So? He makes more in a month then we do in a lifetime. Cry me a river. :rolleyes: He wasn’t put out by this, nor was his pet. Gosh, he had to buy his multi-million $$ mansion in another town. Boo-hoo.
Look, sure, pit bulls make great pets- because they are dogs. But so do yorkies, collies, irish setters, labs, and a hundred other breeds, none of whom are bred for fighting. No one breeds yorkies for the pit, nor would anyone pay to watch a couple of them go at each other. So, if we stop dudes from breeding pit bulls, it basically puts dog fighters out of business, which is a great thing for dogs and dog lovers everywhere.
Breeding pit bulls needs to be made illegal. Everywhere. No matter what you call them.
If you have seen how those dogs are bred and raised, if you have seen them torn to shreds after a fight, if you have seen them put down by the Humane Society as they can’t be saved, you’d agree.
Nobody is arguing with you (that I see) that breeding pitbulls should be made illegal. You made it sound like you disbelieved that they went after family dogs that aren’t being used for breeding. I’ve pointed out that they do, even if you’re a rich and famous dude.
If you’re interested, you could do a little cursory Googling yourself, you know. It’s easy. Stuff like this is all over the Internet.
Here’s just one particularly heart-wrenching case:
Let’s check off some boxes, shall we?
[ul]
[li]Family dog[/li][li]Not dogfighting operation[/li][li]Not pit bull (American Bulldog/Lab mix – note American Bulldogs are not pit bulls)[/li][li]Misidentified by untrained law enforcement[/li][li]Executed despite public pleas and international uproar[/li][/ul]
You aren’t stupid, so I have to assume your claim that there are other “non-fighting” breeds people could keep instead of pit bulls indicates only that you haven’t been following the news on this topic:
People have fought other breeds of dogs, fish, chickens, finches, and there are Japanese websites which stage fights between various insects and arthropods. People absolutely have paid money to watch small terriers fight rats. The common denominator is a dangerous monster we should all be concerned about – the human who does this sort of thing.
The question at hand is how the determination that a dog is a “pit bull” is made. Please direct your replies to that specific question. Let’s not get derailed into a debate on whether or not such dogs should be illegal. If you want to discuss that, please open a new thread in Great Debates.
If this discussion becomes any more acrimonious, I will close the thread.
Threads like this scare the crap out of me because I have an American Bulldog (mixed), but people think she’s a pitbull. She’s twice the size of a staffie/APBT and doesn’t suit the breed standard for anything close to a pitbull. Yet, people call her one and think she’s just a big pittie. I’m super overprotective of her with people and other dogs in public because if she startles and barks, I’m afraid someone will cry “pitbull attack!” and have her seized/put down/some other tragedy. I’m not aware of any breed-specific legislation in my area, but it bothers me that a pet owner doesn’t seem to have any rights in areas where this type of legislation gets passed.
Breeding and baiting any kind of dog for pit fighting should (and probably is in most places) illegal, but breed-specific legislation doesn’t really protect anyone from what I can see.
It was the finch-fighting link, wasn’t it? (Colibri’s a “bird guy.”)
As I tried to impart in earlier posts, there’s not perfect agreement on the answer to this question.
Diane Jessup, author of several books about pit bulls, certified Police K9 Instructor, and founder of LawDogs USA, a program to make trained pit bulls available to law enforcement agencies as detection (not attack) dogs, is of the decided opinion that the term “pit bull” should apply ONLY to the American Pit Bull Terrier, and not to the other two breeds traditionally considered “pit bulls,” the AmStaff and StaffyBull. Although Jessup probably does count as “an authority” on the subject, her opinion seems to be decidedly in the minority, even to the point of being an outlier. The more dominant traditional view is as I have mentioned above: APBT, AmStaff, StaffyBull.
An additionally confusing issue is that a new breed may be emerging. For some time now, some people have been deliberately breeding bulkier, heavier, “wide-body” dogs by out-crossing APBTs with mastiffs and the like, and marketing them as “pit bulls,” despite the resulting dogs not looking very much like the lean, athletic, medium-sized APBTs. This caused some push-back by traditionalists. After considerable talk, there seems to be a general trend toward identifying these larger, wider dogs as a new bully breed, the “American Bully,” but it’s like adoption of a new word into language – no one can really say if it will catch on over the long run and become the consensus. If so, the AmBully would become the fourth commonly-recognized “pit bull” breed.
Breed-specific legislation can be “all over the map” in how each jurisdiction defines “pit-bull-type dogs.” For examples, see the Wikipedia article.
One sample how “pit bull” is defined in breed-specific legislation:
[QUOTE]
City of Kearney, Missouri:
“Pit bull dog” is defined to mean:
[ol]
[li] The bull terrier breed of dog;[/li][li] Staffordshire bull terrier breed of dog;[/li][li] The American pit bull terrier breed of dog;[/li][li] The American Staffordshire terrier breed of dog;[/li][li] Dogs of mixed breed or other breeds than above listed which breed or mixed breed is known as pit bulls, pit bull dogs or pit bull terriers;[/li][li] Any dog which has the appearance and characteristics of being predominantly of the breeds of bull terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier; any other breed commonly known as pit bulls, pit bull dogs or pit bull terriers or a combination of any of these breeds.[/li][li] A pit bull may be identified as any dog which exhibits those distinguishing characteristics that substantially conform to the standards established by the American Kennel Club or United Kennel Club as described in the identification checklist which is on file in the City offices. An identification using the above standards shall be prima facie proof and create a rebuttable presumption that a dog is a pit bull."[/ol][/li][/QUOTE]
The American Bar Association discusses who gets to define “pit bull” is for legal purposes here:
IMHO, that sounds consonant with my claims elsewhere in this thread.
(Colibri’s a “bird guy.”)