Your stories illustrate the imbalance in the news when it comes to reporting dog bites. I would like to encourage everyone to write letters to these reporters – their email addresses are typically at the top of their stories when published online – and ask why they’re not reporting equal, fair, unbiased stories. Maybe point them to a couple helpful resources or offer to answer questions.

You’re right about the swimming upstream, but… we can do it!

As you said, sensationalism sells. And there’s a lot of evidence that many times a dog is initially reported as a pit bull and then it’s revealed later that it wasn’t. But does the media clarify that? No. All people remember is that another one of those “bad” pit bulls attacked again. And then throw in how notoriously hard it is to properly identify breeds and many times a dog that is reported as a pit bull may not be one at all.

A personal story: About a year and a half ago (before we had Mayzie), I was walking our dog on leash in our neighborhood and he was attacked by a 110 pound shepherd mix. I ended up having to lay on the ground and put my legs between my dog and the attacking dog. Luckily, Ranger sustained some puncture wounds but was not seriously hurt. However, because of the owner’s apparent lack of concern, we reported it to the ACO. They paid some damages and agreed to take their dog to training and that was that. Not a single news crew showed up on my doorstep.

A few months later in my city, there was a headline story: “Pit Bulls Attack Woman and Her Dog.” A woman got out of her car and two loose “pit bulls” went after her dog. In the confusion, she fell down and skinned her knee. Her dog sustained NO actual wounds. And yet – this was news. Why? Because they could use “pit bull” in the headline.

It’s just so wrong on so many levels. There’s SO much misinformation out there and it sometimes feels like we’re swimming upstream. But luckily there are people out there like you who are helping fight the good fight and I hope that we’re making some progress.

Sorry that was long-winded! Thanks for letting me ramble!

Amber

With dogs, there has always been an “in” bad breed.
In the 1980′s it was the German Shepherds, in the ’90s fear was focused more on Rottweilers and Dobermans, and now here we are on “Pit Bulls”.

One of the biggest things that concerns me is that the vast majority of people don’t even know what exactly a ‘Pit Bull’ is. Arguably, nobody does, because there is no such thing since the true breed is the American Pit Bull Terrier. Many, many breeds are reported as Pit Bulls in the case of attacks or legal disputes.

In my opinion, these problems almost always track back to a lack of education (often even in the case of breed advocates). In order for people not to fear something, they need to understand it. Unfortunately, we also live in a culture of people who “know everything” and can sometimes be very difficult to educate. It’s an uphill battle, that’s for sure.