It seems like you only hear about 'pit bulls' in this news too

I'm going to appologize in advance on this one. This post may be a little hard for some to read -- but I feel like it's a topic that needs to be covered. If you don't deal with stories about animal cruelty well, you may not want to read this post. 

  Yesterday, a story came out in the Dallas Morning News about two 'pit bull' type dogs that were literally set ablaze by two teenage boys and ended up running out in traffic while on fire.  The dogs (one is pictured left) were burned so badly they had to be euthanized.

It's  a horrific story. But one that is sadly, not all that uncommon.

Stories about animal cruelty are quite common.

This morning,WBIR (Knoxville) had a story about a 'pit bull' that is recovering after being drug behind a truck. The dog was tied to the bumper of the truck, the owner forgot about him, and drug him for over a mile down the road.

I usually add a story or two about abuse cases in my weekly roundup.  The storeis are often horrible. Deanna over at the "For the Love of the Dog" blog covers countless of these stories.

"Pit bull" tied to a tree and set on fire.

Four dog owners arrested for starving pit bulls (killing one).

Three dead 'pit bulls' found abandoned and chained to trees.

You get the idea. For as much press as dogs attacking people get in the headlines, people continue to be significantly more dangerous to dogs than vice versa.

The crazy thing is that 'pit bulls are SO overly represented in these cases -- or at least, so it seems.

So I went over to Pet-Abuse.com, to see what I could find out. The site, has a database of nearly 15,000 animal cruelty cases that they have found over the past several years. In their database, they have 7,274 cases that involve "non-pit bull type" dogs, and 1,717 cases involving 'pit bulls'. So of the 8,991 dog abuse cases in their database, 20% of the cases involve 'pit bulls'.

Yikes.

But no one should be terribly surprised by this. It appears that there are certain segments of the population that don't share the compassion for animals that the majority in society share. There are unfortunately a lot of people, often in poor neighborhoods, that are lucky to be able to fend for themselves, let alone for a dog. They also don't seem to have the same respect for "life", that I, and many of the readers here, share.

It doesn't necessarily make them bad people (although some are) -- that's just what they know.

It then should be a surprise, that two dogs that were found on fire two days ago, were found that way in a poorer area of Dallas, in a zip code where the average household income is 28% less than the average household income in the state of Texas -- in spite of the the average household having 30% more people living in them. 26% of the people live below the poverty level -- 10% of them live more than 50% below the poverty level.

These lower-income, lower-educated neighborhoods, tend to be the places where a lot of the major abuse cases happen. They also tend to be the places where a large number of the major dog bites happen.

It probably isn't a coincidence.

For years, those who know canine behavior have been preaching that we have to make the focus of canine laws on how dogs are raised, and not on breeds. I mean, really, if someone's teenage children think so little of an animal that they would set it on fire, do we really think they would treat the animal in a way that it wouldn't act aggressively if pushed?  Do we think it matters what breed of dog it is?

Until we start focusing on educating people on how dogs are cared for and socialized, we are going to continue to have a, albeit relatively small, problem with dog bites and attacks. Because a certain type of dog tends to be popular in certain neighborhoods (if for no other reason than because they are plentiful and inexpensive to get), does not change what the root causes of attacks are.

The root causes remain the same: poorly cared for and unsocialized dogs, dogs used as guard dogs, and dogs that are left alone with young children.

Breed is not.

Can we start having real conversations about this yet?  Let's start addressing the canine ownership issues that exist in our society. It will be infinitely better for the dogs....and it will make things safer for people too.

Comments

[Sue Cosby]

It's not surprising that one of the most populous and popular types of dogs is the most likely target of cruelty.

Believe it or not a few years ago when Ms. Newkirk gave a pre-taped presentation at an HSUS conference on why pit bulls as a group should be exterminated, this is the reason she gave. Because they are the targets of abuse at higher levels than other animals - therefore we should make them illegal and remove them from the equation.

Although I'm not a social scientist, I can imagine that a similar parallel might be drawn with other forms of abuse and neglect ie children and elders, in areas where access and resources to education and income are scarce. Likewise illegal activities of all types might be higher. Would be interesting to find someone to study this on some level to see where the clear overlap is or is not.

Although abuse of all types knows no boundaries in regards to location, class or culture, I'd be willing to bet, as you surmised about the zip code, there would be some patterns.

[Brent]

Yeah -- I'm aware that Ingrid made that type of case. As if removing the "breed" will make the inclination for abuse go away.

As with everything, if you don't deal with the root of the problem,it will never go away.There are no shortcuts...

[MichelleD]

"These lower-income, lower-educated neighborhoods, tend to be the places where a lot of the major CRIMES OF ALL SORTS HAPPEN."

I think the real point here should be that HUMANS continue to be the most evil, murderous beings on earth. We have had the right conversations a thousand times. What we really need people to get their heads out of their asses.

[Rosemary]

I think there's pretty definite evidence that removing Pit bulls would just switch the "most unlucky breed" tag to something else - probably the Staffordshire bull terrier.

http://tinyurl.com/cvwmqu

[Heather]

I feel we need to get into the trenches and start educating people on animal abuse. If this means going into the poorer neighbourhoods and speaking with school children, then thats where we have to go.
Animal abuse goes on in every segment of society but may be silenced with cash for all I know . My point is that unless all people are shown how to treat an animal properly, they wont know any different than their parents who feel that animals are disposable.
If there was a way to charge Newkirk for her inhumane activities , I`d be happy to begin her education myself.
The posted pic makes me wonder also if this dog couldnt have been saved . She obviously just had a litter . She needed help and went to other humans for it. How sad.
Thanks for making me see and think.

