KC DOG BLOG

How important is breed history, really?

History is something that people talk about a lot when it comes to pit bulls. You don't have to look far.

-- "Pit Bulls were bred to fight."

-- "Pit Bulls were bred to be dog aggressive (but not human aggressive)".

-- "Pit bulls have an aggression gene that makes them more likely to attack."

-- "Pit bulls have been bred for hundreds of years to attack other dogs, you just can't take that out of them."

These ideas are prevelent.  You will see them in the comments section almost any time there is a story in a newspaper about a dog bite online (even if a pit bull isn't involved).  You can certainly read all about it from people who want to use this information as a reason to ban these dogs -- or even make them extinct.  Heck, you will even see it on a large number of rescue websites.

But are they true statements? I mean, really?

Does the history of the breed really determine their current behavior -- in as much as, even if there is an "aggression gene" (there's not), have the traits that these dogs were originally bred for predetermined the behavior of all American Pit Bull Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers in the wold today?

The history of 'pit bulls' is fairly well documented (although there is a ton of really inaccurate stuff out there). If you aren't familiar, I think Diane Jessup's history stuff is about as good a read as any. And yes, there is history in there about the dogs being used for bull baiting and after bull baiting was made illegal, dog fighting.  I have no doubts that dogs that were good at these tasks were bred to produce offspring that would, hopefully, be good at said task.  The history is undeniable.

But that was almost 200 years ago. How relevant is this information to us now?

In 1835, the United Kingdom enacted the Cruelty to Animals Act that banned a lot of things -- including dog fighting. Meanwhile, across the pond, dog fighting became illegal in most US states in the 1860s, although enforcement was initially lax. Dog fighting was pretty far underground by the 1930s and 1940s in the U.S., as Humane Organizations fought against dog fighting and mainstream animal groups like the UKC pulled their support of the activity.

In 1936, the AKC established the breed of the American Staffordshire Terrier as non-fighitng dogs to differenentiate the dogs from the American Pit Bull Terriers.

So, since 1936, very few American Staffordshire Terriers have been used for dog fighting -- as they were created with the express purpose of NOT fighting.

And for at least the past 70 years, most of the American Pit Bull Terriers have been bred by people with the intention of NOT using them for fighting (not that all of them were BEFORE the 1930s, but certainly after that point) as the law, and canine organizations frowned on the activity.

So if there were genetic characteristics that made 'pit bulls' more prone toward aggression toward other dogs, how long would it take for such a gene to no longer exist through selective breeding.

Prior to around 1900, most dogs were bred with some purpose in mind. People needed dogs for tasks around the home - -often for protection, hunting, getting rid of rodents, etc. In fact, if you look at the breed history of most older breeds, almost all of them were initially bred for the express purpose to either chase, kill, herd or protect something.

However, over the past century as human kind has move from living on farms to living in cities, dogs have changed their role in our lives and moved from living in our barns, to living in our homes.   And over the past couple of decades, from living in our homes, to sleeping in our beds.

Over this time, the need to selectively breed dogs for traits that make them good at tasks has not been the main focus for most breeders -- vs breeding dogs based on things like looks and temperament.

Over this time, lines of dogs have split. While a few lines of dogs remain for their original working purpose, many lines have become much more focused on "pet quality" dogs.  And with that, most of these "pet" dogs have become virtually worthless at the original tasks they were originally bred to perform.

Ask any hunter whether they would be interested in buying a Beagle or Cocker Spaniel from a pet store and they may look at you like you are insane. The difference between the drive, endurance and tenacity of the working lines of these dogs and the "pet" lines of these dogs makes one very valuable as a hunter and the other virtually worthless at it.   In turn, a good hunting dog probably won't make a good pet for your average suburban family.

And over time, we have become really comfortable with most breeds of dogs becoming better "pets" than workers....because outside of a few people out there, most of us don't care if the dog is all that good of a "worker". 

