Posted By:
S Gross<<<I mean if guys like Michael Vick didn't raise these fighting dogs then they would probably be extinct in a few years>>>
Dan, you just said a mouth full. I will take that and give a scenario going in the opposite direction:
Before the 1970's dog fighting was concentrated to about a few hundred people. These dogmen "bred" (not trained) their dogs to be "game." There were many big time bouts, but many for a few bucks or a 50 lb bag of dog chow. Most would shoot (not electrocute, drown, burn, or slam) a dog who bit a person (a old time thought of weakness).
The after a few well documented pit-bull attacks in the 1980s, all things go anti-bull breed. Pit bull stories flooded the airways. Laws are passed randomly and ignorantly (I owned and showed AKC Bull Terriers at the time, and can truthfully say 75% of what was being said about bull breeds was incorrect). I have an AKC program from the 1990's from a long time legitimate club who had to more it's venue due to anti-bull breed laws.
We were told all bull breeds would eat your children and rape your sisters. Pit Bulls, we were told, can be trained to fight ... you can make them meaner by feeding them gun powder and pepper ... dock you dogs tail to make them lighter in the ring ... crop their ears to make them look meaner ... hell, even cut of their front paws, so they can go in low versus an opponent.
And do you know what all this hysteria did ................... ????? It made pit bull fighting go from a few hundred to tens of thousands. Tens of thousand "tough" boyz like Vick, who bred mean dogs to mean dogs (not old game dogs)... who feed their dogs gun powder and crop their tails and all the other garage that was once just glorified fiction.
Pure self profession .....................
And what is going to happen now ................ ? Same thing. UD can drop Vick, but the tough boy mentality is flanned very half hour on the half hour by dozens and dozens of 24 hour news shows and hundreds of other media venues ............ promoting a lot of ignorance.