Who's fight is it anyway?

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

By Judd Grossman

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-We have been proud owners of an American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) for more than 12 years now. Many of you know our brown and white pit bull, Sophie, as she often visits local businesses and has walked our two kids to Jackson Elementary School for over a decade. A number of similar breeds to the APBT are also often called ‘pit bulls,’ including the American Staffordshire Terrier, the Staffordshire Terrier and the American Bull Terrier. The APBT is considered the truest of the pit bulls as it has the closest genetic ties to the famous fighting dogs of the past.

The APBT is a very athletic dog that loves people but may need supervision around other animals. Sophie has made plenty of human friends around town and, through good training and socialization, she has become very good at ignoring other dogs. She has been a faithful companion to our two children and has also done an admirable job of putting up with our various house cats throughout the years.

Sophie has been a good ambassador for a breed that is constantly under siege and plagued with negative stereotyping. Even in the Planet’s Letters to the Editor section this week, a reader uses a reference to a pit bull to describe the vicious attack of a deer by a dog up Cache Creek; a dog that in all likelihood wasn’t a pit bull. Any dog that is involved in an attack is often assumed to be a pit bull until proven otherwise.

Unfortunately, the pit bull has become the dog of choice for a-holes, on both sides of the story. There are jerks that fight pit bulls in back alleys, and who misbreed and abuse them, turning their loyalty, tenaciousness and physical power into a dangerous weapon meant to intimidate. On the other hand, the politics of the pit bull is equally abhorrent, as animal welfare groups shamelessly use the pit bull as a fundraising tool and politicians gain votes by promising to protect the public from an exaggerated menace.

The irony is that the qualities a dog needs to succeed in the brutal sport of dog fighting - courage, tenacity, athleticism and emotional stability - are the same qualities that make a terrific companion animal. So, while we can easily condemn the sadistic atrocities committed by Michael Vick, we are more ambivalent about the centuries-old tradition of pit fighting that has created these awesome animals.

Right now Gov. Freudenthal is about to sign a bill that would make dog fighting a felony in Wyoming. Idaho just passed a similar law last week. This legislation has been set into motion because of a general sense of outrage over the Michael Vick case, and has been applauded by animal lovers and politicians alike. It would be unfortunate if well-intended legislation against dog fighting led to the restricting or banning of this breed, as it has in other jurisdictions. We urge lawmakers to keep the focus on the owners, where it belongs.

These dogs deserve neither the brutal fate doled out to them by punks like Michael Vick, nor the disastrous intervention of those who would save them by rendering them extinct. In the midst of this debate about dog fighting, please remember that these are just dogs, and mighty fine dogs at that.

-Judd & Mary Grossman

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Who's fight is it anyway? | Planet JH News Article: Editorial

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