i'm melissa. i'm 22, i go to SCAD for film, and i like fish, mermaids, the color teal, foreign films, and my dogs.
i also have a weight loss blog, fatbttmgurl.tumblr.com
A documentary about the true nature of media-portrayed “vicious” pit bulls and the people who love and defend them.
Not too pleased about the number of dogs in chokes or prongs, and that they got Peace Love Pit Bulls to speak, and they didn’t talk bout how most “Pit Bull attacks” aren’t form Pit Bulls, but other then that good info.
“Breed has nothing to do with aggression”- uhh actually yeah it kind of does, especially since APBT’s have been traditionally bred for gameness, which more often than not includes dog aggressiveness. Breed can also be related to a lack of aggression; APBT’s have been traditionally bred away from human aggressiveness. It works both ways. “It depends on how they’re treated”- more of the ‘it’s how they’re raised’ bullshit. You take a game bred bulldog, raise it perfectly well with tons of socialization, and then tell me ‘oh it must’ve been raised wrong’ when it turns on and starts showing DA. Genetics DO play a major role in this breed [working bred American pit bull terriers, I don’t care much for pet bulls/amstaffs/ukc apbt’s].
“You pull a dog’s tail, you should expect to get bit”. Not in APBT’s. Does that mean an APBT will never ever show HA when it gets poked or pulled? No. But to say that it’s EXPECTED? Good job defending the breed. Man biters get put down in the working APBT world, period. “If they’re socialized, you will not have a problem.” - with HA or DA? DA is normal in the breed… It should not be a surprise when an APBT shows it. It should not be encouraged, and I expect a DA dog to still act politely on a lead around other dogs, but APBT’s are not meant to have doggy friends. And the bait dogs shit… Ugh ugh of course you can’t have a video like this complete without BAIT DOGS. Do people not realize that ‘bait dogs’ are a myth produced by the media, and only became fact BECAUSE of this? Stupid cruel thugs only started using ‘bait dogs’ because the media came up with the concept. They’ve never been used otherwise in the history of the game bred APBT.
And then there’s also the fact that any APBT or APBT mix that comes in to a rescue gets labeled as a ‘bait dog’ if it has any scars on it at all. Because obviously a breed prone to dog aggression never gets in any scraps with other dogs on its own, right? Or yard accidents never happen. Well intentioned yet extremely irresponsible owners NEVER leave their dogs alone together resulting in a fight, of course. Idk why people say that ‘these dogs would do anything for us, even fight for us’- they were fought because they’d been bred to, not because they made a conscious decision ‘I will do anything my owner wants me to including fighting other dogs!!’ A turned on game bred bulldog doesn’t need much encouragement from its handler to want to go after another dog.
“We have to treat each dog as a separate individual case”- I think that’s the only good advice I’ve heard out of this, lol. Yes, APBT’s are genetically prone to DA… Does that mean every APBT will be DA? No. I know plenty of working bred APBT’s who interact fine with other dogs. But it should not be a surprise when an APBT turns out to be DA, and people NEED to be educated on the differences between HA and DA.
Why do these videos only ever focus on pet bulls and bulldog mixes, never the actual breed itself. Then again, the APBT world doesn’t need more new dumb owners thinking these dogs can do no harm, it’s people like that who leave their dogs alone unattended and come home to a dead dog.
You do state some valid points. No dog should be looked upon as not aggressive before you know what makes it tick, but yet again you shouldn’t state all dogs from one breed are aggressive (to animals or people). Pit Bull breeds all branched out from the same dogs. My APBT ancestors probably fought, does that mean he’s dog/animal aggressive, no. It is in his genetics to be, his vet even suspects him to have been bred from fighting/game dogs because of his muscle build, but he is no where near dog aggressive. You can’t judge a dog by their breed unless you get to know it, even advocates will judge a dog on it’s breed… which is like judging a dog on it’s looks. Get to know a certain dog before judging it.
