Keep your eyes on this site

I will need to keep and eye on a new site: "Families and Dogs Against Fighting Breeds" http://www.fdafb.org/#
It has no information yet, other than to say they are in partnership with DogsBite.Org. Looks to me they are the same outfit. A rabid (sic!) pro-BSL group.

Would anyone care to guess what these people's motivations are? Or, maybe they don't have any motivations... they could just be morons. I vote for the latter.

They quote: "Did you know that pit bulls attack adults nearly as often as they attack children?"

So it's not fighting breeds.... it's pit bulls. OK. I will ignore the fact that they will be cherry-picking "evidence" to support their point of view (ANY point of view is defensible if you ignore the facts that contradict it), so, instead, I will ask:

What are the OBJECTIVE data?

What is more likely to bite you? An American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) or a Dachshund? Wait... we don't have to guess. The American Temperament Testing Institute has done the work for us.
http://www.atts.org/index.html

Who are they? Well, "The American Temperament Test Society, Inc. (ATTS) is a national not-for-profit organization (registered in the state of Missouri) for the promotion of uniform temperament evaluation of purebred and spayed/neutered mixed-breed dogs."

They have no ax to grind, have no sponsors, and have no reason to report anything other than the facts.

"The ATTS test focuses on and measures different aspects of temperament such as stability, shyness, aggressiveness, and friendliness as well as the dog's instinct for protectiveness towards its handler and/or self-preservation in the face of a threat. The test is designed for the betterment of all breeds of dogs and takes into consideration each breed's inherent tendencies.

The test simulates a casual walk through the park or neighborhood where everyday life situations are encountered. During this walk, the dog experiences visual, auditory and tactile stimuli. Neutral, friendly and threatening situations are encountered, calling into play the dog's ability to distinguish between non-threatening situations and those calling for watchful and protective reactions."

As a matter of statistics, nearly 85% of the HUNDREDS of Pit Bulls tested passed this temperament test.

So let's see how your pooch did...... Here I am listing all the breeds of dogs that do WORSE in temperament testing than APBTs. That is, the following dogs, in alphabetical order, are less stable, more shy, more aggressive, and less friendly than Pit Bulls.

AFGHAN HOUND, AIREDALE TERRIER, AKITA, AMERICAN BULLDOG, AMERICAN ESKIMO, AMERICAN WATER SPANIEL, ANATOLIAN SHEPHERD DOG, AUSTRALIAN CATTLE DOG, AUSTRALIAN KELPIE, AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD, AUSTRALIAN TERRIER, BASENJI, BEAGLE, BEARDED COLLIE, BEAUCERON, BELGIAN SHEEPDOG, BELGIAN TERVUREN, BICHON FRISEE, BORDER COLLIE, BULLDOG, BULLMASTIFF, CAIRN TERRIER, CANAAN DOG, CANE CORSO , CAO DE FILA DE SAO MIGUEL, CARDIGAN WELSH CORGI, CAVALIER KING CHARLES SPANIEL, CHIHUAHUA, CHINESE CRESTED DOG, CHINESE SHAR-PEI, CHINOOK,
CHOW CHOW, CLUMBER SPANIEL, COCKER SPANIEL, COLLIE , ALL DACHSHUNDd (MINIATURE SMOOTH, MINIATURE WIREHAIRED, STANDARD LONGHAIRED, STANDARD SMOOTH, STANDARD WIREHAIRED),
DANDIE DINMONT TERRIER, DOBERMAN PINSCHER, ENGLISH SETTER, FIELD SPANIEL, FILA BRASILEIRO,
FINNISH LAPPHUND, FINNISH SPITZ, GERMAN PINSCHER, GERMAN SHEPHERD DOG, GERMAN SHORTHAIRED POINTER, GERMAN WIREHAIRED POINTER, GIANT SCHNAUZER, GOLDEN RETRIEVER, GORDON SETTER, GREAT DANE, GREAT PYRENEES, GREATER SWISS MOUNTAIN DOG, GREYHOUND,
ITALIAN GREYHOUND, JACK RUSSELL TERRIER, KERRY BLUE TERRIER, KUVASZ, LHASA APSO, MINIATURE PINSCHER, MINIATURE POODLE, MINIATURE SCHNAUZER, NORWEGIAN ELKHOUND, NORWICH TERRIER,
NOVA SCOTIA DUCK TOLLING RETRIEVER, POLSKI OWCZAREK NIZINNY, POMERANIAN, PORTUGUESE WATER DOG, RAT TERRIER, SALUKI, SAMOYED, SCOTTISH TERRIER, SHIBA INU, SHIH TZU, TOY FOX TERRIER, WELSH TERRIER, TREEING WALKER COONHOUND, VIZSLA, WEIMARANER, WIRE FOX TERRIER,
YORKSHIRE TERRIER.

