| Owners say pit bulls get bad rap
|
By Scott E. Williams
The Daily News
February 18,
2007
Two weeks ago, Xochitl Vandiver took her dogs for a walk on the seawall.
Typically, Esquincle, which Vandiver describes as “a mutt of some kind, I’m
really not sure,” walks on one side of her on a leash. On the other side, on
another leash, walks Tecolate.
“Tecolate” is Spanish for “owl,” but the dog bearing the name is a pit bull.
As Vandiver and her two pets walked down the seawall, a German shepherd
approached Tecolate and began barking, until the shepherd’s owner pulled it
away.
“I was so proud of Teco,” Vandiver said. “He just kept walking, didn’t even
look around to see what was barking at him.”
Vandiver said her story is one that traditionally does not make the newspaper
or the evening news. She and other pit bull owners say media accounts of pit
bull attacks give a distorted view of the dogs as inherently vicious.
“He’s so sweet,” Vandiver said. “When I first got him, I’d never had any
contact with a pit bull, and because of the stories we all see, I was a little
nervous, but he was so friendly.”
Galveston resident Nathan Dewsbury said Rosco, his pit bull, was so friendly
that Dewsbury could take the dog anywhere.
Dewsbury, who also moderates a pit bull message board online (www.pitbullforum.com),
said the dogs responded to their environments.
“You get out of it what you put into a dog, and that’s true for all breeds,”
he said.
Kim Schoolcraft, animal control director for Galveston County, said that
while pit bulls were not all inherently violent, owning or interacting with one
was not without risk.
“These dogs have been bred for generations to fight,” she said. “The thing
to remember is, all dogs are descended from wolves, and they all have prey
instincts that can be triggered.”
Gina Holliday, who trains dogs throughout the Houston-Galveston area, said
pit bulls were targets of media bias and societal stigma. Holliday said other
breeds attacked people, but those attacks never got the publicity of a typical
pit bull attack.
“I honestly feel that if a dog is raised right, there’s no reason that should
happen,” she said. “It has everything to do with leadership ability. If you
don’t lead your animal or if you train it to fight, then of course it’s going to
be vicious.”
Galveston police Sgt. Joel Caldwell said breeding history meant owners needed
to take special care with pit bulls.
“It’s true that if you are a pit bull owner, you need to be even more
vigilant than other dog owners, because of their breeding history,” he said.
“But also, if you care about your dog, the best thing you can do is to be a good
ambassador for the breed, because of the reputation they have.”
Caldwell, also a pit bull owner, has taken in many pit bulls as foster pets
and trained them.
Vandiver’s duties as a Galveston County prosecutor include animal-cruelty
cases, and she said she knew plenty of stories about dogs that attack.
“That almost always happens because the dog hasn’t been socialized, and that
can happen with any dog,” she said. “If you don’t expose them to people and
other animals, they won’t know how to act. Pit bulls also get more attention for
attacks because they can do real damage to a person.”
Holliday said other breeds could do damage, as well.
“It’s true that one reason we hear so much about pit bull attacks is that
they’re a dangerous breed, but even a little dog can kill you if it bites you in
the right place. We all have that femoral artery in our legs,” she said.
Vandiver’s main fear about her seawall story going public had nothing to do
with pit bulls.
“I just don’t want people to read this and start thinking, ‘Oh my god, German
shepherds are vicious! We’ve got to do something,’” she said, laughing. “I do
not want to start that trend.”
For More Information Contact:
Kurt Koopmann
Public Information Officer
Galveston County Health District
409-938-2211 or 409-392-0007
kkoopman@gchd.org |
