The mantra of the Pit Bull apologist is that the blood and gore in the news must be some sort of an illusion, that the real pit bulls are nice, gentle, misunderstood dogs, in no fundamental way different from the pets in our own homes. Their propensity to fight and kill, to go on the rampage when lose in the neighborhood, is attributed to the evil influence of a few unscrupulous people who have come to own them, or the exaggeration of irresponsible elements of the press.
This is utter nonsense, beyond any kind of common sense. Indeed, if every dog was the same, had the same potential, the professional pit perverts would simply pick up dogs at the pound or off the street for their fighting events and save the time, effort and money which goes into a long term selective breeding, training and conditioning program.
Another disingenuous explanation is that these “game bred” dogs are not by nature and breeding human aggressive, but are programmed only to fight the dog across the pit line. There is a perverse element of truth in this, for in the ritual fight the handler of each dog must wash the opposing dog and there is a referee present. This trained impartiality to neutral humans is of course necessary to stage an orderly fight and satisfy the blood lust of the perverts who pay their cash to gamble and immerse themselves in an evening’s spectacle of blood spattered ritual death.
But at the end of the day you just simply can not have it both ways. You can not claim on the one hand that the pit dog fights only because of training and upbringing, but on the other hand explain that he has an inbred and inherent lack of the potential for human aggression. This simply just does not stand up to common sense, the known principles of canine behavior, breeding and training and finally what we periodically read in the papers and see splashed across our television screens.
The behavior of every creature is determined by his genetic history, that is the natural propensities he is born with, created by selection in breeding, and the product of his life experience, his upbringing, training and social interactions. The pit man selects, raises and trains his dogs with the greatest skill and care. There is an enormous amount of money and reputation at stake and a good part of his livelihood may depend on his ability to consistently produce competitive dogs.
So the young pit prospect is provided training victims he can easily maul and kill, the proverbial bag of kittens, strays picked up off the street or the wounded losers of the previous night’s fight. The dog undergoes careful physical conditioning and is acclimated to a fighting pit where each experience teaches that he can win, kill or maim his opponent and thus gain the favor of his handler.
Just as the dogs natural propensities to fight and dominate another dog are carefully built up by repeated successful experience, the candidate’s human associations from the moment of leaving the whelping box must be carefully controlled to produce a dog who will be neutral in the presence of a strange human being. He is from the beginning trained for the kind of human handling he will ultimately encounter in the live fighting pit.
Thus the well trained pit candidate has no experience with hostility from humans, no reason to be on his guard or expect anything but impartiality or affection. In other words, the neutrality to people is every bit as important in the training of the pit candidate as the aggression for the other dog. Thus it is perfectly reasonable that you could visit the pit man’s kennel and be introduced to many of his dogs and find them impartial to your presence, perhaps actively friendly and seeking affection.
And the pit man may well be able to demonstrate that his dogs, individually, can interact with affection for his children. Pit bulls are after all still dogs and the distinction between pseudo pack members, his human family, and opposing dogs in the hostile atmosphere of the pit is quite normal. That the affection seeking family dog could after a brief trip to the pit emerge as the single dimensional fighting machine is not the least bit remarkable in light of the basic canine nature..
Thus the proclaimed lack of human aggression in the “true” pit dog is the product of careful conditioning and is exhibited in very controlled situations where the dog never experiences threat or hostility from a human being. In training correction, subtle or otherwise as necessary, would be applied to enforce neutrality to any person under all circumstances. After all, in the training for the pit the dog must behave in an appropriate way to the handler of the other dog, who must be able to touch and handle him, and the presence of the referee.
But what if these dogs were to be dropped at random into the world at large, or, more to the point, sold on the open market to those most willing to pay ? Suppose we took a hundred or a thousand of these dogs, proven pit dogs, at a year or two of age, and sold them on the streets to whoever had the cash. And suppose that these dogs went off to live in houses, on the street or chained in backyards, and that you were able to follow up on them in their new lives.
Can there be any doubt that substantial numbers of such dogs would develop high propensity for human aggression because of the frustrations of their new environments? And what of their progeny, would they reliably be "not human aggressive" as is claimed by the apologists?
In every aggression directed breeding program there is always a balance, sometimes a precarious balance, between the inborn propensity for aggression and the trainability and stability necessary for success on the street, field or pit.
And where there is selection, there are rejects, those animals who do not make the cut for the pit and subsequent breeding career. Some dogs will under pressure prove not to be game, to be a “cur” in the quaint vernacular of the pit world perverts. What happens to these dogs?
Historically many were likely put down or used as live bait in training for the better dogs. But basically, since we are dealing with men devoid of any semblance of civilization or morality, they are sold for whatever they can get. Many thus wind up used for breeding for the street. Where else would the dogs we see highlighted on the evening news come from ?
In addition to those pit candidates lacking in the gameness necessary for success in the fight, there are without doubt those who show a propensity to human aggression that simply can not be overcome by conditioning and training. The pit man can not risk taking such dogs in the ring and seeing a serious injury to the referee or the other handler, for such a reputation would soon wear out his welcome. So, what happens to these dogs?
Can there be any serious question that many are sold on the street for whatever they will bring? There are after all many, especially in our less upscale urban neighborhoods, who prize and glorify human aggression, whether to guard the drug house or to gain personal “respect” on the street.
Thus the most dangerous dogs of all, those in whom the best and most expert training cannot bring forth impartiality to neutral human beings, are among those most likely to wind up being sold on the urban streets and serve as the wellspring for the dogs so often featured on the evening news.
Jim Engel, Dec 2005