[Rebecca]

I think that the media, PeTA, HSUS and anyone else spewing pit-bull-hate is also complicit in this type of abuse. Look at any conflict in history and the first thing a society does is use propaganda to make the enemy the kind of adversary (or breed) that you want to hate. Once you hate something enough, once you have a big enough irrational fear of something, people can easily be capable of the worst manner of cruelty.

[MichelleD]

Agree 100% Rebecca.

Also Heather, I thought the same thing when I saw the picture - the dog had to be euthanized because they didn't want to spend the money to fix it. It seems that small fuzzy puppy mill dogs would have gotten saved in this situation. I do understand that sometimes hard decisions have to be made...doesn't mean I'll like it.

[BrianC]

People that would do something like that have no place in society and should be removed before they cause irreparable damage again to another dog, cat, person, etc. Seriously, if you are a sick enough person to light a dog on fire, you're capable of anything.

[Carianne]

rebecca, i have to agree with your comment, "once you hate something enough, once you have a big enough irrational fear of something, people can easily be capable of the worst manner of cruelty".

i just finished a book around the holocaust and it addressed this exact issue... in the book they really underplayed some of the well known events that led to the Holocaust and overplayed irrational fears that were driven by media, creating buy-in from people who you would have expected to be smarter than the media. the media essentially went full force with diseases sometimes associated with jewish people and made this to be the norm, creating a hatred like no other of people of this descent. from there, massive amounts of cruelty from once sane people began to proliferate. it was a horrific story around mass media created fears and how far it can really go.

[PoochesForPeace]

There are non profit programs out there to educate kids about numerous topics. I think it would be plausible to have some type of program...

[Brent]

If you ever saw Good Night and Good Luck, it broaches the same topic with the fear of Communists in the 1960s. We have proven ourselves as a public to be not the most rational of species...

[Becky]

I'm sorry, but it is not poverty or ignorance that causes someone to set dogs on fire. It's pure evil, and a love of violence against the innocent and the helpless. It's also serious mental illness. No one is safe from people like this and they need to be banished to somewhere else.

Anyone with an ounce of deceny and sanity cannot bear to even look at this photo without getting sick.

[Peggy Sloan]

Becky, I've got to agree with you. Too many of our young people have no regard toward life, be it animal or even human, hell towards anything, they think nothing of popping one of their own. It seems to be happening WAY to often.

The parents don't care, they let them raise themselves, how are they to learn morals and values when the parents don't have them themselves. Even if the parents did, they are just too busy to teach it to their children, they let the schools and daycare providers do it for them. That's what I call latch key.

Until parents take an interest in their kids and know what they are doing at all times, things like this are going to happen. It's so pitiful that they have to torture a being that can't really defend itself.

They are going to make for very scary adults, and I for one hope that they up the laws for animal cruelty, and make them serve many years....after all it is murder and attempted murder.

[Barbara Ruth Saunders]

That photo is so sad. Just this morning, a dog that looked exactly like that one, a blue pit, hugged me around the legs and kissed me. It's not the breed.

[nicole white]

i feel so sorry for the dog is it ok

[Brent]

Sadly Nicole, both dogs' injuries were so bad they had to be euthanized.

[makenzie]

this is rediculouse! who did this should be punished this is banned and people should do something about this! dogs are killed everyday just because their owners are careless! dogs are loving and should not be treated like this! i think that everybody should do somthing about this! dont just sit there and see them like this! do something! get up and do something about this! dogs did not do anything to them! would if that was you? wouldnt you want people to do something about this for you? Do something! i can not stand seeing pictures of these poor dogs! its sad, scary and its dissapointing!

[chelsey]

look i feel yooh....people see pitbulls as a angery dog...when really yooh gotta look at tha big pic the pitbulls are just a diff type of dog theres nothin diff bout'em but the type....it kills me how people get a dog just 2 hurt it..people need 2 see hurtin any type of dog is like hurtin ur kid...their made just like us but they cant do nothin 4 them self's besides clean them....nd i really hope pitbulls step up nd start showin people their really good....

[Kevin]

Hello....when I read about thoseitbulls that were set alight......I wept

[lauren oslen]

This is sick. How do people expect animals to treat them good when they do this to them. I love and have pit bulls and he is one of the sweetest dogs i know unless provoked. It all depends on how they are raised. All we can do is hope that one day, hopefully soon, idiots will wake up and learn something.

[megan]

unbelievable. we have to do something. something. When I read the story of the pitbulls set alight i just about threw up it's sick who could do something like that. i hope they wake up one morning and realize what they did.

[jessica]

This is so sad i hate people that fight there dogs .... i have a pitbull and she is the best dog ever there grate depeds on the owner not the breed !!!

I love Pit bulls
\
\Jessica <3

[Ash;ey]

makes me want to cry considering i have 2 pitbulls of my own and are as sweet as can be.But then it depends on the owner and the way they are treated. So not all pitbulls are harmful.

[SERGIO UVALLI]

THIS IS SICK AND UNHUMANE ONE DAY THE PEOPLE WHO DID THIS ARE GONNA STAND BEFORE THE LORD AND HAVE TO EXPLAIN THEM SELF; I CAN SEE THEM NOW CHOCKIN ON THERE TOUNGS!!!!

[SERGIO UVALLI]

its time for a change people no wonder this world is the way it is, "is there any hope" if there is i cant tell so lets rise up and make a stand!!! a stand of change!! its up to us few to make that first step we can do it so follw me into change!!!