Pitbulls are great, you see far less people talking about the inhumanity of breeding french bulldogs or pugs who are widely known to have inherent respiratory problems.
Now to be clear I am a firm opponent of pedigree dog breeding or dog breeding in general on the grounds of consent and animal exploitation, but Pit Bulls are not even much of a breed in that regard. Their classification is relatively new (as in less than a hundred or so years).
German shepherds, who I used as an example have been bred for guard dog purposes for far longer also have predisposition to hip displacia and as noted in the sources I linked were the go to demonized breed in the 40s and before back when Germans were also not considered white. Ben Franklin lumped them in with the “swarthy” races alongside Italians.
Dog discrimination has ALWAYS been intertwined with notions of eugenics and racial purity.
In modern times the Pitbull hysteria has been used as a back door to plant the seed that an animal, human dog or otherwise, can be genetically predisposed to violence.
but Pit Bulls are not even much of a breed in that regard.
This also leads back to your earlier point. “Pitbull” isn’t a specific breed of dog, it’s a floating label that can be applied or not to any dog that looks “dangerous” enough.
Now to be clear I am a firm opponent of pedigree dog breeding or dog breeding in general on the grounds of consent and animal exploitation, but Pit Bulls are not even much of a breed in that regard. Their classification is relatively new (as in less than a hundred or so years).
Ya this is likely the correct take to have on all this.
Pitbulls are great, you see far less people talking about the inhumanity of breeding french bulldogs or pugs who are widely known to have inherent respiratory problems.
Now to be clear I am a firm opponent of pedigree dog breeding or dog breeding in general on the grounds of consent and animal exploitation, but Pit Bulls are not even much of a breed in that regard. Their classification is relatively new (as in less than a hundred or so years).
German shepherds, who I used as an example have been bred for guard dog purposes for far longer also have predisposition to hip displacia and as noted in the sources I linked were the go to demonized breed in the 40s and before back when Germans were also not considered white. Ben Franklin lumped them in with the “swarthy” races alongside Italians.
Dog discrimination has ALWAYS been intertwined with notions of eugenics and racial purity.
In modern times the Pitbull hysteria has been used as a back door to plant the seed that an animal, human dog or otherwise, can be genetically predisposed to violence.
This also leads back to your earlier point. “Pitbull” isn’t a specific breed of dog, it’s a floating label that can be applied or not to any dog that looks “dangerous” enough.
Also a dog is more likely to be labeled a pitbull (in the US at least) if the owner is not white.
Ya this is likely the correct take to have on all this.