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{"id":461,"date":"2014-07-15T01:07:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T05:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/?p=461"},"modified":"2014-07-15T01:07:49","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T05:07:49","slug":"a-defense-of-the-pit-bull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/a-defense-of-the-pit-bull\/","title":{"rendered":"A Defense of the Pit Bull"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The essay\u2019s a little over-wrought, especially at the end, but offers a\u00a0needed defense of the much put-upon Pit Bull<\/a>. Writing in Esquire<\/em>, Tom Junod explains that Pit Bulls are not a breed, more a broad category, which is one reason they get blamed so often.<\/p>\n

The pit bull is not a breed but a conglomeration of traits, and those traits are reshaping what we think of as the American dog, which is to say the American mutt. A few generations ago, the typical mutt was a rangy dog with a long snout and pricked ears\u2014a shepherd mix. Now it looks like a pit bull. This is not simply because so many pit-bull owners oppose spaying and neutering their dogs and their dogs are bred so frequently and haphazardly; nor is it simply because so many of the traits associated with pit bulls have proven common. It\u2019s because the very definition of a pit bull is so elastic and encompassing. . . . A German shepherd crossed with a pit bull is a pit bull. A cocker spaniel crossed with a pit bull is a pit bull.<\/p>\n

When dogs fight, the Pit Bull is assumed to have been at fault. They are big strong dogs, but it\u2019s not their fault if moronic cocker spaniels and chihuahuas take them on. Junod quotes\u00a0\u00a0Kris Irizarry,\u00a0a professor of comparative genomics from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at a pit bull\u2019s DNA,\u201d he said, \u201cand the only thing you can really tell is that it\u2019s a dog. That\u2019s why the tests don\u2019t work. There\u2019s no boundary between what genes may or may not be in the breed, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s not a breed. It\u2019s just a general dog and there\u2019s no way to predict its behavior from its appearance. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s not biology that caused your dog to attack another dog. It\u2019s biology.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s dog biology rather than pit-bull biology. And so I\u2019m respectfully asking you: However your dog acts, keep it to your dog. Don\u2019t extrapolate and think that all pit bulls do this. Or that all dogs from shelters do this. Or that all short-haired dogs do this. Look at your dog as an individual. That\u2019s the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"