Huffington Post Perpetuates Pit Bull Myths

Update 3/5/10: Huffington Post has removed pit bulls from the "Dangerous Pets" slideshow! Read about this victory, including the HuffPost Green Editor's statement, here.

Today's Huffington Post slideshow — When Man's Best Friend is Deadly: 9 Dangerous Pets — includes pit bulls alongside tigers, alligators, and other animals "often not meant to be domesticated."

Newsflash: Pit bulls are domestic dogs. It's a little late to say that an animal which started out as domesticated isn't meant to be.

The photo showed a chained dog (a situation that has nothing to do with breed and everything to do with neglecting a social animal), with a caption that managed to spread misinformation, perpetuate myths, and reveal a deep ignorance about pit bulls in just a few short sentences.

Here's HuffPo's wisdom on pit bulls:

While pit bulls can be warm and make good pets, when trained to fight, their aggression and ferociousness spells trouble when they're provoked. They are responsible for the largest number of (fatal) attacks on humans compared to any other breed. A number of cities have banned pit bulls altogether.

Let me count the ways that they're wrong ...

1) Dog aggression and human aggression are separate issues. In fact, traditionally, fighting dogs were less likely to bite humans since any dog who would injure his handler in the pit was culled.

2) According to the American Temperament Testing Society, which conducts standardized temperament tests on dogs, pit bulls are no more likely to bite than golden retrievers.

3) The claim that pit bulls are responsible for the largest number of fatal attacks on humans is based on outdated, faulty statistics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped tracking dog attacks by breed more than 10 years ago because it wasn't scientific and was not a good basis for public policy.

While it's true that "a number of cities have banned pit bulls," this is only proof of bad policy, not bad dogs. Breed specific legislation is costly and has been proven ineffective in reducing dog bite incidents. The responsibility lies with the owner, not any particular breed of dog. It's no secret that reporters love pit bull headlines, whether or not they're justified. The problem is that this kind of sensationalist reporting fuels the fire of breed specific legislation, and can cost innocent dogs their lives. Tell the Huffington Post to apologize for spreading misinformation about pit bulls.

Photo credit: Coral11