PETA’s Pit Bull and Companion Animal Policies

I used to think PETA stood for “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals”, but the more reading I do, the more it becomes apparent that their moniker should actually read, “People Euthanizing Terrific Animals”. Feel free to read through their official policies yourself here – PETA’s Position on Pit Bull Bans(this link has been removed by PETA & replaced with this one).

PETA’s founder Ingrid Newkirk has a well-documented dislike for all bulldog breeds, and she has alluded to this in numerous interviews and official statements given by the organization she leads. I would just like to take a moment and touch on a few of the utterly absurd statements she has made public in the past in an attempt to give some clout to her radical ideas, which include breed specific bans and an end to ownership of animals as companions, just to name a few.

“People who genuinely care about dogs won’t be affected by a ban on pit-bull breeding. They can go to the shelter and save one of the countless other breeds and lovable mutts sitting on death row.” – IndyBay.org

Ingrid, are you saying that people who love dogs could not possibly also be Pit Bull lovers, that the two are mutually exclusive? I know a lot of people that genuinely care about dogs and would be DEVASTATED if your dreams came true and Pit Bulls were banned. In fact, I have found just in the past few weeks of getting this site up that there are tons of people out there that are absolutely dedicated to improving the reputation of this breed and seeing to it that no organization, including the fanatics at PETA, are able to pass any such legislation.

As for saving one of the many other breeds and mutts, do you even know what you are saying? Pit Bulls ARE mutts! If a dog is part lab and part pit, they may very well look like a Labrador Retriever, but guess what, they are going to have some of the hallmark characteristics of Pit Bull type dogs – you know, the ones you find so appalling. I would imagine that given your history with dogs you would have to know this fact, but I suppose you pretend to ignore it an an effort to further your agenda, which does absolutely nothing more than make you a complete hypocrite.

“Many are loving and will kiss on sight, but many are unpredictable. An unpredictable Chihuahua is one thing, an unpredictable pit another.” – San Franscico Gate

I imagine PETA to be an organization concerned with numbers and fact, so let us go over some basic information to quickly disprove this outlandish statement, and move on.

1. In temperament tests (done by ATTS.org) the Chihauhua scored 70.3% vs. the American Pit Bull Terrier’s score of 84.3%, now which one seems more unpredictable?
2. If you take an x-ray of a Pit Bull jaw and a Chihuahua jaw the only thing you will notice is a size difference – there is no special “locking mechanism” within a Pit Bull’s jaw that makes them more dangerous than other dogs; this is just another one of many myths out there.
3. Pit Bulls DO NOT bite or attack any more than any other breed of dog, in fact, the American Veterinary Medical Association has found that no single breed is more dangerous than another. AVMA studies show that the most popular breeds at any given point in time will top the list simply due to the fact that there are more of those dogs within the general population.
4. Healthy, normal Pit Bulls will never show aggression towards humans, mostly due to the fact that they were bred to take part in bull baiting or other activities that required owner intervention – the owners needed to be certain that the dogs would not try to attack them when they retrieved the dogs, and thus, human aggression was selectively bred out of Pit Bulls. Any Pit Bull, or other breed of dog for that matter, that shows human aggression should be given a medical evaluation immediately.

“Pit bulls are perhaps the most abused dogs on the planet. These days, they are kept for protection by almost every drug dealer and pimp in every major city and beyond. You can drive into any depressed area and see them being used as cheap burglar alarms, wearing heavy logging chains around their necks (they easily break regular collars and harnesses), attached to a stake or metal drum or rundown doghouse without a floor and with holes in the roof.” – BadRap – SF Based Pit Bull Rescue Organization

There is no doubt that Pit Bulls have indeed become a “fad breed” and have fallen into the hands of uncaring owners, but how is this the dogs’ fault? Banning Pit Bulls is certainly not going to stop their ownership by drug dealers, dog fighters and other unsavory people, in fact, this will have the opposite effect and make them more of a hot commodity. A black market trade will develop through which dogs are bred and sold, and in the end more dogs will end up getting hurt or killed.

There are plenty of other breeds of dogs that are strong and intelligent that can also be trained by evil-intentioned owners to attack on command, and they would also deal with the pis poor conditions forced upon them by their masters. Should we also get rid of all the German Shepards, Rottweilers and Akitas? Remember the dogs that were in the headlines awhile back that were used to intimidate the prisoners at Abu Ghraib? Those were not Pit Bulls, they were Belgian Shepards, perhaps we should exterminate them too.

The point is, it is impossible to use a line of logic that rests upon a dog’s treatment by its owner to then say that the breed should be eliminated. To me this is the same as saying that we should put all kids to sleep that are abused by their parents, when obviously it should be the other way around. The Pit Bulls are not the problem, it is the over breeding and mistreatment of these dogs that has landed them in the precarious position in which we find them today – and the support of BSL by major organizations like PETA does not help the pits at all either. There are plenty of Pit Bulls out there that live in wonderful homes, with caring owners who would never think to use their dog for harm; these dogs are part of our family.

PETA obviously does not care about the facts, instead they prefer to maintain a radical stance and promote a worldwide ban of dogs resembling Pit Bulls. I know their crusade will not end there; their intention is to completely end dog breeding all together and make it illegal for people to own pets, or “companion animals” as they like to call them. How could an organization that claims to care about animals support legislation that would call for the mass euthanization of millions of pets? This is certainly not compassionate, and I think it is the polar opposite of ethical.

So before you jump on the bandwagon and listen to PETA’s multitude of celebrity endorsements, make sure you know the truth about PETA and what they stand for. While they may be successful in coming across as a hip, new-age group dedicated to animal rights and activism, what they are really striving for is the complete decimation of sharing our lives with animals as we know it. In a PETA-run world we would have no cats, no dogs, no birds and no fish, nor would we have the choice to incorporate animal products in our diet if we so chose. PETA and Ms. Newkirk, please leave our pets alone.

For further information on PETA and their euthanization of companion animals, read PETA Sets New Record for Killing Animals