AN OPEN LETTER TO ANYONE UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH
TO HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED THE LOVE
OF AN AMERICAN PIT BULL TERRIER...
Why Do You Hate Us So?
I’m just a dog… no more, no less. I haven’t done anything to you. But you want me dead. All I want is to love you and be loved.
My human gets angry and hurt by the stories of policemen shooting our kind. But why do you get mad about that? You want us dead.
Sometimes just because a dog looks like us, they are condemned. WHY? If humans do that, they are prejudiced. But you all are much worse than that. I don’t hate you - I only want to love you. I can’t tell you how much it hurts me that you won’t give me a chance. And how much it hurts me that there are sorry low-life people on this earth that don’t care any more about us than you do, but choose to over breed us, drug us, and abuse us.
Did you know we were the number one abused breed in the United States? But you don’t care. You like it that way, don’t you? Isn’t that what you want, for us to suffer? Why not? You don’t like us, and you don’t support the few that are trying to stand up for us… All we want is to be loved and to have a happy home of our own.
But, instead, people choose to ignore us or abuse us. We’re the #1 abused breed because we can put up with so much more than most other breeds can - and survive it… But that isn’t always good. That just means that we are subjected to that much more horror and mistreatment than other dogs. Why? Why us? And why can’t you give us a chance?
Did you know that, if given half a chance, we could change your minds forever? Do you know that many of us have been adopted to new homes - with a member of that family not really wanting us, but by giving us a chance, they found the best friend they could ever have?! People like to say it’s all in how we are raised… and that’s true, to an extent. But I like to say that it’s more like it’s all in what our owner expects of us - what behavior our owner praises… If they want us to fight, we will - because we want to please our owners. But what you all don’t know is that just because we are prone to fight other dogs, we are not people-aggressive. In fact, those of us who were bred over the decades to be nothing but fighting dogs are the least human aggressive dogs of any breed. Why? Because those of us that may have shown any inkling of human aggression were culled out. But there are some jerks that try to breed us to be fighting dogs these days that think the more human aggressive we are, the better fighters we will be. They think (because the media taught them) that little dogs and kittens need to be used as what they call ‘bait’ animals to train us to fight. But this is ridiculous… That’s like teaching a boxer to fight by taking him to an elementary school during recess to beat up little kids. How would that boost his ego? It would do nothing for us as a dog, either.
We can’t deny that there do seem to be more attacks these days. That is true for any breed of dog, not just us. We just get the most blame. Did you know that in many, many cases the breed in question isn’t even a bulldog? We are misidentified more than any other breed out there. I would be willing to bet you don’t even know what we look like. I bet if I showed you 30 pictures of different breeds, with only one being a pit bull, that you couldn’t pick me out.
Would it surprise you to know that the #1 breed as far as biting is the Dachsund? Followed by the Cocker Spaniel? It probably would. But that also depends on which study you look at. What statistics you choose to believe. But statistics can be manipulated to fit whatever side you’re on… So, we don’t place our faith in statistics… or the media. We place our beliefs in what we know. We know we aren’t all bad dogs. We know any other breed isn’t all bad. It has nothing to do with the breed, itself. And everything to do with the idiots that breed with no knowledge of what they are doing. Breeding to make a buck. There’s no money in breeding - not if you do it right. But people don’t care. People hate us. People condemn us. People abuse us. People abandon us. People fight us. People kill us. People want us dead. Why?
Have you ever even met a pit bull? A ‘real’ pit bull - not this new, muscle-bound, 6” tall, 180 lb ‘bully’ breed they’re coming up with now. That’s the problem that doesn’t help our case - people breeding for extreme looks, with no regard to temperament or genetics.
Did you know that blue and white are recessive genes - and not desirable? Blue and white colored ‘pit bull’ type dogs are prone to all sorts of problems - mostly skin issues - among other health issues. Alot of us have medical problems that owners don’t understand, and fill us full of steroids to try to ‘fix’ us. But this doesn’t always help - and steroids do to us what they do to humans that abuse them. It makes us angry and we don’t know how to tell you how we are feeling… but you don’t care. You hate us and want us dead. You look for any reason to kill us.
Like the cop that walked by a parked van with a young black dog inside. When he walked past, the dog barked at him at the window. So, you know what he did? He shot the dog - through the closed window… because he thought it was one of us. He thought it was a ‘pit bull’.... but he wasn’t. He was a young black lab. And you were all outraged. Only if it had been a ‘pit bull’ - maybe then you would be happy? Why?
Do you know that people that own me will tell you that we are the most affectionate, happy-go-lucky, full of life dogs there are? They won’t agree that we are only a dog - no more, no less… They will tell you how wonderful we are and that we are such characters that we will make you laugh every day… But you won’t care - because you know. You’ve heard all the media stories and you have a friend of a friend whose cousin’s wife’s brother saw that a ‘pit bull’ mauled some helpless child. So, you are well educated on this… Now, I’m not saying that no ‘pit bull’ has ever bitten anybody. It happens - with every breed of dog. And I’ll be the first to say that yes, any dog - especially a ‘pit bull’ dog - that bites a human should be put down. A dog - of any breed - should never bite a human. But we also need to look at you - society - as a whole and figure out why these so called attacks are happening more frequently.
