by Linda Zirion

Created on: October 22, 2008   Last Updated: October 27, 2008

Animal Rights and Issues

Bull dogs and terriers the ancestors of pit bull originated in England. Originally bred to rid the English farmers of pesky critters that would burrow everywhere, ruining crops, damaging property, and spreading disease. The English started fighting these animals but had much more civilized rules. Ex. (1)"bred to be intelligent and level-headed during fights and remain non-aggressive toward their handlers. Part of the standard for organized dog-fighting required that the match referee who is unacquainted with the dog be able to enter the ring, pick up a dog while it was engaged in a fight, and get the respective owner to carry it out of the ring without being bitten. Dogs that bit the referee were culled." The animal was usually between 35 and 45 lbs., a digging machine, with powerful jaws to lock onto ground vermin and pull them out of their burrows. As this breed came into existence and became better known they also became one of the most desired pets in England because of their "family qualities." They even became known as the babysitters of children or the "Nanny Dog."

In the mid 1800 the animals came to America. We bred them to be larger and stockier for farm work and for fighting purposes. So the breeding changes began and the American Pit Bull came into existence. Dog fighting rings have been in the world for a very long time and of course discovering this wonderful animal - and knew money could be made - its one "pit" fall of course was it wasn't bread to be aggressive.

It does beg to mention the "wanna be" fighting dog owner. Probably got their hands on a pup that was well bred and decided it would be "fun" to fight it. These are usually younger people that haven't developed a brain yet! We also need to remember that there are also those owners that have never raised a decent animal in their lives no matter what breed! And of course there are those among us that want a "tough" dog so that we can be "cool."

Now if you've ever checked into how some fighting dogs are bred it is really quite inhumane. Some breeders go so far as to feed the female, carrying pups, gun powder to blow the pups brains and make them unstable. They cull the litters from usually ten to twelve, down to six or seven. They feed the live culled weakest pups to older pups to give them that "taste of live blood." These breeders aggress these pups from such an early age that it's impossible to imagine turning this pup into a family animal. The dogs that just still will not fight are used as bait dogs to rile up the fighters before a fight. The humans will go so far as to tape the bait dogs mouth shut to make sure their fighting animal is not hurt before the fight. The risks are too high to consider getting attached to one of these animals that have been purposefully bred for fighting.

Many dog breeds are lumped into the pit bull title so that a lot of times what the media is calling a pit bull is not. I truly believe when the media gets hold of one of these stories they need to look very closely at the animal's history and where it came from. Instead of just going after the breed as a whole they need to report on the background of the animal as well as the owner and breeder. Dog fighting breeders need to be exposed by both law enforcement as well as the media.

People that only want a wonderful pet for their families need to be educated by the media. They need to stay away from animals that have been bred in a way that their stability is an issue, and there needs to be a good follow up on breeders that are turned in by individuals that spot these types of breeders.
(1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_Bull

Learn more about this author, Linda Zirion.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.