The Rethinking Our Relationship to Pit Bulls
As recently as 50 years ago, the pit bull was America’s favorite dog. Pit bulls were everywhere. They were popular in advertising and used to promote the joys of pet-and-human friendship. Nipper on the RCA Victor label, Pete the Pup in the “Our Gang” comedy short films, and the flag-wrapped dog on a classic World War I poster all were pit bulls.
With National Pit Bull Awareness Day celebrated on Oct. 26, it’s a fitting time to ask how these dogs came to be seen as a dangerous threat.
Starting around 1990, multiple features of American life converged to inspire widespread bans that made pit bulls outlaws, called “four-legged guns” or “lethal weapons.” The drivers included some dog attacks, excessive parental caution, fearful insurance companies and a tie to the sport of dog fighting.
As a professor of humanities and law, I have studied the legal history of slaves, vagrants, criminals, terror suspects and others deemed threats to civilized society. For my books “The Law is a White Dog” and “With Dogs at the Edge of Life,” I explored human-dog relationships and how laws and regulations can deny equal protection to entire classes of beings.
In my experience with these dogs – including nearly 12 years living with Stella, the daughter of champion fighting dogs – I have learned that pit bulls are not inherently dangerous. Like other dogs, they can become dangerous in certain situations, and at the hands of certain owners. But in my view, there is no defensible rationale for condemning not only all pit bulls, but any dog with a single pit bull gene, as some laws do.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/24/the-rethinking-our-relationship-to-pit-bulls/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I have adopted and fostered several pits and find them to be the most loyal and loving dogs I have ever spent time with.
My current dog is a pocket pit who was used as a bait dog in Georgia. She and her puppies were abandoned on the streets of Atlanta. The puppies died and a friend of mine who does pit rescue brought her north to me.
She has a couple of ribs that healed wrong and a scar over her left eye. She is an angel and has given me so much love and comfort.
It is nurture and not nature that shapes any creature.
But I do what I can by supporting the rescues that do this great work. I hope others will consider doing the same.
She's a rescued pittie from Lake County FL. She was bread and then dumped in a field. She lives with my brother and his wife and their cat. She's a sweet as can be. I can't wait for her to get here!
He is being just vicious toward our 15 year old female Bichon. And yes, he did manage to squeeze his big butt out the doggie door. 
