A NEW PORTRAIT OF THE PIT BULL
Uncovering the culture and history of the often villainized breed
Journalist Bronwen Dickey is the proud owner of a pit bull, little Nola, whom she rescued from an animal shelter. Pit bulls are banned in Ontario and many American cities because they are deemed a vicious breed. Dickey takes exception to this and has written an investigation into this muchcriticized dog: Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon. Our conversation has been condensed.
Jennifer: Why would anyone want to own a dog that is so feared by many members of her community? Why not buy a poodle?
Bronwen: For me it was really a connection I felt from the individual dog. I had done a fair amount of research and I looked at the science that had come out. My reaction was a rejection of the fear of pit bulls that arose in the 1980s.
There was a very strong culture of guard dogs in America in the late 1960s, when crime rates started rising sharply. It was before alarm systems. People rushed out to get Doberman pinschers and German shepherds. That was entrenched before the pit bull scare that snowballed in the 1980s.
That scare was associated with drug dealers and urban crime. People involved in illicit activities have always turned to guard dogs. For me it was the statistics, especially how things like dog bites are so rare. In the U.S., we have a population of 323 million and 80 million dogs. But only 35 people are killed by any type of dog in any given year.
I read studies by the American Veterinary Medical Association and other groups that said this is not what science says about pit bulls. I put my trust in the experts.
Jennifer: The pit bull was a celebrated breed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was owned by famous people such as Helen Keller and president Theodore Roosevelt. It was memorialized in books by Laura Ingalls Wilder ( Little House on the
Prairie). It fought alongside American troops in many wars and starred in films. What happened to its reputation?
Bronwen: It started in the 1970s. It was a bit of a messaging misfire by the humane society when a group of very well-intentioned people decided to put dog fighting at the front of their agenda. In order to make dog fighting a federal crime, the humane groups partnered with the media to make dog fighting a big issue. Instead of making the crime of dog fighting seem horrible, the people made the dogs, usually pit bulls, seem like monsters. They used phrases like “land shark;” they portrayed them like they were willing participants in their own abuse. The pit bulls got caught in the net.
Jennifer: I am, admittedly, a wimp about Doberman pinschers, Rottweilers, pit bulls, any dog that is muscular and appears mean. It’s subjective. Much of the fear stems from a childhood experience with a boxer, but I am a dog owner now and understand more about them. Still, the anxiety lingers. Tell me why I shouldn’t be afraid of pit bulls.
Bronwen: When people ask me things like that, I always say, “Don’t apologize for being afraid.” All the statistics in the world can’t eradicate anyone’s fear. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Being afraid is one thing — we all have our fears. If you wanted to confront that fear, I would say it is important to realize that all dogs are individuals and there is an enormous behavioural spectrum within any breed. The biggest determinant of a dog’s behaviour is the relationship between a dog and its owner or handler.
Jennifer: The province where I live, Ontario, has “banned” pit bull
breeds for over 10 years. The newspaper I work for supports that law. The province bans the importation or breeding of pit bulls and requires that pit bulls “grandfathered” under the law be muzzled in public and sterilized. Studies have shown that pit bull bites in Toronto have really decreased since the law was imposed, from 168 in 2004 to 13 in 2013. There are also bans in U.S. cities. This dog has caused a lot of debate.
Bronwen: All the research shows bites are caused by many factors: how the dogs are raised, how they are handled. There are very few pedigreed pit bulls in Canada to begin with. It is a little strange when you look at fatalities. Only one person was killed by a pit bull in all of Canada, so you wonder why all these resources are diverted into something that is not a large issue. We could be putting those resources into more helpful things, like helping those in poverty keep their dogs healthy.
Jennifer: Some of the pit bull owners that you describe create more anxiety in me. Diane Jessup, for example. She is a woman who throws raw meat to her dogs and has many warnings on her property, like “My Pit Bull Will F------ Kill You.” Yikes!
Bronwen: She is extreme, absolutely. Had I not personally spent time with her, I would have felt the same way. There was all her chest thumping around the culture of the dog, but when I met Diane Jessup and spent time with her, I learned she is a generous and agreeable person.
My goal in writing the book wasn’t to show that pit bulls are wonderful all the time or there has never been any kind of problem. I wanted to explore the entire culture of the dog, including interviewing people I didn’t agree with. I didn’t think it would be intellectually honest to show a cuddly version of the dog. I really wanted to go to see places where pit bulls are raised and kept, and have conversations with the people who have a passion for these dogs.