Detroit's Proposed Pit Bull Ban Gnaws At Sweet Dog's Owner

Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Neal Rubin
Detroit's proposed pit bull ban gnaws at sweet dog's owner

Are pit bulls born mean, or do they have meanness thrust upon them? It's a nature-or-nurture question that Steve Lawson can weigh in on just by listing his dog's nicknames.
Formally, he says, his "beautiful, friendly, docile, sweet, loving, loyal and gentle American Staffordshire terrier is known as Molly Ann. Around the house in West Bloomfield Township, she'll also cock her head to Molly, Mog, Princess, Pinky, Pinky Three Spot or Mollycule.

What this tells you is that 1) Steve and Kristina Lawson don't have kids, and 2) if there's ever a ban on spoiled animals, Pinky Three Spot will be on the first bus out of town. But Steve Lawson's concern is with a potential ban on all pit bulls -- spoiled, spotted or otherwise -- in Detroit.

The Detroit City Council has begun pondering a regulation that would essentially make being a pit bull an offense punishable by death. Puppies would have to leave town or get whacked. Pit bulls in residence when the law passed would have to be licensed, sterilized and covered by liability insurance -- or get whacked.

Lawson, 39, wonders why pit bulls have been singled out when so many other dogs also come equipped with teeth and fearsome reputations. He also wonders what exactly a pit bull is.

"Pit bull" has become a catch-all term for the American pit bull terrier and a handful of similar breeds. For purposes of the pit bull law in Denver, the model for the Detroit law, a pit bull is any dog that looks like one. Mixed breeds and unlucky boxers are guilty on sight.

"If we get rid of the pit bull," predicts veterinarian Al Stinson, "we'll go on to the Rottweiler. Eventually, we'll go through all the large breeds." Then we'll all own Yorkies and beagles, who both rank behind pit bulls in the American Temperament Testing Society's ratings of canine deportment.

Stinson, 80, used to teach animal behavior at Michigan State's College of Veterinary Medicine. When dogs are vicious, he says, "it mostly has to do with the kind of behavior they are rewarded for."

In other words, the problem isn't pit bulls, whose fearsome ranks include Petey from the Little Rascals' "Our Gang" and Spuds Mackenzie. It's morons who train them to be vicious, something they're probably better at than a Shar Pei trained the same way.

The distinction is surely lost on those who've been attacked by bull terriers. On the other hand, two of the three fatal maulings in Metro Detroit last year did not involve pit bulls, and the most famous canine villain in local history was a sweet-faced Old English sheepdog.

King Boots was a champion show dog when he essentially went on trial for murder in Birmingham in 1985. The prosecution said he bit his owner's 87-year-old mother eight times from the neck up.

Testifying in defense of the dog was the daughter of the victim, who insisted that mom had probably died of a heart attack before she vexed King Boots by tripping over him or maybe making fun of his name.

A housekeeper testified that Boots had bitten her on the head once, too, which, for Lawson, is the key to the entire issue.

"If any dog I owned showed uncontrolled aggression towards people, pets or property, I would euthanize the dog, no question," he says. A good friend of his had to do exactly that when his dog snapped; the dog, as it happens, was an Akita.

"The first answer to the problem is to eliminate dogs running at large," Stinson says. "Most cases in which a dog shows inappropriate behavior, it's uncontrolled."

So: Round up strays. Punish owners whose dogs hurt people. Confiscate dogs with a history of biting. But deport or execute every pit bull in Detroit?

That's throwing the puppy out with the bathwater.

You can reach Neal Rubin at (313) 222-1874 or nrubin@detnews.com.