Notice, dear, that your beloved ShihTzu is worse-tempered than my Pit Bull

You will probably say that when a pit bull bites it's much more damaging.

How about a Pomeranian killing a baby? http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/10/09/pomeranian.kills.ap/

a Labrador....
"Labrador kills elderly woman." http://furbabyplace.proboards46.com/index.cgi?board=chat10&action=display&thread=1147437950

Over the 37-year period from 1965-2001, pit bulls have been blamed for an average of 2.48 human fatalities per year.

You are.....

- more than 200 times more likely to die from taking aspirin than from a pit bull attack;

- more than 25 times more likely to have your baby killed by a faulty crib than the total
number of children AND adults killed by Pit Bulls;

- more than 60 times more likely to be killed by a palm tree than a Pit Bull;

- 151 times more likely to be killed by your bathtub than you are by a Pit Bull;

- more than 3,000 times more likely to be killed by your medication than an Pit Bull;

- more than 87,000 times more likely to be killed by an in-hospital error than by a Pit Bull

- 30 times more likely to be killed by lightning (U.S. National Weather Service reporting on lightning fatalities over the last 30 years - average 62 lightning fatalities per year);

- A child is more than 800 times more likely to be killed by their parent/caretaker than by a pit bull.

- Slip and falls account for over 20,000 fatalities per year in North America

- Alcohol abuse kills some 75,000 Americans each year

Since, it is estimated that perhaps as many as 1.25 million pit bulls are killed per year, it is at least a 500,000 more likely that a pit bull will be killed by a human than the other way around. For every pit bull who kills, there are hundreds of thousands that DON'T.

So let's ban aspirin, in fact all medications, hospitals doctors, coconut trees, parents, bathtubs, the weather, rolling pins, mountains, stairs, skates, tigers (wild tigers kill on average 40-60 people per year), zoos, domestic cats (care to guess how many babies are still-born because their mother changed the cat litter?), snow, hills, sinkholes pocket knives, cocktails, loud music, Home Depot (2200 people are injured in Home Depot stores per year), fish (fugu kills 20 people every year in Japan)....

So, dear reader, what do I want from you?

I am asking you to take a personal responsibility of what you do, where, when, and how. If you prefer to have your welfare legislated what if "they" also come after YOUR passion. When I was about 18 I was preparing for an entrance exam into a University in a communist country I was arrested and interogated for 3 days, because I was caught painting a bridge that had rail tracks going over it. I can give you the name and email address of the other guy who was arrested with me. He is in Los Angeles now.

I will take responsibility for the behavior of my dog. If my pure-bred American Pit Bull Terrier ever gets out and hurts you or any of your family members, I will turn myself in to the police immediately and won't even attempt to defend myself against a charge of attempted murder.

I certainly will not believe that you still prefer to kill millions of animals each year so that you and yours are "protected?"

But I am willing to go further... if you can identify the American Pit Bull Terrier in fewer than 10 tries, from the pictures of the following 25 dogs, I will surrender my dog right this second:

http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html

So which one are you going ban?

See the problem?

Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten, habe ich nicht protestiert; ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie mich holten, gab es keinen mehr, der protestierte.

Martin Niemöller (1892—1984) (protestant German pastor)

[Translation]

When the Nazis arrested the Communists, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Communist.
When they locked up the Social Democrats, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Social Democrat.
When they arrested the trade unionists, I said nothing; after all, I was not a trade unionist.
When they arrested me, there was no longer anyone who could protest.

What do I want from Families and Dogs Against Fighting Breeds? I want them to get a life and spend their energy and money on some truly worthy cause. Like, say, paying the salaries of a couple of more police officers who could get drunk drivers off the road. Hmmm.... now that's an idea I would support.