The Usual Suspects

[Marty]

Australia -- Walking into a field rippling with American pit bull terriers takes courage. If first impressions count, I'd rather be checking out the Ford Mustang show next door. The dogs look tough and the owners... well, let's just say this is no prissy Best in Show crowd. T-shirts, singlets, jeans, trackie daks and tattoos (not your wussy, inner-city sort) are the norm. I'm tossing up who to fear most: the American pit bull terrier that has just snapped off its steel chain or the group of skinheads who have come to watch, especially the biggest, baldest of the bunch in the extra-extra-large "Blood Honour" T-shirt.

But I'm here to question stereotypes, not confirm prejudices. If anyone feels harassed, it's the owners of this most feared of breeds. There's a Falcon station wagon that spells it out, windows plastered with stickers: "Parole a pedophile, persecute a pit bull", "All creatures great and small except the American pit bull terrier", "Don't condemn the breed, take a look at who has hold of the lead."

Right now, I don't care who's holding the lead, as long as they're holding it hard and holding it tight. Being surrounded by scores of these stocky mutts yanking on their heavy-duty collars and leads isn't doing much for my sense of security. But no, I'm assured, I've got it all wrong.

"This crap we're always dealing with, as soon as there's an alleged dog attack, it's always blamed on our breed, and it normally isn't," says Colin Muir, president of the American Pit Bull Terrier Club of Australia.

"Whenever we've got a reported dog attack... we go out and check the details and more often than not, it's got nothing to do with our breed."

The American pit bull terrier arouses extremes of passion - there are those who loathe the dogs and want them exterminated, and those who love them and say the breed has been vilified. The American Pit Bull Terrier Club of Australia posts photos of children and pit bulls on its website as evidence that the dogs are a gentle, trustworthy breed. The dog's detractors, on the other hand, will tell you that the only people who would own these odious creatures are the kinds of buffoons who could convincingly play extras in the cast of Chopper. As always, the truth lies somewhere in between.

Every second month at the Dandenong Showgrounds, those who fervently love the dogs gather near the poultry pavilion and have them compete in treadmill, weight pulling, conformation and other events that test the animals' strength, stamina and attitude.

There are a couple of things you quickly learn. Don't call them bull terriers or pit bulls, they're American pit bull terriers, please, and if you must shorten it, it's "pitties", thanks. "Pitties" - a rather sweet nickname for this nuggety breed.

If the dog were a human, it would be a cross between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny De Vito. The "pittie" is not particularly big, but those shoulders, that chest, that massive brick of a head, that jaw. There are dogs here - like Cora, one of the strongest bitches in Australia - who can pull more than 60 times their own body weight. The record pull for 48.5-pound (22-kilogram) Cora is 3200 pounds (1451.5 kilograms). Weights are given in pounds because the club follows American rules. Owners are immensely proud of the pulling power of their dogs.

"We can't get the malamute club to compete against us," says Muir. "They won't do that because we would kill them."

Watching dog after dog haul a cart stacked with iron weights, steel beams and topped by four men, is as impressive as it is disturbing. I'm told one of the legends of the "pittie" world, the recently and dearly departed Rev Head (Cora's dad) could pull a fourwheel- drive towing a trailer stacked with cement bags.

"Did you even know what (the dogs) looked like?" Muir asks.

I have to confess, no. All along I'd been confusing "pitties" with those piggy-eyed, snout-nosed bull terriers. I'd been leering at owners and crossing the road at the sight of the wrong dog. Who knows how many times I'd unwittingly patted a "pittie"?

Today, though, I'm knowingly doing so. I'm introduced to Bear, Cora, Jed, Detroit, Buster and others, and encouraged to pat, expecting my hand to be ripped off at any moment. It doesn't happen. I'm no brave-heart, so it's easy to pick a favourite, Buster - he's nine years old and showing it. He's tied up alone in the poultry pavilion, pines for attention, languidly raises a paw to shake whenever someone approaches and appears utterly harmless.

"I guarantee you there wouldn't be any dogs here that you can't approach," says Buster's owner, club secretary Bonnie Norton. It's "media hype" that's given the breed a bad reputation, she says.

Legislators think otherwise. The American pit bull terrier is one of four breeds that are banned from being imported into Australia. The others are the Dogo Argentino, the Fila Brasiliero, and the Japanese Tosa, all of which, like the "pittie", were traditionally bred for fighting or hunting.

RSPCA president Dr Hugh Wirth has dubbed American pit bull terriers a "wretched breed" and has called for the lot of them to be put down. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has likened owning one to "having a loaded gun in your house".

