EDITORIAL – Why do we need pit bulls?

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

PIT BULL DEFENDERS will, I’m sure, be ready with their usual responses after the weekend report of yet another attack by pit bulls in Kamloops.

“Ban the deed, not the breed.”

“It’s the owner, not the dog.”

“All breeds can be dangerous depending on the situation.”

“Our beloved Daisy May (or whatever) has never done anything like this before. She’s our fur baby.”

And so on. So let’s consider what we know so far. According to news reports, a border collie was in its own fenced yard on Richmond Avenue early Sunday morning when three pit bulls jumped the fence and attacked it, then fled.

The collie is dead; the pit bulls were caught by Community Service Officers. An investigation will attempt to confirm exactly what happened. If the circumstances are as described, a decision will be made on the fate of the pit bulls. Destruction is an option.

And the debate about pit bulls will continue with no effective resolution. There will even be differences of opinion about whether pit bulls are actually a breed; therefore, how can you prove they were pit bulls, they’ll say.

Border collies, poodles, Golden retrievers and many other breeds have attacked other dogs and humans, too, they’ll say.

And yet, pit bull attacks are too common, and too devastating in their consequences. Unprovoked, they’ve killed other dogs. Unprovoked, they’ve killed humans or maimed them for life — Kamloops has its own examples of such tragedies over a period of many years.

Pit bull ownership should be banned. Legislators have shied away from taking that step in the Tournament Capital but other cities aren’t so reluctant. They’ve either banned them, restricted them or defined them as vicious. Several communities in Alberta have banned them altogether. More than a dozen Saskatchewan communities have banned them, two dozen in Manitoba, three in New Brunswick. Ontario has banned them provincewide.

Elsewhere, a few countries have banned pit bulls nationwide.

Could so many jurisdictions be over-reacting? Pit bulls were originally bred to fight and to kill in cruel blood sports. They’re incredibly strong; they’re known for their unusual aggression when they do attack and for being especially hard to stop once they do.

B.C. has been lax in dealing with the problem. Those communities that have breed-specific regulations in this province limit them to such things as muzzling pit bulls when they’re in public or keeping them securely confined on the owners’ property.

Clearly, that doesn’t help when pit bulls escape and go on a rampage. They are the cause of too many tragedies, so why do we need them?

The answer is, we don’t.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.