The Pit Bull Placebo: The Media, Myths and Politics of Canine Aggression

By Karen Delise

"Falsehood flies and the truth comes limping after, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late: the jest is over, and the tale has had its effect." - Jonathan Swift

First it was the Bloodhound, sensationalized in the dramatizations of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Then it was the Doberman Pinscher, symbol of the Nazi menace for a nation at war. Today, it is the Pit bull that is vilified for the depravity of his master.

At perhaps no time in history has mankind been as ignorant of natural canine behavior as we find ourselves at the beginning of the 21st century. The human/dog bond—the most complex and profound inter-species relationship in the history of mankind—has now been reduced to a simple axiom: Breed of dog = degree of dangerousness.

Today, police chase down fleeing Pit bulls in the street, firing dozens of wild shots in response to media-fed rumors of supernatural Pit bull abilities. Politicians coach and nurture this fear with their own brand of rhetoric used to assist in the passing of quick and ineffective legislation created to pacify communities ignorant of the real cause for dog attacks. Hundreds of animal shelters throughout the country kill all unclaimed Pit bull-looking dogs, as they are deemed "unadoptable" solely on their physical appearance.

In a society unparalleled in its access to information and ability to control our natural environment, we now claim that we are unable to master our dogs. Unwilling to assume responsibility for the control and care of our canine companions, we instead hang entire breeds of dogs in effigy for the sins of their owners. Society now accepts this "solution to the dog bite problem" because we have been placated by a Pit Bull Placebo.

Like the pharmacologically inactive sugar pill dispensed to pacify a patient who supposes it to be medicine, eradication of the Pit bull is heralded as the cure for severe dog attacks. However, a placebo is administered solely to appease a person's mental duress. In the present day climate of fear and misinformation about Pit bulls and dog attacks, eradication of the Pit bull is the placebo administered to ease the public's mental anxiety. This, of course, does not address the underlying causes of why dogs attack and how they have been allowed access to their victims.

The book, The Pit Bull Placebo: The Media, Myths and Politics of Canine Aggression, explores and reveals how our views and beliefs about canine aggression have changed over the last 150 years and how our perceptions about the nature and behavior of dogs has been influenced and shaped by persons and organizations who often times disseminate information about dog attacks which is tailored to further an agenda unrelated to the improvement of the human/dog bond.

We have come to be in the midst of a social hysteria about Pit bulls because we have abandoned centuries-old common sense and reasoning and have been duped by inaccurate reporting from a media that thrives on sensationalism and by politicians who traffic in rumors, myths and pseudoscience in their efforts to pass legislation that demonizes dogs while exonerating criminal and abusive owners.

Despite the intense media, political and public interest in dog attacks, there is a disturbing scarcity of accurate information and investigation done on the real causes and reasons for these incidents.

If we truly believe that the extremely rare cases of fatal dog attacks merit extreme measures in the management of dogs—if our concern and shock is genuine—then we must be equally genuine and sincere in seeking out and addressing the real causes for these incidents.

Whether our goal is community safety, understanding canine behavior, furtherance of humane treatment towards dogs, or the advancement of the human-dog bond, it is critical that we examine all the details available about dog attacks.

The Pit Bull Placebo examines actual cases of severe dog attacks during the last 150 years—the circumstances, the individual dogs involved, the victims, and our interpretations of these events—in an attempt to offer a reasoned and balanced perspective on the behavior of dogs and the critical role humans play in the management and treatment of our canine companions.

Only by stepping back from the swirl of present-day hysteria surrounding isolated cases of severe canine aggression and examining the problem from a broader and more objective perspective can we hope to understand and effectively address the human and canine behaviors which have contributed to these incidents.

Information from this website is excerpted from the book: The Pit Bull Placebo: The Myths, Media and Politics of Canine Aggression, and is copy written by Karen Delise and Anubis Publishing.

The Pit Bull Placebo:
The Media, Myths and Politics of Canine Aggression

By Karen Delise

Table of Contents

Introduction
Ch.  1.  The Function of Dogs in 19th Century America
Ch.  2.  Imagery and the Media in 19th Century America: The Bloodhound
Ch.  3.  Creating Dangerous Dogs: The Newfoundland & the Northern Breeds
Ch.  4.  How Popularity and Function Influence Aggression
Ch.  5.  The Reporting of Dog Attacks in Early 20th Century Media
Ch.  6.  The Use and Misuse of Courage: The Bulldog
Ch.  7.  The Media Re-Shapes an Image: The German Shepherd
Ch.  8.  The Myth of the Super-Predator: The Doberman Pinscher
Ch.  9.  Setting Dogs Up for Failure: The New Guard Dogs
Ch. 10.  The Media Attacks a Breed: The Pit Bull
Ch. 11.  Pseudoscience and Hysteria Triumph
Ch. 12.  Fighting Dogs: Branded with the Sins of Their Masters
Ch. 13.  Sensationalism Replaces Common Sense
Ch. 14.  The Real Causes of Dog Attacks
Ch. 15.  The Pit Bull Placebo: Conclusions on Canine Aggression
 
Appendix A - Dog Attacks Reported in Northeastern Newspapers, 1864 – 1899
Appendix B - Dog Attacks Reported in U.S. Newspapers, 1960 – 1975
Appendix C - Denver, Colorado – "Evidence" Used to Ban Pit Bulls
Appendix D – Denver, Colorado – An Ineffective and Uninformed Approach to Dog Attacks