be
controlled. I have done it, and I wish I had the time to do
it more. But as long as people can look at these web sites
and not see the big picture, I will see more dogs than I can
ever help turned into cold slabs of flesh at some kill shelter,
even if the poor animal makes it away from these idiots. Are
you going to look at this evidence and not condemn these scumbags
also? Are you going to ignore what is happening across the
country with communities drawing up breed bans by the thousands?
Are you going to participate in activities which make these
dogs non-adoptable, even if they have responsible people willing
to take them as family pets, and give them the attention they
need?
How
much attention do you believe a man with 30 dogs can give
each dog? These dogs are PROPERTY, and only that to them.
These dogs never get to experience the love that one man can
give one dog. Dogs should not be TOYS for humans to exploit.
They should not be bred for profit, and they certainly should
not have to suffer the things these sub-humans force on them.
These dogs should be helped, and be made safe, and be free
from fear. What these dogmen call gameness is nothing more
than "fight or flight" after being raised to know
nothing else. Is that what you think an animal should be faced
with as the purpose of his life? Sure some of them seem to
excel at it. PitBull dogs want very much to please their owners.
So they do their owners' bidding. But you need to try very
hard to put yourself in the place of these dogs, and think
about their treatment, and how you could make their lives
better, and join the ranks who would call law enforcement
in a second if they know of a planned dog fight, and be proud
to have done it. Maybe if the idiots spend about 5 years in
jail, they would begin to understand life in a cage, watching
their back in fear every time another animal (and I use that
term intentionally) is allowed near them, after all, that
is the life they have given their dogs.
Q:
What about "gameness"? To my understanding, I thought
that was the only factor that made PitBulls so distinct from
any other breeds, including AmStaffs. I thought gameness is
THE factor that makes the PitBull unsurpassable in the pit
(I'm not saying I condone fighting, merely stating the obvious).
To my understanding, some authors speak of gameness not as
mere aggression but as an unconquerable will, dogs with the
heart of a lion. They include pit stories that state that
its not the "barnstormers" that win but the dog
that keeps coming back for more.
A:
Pitbulls are not so distinct from any other breeds, they love,
play, fear, hurt, and die just like any other. This myth of
separation from other breeds in all aspects of their being,
is part of the exploitation rhetoric these scumbags would
have you believe. They are either responsible for, or benefit
from these categorizations of their dogs natural instincts
for survival. There are only two drives these dogs have when
placed in a pit, that is "fight or flight". It is
as simple as that. It is an age old reaction to confrontation
that even humans share. It is a self preservation action not
dependent on anything but a will to live. Sure, you can breed
for physical traits, and along with that comes the increased
ability to win a fight. But, the larger issue here is what
would the dog do in the wild, without a circle of ignorant,
poorly educated, bigoted, sub-humans enclosing, and entrapping
them in confrontation, and reinforcing that with every aspect
of the dogs life, including what they call gametesting. Every
time the dog meets another dog it just another period of supported
aggression by its owner.
Of
all the animals on this planet, no other has so willingly
left its former life behind for humans, to live with us and
to protect us. The benefits are supposed to be MUTUAL, that
is the only moral way to address it. Is allowing dogmen to
get away with this stupidity the way we should treat former
scavengers who approached our camp fires thousands of years
ago only to end up protecting us and acting as a night watchmen
for us? After thousands of years, they have been subjected
to being molded into our own concepts of what we think they
should be. They have deeded their lives to us, and we have
exploited them in every way. Dog fighting is the worst of
this exploitation.
Q:
I know most law enforcement agencies import dogs from Germany
due to the high quality strains (In contrast to the diluted
gene pool of most AKC breeds in America), since they have
bred Schuntzhund titled dogs since the early century. Does
that mean that the only way to continue a high standard in
pit bulls is to breed game dogs (which is thus tested in the
pit)? Because the "serious" dogman states that he
is just continuing the heritage of the breed... keeping the
PitBull pure.
AmStaffs
are not bred for gameness, and yet, they can be aggressive.
So that blows the theory of gametesting to achieve benefit.
But, you put too much store in gene pools and the like. Selective
breeding can be a bad thing. Some mutts are better genetically
than the most highly selected breeding program dogs. Man usually
ruins nature when he decides to modify it. It is true with
dogs also. Dogs that can't breathe well, dogs with bad backs,
dogs with hip problems, dogs with heart problems..... look
at the record of breed specific problems. They were all healthy
wolves at one time!
Personally,
I don't desire to own anything an ignorant, bigoted, scumbag,
who would derive joy from seeing two animals tear themselves
apart, has had before me, including dogs, but it is for the
sake of a captive creature who cannot determine its own destiny
that I work in rescue.
"Keeping
the PitBull pure? Yes, purely dead, if not purely maimed,
if not purely done away with by abandonment when they don't
excel in the scumbags eyes, and then purely homeless, if not,
purely captured, and purely PUT DOWN by a society that purely
doesn't understand their aggressiveness.
Please
throw out the pro-pit fighting books, better yet, keep them
for fire starting this winter, and save some PitBull dog waiting
right this minute in a shelter not far from you.
Rod
Jones
castlecain@mindspring.com
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An
Entertainer Speaks Out
Bill
Goldberg knows something about dogs. He used to play football
for the University of Georgia Bulldogs. Now, he's a world-known
wrestler. Yet one of his biggest passions involves rescuing
dogs from what he calls the "insanity of dogfighting."
Goldberg has testified before Congress asking for tougher
animal abuse legislation. He told us he'd like to find dogfighters
"one by one and take them into a ring against their will
and show them how it really feels." He says entertainers
like DMX are wrong to use dogfighting as a selling point for
their music.
BRED
TO DIE
"Completely
lacking in conscience and feelings for others, psychopaths
selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating
social norms and expectations without the slightest sense
of guilt or regret." Robert
D Hare, "Without Conscience"
INSANITY
WITHOUT DELIRIUM
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