Breed-ban talk usually starts with pit bulls

Tacoma, WA --Pit bulls are different; they’re like wild animals,” says Alan Beck, director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine, West Lafayette, Ind. “They’re not suited for an urban environment. I believe we should open our eyes and take a realistic approach to pit bulls.”

Those who condemn pit bulls and call for breed bans targeting these dogs tend to be members of the general population or, most often it seems, politicians. And while Beck isn’t calling for breed bans, it’s still exceedingly rare for an animal expert to vilify pit bulls. Beck is renowned for his decades of groundbreaking research on using animals in therapeutic settings, such as nursing homes. He’s also co-author of “Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship” (Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Ind., 1996; $29.95).

Controversy about dangerous dogs seems to be in the media daily, and it’s often pit bull-type dogs who are deemed guilty. Many communities around the world have responded with breed-specific bans, but many experts contend that’s not the right answer.

In 2000, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) teamed up to investigate whether breed-specific legislation (banning individual breeds, such as pit bulls, from communities) is effective. The results of their studies were published in several scientific journals.

“We learned breed-specific legislation is not the way to tackle the issue of dog bites,” says Dr. Julie Gilchrist, of the CDC Injury Center in Atlanta. “Instead, we should look at the people with those dogs responsible for the bites.”

Animal behaviorist Randy Lockwood, vice president for research and education at the HSUS, in Washington, D.C., says nearly 100 percent of dogs involved in fatal attacks have been unaltered males. Also, in the overwhelming majority of instances, someone had complained about the dogs previously but animal control or law enforcement officials failed to take action. Other risk factors: allowing dogs to roam freely or tethering dogs.

“I believe the answer is to strengthen and then enforce laws that encourage responsible ownership for all dogs of all breeds,” says Dr. Bonnie Beaver, a veterinary behaviorist in College Station, Texas, who’s worked on breed-specific issues and is now the president of the AVMA. The thinking is, if dogs of all breeds were spayed or neutered, officials enforced dangerous dog laws already in place, and owners were discouraged from tethering their pets, the number of dog attacks would drop significantly.

Beck isn’t swayed by these arguments. He says it’s in the veterinary and animal welfare community’s best interest to protect pit bulls and other pets from all restrictive legislation. “It’s just not politically correct in the animal world to favor breed restrictions,” he says.

Lockwood says Beck’s argument has no merit; it’s a matter of looking at the data. Further, Beck’s interpretation of that data differs from that of the HSUS/AVMA/CDC panel. Beck and the panel all looked at mostly the same data: the fatal dog bite statistics from the CDC, 1979 to 1998 (post 1998, the CDC stopped tracking which breeds were involved in fatal attacks because, according to a spokesperson, that information isn’t of discernible value).

Pit bulls are not a breed registered with the AKC. In fact, Beaver and others argue, the pit bull is not actually a breed at all, but rather a loose mix of various breeds. However, the United Kennel Club, the second-largest registry of purebred dogs next to the AKC, maintains pit bull registrations. Beck estimated pit bull numbers using UKC registrations, then added to the total based on several other sources. He figures the number of pit bulls to be about 1 percent of the 61.6 million dogs in America – yet his arithmetic indicates that pit bulls are responsible for 19 percent of all fatal dog attacks in America.

“That’s where pit bulls are out of whack,” he says. “Something is going on with pit bulls, because the number of their fatal dog bites is so over-represented.”

 

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