Via Smijer, Boortz, who claims to be a Libertarian when he’s more like a Republican who is slightly less critical of Republicans (or maybe he’s the stereotypical Libertarian and is just a Republican who smokes weed), has a poll on banning pit bulls. Unsurprisingly, his faux Libertarian minions seem to think they should be banned (currently 62% to 38%). Sayeth Boortz:

This time it happened in Orlando. A 4-year-old boy is now dead after a relative’s pit bull chomped down on his head. Don’t give me that BS about these pit bulls being just dandy if they’re raised right. It’s in their blood line. They’re killers. They’re bred to attack and to kill. No one owner, no matter how wonderful, is going to erase the vicious blood lust out of these dogs. My friend Bugsy … who unfortunately lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan where rock-n-roll seems to be king … says that these “damned psycho animals should be banned from being ANYWHERE other than prison yards.” Good line Bugs. ‘Bout time.

Boortz has donned his hysterical nanny hat and has taken someone’s talking points word for word. Pit bulls (and I mean the American Pit Bull Terrier since there is no breed called the Pit Bull) were bred, theoretically, from the cattle/hog dog that used to be the English Bulldog (the current freak of nature is not remotely similar to its former incarnation) but is now called the American Bulldog; and the Bull Terrier. The current Bull Terrier is a much friendlier version than its old counterpart, which was also bred for dog fighting and dog aggressiveness. The Bulldog was chosen due to it’s gameness (tolerance for pain) and sheer power (these are arguably the most powerful dogs on the planet, relative to their size). The Pit Bull was bred to fight other dogs due to its inherent dog aggressiveness and its tolerance for pain enabled it to stay in the fight longer. Pit bulls were not bred to attack people. In the hideous practice of dog fighting, you want a dog that is tolerant of people so that, when you break the fight up, the dog doesn’t attack the people breaking the fight up.

Pit bulls typically don’t play nice with other dogs. It’s in their nature. This can, to an extent, be mitigated by proper socialization but that should not be relied upon and owners should take care to supervise interaction with other dogs. Owners should also supervise the interaction of any dog with small children. Period.

Unfortunately for Pit Bulls, they attract owners who shouldn’t own any breed of dog, much less one with the power and gameness that these dogs have. They are also popular among criminals who gamble on dog fighting and drug dealers who keep near emaciated dogs to guard stashes. And, as breed bans have shown in the past, banning a breed is ineffective as criminals ignore it and other people, who want a bad ass dog, just switch to a number of other breeds. Of course, if your criteria for owning a dog is that it is a bad ass, you’re probably one of those people who shouldn’t own any dog.

Say, is Boortz pro-gun like me? Seems a bit hypocritical.

XRLQ has more.

Posted in uncategorized on December 10th, 2004 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |