Debunking the Propaganda Spread by Pit Bull Activists
MYTH: Pit Bulls were once known as “nanny dogs”
The pit bull nanny myth has been clearly debunked and it is getting children killed. There are no primary sources that support pit bulls were ever nanny dogs.
Primary Source Definition: In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called original source or evidence) is an artifact, a document, a recording, or other source of information that was created at the time under study. It serves as an original source of information about the topic.
There are still too many pit-bull advocates repeating the nanny myth. It was started by a Staffordshire Bull Terrier breeder to soften the image of the breed and as an advertising gimmick in the 1970s to sell more pit bulls. Five years after the Nanny Dog Myth Revealed was first published, BAD RAP, a major pit bull advocacy group publicly announced that it will no longer support the “Nanny Dog” myth because it endangers children. While it is too late for many children, hopefully many will be saved in the future. http://thetruthaboutpitbulls.blogspot.com/2010/08/nanny-dog-myth-revealed.html
“Did you know that there was never such thing as a ‘Nanny’s Dog’? This term was a recent invention created to describe the myriad of vintage photos of children enjoying their family pit bulls. While the intention behind the term was innocent, using it may mislead parents into being careless with their children around their family dog – A recipe for dog bites!”
225 children killed by pit bull type-dogs.
MYTH: It’s all how you raise/train them.
Dog trainers can’t modify a dog’s temperament :
Characteristics of Temperament
- Temperament is primarily a function of the dog’s neurological makeup
- Temperament is 100% genetic; it is inherited, and fixed at the moment
of the dog’s fertilization/conception/birth
- Temperament in the dog cannot be eliminated nor transformed from
one type to another. It cannot change during the dog’s lifetime. It is
the permanent mental/neurological characteristic of the individual dog. But there may be an overlap of different temperaments in the same dog. For example sharpness may be seen with over aggression or submissiveness with being temperamental.
- Environment, Socialization or Training can modify the expression of an individual dog’s temperament, but they cannot transform it nor eliminate it. The dog will die with the temperament with which it was born.
Radcliffe Robins, DVM Department of Clinical Sciences
Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine
If the problem was with owners and “how they are raised and trained” we would be seeing fatalities by all breeds. There are dogs of all breeds with bad owners who mistreat them, yet those dogs are not killing people and pets in the numbers that pit bulls do.
50% of the people attacked by pit bulls are their owners or their owners children. They did not teach their dogs to attack them…
In most cases where a pit bull has severely attacked or killed a victim, the owner is not held accountable with criminal charges because it could not be proven that the owner was negligent and the dog was not aggressive before the incident.
