Spend anytime engaged in the polite art of raillery with a pit bull enthusiast, and soon you will notice a kind of zealotry that can only be compared to the fervor of a born-again or convert to a new religion. Of course, most of the time, pit bull enthusiasts and advocates have real difficultly engaging in civil discourse, refraining from profanity, and display psychosis at the mere mention of the words "dangerous" and "pit bulls". At the end of the debate, discounting numbers and science, and how their personal anecdotal experience outweighs your one (or more) bloody pit bull encounter, all they have left to offer is the the claim that pit bulls are "God's creatures" and that you are a heartless person if you don't like them, you must not love dogs, or animals, or even God, because they are here for a reason. It's pointless to argue about the difference between natural selection and selective breeding, that it is a human's prerogative to have differing aesthetic values, and that "God" created fleas, escherichia coli, and all kinds of calamity... and only God knows the reason. I have been taught there is a reason for everything, and that every disaster is just an opportunity to grow as a human. My pit bull disasters have convinced me that something needs to be done in my community, and I'm on fire. That makes me a zealot of sort, too.
Pit bulls (a type of dog, not a breed) are dangerous dogs, more so than most breeds. They currently maim and kill people at higher rates than almost all of the other breeds combined, and countless pets and livestock, which is a sad fact that is not reported, nor does there seem to be any real attempt at keeping records of it. But the real danger is the mindset and attitudes of people who chose to keep these dogs as pets, who claim that they are "just" dogs. These poor dogs are very misunderstood, but mostly by their owners. It puts the rest of us at risk. I don't think that a walk about the neighborhood should be a walk of faith with a can of pepper spray and a knife, and I find it to be equally repugnant that a pit bull advocate would just write off another report of a dog attack as if it were some kind of "act of God"...one of those things, so just "get over it".
This blog shall be a collection of items and posts from the *Pitbull Tribe of Facebook, an Anthropological Study, and any other "artifacts" that show a kind of zealotry, idolization, and martyrdom of the pit bull. It shall also include some blatant parody of the zealotry of this very curious group, people who call themselves advocates but don't appear to have a shred of empathy or concern for humans and their animal companions, unless, of course, they happen to be the sacred cow...the pit bull.
*forthcoming!