Dr Graeme Smith, managing director of the Lost Dogs' Home, says the breed has been exploited by criminals and drug dealers, who use the dogs to guard their properties from police and others.

"My position is simple, that these dogs are not suitable for pets... and people have exploited them and the only way they can be protected is to stop them being born altogether."

So who in their right mind would choose to live with a "pittie"? Many people simply can't understand the attraction of the breed. But there are plenty at the Dandenong Showgrounds who swear that American pit bull terriers cannot be surpassed as loyal and loving family pets. Owners describe the dogs as gentle, protective, obedient, and exceptionally friendly with people and children. Sure, some unsavoury types may have a penchant for the breed, but that does not mean that the majority of responsible owners should be made to feel like pariahs for daring to love a pittie.

[Marty]

"You can make a vicious dog from 95 per cent of all dogs," says Stan Kaminski, owner of Cora and her son, Ammo.

Stan's a reasonable man, grandfather to a six-year-old and eight-year-old. He agrees that pitties are a breed that require owners to be highly responsible. But if well socialised and trained, pitties make a great family pet.

"They will protect their property, like every dog, but this dog loves people. They are never tired for you. A few macho guys will try to have monster dogs who will eat everything. That's not the way to go. On the other hand, we never let the kids play with the dogs alone, never ever."

I must admit, it's a little confronting seeing a cute-as-a-button, seven-year-old Maddy Deakes nuzzle up to her chunky dog, Jed. At 21.6 kilograms Maddy's a featherweight compared to Jed's burly 37 kilograms, but they're pretty chummy.

"He jumps all over me, licks my face," Maddy says. Maddy's dad, Tristum Garnaut, a self-employed brick paver, bought Jed, his first "pittie", primarily as a guard dog.

"Just because the area I live in... Rowville... lotta stuff gets knocked off ." Alex Constantinou, 24, of St Albans, who is here with his pup, Diesel, says the dogs are great allies: "All me mates have had them... I wanted one especially as a guard dog and also as a mate, they make good mates. They're very loyal, very obedient."

Ricki Stankovic, who is raising a three-year-old daughter alone, agrees: "They're great, protective of their home, territorial, and of my daughter, absolutely."

Club president Colin Muir no longer owns pitties. These days, his work commitments as a union organiser mitigate against the demands of pit bulls. He now keeps a maltese shih tzu and a pug maltese. But his love of the American pit bull terrier has kept him club president.

"There really are some serious social justice issues that go on with this breed," he says.

When you hear club members talk about "social justice" or "genocide", it's likely that they're not discussing Rwanda or refugees. "Punish the deed, not the breed" is the pittie lovers' mantra. The breed has been unfairly maligned, Muir argues, and myths prevail. American pit bulls don't, for example, have jaws that "lock", nor is it in their make-up to be aggressive towards people, he says.

"The funny thing about the fighting breeds... they are all very people-friendly ... because you couldn't have a dog that was going to bite the handler ... they'd actually disqualify them."

Research about pit bulls support Muir's claims. However, that doesn't mean the breed is innocuous, especially when involved in fights with other dogs. Even Muir will acknowledge that.

"They're usually not the aggressor... they'll be the dog that will react to the aggression, the trouble is, they finish the aggression better, and that's the problem."

A demonstration of how well pit bulls can finish off another dog occurred last Wednesday when 73-year-old Tony Pace was out walking his pomeranian, Whiskey. Pace and his canine companion of nine years took their usual route up Edwards Avenue, Port Melbourne, past a property where two pit bulls were known to live, up to a nearby reserve. On their way back, trouble struck.

The two pit bulls had escaped through a gate that had blown open and were roaming the streets. They attacked Whiskey and mauled him to death. A local came to Pace's aid. So savage were the pit bulls that Whiskey's carcass had to be thrown over a fence to stop the dogs ripping it to shreds. Pace escaped with minor injuries.

The tragic story about Whiskey was the second item on both the Channel Nine and Channel Seven news bulletins that night, with footage of armed police in hot pursuit of the offending dogs. Pit bull attacks generate a certain hysteria - but how much of the media reporting is, as Muir and Norton suggest, sensationalist "hype"?

Evidence exists to support the arguments of both the lovers and loathers of American pit bulls. Studies have shown that American pit bull terriers are significantly more likely be involved in unprovoked attacks than other dogs. Studies have also shown that pit bulls are over-represented in the small population of dogs involved in human fatalities. An American study of 199 fatal dog attacks on humans for which a breed was identified, found that pure breed pit bull and pit bull crosses were most frequently involved.