Here is a list of just a few breeds, and some of the functions they were orginally bred for:

The Chinese Shar Pei:  Guarding, protecting, dog fighting

English Bulldogs: Bull baiting, dog fighting

Boxers: Dog fighting, holding down large game like wild boars and bison

Dachshunds:  Crawl into badger holes and fight and kill badgers

Poodles: Water retrievers

Miniature Poodles: Truffle hunting

Rhodesian Ridgebacks: Hunting lions

Weimaraner: Hunting wolves, deer and beer

Now when you look at the former tasks of these dogs, it is almost impossible to think of dogs of our friends and neighbors as fullfilling these tasks. But they used to.  And now the vast majority of the dogs in these groups, like most dogs, are just pets.

It's just really interesting to me that when it comes to the American Pit Bull Terrier, people assume that its history will instantly cause it to attack another dog or person.  Yet we never look at a Poodle and instantly think well, that dog is instantly going to retrieve birds in the water or would be excellent at finding truffles or that a Dachsund is going to instantly crawl down in a hole and kill the next badger it sees. 

It doesn't quite work that way. And science is helping us determine why.

In some new research that is being done -- in part by Scientist Dee Denver - - many scientists now believe that genetic mutation occurs at a rate of 10x what scientists previously thought. In "nature", even though many mutations can improve an organism's chance for survival, most mutations are detrimental to to long-term survival -- thus, within a few generations, the mutation would be eliminated due to natural selection.  In nature, if a dog's genes mutated in a way that would make them lesser of fighters, or hunters, they would likely die off because they would be unable to survive.

But our dogs don't live in nature. They live in homes. And as such, these changes can happen and not have a negative impact on the well-being of a dog because our dogs don't have to fight to survive.  In pet quality dogs, there is little "natural selection".  Behaviors are able to change very quickly.

So, how important of a role does history play in current temperaments of pit bull type dogs?

Changes in genetics can happen very quickly...and the VAST majority of these dogs have not been used for the purpose of dog fighting for at least 30 years, and most haven't been used for this purpose in 70+ years.   The fact that all of this "fighting" talk is ancient history (in dog years) for the majority of dogs is a major reason why 99.9% of them won't bite -- which wouldn't be the case if they were genetically predisposed to attack. 

So why are we still talking about breed history as if it is a predetermining factor in a dog's behavior?

Media mis-reporting of breeds

No real surprise here, but apparently the media has mis-reported the breed in a couple of dog attacks in Calgary.

There were two fairly significant attcks in Calgary in the past week -- both of them were initially reported to be by 'pit bulls'.

However, upon further review, neither of the attacks were.

In one attack last week, the dog was officially determined Director of Bylaw Services Bill Bruce to be a nine-month old Presa Canario, and not a 'pit bull'.

In another attack last week, it was initially reported that a 'pit bull' had bitten a 2 year old boy -- and that dog was re-identified as a Pointer/Boxer mix.

It is not at all uncommon for victims, witnesses and the media to mis-identify the breeds of dogs involved in attacks.  In most cases it seems that dogs are mis-identified as the more common, generic dog breed -- "shepherd mix" or "pit bull mix".  These media reports are very influential in making citizens believe that certain types of dogs are more aggressive than others -- even if in reality the dogs are often mixes of other breeds or completely different breeds altogether.

This easily highlights why media reports are bad ways to determine "aggressive breeds" and building legislation based on these reports is frought with problems.  And it's interesting that Calgary, a city that has become a role model in minimizing dog attacks in the city its size, is correctly identifying dogs (and being sure the media updates their reports), and focusing on actual causes of the attacks -- not the breeds involved.

It seems so obvious....I just don't understand why everyone doesn't do it this way.

Weekly Roundup -- week ending 4/26/09

Thanks to everyone that showed up to our KCDA 101 presentation yesterday. I think we have a lot of positive momentum in KC and I'm excited to see it continue to move forward. A special thanks to a couple of our great local politicians for coming out for the event.

Also, I'll be heading out to the Nation's capital later this week to participate in the No Kill Conference out there. I'll try to get information out during the conference --I'm not sure what format it may take whether I post stuff here, life blog over at the No Kill Nation, or whether I'll twitter it.I'll let you know though.  Now, onto the weekly roundup.

