Who loves dogs? I know I do! There are loads of dog lovers out there. That tiny toy Poodle to the outgoing, playful Golden Retriever, as a dog lover myself, I love these dogs as well. But what if I asked someone if they like Pit Bulls or Rottweilers? I can tell many won’t have the same reaction.
These dogs have a bad rap. Known as the killer dogs; monsters that can never be trained. Also as the most aggressive dogs. Known to be a menace to society. Known to create fights? But this is not true. These statements are all propaganda created by the media and rumours of these dogs supposed misdemeanours have been circulating for many years. Dogs such as Pit bulls are very stereotyped and judged. They may have attacked kids before but that can happen with any breed. These attacks have basically nothing to do with the dog’s breed at all. During the 90s, a pair of Rottweilers attacked an 11 year old girl and then all of the sudden all the Rottweilers were blamed. Newspapers called them “devil dogs” and owners of Rottweilers were scolded just for walking their dogs in public!
Lawmakers wanted to protect citizens so a law was set known as Breed-Specific Legislation (BSL) a law that banned entire breeds.
The UK has banned these breeds:

Japanese Tosa Inu

Fila Brasiliero

Dogo Argentino

Pit bulls

But somehow, Rottweilers weren’t banned. This law also allows anyone to report a dog which is one of the “dangerous” breeds and that dogs would be separated from its owner and euthanised! How horrible is that? It’s ridiculous. Dogs such as mastiffs, Chow Chows, Dobermans and German Shepered have been banned in several places. But the dog which is banned in most places nowadays are Pit bulls. There are time when pit bulls have bitten and even killed children. HOWEVER, these are sad and EXTREMELY rare events that COULD happen with ANY BREED. News reports tend to say these violent events but neglects the part of where the dog is abused, traumatised, starved, neglected, the child was left alone with the dog and other sorts of mistreatment. If a dog attacks, there is always a reason for it, it doesn’t happen for no reason. It seemed that people did not think of it as being one Pit bull being aggressive at one particular time but people being people likes to assume and generalise and end up generalising all pit bulls and started to see and accuse all pit bulls as that one pit bull who was aggressive. So this meant people thought all dogs of this “breed” act alike. But not only is it wrong to judge this by one dog, but pit bulls is not even a breed! It’s a group of four dog breeds:

American pit bull terrier

American Staffordshire terrier

Staffordshire bull terrier

American bulldog

These are the breeds that make up the pit bull group. Therefore, any dog who has the ancestry of one of these four breeds, could be considered a pit bull. Or any breed with a boxy head and a muscular body could be considered a pit bull as that means there is a bit of pit bull ancestry. These means that many people are generalising not only a breed but a group of dog breeds and every single dog with some of ancestry of one of the four breeds of dogs in the pit bull group. This also means that many people are generalising every dog with a boxy head and a muscular body to being “dangerous” by just one dog they’ve heard of in the news! To understand how rare these sad events happen I can tell you that you are 25 times more likely to die by falling out of bed than to get killed by any dog. Pit bulls are also known to be used for dog fighting but they are actually abused to do it, they are forced to do it. They have no choice. If they don’t fight they die. In the dog fighting ring people don’t care about the dog. They just care that the dog would win. Pit bulls were never bred to be aggressive to humans, NEVER.

Golden Retrievers are know to be the “friendliest” dog breed out of all. This also includes people generalising one Golden Retriever to all Golden Retrievers and say that they are all “friendly”. This causes owners to leave the dog and the child alone because they think dog if that breed can be trusted. But Golden Retrievers can also be provoked and attack just like pit bulls. Owners can become reckless. So the child could start to climb on top of the dog and pulling hard on it’s ear. If you do that to every Golden Retriver I can guarantee some will snap and attack the child. Any dog with teeth can lunge and attack. And that includes the easygoing Golden Retriever. A study wanted to see if dogs such as pit bulls, Dobermans and Rottweilers were more aggressive than Golden Retrievers. But the results always shows that Golden Retrievers are as aggressive as dogs such as pit bull, Dobermans and Rottweilers. This means that Golden Retrievers can be as provoked and have the same chances of attacking people. They saw no difference with aggression at all with the Golden Retrievers and pit bulls, Dobermans and Rottweilers. Studies also show that dogs of the same breed can have completely different personalities. A border collie can have as a different of a personality with another border collie as much as it can with a Yorkshire terrier. Dogs are individuals see them as one. Don’t judge their personality by their breed because personality is NOT by breed. Dog breed stereotypes should stop. It causes so much problems from euthanising millions of dogs a year just because of their breed to more people becoming reckless owners. Judge it by the individual itself. Dogs are individuals. Breed-specific legislation doesn’t help stop dog attacks. In fact, the amount of dog attacks increased rapidly after the law was set. More attacks from dogs such as Labs and Golden Retrievers happened. Owners started judging dogs by breed even more so more problems with dogs and owners occured therefore, there were more dog attacks. So not only do breed specific laws not help, but dog attacks increased after the law was set and it shows injustice to so many dogs. Pit bulls are very discriminated against so are many other types of dogs such as Rottweilers. I know of a very friendly, playful 4 year old red nose American Pit Bull Terrier once. His owner moved to a country where there was breed-specific legislation. He was forced to be euthanised. He didn’t do anything wrong. He was a beautiful dog, playful and outgoing. He was healthy but he was killed at such a young age because of his breed. Something he couldn’t control. I know of Rottweilers who were rescued. Very sweet dogs. I know of a Rottweiler who came to me with a wagging tail and a panting tongue. She just wanted affection, she was forced to wear a muzzle because of her breed. She’s a sweetheart. It was painful to know that people who past by think she’s a monstrous dog when she’s not. It’s painful to see people avoiding her because of her breed. It’s even more painful to know that people never got the chance to meet such a lovely, sweet dog because of breed stereotypes. It’s wrong. She was one of the most friendly dogs I’ve met and it’s disappointing to know that when she walks around in public people will judge her. I know many stories of dogs not getting the chance to live a full life because of their breed. They do nothing wrong. Pit bulls are very loyal and amazing dogs but their reputation is destroyed because of irresponsible dog owners. They go through so much injustice and unfair treatments because of their breed. They are banned in so many countries even though they do nothing wrong. When a dog attacks it the owner, not the dog. Never blame the dog they just pick up the energy of the owner. There is no use of breed-specific legislation, it just causes more problems and treats some dogs so unfairly. Dogs which are discriminated against are amazing dogs. Responsible owners prevents dog bites, breed does NOT predict behaviour. Aggression is NOT by breed. Breed-specific legislation means millions of gentle dogs are euthanised and treated unfairly and forced to wear muzzles.

END BREED-SPECIFIC LEGISLATION!!!