Sure, they don't have a lock jaw, but their stamina, persistence and genetic make-up mean that pit bulls are programmed to fight to the death. Researchers write that the extent to which breeding has altered the original temperaments of fighting breeds is often difficult to predict in a given animal.

In the pit bulls' defence, studies also suggest that the dogs may be over-represented in attacks because their bad reputation means that irresponsible owners are more likely to be attracted to them - a classic self-perpetuating cycle.

It is true, too, that American pit bulls are not the only high-risk breed. In a 1997 study, Adelaide University's Peter Thompson found that the risk of attack from German shepherds, bull terriers, blue/red heelers, dobermans and rottweilers was four to five times higher than for other common breeds.

In the end, the argument about pit bulls resembles the nature-nurture debates about the human character.

"All dogs, no matter what their breed are a product of their environment," writes US researcher James Bandow, in his 1996 study, Will breed-specific legislation reduce dog bites?

A dog's personality is forged by a mix of genetics, treatment, training and socialisation. While there are some traits common to all pit bull dogs, these traits by themselves do not make the dogs a threat to humans, Bandow writes. However, because pit bulls have become a "warped symbol of power", they do at times end up in the wrong hands.

But, in the end, people have the right to feel safe from dog attacks and governments create laws to ensure that happens.

In Victoria, owners of American pit bull terriers must observe strict rules: the dogs must be leashed and muzzled in public, not be taken outside an owner's premises by anyone under 17, warning signs must be displayed at all entrances to the premises where the dog is kept, and no more than two American pit bull terriers can be kept without council permission.

Some councils impose even stricter rules. During her term as mayor of Hobsons Bay, Angela Altair introduced laws banning any new registrations of American pit bull terriers and other restricted breeds.

"I have never regretted taking that step... things have definitely calmed down and it's definitely proved a powerful deterrent," says Altair.

But Norm Blackman, national president of the Australian Veterinary Association, warns that breed-specific legislation gives people a false sense of security: "In fact, it's a dangerous proposition. Breed-specific legislation has been in the UK for 12 to 15 years and has been unsuccessful in decreasing dog attacks on humans."

All dogs bite, it's in their nature, and human beings, especially children, need to be taught how to behave around dogs, he says.

"I personally have seen a number of American pit bull terriers that have been absolutely lovely dogs. I have also seen a whole range of dogs from chihuahuas to rottweilers to Great Danes which have been aggressive," says Blackman.

That's the kind of opinion that heartens pit bull lovers such as Stan Kaminski. As far as he's concerned, the "pittie" is the best canine friend a man could want - a dog who will protect you to death, or lick you to death.

"Whatever you can dream about to be in dogs, they got it," he says.

[Big River Kennels]

this is a very good article.

[CRG]

good article,marty

[Yung-One]

Great article!!!

[Whiskey Bay]

Excellent Marty.Too bad we can't find people around here willing to set there stereotypes aside for a day.

[SSandecki]

Great Article!

[Marty]

Been a long time since anyone has read this :(

[GrCh_Jeff]

good one marty..you never cease to amaze me.to much time on your hands.lmao..hahahah

[14rock]

Very good article, if people would only see the dogs instead of going by what they hear, then they would change their mind, as this article has shown.

[screamin'eagle]

...bump...

[Highbloodbulldog]

...bump...
Thanks, eagle... I didn't read this yet...

Good article...

[chloesredboy]

WTF is a "trackie dak"???:confused:

[14rock]

No idea. I'm sure some of the stuff is slang, since this was from Australia. For instance, men wearing singlets. I'm a wrestler, and let me tell you, I have NEVER seen someone wear a singlet in public outside wrestling matches, and weightlifting comps. Especially not a dog show. LOL Can you imagine?! Difference in cultures and language is all, I'm sure.

[Rebs]

Trakkie daks are sweat pants ;) Daks = Aussie slang for pants, trakkie = tracksuit.
We mastered the art of dressing down LMAO

Was a good article:cool:

[Michele]

good article!

[fitzpit]

i dont match the steriotype :(

[coolhandjean]

Pretty good article...

"Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has likened owning one to 'having a loaded gun in your house'." -- So, it's smart to have an APBT, because it's smart to have a loaded gun in your house. So, seems to be a good reason to have an APBT, not a negative, if you use that analogy...

Though I disagree with those two guys at the show in the article that say they are "guard dogs". My dogs will keep other dogs/animals off our property, and they will bark if someone is coming on our property, but they bark because they want the person to come and pet them. They never show aggression towards them. They just lick them to death. lol.