Cities/States and Laws

A move in Sioux City to extend the deadline for licensing 'pit bulls' in the cityproved valuable as nearly 250 owners licensed their dog during the one-week extension.

An election update for those of you in Ontario -- but Randy Hillier announced this week that if he were made premeier of Ontario he would repeal the province's pit bull ban.

A bill that would ban ownership of 'pit bulls' in Hawaii appears to be dead. Yet another area that has wisely decided that breed specific laws are not the way to go.

Lawrenceburg, KY is looking  at changes to their dangerous dog ordinance following several attacks in the community. They stress that the law will not target dogs by breed.

Pottawattamie County, IA is proposing several changes to their animal control code --that they will not focus on specific breeds - but would focus on "irresponsible, habitual animal owners."

An article from the Mansfield News Journal (OH) on whether the city's breed ban really works --and it seems that no one really thinks it does.

Orting, WA passed a dog that bans all dangerous dogs from the city. Like most of Orting's surrounding cities, the law defines dangerous dogs based on the dog's behavior.

The West Baton Rouge Parish council is discussing ways to strengthen their dangerous dog laws following the fatal attack of a young boy in Morganza two weeks ago.  Councilman Gary Spillman wants to be sure they don't pass a law that groups all dog owners together because "there are some very good dog owners out there. I don't want to penalize those doing the right thing.".

Moses Lake,WA passed an ordinance that began January 1st that established pit bulls, Rottweilers, Presa Canarios as hazerdous dogs.  Owners are expected to register the dog for $250, spay or neuter it, get an insurance policy, install a microchip and keep the dog in an enclosed structure. In the first quarter of the year, nearly 1/3 of the dogs that have entered the shelter have done so because of the ordinance --causing the shelter to become overcrowded.

Dog Bites and Attacks

A Boxer/Pointer mix was involved in an attack of a woman and  here 2-year old son in Northeast Calgary. Although Calgary has one of the best animal control departments in North America, any city with over 1 million people is bound to have an occassional attack.

Police in Miami shot a dog that acted aggressively toward them. The dog, described as a 'pit bull', which is illegal in Miami, was in an abandoned home that was in foreclosure and was living in its own fecal matter. Laws outlawing certain breeds of dogs, like Miami has, don't get rid of the dogs nor do they end irresponsible ownership.

A 9 year old Pennsylvania girl was attacked this week by a Bull Mastiff that she and a friend were walking by themselves. While they were walking the dog, another at-large dog approached them. The mastiff tried to go after the other dog and then re-directed on the young girl. The girl suffered multiple fractures, torn sinuses, a broken jaw and a punctured skull.

This is some swell reporting, but in Longview, WA, a "Toddler was attacked by a pit bull".  However, if you read the story, you'll note that the dog was a stray in the park that people have noticed before. The family allowed the 3 year old boy to feed the dog -- and at some point, the dog ended up biting at the boy and bit the child in the cheek. "It's not a bad dog. It's just hungry," said the boy's great grandfather. Parents, please don't let your young toddlers feed stray dogs.

A 9-year-old Thomasville, GA girl was attacked by a Border Collie and required 163 stitches. Earlier this year Thomasville discussed passing breed specific legislation after a fatal dog attack earlier this year.

A two year old boy in Newport Beach, VA was bitten in the face by a German Shepherd. The dog was tethered to a tree and the boy had initially gone up to pet the dog with no incident, but then approached the dog later to "say goodbye" and the dog bristled and bit him. 

Two Labradors who are running at-large in Washington neigborhood and "terrorizing" the neighborhood.

Missouri State Representative Mark Wright's Labrador has now bitten yet another person in Springfield, MO. Two months after the dog bit an eighth grader, the dog now has  bitten a 22 year old college student. Springfield, MO passed a ban on pit bulls 3 years ago in the name of 'public safety'....

A Boxer in Raleigh was granted a reprieve after a string of attacks that it was involved in.

A four  year old boy in Conyers, GA was severely attacked by what is being called a bulldog mix.  The attack was orignially reported to be by a 'pit bull mix" but was later changed.

A 5 year old Bethesda girl was hospitalized after being attacked by a Rottweiler.