We already covered that we are the number one abused and abandoned breed. But you should also know that we are also the number one breed that when rescued - doesn’t act crazy and lash out in fear to our rescuers. The majority of us immediately are thankful and show tremendous love to our rescuers. We understand - although people will argue that we don’t. But we do. We feel. We love. We hurt. We cry. We forgive. But most importantly, again - we love.
We are what you make us to be. We are the most loyal, friendly, adaptive, blamed dog. Any dog that looks like its sire or dam may have even walked by a ‘pit bull’ is deemed vicious… This is ridiculous - do you see how stupid that sounds? We aren’t hurting you - but you are hurting us. You are condemning us. You are killing us - and taking great pleasure in it. But we still forgive you. We don’t understand, but we forgive. And we’ll be forgiving up until we are shot in the head, or gassed in the local shelter, or choked to death by a pole used by ‘animal control’… We loved you, even as we were dying. But you hated us, even after we took our last breath.
Maybe you should take a good, long, hard look at yourselves. Ask why you aren’t in control of your surroundings or kids or dogs enough to allow anything to happen in the first place. We aren’t all on mass killing sprees, just looking for something to maim. Most of the time, if an attack actually happens, it’s because an uneducated, unsupervised human is harassing a dog (again, of any breed). But you don’t like to hear about that. You think you do everything right.
Recently, a four-year old child was attempting to ‘hug’ a leashed ‘pit bull’ dog, with no owner or family around. Nobody asked why the child was alone, and why it thought it was ok to ‘hug’ an unknown dog. People don’t know how to approach any dog - especially kids. People don’t know how to teach their kids how to approach or act around dogs, because they don’t even know.
Ask the person next to you how they go up to an unknown dog… I bet they run up, squealling, flailing their arms in excitement, talking baby talk and patting the dog on the top of the head. That’s the last thing you should do. Be calm, ignore the dog. Ask the owner if you can pet it. Talk normal. Place you hand in front of its nose so he can smell you. Then place your hand under his chin to pet him. Don’t stick your face in his face. Dogs are like people in some ways. If someone you didn’t know came running up, yelling and talking gibberish and started petting you on the head, you’d back up and say, HEY, too. Why is it wrong if we do that? We can’t talk - our owners have to talk for us. But you should know how to act, too. Why don’t you spend your energy learning about dogs - especially being around dogs, even us - before you judge? Why not at least try? Are you afraid you’ll be converted? You should be. Because you will.
Given half a chance, we will change your mind about us. But you have no desire whatsoever to give us that chance. You don’t like us - you hate us. You hate everything and everyone that stands up for us. You don’t support pit bull rescues or shelters or owners. You think they should be shut down along with us being killed. But why? They aren’t hurting you at all. They are helping us - when no one else will. Do we not deserve the help? They are working with those of us that may have issues - man made issues… Issues you gave us by breeding inferior dogs or by condemning us in your cities or towns so that our owners had to give us up. Sometimes we ended up on the streets, left to die of starvation; sometimes low lifes got us and fed us gunpowder or shot us up with meth to make us meaner; sometimes - the lucky ones, died in shelters. But, sometimes - we were rescued. By the very people you don’t support. That’s mighty classy of you. Thank you for having a hand in killing us.
Maybe your breed is next. They are probably some shady little things - biting at heels and sitting on somebody’s boob, shaking and growling. But you think that’s cute - because it’s funny to you that a little, tiny dog does that. Did you know you are supporting aggressive behavior? Pit bull rescues do not support aggressive behavior at all. That makes them better than you, in my eyes. But you hate them. And us. Why are you so superior? I would bet you don’t do everything right. So why condemn those that do everything they can to help us be better dogs? An interesting note of fact is that most pit bull rescues don’t really have to rehabilitate us all that much - it’s the people that they have to work the most with. People don’t know that if a dog is scared, not to comfort it. That just lets the dog know that it’s ok to act like that. Did you know that if two dogs are quarreling, not to pick one up? The one being picked up thinks he is superior over the other dog because he’s higher than the one on the ground… it just makes them want to fight even more. I bet you didn’t know that. I bet everything you think you know about your own dog isn’t 100% correct. So why do you think you know anything about us?
I beg of you to give us a chance. Not the media version of us. Not a friend of a friend of a brother of a cousin version of us. Us. Please, go to a shelter - a pit bull rescue - a pit bull owner - and just visit with one of us. Go in with an open mind. If you go into it thinking you’ll hate us, we will pick up on that. We are much smarter than that. We can give you so much more love and laughter in your heart than you would ever dream we could. Please, please give us that chance. Don’t hate us - love us. We know you aren’t all evil - because we aren’t. But let us prove it to you, by proving it to us.