Quick thought on Pit Bulls – Updated
I saw Miguel’s post Thank You. I’ll pass on those puppies. and I thought I’d toss in my two cents.
I hate pit bulls. I loathe pit bulls. By extension, I hate pit bull owners too.
You can tell me all you want about how it’s not the breed, it’s the owner. I know and I still don’t care.
Dog fighting is a large part of Cuban culture and has been adopted by blacks in Miami. Backyard dog fighting is popular in poorer black and Cuban neighborhoods all over Miami. There was even a documentary about this available on Netflix. Miami-Dade county banned pit bulls and mastiffs for this reason but dog fighting is still a problem.
Dog fighting is illegal. So the people in Miami who run dog fighting rings didn’t just do dog fighting. Dog fighting is associated with drug dealing, gambling, and all sorts of other criminal activity. So it should come as no supersize that dog fighting rings are often run by gangs.
So growing up in Miami when you saw a pit bull, you were almost 100% guaranteed that the owner was a complete criminal piece of shit. Being banned, there was only one reason to have a pit bull out in the open and that was for intimidation. Walking around with a pit bull was about the same as walking around brandishing a pistol-grip shotgun.
It was a message to everyone “I’m a hard ass you don’t want to fuck with.”
Just like idiot criminals who shoot innocent bystanders, these fighting dogs get out and maul innocent children.
So when it comes to pit bulls in South Florida, if I see one, my first inclination is to go for my gun; and if I have to draw it an use it, the first few rounds are for the dog, the rest are for the owner.
UPDATE –
A few people who commented on this post don’t quite seem to get what I m talking about and have accused me of having an opinion on pit bulls like anti gunners on assault weapons.
Let me see if I can make this a little clearer.
In the gun world there is an aphorism: when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
Well, Miami-Dade county outlawed pit bulls and consequently only outlaws have pit bulls.
The dog is a weapon. It is trained and tortured and tormented into a killing machine. It’s not a loving family pet.
In places were open carry is legal, and you see some guy walking around with a gun holstered, he’s not a threat.
In Miami, there is no equivalent with pit bulls. There is nobody taking their family pit bull out for a walk.
The equivalent gun metaphor is a guy in a place where open carry is illegal walking around holding a pistol, pointing it people.
When do you see a put bull on a leash? When somebody wants to start shit with you. They come out for neighbor disputes. You read news reports about some guy going over to his neighbor’ house to complain about a party and brought a gun with him. In Miami, it’s the same thing except the neighbor brought a pit bull on a chain.
Except it’s worse. A gun just sitting there won’t kill anybody. Pit bulls that have been trained to fight, tortured into being super aggressive get out an maul children and innocent bystanders.
This isn’t some irrational namby-pamby fear.
This is knowing that (in Miami, like I said above) the snarling, bristling dog on the end of that chain isn’t a cuddly house pet, it want’s to kill you because the guy holding the chain made it that way.
And let me make this perfectly clear. IF I have to shoot the pit bull, and then the owner, it is because Mr. Piece-of-shit-criminal with his fighting dog, let it go. He “fire the first shot,” not with a gun but with a fighting dog.