More UK Failures

A six year old UK girl was attacked by an Akita that was running at-large in a park where the girl was playing with some other children while her parents watched a rugby match.

The RSPCA has once again called for changes to the UK Dangerous Dogs Act.  They claim that the current, ineffective law is too vague and has actually caused an increase in the targeted breeds and and the number of dog attacks in the UK have tripled since 1991.

Abuse cases

A St. Louis man shot a 'pit bull' that was at-large. The man said the 'pit bull' came up and and  attacked him and his dog. However, a witness said the dog just approached the man's dog and the dogs were just sniffing each other. "That's just what dogs do, they sniff each other," said the witness.

This could have gone above, but I'm putting it here. An Anderson, IN man beat his dog to death after the dog chased a woman and bit her --the man beat the dog and strangled it to the point where the dog died. Gee, I wonder where the animal learned its aggressive behavior from.

A Richmond, VA sheriff's deputy is being charged in his affiliation with a dog-fighting ring in the area.

A Muncie, IN woman is being charged with animal cruelty for allowing a female pit bull and her 10 puppies to be severely emaciate -- with two of the puppies having starved to death.

Miscellanious

A group of 8th graders in Alaska have been disciplined for taunting and frightening a moose to the point that the Moose inflicted a fatal injury on itself. We really need to work hard in this county to teach our children to respect and appreciate animals.

A good story about a 'pit bull' in Virginia Beach that interrupted two men who entered a print screening shop with an intent to rob the place. The two men shot the dog, which alerted the shop owner that the men were there and gave the shop owner time to escape. The dog's owner credits the dog with saving his life. Although the dog may never regain the vision in its left eye after the gunshot, it sounds like otherwise the dog will be fine.

A really great article about dog bite prevention from Biloxi Sun Herald. Here's a snippet:

The overwhelming majority of morbid wounds and disfiguring attacks are from dogs who haven’t been socialized or who are chained to trees in back yards and get loose. There are not many dogs that are horrible creatures that attack anything. A few exist but not many.

A great article about a pit bull named Brigitte that stole the hearts of so many people with her kind and loving heart.

A group of 'pit bulls' spend their days traveling to hospitals, schools, and homes spreading the love as therapy dogs.  Great video with the story.

A Psychologist has a new study that says that owning a dog reduces stress quicker than drugs. Dogs continue to be much healthier for our well-being than anything they do that is unhealthy.

Have a great week!

11 month old Michigan boy dead due to dog bite

11 month old Leonard Lovejoy, Jr. is dead this week, following being attacked by the family dog, in Eastpoint, MI -- a Northern suburb of Detroit.

The child was said to be on the bed with the parents, when the dog, described as a pit bull mix, attacked the child.  The father shot the dog several times -- killing it. 

Multiple neighbors said that the dog was known to be hostile to passersby -- and the owner had once told a man not to come near their fence because the dog might nip at him.

The incident, of course, has already sparked mention of evaluating the city's animal control laws. Laws though won't change the need for people to understand that the must deal with their dogs that shows signs of aggression and they must work to socialize their dog, regardless of the dog's breed, with new members of the family.

This story was picked up by over 300 news sources from around the country.

A memorial fund has been set up for the family of the child.

My heart goes out to the Lovejoy family.

Big News on the Internets today

There certainly has been some interesting stuff on the internets the past couple of days.

This afternoon, Ed Boks, the very controversial head of Animal Control in the city of Los Angeles stepped down.

Boks has been criticized by many for many things in Los Angeles:  failure to address feral cat issues, allowing too many animals to die while in his care, pushing for a mandatory spay/neuter program in L.A. that, in part, led to a 24% increase in euthanasia -- the first increase in euthanasia at the shelter in 6+ years, and then, most recently, discontinuing their low-cost spay/neuter vouchers due to budget constraints.

Gina has her take on the announcement.

LA Animal Watch has his resignation speech.

I have no doubt that the head of LA Animal Control is a difficult job -- and it will be interesting what direction the city takes to replace him.

