South Africa has been rocked by the recent spate of vicious attacks by pit bull dogs, particularly on children, many of them fatal. These attacks have led to a backlash against the breed, with one community taking the law into their own hands, killing three pit bulls and setting them alight.
With widespread calls to ban the seemingly dangerous breed, one has to ask, why are pit bulls so aggressive?
According to Highland Canine, a US-based dog training service, “pit bulls were created by breeding bulldogs and terriers together to produce a dog that combined the quick gameness and agility of the terrier with the strength of the bulldog.”
The breed can trace its history back nearly a thousand years to Europe, where they were used in blood sports such as bull baiting, bear baiting and dog fighting.
As British animal welfare improved, these blood sports were banned in 1835, but dogfights, which were cheaper to organise and far easier to conceal from the law, became more prevalent.
“In the early 1900s, dog fighting was used as both a blood sport (often involving gambling) and a way to continue to test the quality of their stock. For decades afterwards, dog fighting clandestinely took place in small areas of Britain and America,” said Highland Canine.
Since then, pit bulls have been selectively bred for their fighting prowess. Selective breeding would involve taking the most aggressive pup from a litter and breeding it to a proven fighting dog, creating a litter of naturally aggressive pups.
Often, this can lead to aggression issues, no matter how much you socialise your dog.
Usually, it’s animal aggression, but occasionally they have turned on their owners or neighbours, as we’ve recently seen in South Africa.
The organisation said that there are records of pit bulls behaving really well with other dogs for a number of years and then suddenly turning violent.
“It truly is not their fault. It’s simply human error. We have destroyed this breed. Many of our clients who are pit bull owners have to sign up for our board and training programmes to get control of their dog and maintain the training so they can take their dogs for walks in public. However, many are still unable to turn them loose to play with other dogs,” it said.
Are there solutions to this rising problem?
Highland Canine offered three possible solutions, with the first line of defence being to spay and neuter individuals of the breed. The second solution would be to control the breeding rights of pit bulls, which it admits would be very difficult to keep track of.
“The third step is to train, train, train, and adopt out to experienced dog owners.” An experienced dog owner would understand the breed and can give them exercise but always use caution when left alone with other dogs and small children.
The organisation said that people must not forget that “these dogs were bred for aggression. It is hard-wired into their brain, which makes them unpredictable.”
Pit bulls can be cute and, when loved, can be one of the best companions for humans, but there needs to be that voice in the back of your mind that reminds you what they are bred for, to fight to the death.
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