Dog Bite Topic:
The Pit Bull Placebo
The Pit Bull Placebo:
The Media, Myths and Politics of Canine Aggression
By Karen Delise
“Falsehood flies and the truth comes limping after,
so that when men come to be undeceived,
it is too late: the jest is over,
and the tale has had its effect.” - Jonathan Swift
First it was the Bloodhound, sensationalized in the dramatizations of
Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Then it was the Doberman Pinscher, symbol of the Nazi
menace for a nation at war. Today, it is the Pit bull that is vilified
for the depravity of his master.
At perhaps no time in history has mankind been as ignorant of natural
canine behavior as we find ourselves at the beginning of the 21st
century. The human/dog bond—the most complex and profound inter-species
relationship in the history of mankind—has now been reduced to a simple
axiom: Breed of dog = degree of dangerousness.
Today, police chase down fleeing Pit bulls in the street, firing dozens
of wild shots in response to media-fed rumors of supernatural Pit bull
abilities. Politicians coach and nurture this fear with their own brand
of rhetoric used to assist in the passing of quick and ineffective
legislation created to pacify communities ignorant of the real cause for
dog attacks. Hundreds of animal shelters throughout the country kill all
unclaimed Pit bull-looking dogs, as they are deemed "unadoptable" solely
on their physical appearance.
In a society unparalleled in its access to information and ability to
control our natural environment, we now claim that we are unable to
master our dogs. Unwilling to assume responsibility for the control and
care of our canine companions, we instead hang entire breeds of dogs in
effigy for the sins of their owners. Society now accepts this “solution
to the dog bite problem” because we have been placated by a Pit Bull
Placebo.
Like the pharmacologically inactive sugar pill dispensed to pacify a
patient who supposes it to be medicine, eradication of the Pit bull is
heralded as the cure for severe dog attacks. However, a placebo is
administered solely to appease a person's mental duress. In the present
day climate of fear and misinformation about Pit bulls and dog attacks,
eradication of the Pit bull is the placebo administered to ease the
public's mental anxiety. This, of course, does not address the
underlying causes of why dogs attack and how they have been allowed
access to their victims.
The book, The Pit Bull Placebo: The Media, Myths and Politics of Canine
Aggression, explores and reveals how our views and beliefs about canine
aggression have changed over the last 150 years and how our perceptions
about the nature and behavior of dogs has been influenced and shaped by
persons and organizations who often times disseminate information about
dog attacks which is tailored to further an agenda unrelated to the
improvement of the human/dog bond.
We have come to be in the midst of a social hysteria about Pit bulls
because we have abandoned centuries-old common sense and reasoning and
have been duped by inaccurate reporting from a media that thrives on
sensationalism and by politicians who traffic in rumors, myths and
pseudoscience in their efforts to pass legislation that demonizes dogs
while exonerating criminal and abusive owners.
Despite the intense media, political and public interest in dog attacks,
there is a disturbing scarcity of accurate information and investigation
done on the real causes and reasons for these incidents.
If we truly believe that the extremely rare cases of fatal dog attacks
merit extreme measures in the management of dogs—if our concern and
shock is genuine—then we must be equally genuine and sincere in seeking
out and addressing the real causes for these incidents.
Whether our goal is community safety, understanding canine behavior,
furtherance of humane treatment towards dogs, or the advancement of the
human-dog bond, it is critical that we examine all the details available
about dog attacks.
The Pit Bull Placebo examines actual cases of severe dog attacks during
the last 150 years—the circumstances, the individual dogs involved, the
victims, and our interpretations of these events—in an attempt to offer
a reasoned and balanced perspective on the behavior of dogs and the
critical role humans play in the management and treatment of our canine
companions.
Only by stepping back from the swirl of present-day hysteria surrounding
isolated cases of severe canine aggression and examining the problem
from a broader and more objective perspective can we hope to understand
and effectively address the human and canine behaviors which have
contributed to these incidents.
Information from this website is excerpted from the book: The Pit Bull
Placebo: The Myths, Media and Politics of Canine Aggression, and is copy
written by Karen Delise and Anubis Publishing.
- Above content ©Copyright 2002, 2007 Karen Delise
- For further information, see http://www.fataldogattacks.com/