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Meanwhile, I had intended to type up something on H.R. 669 -- an ordinance that is supported by HSUS and is designed to end the ownership of "non-native" species of animals in the United States.

While the bill sounds ok on the surface, it would have a majorly detrimental affect on many in the pet trade -- including ownership of exotic birds, fish, reptiles and even a lot of small furry pets like hampsters and guinee pigs.  Heck, the bill was so broad, it very well could have been applied to a large percentage of our farm animals that we use for food in this country.

The bill was heard in Congress yesterday and Christie did such a nice job covering it, I'll just link over there.  Here's her post from yesterday.  And another (even better one) from awhile back. And a video from Gina too.

Doolittler had a nice post on this yesterday as well. Her perspective is particularly interesting because, being from Florida, she has a great view on the damage done by non-native species in this country in the wild.  But even with that, understands the bill is WAY too broad.

Some live-blogging action from the house floor from Christie.

And here's the bill summary.

While the bill didn't restrict any particular animals, per se, it did open up the possibility that virtually every non-native species (going as far back as the pilgrims) that was not a dog or a cat could be restricted in this country. I still have major problems with the support of a bill that could have had such a devastating impact on so many pets in this country.

KCDA 101 this Saturday, April 25 from 3-5

I just want to remind everyone about our KCDA 101 meeting this Saturday from 3-5 at the Waldo Branch of the Kansas City Pulblic Library (on 75th Street).

We're going to spend a couple of hours discussing where our organization has been, and where we're going - -and our greater roll in helping the entire Kansas City metropolitan area to become a community where no healthy dogs and cats are killed.

It should be a great event -- we'll have a lot of information on our stances on different subjects in animal welfare legislation with specifics as to why we feel that way. We'll also have some good concrete ways for people to get involved following the meeting if they so choose.  If you just want the information but don't want to dive in just yet, that is fine too.  All are welcome.

We also should have plenty of time for Q&A after the meeting.  Come on out, they're forcasting quite a bit of rain for the area again this weekend, so it will be a good time to be inside and learn how to get involved in improving the welfare for animals in your community.

The UK Dangerous Dogs Act - and the Law of Unintended Consequences

I've written a lot about the UK Dangerous Dogs Act.  But as new information comes out, it bears repeating.

The UK Dangerous Dogs Act was an ordinance originally passed in 1991 that banned 4 breeds of dogs from the UK: American Pit Bull Terriers, and 3 breeds of dog that barely existed at the time: Fila Brasilerios, Japanese Tosas, and the Dogo Argentino.

The ordinance was updated and strengthened in 1997.  The idea was to protect the citizens from aggressive dogs. However, the had no idead of what the unintended consequences that would ensue.

Since then, it appears that the UK has INCREASED the demand for restricted breeds -- by the exact people who you wouldn't want to own them. According to one newspaper in the UK, the number of Hospital visits caused by dog attacks is up 50% since the 1999 (even though the population of the UK has grown less than 1% during that timeframe).  Meanwhile, the total number of restricted breeds seems to be increasing also  - -with the number of dogs seized in London in 2008 up to 608 dogs seized last year - up from 40 in 2006.  This a solid 17 years after the ban began. 

It could be argued that the reason the seizures have taken place is because of an increased focus on enforcing the Dangerous Dogs Act -- but regardless, there are plenty of restricted breeds still on the islands, and plenty of people still being attacked by dogs.

At the end of the day, the Act continues to cost taxpayer dollars, and the safety of citizens in the UK.  The attacks continue to mount, including one this week -- by a Rottweiler.  Each week, I have 3 or 4 major attacks in the weekly roundup that come from the UK.

The law isn't working. It doesn't work. The focus of the law is on dogs - -and not on the owners that either a) want an aggressive dog for protection or to intimidate or b) owners who will not train or treat a dog well and end up creating a situation where the dog is underexercised and unsocialized.

If you want to solve the dog-bite issues -- you must focus on owner responsibility. There is no other way.  And hopefully the UK will soon join its European counterparts in the Netherlands and in Italy and repeal the breed bans, and focus their enforcement on irresponsible and negligent owners.

