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I'm "watching" S 13 / Ep 14 of "Animal Cops Philadelphia", a rebroadcast of a 2009 episode, & while the ACOs are executing a search-warrant of a house where a sick pitbull pup was sold, the agents are faced with removing a human-aggro dog.
There are multiple dogs, on the ground floor, in the basement, & in backyard cages, & the supervisor on scene suspects this is more a breeding operation for fighting dogs than a pet-breeding business.
[I'm not sure why - the adult-dogs have no facial, ear, or leg scarring, there's no fighting paraphernalia, no pit or ring, their ears aren't even cropped. Successful fighters are bred for future fighters - nothing about these dogs indicates a past Hx of fighting.]
They go outside to discuss how to remove the aggro dog, an intact-M AmBull, & i hear the narrator say, "Confronting a fighting dog with an aggressive history could be fatal" [to the SPCA agents].
Dammit. Dog-fighting is DOG aggression; this dog lunged & snapped at nonthreatening human strangers who were just standing in the doorway. That's HUMAN directed aggro, & it has absolutely nothing to do with an alleged past-history of fighting other dogs.
Even if this AmBull fought other dogs [& nothing in his appearance indicates this], dogs who are actively fighting, at that moment, still have to be sufficiently self-controlled to be handled intrusively DURING the fight - I mean, either owner / handler can swoop in at any time & pick up their own dog bodily, & NOT be bitten.
Fighting dogs are normally highly human-affiliative, have excellent bite inhibition, & are NOT human-aggressive. That's precisely why it's such a shame that many shelters & rescues have a blanket policy of killing / euthanizing all "fighting dogs", even 2-WO pups of former-fighter sires are routinely destroyed. It's needless.
If that barsteward Michael Vick taught us nothing else, his ex-dogs proved conclusively that even former-fighters can be rehabilitated, over 90% of the time, & are no longer dog-aggro. That 2007 legal case was a watershed for fighting dogs.
Of some 44 dogs seized, all actively fought, just FOUR were placed with Best Friends as 'lifers', & 2 of those later became adoptable. Over 90% of Vick's ex-dogs were adopted by average pet-owners [APOs]; they became loving pets, literacy dogs, therapy pets, & often were adopted into multi-dog households.
https://barkpost.com/good/vicktory-dogs/
I know this is a 2009 episode, just 2-years post-Vick, but it's so discouraging to continue to hear such blatant misrepresentations of well-known facts in dog behavior. Dogs who chase & kill cats don't chase & kill humans; VERY FEW dogs who fight other dogs will attack people - some, yes, but it's an extremely-tiny fraction of the whole. Human-aggro & dog-aggro are separate issues; tho they can be found in the same dog, they're not associated.
It's so important to educate the public about dog-bites, why they happen & how to prevent them, & this sort of careless reporting is inexcusable.
JMO & IME, YMMV,
- terry
.
I'm "watching" S 13 / Ep 14 of "Animal Cops Philadelphia", a rebroadcast of a 2009 episode, & while the ACOs are executing a search-warrant of a house where a sick pitbull pup was sold, the agents are faced with removing a human-aggro dog.
There are multiple dogs, on the ground floor, in the basement, & in backyard cages, & the supervisor on scene suspects this is more a breeding operation for fighting dogs than a pet-breeding business.
[I'm not sure why - the adult-dogs have no facial, ear, or leg scarring, there's no fighting paraphernalia, no pit or ring, their ears aren't even cropped. Successful fighters are bred for future fighters - nothing about these dogs indicates a past Hx of fighting.]
They go outside to discuss how to remove the aggro dog, an intact-M AmBull, & i hear the narrator say, "Confronting a fighting dog with an aggressive history could be fatal" [to the SPCA agents].
Dammit. Dog-fighting is DOG aggression; this dog lunged & snapped at nonthreatening human strangers who were just standing in the doorway. That's HUMAN directed aggro, & it has absolutely nothing to do with an alleged past-history of fighting other dogs.Even if this AmBull fought other dogs [& nothing in his appearance indicates this], dogs who are actively fighting, at that moment, still have to be sufficiently self-controlled to be handled intrusively DURING the fight - I mean, either owner / handler can swoop in at any time & pick up their own dog bodily, & NOT be bitten.
Fighting dogs are normally highly human-affiliative, have excellent bite inhibition, & are NOT human-aggressive.
That's precisely why it's such a shame that many shelters & rescues have a blanket policy of killing / euthanizing all "fighting dogs", even 2-WO pups of former-fighter sires are routinely destroyed. It's needless.If that barsteward Michael Vick taught us nothing else, his ex-dogs proved conclusively that even former-fighters can be rehabilitated, over 90% of the time, & are no longer dog-aggro. That 2007 legal case was a watershed for fighting dogs.
Of some 44 dogs seized, all actively fought, just FOUR were placed with Best Friends as 'lifers', & 2 of those later became adoptable. Over 90% of Vick's ex-dogs were adopted by average pet-owners [APOs]; they became loving pets, literacy dogs, therapy pets, & often were adopted into multi-dog households.
https://barkpost.com/good/vicktory-dogs/
I know this is a 2009 episode, just 2-years post-Vick, but it's so discouraging to continue to hear such blatant misrepresentations of well-known facts in dog behavior. Dogs who chase & kill cats don't chase & kill humans; VERY FEW dogs who fight other dogs will attack people - some, yes, but it's an extremely-tiny fraction of the whole. Human-aggro & dog-aggro are separate issues; tho they can be found in the same dog, they're not associated.
It's so important to educate the public about dog-bites, why they happen & how to prevent them, & this sort of careless reporting is inexcusable.
JMO & IME, YMMV,
- terry
.