There is NO different in “Pet Bulls” and “Pit Bulls”, that’s just bullcrap. I state that because I know dogs bred for fighting that were rehabilitated into family dogs, who happen to live with other pets, kids, and dogs. Have you heard of Hector the Pit Bull? He was a Vick dog, actually his prized fighter. He was scarred, had missing teeth, half his tongue is missing. They expect him to be the most dog aggressive out of all the rescued Pit Bulls, come to find out he was the most dog friendliest. He’s now a therapy dog. He was surely bred to be dog aggressive, but he simply wasn’t. He did what he had to do to stay alive.
Dogs are NOT wolves, but they were bred from wolves. Even wolves wouldn’t fight to kill. That is not natural. A dog can be dog aggressive, but they need a lot of training and abuse to make them to a point on where they want to kill the other dog. Most dogs (and animals) fight till one gives up, that’s normal. It is rare for an animal from the same species attacks to kill. That is a human trait, not a dogs. Point is, dogs are FORCED to fight.
I was once told by an ex-dogfighter that you are lucky out of a litter of 8 puppies that one will be remotely dog aggressive, and they surly bred their dogs to be dog aggressive.
To be honest, there was a lot of faults in this video, I do agree with you there. Like “they need to be raised as a puppy to be friendly”, that’s just crap. My man was abused and then dumped, he surely wasn’t taken the best care of but ended up a sweet heart.
I think one of advocates biggest faults are stating things like “if they are properly raised”, and things like that. That could damage the shelter dogs trying to find homes reps more.
I do however agree whole heartily about dogs being individuals… But that means no one set of breed is dog aggressive. Aggression can be genetic, but that’s not breed specific.
I never stated that all APBT’s are DA, only that you should not be surprised if your APBT turns out to be DA, since they’ve been bred for gameness since the early 1900’s. And yes, there is a difference in pet bulls and APBT’s. I don’t particularly like bulldog mixes, I have no intention of ever owning one, I like game bred working animals. Pet bull owners are not helping the breed AT ALL in most cases, by calling their dogs pit bulls when there’s only one breed with ‘pit bull’ in the name, and that is the APBT. People need to be educated and understand that not all of these dogs are the same, that there are different breeds, and most of what ends up in shelters and you see in these mini documentaries are mixes.
Rehabilitated? Why does a matching dog need to be rehabilitated? I’ve spoken to dogmen who’ve owned and bred dogs for matching, their dogs are perfect family animals… And like I said, not every game bred dog is full blown DA; I know of many who are only dog aggressive, bitch aggressive, etc. [although honestly I seriously doubt any of Vick’s dogs were truly game bred]. I never said that DA was a natural canine behaviour, but when we’ve bred these dogs for gameness which includes DA for over 100 years, it’s fair to say that it is natural within the breed. I’d like to see someone try and ‘rehabilitate’ a Jeep/Nigerino dog from down south. No, the dogs are not FORCED to fight. Not in the least. You saying that tells me that you simply don’t know anything about game dogs or the history of the breed.
And the ‘dogfighter’ you spoke to must not have had very good dogs, because litters bred to the ADBA/AADR APBT conformation world all usually turn out DA to some degree… The dogs have never been forced to fight. Generally, in the history of dog matching, a dog is rolled to test its gameness, and a dog that doesn’t show a desire to match is typically used in breeding or culled [neutered and sold]. A cur [a dog that ran], on the other hand, was usually killed. The history of the development of the American pit bull terrier [also called bulldog by breed fanciers] is a lot more complex than pet bull people think it is, I really suggest reading up on it [here’s a good place for resources]. I’m not saying that you don’t know anything about bulldog breeds in general, but, in my experience, pet bull/bully type breed enthusiasts generally don’t know anything about actual APBT’s.
And before anyone accuses me of ‘defending dog fighters’, because people generally do when someone is knowledgeable about the history and development of the breed, I’m a vegan, and I would definitely consider that unethical. But just because I don’t agree with it doesn’t mean I can’t educate myself on it.