Kansas City Area has rash of cruelty cases

It's been a pretty awful week for animals around the KC metro. 

In one story, a woman found a dead, decomposing 'pit bull' in the back yard of a home at 29th and Garfield in Kansas City.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the folks at this address have had animal cruelty charges against them. In fact, over the past 6 years, 18 animals have been removed from the home because of cruelty -- including one accusation of dog fighting and one where a K-9 was "90% covered in motor oil" -- however, the case as closed in Jackson County Court.

The woman who found the dog recently had removed a different dog last year that was abused and neglected, but the dog was unable to survive treatment.

Can we PLEASE have these people locked up for this?

In a separate story, a 17 year old Kansas City, KS teen was arrested for setting a cat on fire.

Meanwhile, a family in the Northland of Kansas City is trying to track down someone who is suspected of shooting their 5 year old 'pit bull' while the dog was in their fenced in back yard.The dog will survive, but the dog had to have one of its hind legs amputated.

This story is remarkably similar to a situation in the same part of the city that was going on last October in which 3 dogs were shot in a Northland neighborhood.

Let's hope the KCMO police and animal control find the dog shooter, and find a way to prosecute the people who are cruely allowing animals to die in their yard.

Some new features for the KC Dog Blog

I've had several people ask me about how they can receive updates on blog postings that I make here at the dog blog.  I usually recommend people set up RSS feeds -- but after multiple requests, have added a couple of new feautres.

Feature #1 -- On the left hand side, about half way down, is a new tool that will allow you to subscribe to new posts via email. So when I post, typepad, via feedburner, will email you the text of the post.

Feature #2 -- the kcdogblog is now on Twitter.  So if you "follow" the kcdogblog on twitter, you will get "tweets" whenever I post things (this is a new typepad feature, so you can thank them).

All of the content thought will be the same at each place -- so no reason to do all of the RSS feed, twitter, email stuff -- I'm just some more options for folks to keep up with what's going on here. 

Sioux City's Struggles Continue

Ahhh, Sioux City. What a mess.

So a few months ago, Sioux City passed a ban on 'pit bulls' in their community.  And their struggles with it continue.

The city has already gotten a lot of pushback from their law.

At first, the city delt with protests that the city was going out and specifically targeting people who showed up at the meetings to speak out against the breed specific bans.

Early on, veterinarians in the community announced that they were not going to help the city by identifying breeds of dogs.

Then, the self-incriminating paperwork that they were forcing people to sign became a cause for concern.

Then, there was the need to give a new timeline for people to use to register their existing dogs because there was confusion over the law and people who didn't know they would be affected by the law were being affected.

Now, it turns out that breed identification isn't as easy as people want to believe.

Yesterday, a story was released where a man had his dog confiscated from him by animal control because AC said his dog was a 'pit bull.'  Because the man couldn't prove his dog's blood line, AC confiscated the dog.

The man still wasn't convince his dog was a 'pit bull', so he went out and bought a dog DNA kit.  The test results from the swab test was that the dog had no "pit bull' at all, and that one of his most prominent traits was Labrador Retriever. Because of th einformation, Josh Mapes was able to keep his dog.  Mapes said that Petsmart sells the swab test kits for $60 and is easy and "definitely worth the expense."

Animal control is now saying that trait information is important to have on hand, especially for "anybyody that has a bully type breed or it looks like a bully type breed," said Cindy Rarrat. 

Uh, that's not how it's suposed to work in this country.

See, in the United States, people are supposedly presumed innocent until they are proven by authorities to be guilty. Thus, if the city is going to use DNA testing to 'prove' a dog's ancestory, then the burden of proving the dog is a pit bull MUST be on the city itself....not on the individual dog owners.  Which would put the cost burden of the $60 DNA test on city -- for each and every case where they want to prosecute someone for having an "illegal" breed. 

Sioux City's struggles with this are exactly why the majority of cities out there are leaning toward breed neutral ordinances that focus solely on the behavior of the animal, not "breed".  These laws are more fair, more reliable, and easier to enforce -- because they ONLY focus on dogs that are problems in a community and don't waste resources on non-problem dogs.