Asians are bad drivers and people from the Middle East are all terrorists.
If you believe in profiling and stereotypes you would probably believe those false statements and you would probably be inclined to believe that all pit bulls are vicious dogs.
The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary seems to think so, at least judging by its proposed Animal Control Bylaw No. 1511.
The bylaw includes wording to deal with dogs and other animals and it defines a vicious dog as “Any dog that has attacked or bitten, attempted to attack or bite, or chase any person animal or wildlife; or, a pit bull terrier, American pit bull terrier, pit bull Staffordshire, bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier or any dog of mixed breeding which includes the aforementioned breeds.”
The wording is problematic and it has nothing to do with the part about chasing any person, animal or wildlife, as a number of non-vicious dogs have done just that.
While the pit bull has earned a reputation for being a vicious dog, it is not fair to typecast all the dogs the same way.
Just because the headlines and news say that suicide bombers have been predominantly from the Middle East, it isn’t fair to assume that such is actually the case, and so it is for pit bulls.
According to an article on www.caesarsway.com, a site for Caesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer, entitled “How Did Pit Bulls Get Such a Bad Rap?” stories about pit bull attacks were “non-existent” before the middle part of the 1980s.
The article suggests that the rebirth of dog fighting in ‘80s gave the dog breed a bad name as pit bulls were the favourite choice amongst dog-fight enthusiasts.
Research from Dr. Malathi Raghavan (VMD PhD) said that in Canada, studies from the U.S. are what dominate the public debate regarding dog attacks (for a search for the years 1990 to 2007).
Also, of dogs implicated in newspaper reports of fatal attacks in Raghavan’s research, only one was attributed to an American Staffordshire terrier.
The RDKB hasn’t given final reading to the bylaw yet and is seeking feedback from the public before the law takes effect and hopefully people make suggestions, including the definition of a vicious dog.
It’s not the dog, it’s the owner, as people say.
– The Grand Forks Gazette