I was thinking about some of the topics that Rachel covered in class on Wednesday and it got me thinking about how much the view of Pit Bulls have changed. As Rachel said in class Pit Bulls used to be America's dog. They were used in wars, specifically world war two in combat and in rescue missions. They were viewed as heroes and revered for their strength courage and bravery. Now a days the are feared and thought to be evil. The media basically made their own smear campaign against these dogs and because of that no one wants them. As Rachel said in class the Pennsylvania SPCA has something around 80% of all dogs coming in that are Pit Bulls. They are unwanted because of the rumors that were started about them. These myths were so convincing that many states would not even adopt them out, and if they were adopted out some cities would not allow them with in the city making breed specific laws that kept them out of the public.
I have been volunteering in shelters for most of my life. When I lived in Georgia the shelters were flooded with hound dog mixes, and in the south that is understandable because they are popular hunting dogs and hunting is a very common pass time. They still got adopted out though because they were not feared. In Philadelphia the shelters are overrun with Pit Bulls and Pit Bull mixes the biggest difference is because everyone is afraid of them no one wants them and they get put down. The amount of Pit Bulls in the PSPCA and ACCT shelters is overwhelming and it is very unfortunate that they are not getting out because of a smear campaign that the media did against them. Why cant people remember the bravery that these animals performed in defense of our country?
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Wow, that's really interesting to me that pit bulls were used in wars given their current bad rap. I was especially surprised by this because I when I looking at the websites of military bases my boyfriend might be stationed at, I found that they do not allow pit bulls and rottweilers as pets. I wondered if families had to give up these dogs when they moved on base. It's amazing how the military's perception of pit bulls has changed too along with the rest of America.
ReplyDeletePigeons were also used in the military as messengers through WWII, and a strong case can be made that the world would be a very different place without dogs, pigeons, and other nonhuman animals that contributed to the shaping of human history.
ReplyDeleteJen--you and your boyfriend should check out The Pit Bull Placebo (and the event on 3/14 at Temple)--lots of interesting research on the role of the pit bull (and other dogs) in military history.