Rediscover the pit bull.

Organization

StubbyDog is a non-profit, 501(c)(3), transmedia organization, focused on changing public perceptions of pit bulls and dismantling the associated stereotypical thinking.

We develop and disseminate emotionally resonant and entertaining content, showing pit bulls as the loyal and loving dogs they are.

Our vision is a world where every pit bull has the right to a good life.

Our mission is to help people rediscover pit bulls as lifelong friends.

We recognize the good work already being done by humane organizations to rescue abused pit dogs, lobby against discriminatory legislation, and shut down dog-fighting operations.

We also recognize that people are still afraid of pit bulls, and that this fear is based largely on rumors and sensationalized reports, which lead to the same kind of irrational stereotyping and prejudice that’s found in any other form of discrimination.

That’s why a new approach is needed – one that recognizes and celebrates the amazing qualities of these dogs as heroes, therapy dogs, fun-loving companions and devoted family pets.

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Once upon a time, just a few decades ago ...pit bulls were celebrated as “America’s Family Pet” – the most beloved of dogs.

Back then, other dogs like German shepherds and Dobermans were the “dangerous dogs” of the time. But today, as a result of abuse and exploitation, it’s pit bulls who are demonized as the most dangerous animal.

How did such a thing happen?

How Pit Bulls Got Their Bad Rap

“There are no ‘wild’ animals until man makes them so ...our partialities and prejudices change places with an easy ... facility.”

- Mark Twain

“Crime has made him the most maligned of all dogs.”

– Helena Daily Independent

“The size, muscular appearance and strong features of

[the dog] are ocular evidence to the prejudiced that the

dog is a savage customer.”

– Stevens Point Journal

“I find that most people have the impression that it is a

savage, treacherous brute.”

– London Times

“The very nature of these dogs conjures horrible pictures

of relentless beasts… It is a very wrong impression with little

fact upon which to base it, but it will take several decades to

remove it.”

– Massillon Independent

These editorial comments all appeared in prominent newspapers in the U.S. and U.K.

But when were they written – and about whom?

How Pit Bulls Got Their Bad Rap

Those words were written between 1888 and 1938.

And the dog they were talking about was . . .

The bloodhound!

Bloodhounds were the dogs of choice for tracking down escaped slaves.

They were known as vicious attack dogs, and their reputation outlived the end of slavery. People were terrified of them.

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How Pit Bulls Got Their Bad Rap – cont’d

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Meanwhile, pit bulls had become known as

“The best pets for your children.”In the U.K., they were known as “nanny dogs.”

How Pit Bulls Got Their Bad Rap – cont’d

They Were Symbolic of America

You may wonder why this site is called StubbyDog.org.

The original Stubby (center photo) was the family pet of a soldier who smuggled him aboard his troop ship during World War One. Stubby, a pit bull mix, became the most decorated dog in U.S. military history.

Since then, there have been many famous pit bull-type dogs including Petey from the Little Rascals, Victor the RCA dog, and Buster Brown’s dog, Tige.

These dogs have captured the hearts of people of all age groups, backgrounds and social strata – from wealthy socialites to bikers to celebrities, and from famous leaders like Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson to families all across the country.

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In the 1960s, however, skinheads began exploiting pit bulls by adapting them to their own aggressive lifestyle. Before long, dog-fighting rings began to migrate from poor, white, rural areas into city neighborhoods, initiating pre-teens into its murky culture. Sports and entertainment figures, such as Michael Vick, glamorized the breeding and fighting of pit bulls as vicious fighting dogs, further popularizing them among gangs and other youth as symbols of toughness.

At a recent presentation in Chicago, a group of students, aged 6 through 13, was asked who among them had ever attended a dog fight.

Every hand but one went up.

Victims of Crime & Abuse

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Pit bulls are loyal and devoted dogs. This character trait makes them wonderful pets, but it can also be exploited by unscrupulous people. The emotional bond that pit bulls make with people allows them to be easily abused and manipulated by gangs and other dogfighting subcultures.

Many local governments reacted to this exploitation by passing laws that ban any dog with a pit bull-like appearance. In cities like Denver, Colorado, family pets were soon being literally dragged away from their homes and taken to the “shelter” to be killed.

Such actions give the impression that politicians are doing something worthwhile, but in fact this has done nothing to curb the fighting and breeding industries, and has had no effect on dog bite statistics. All it has done is fuel public fears and misperceptions.

Today . . .

“A mean pit bull is a dog that has been turned mean by selective breeding, or by beingconditioned to express hostility to humans.

“A pit bull is dangerous to people, not to the extent that it expresses its essential pit bullness but to the extent that it deviates from it.

“A pit bull ban is a generalization about a generalization about a trait that is not general.”

- Malcolm Gladwell

The term “pit bull” does not refer to a specific breed of dog. It’s a generic term applied to American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, and hundreds of mixes containing elements of these breeds. DNA analysis shows that many “pit bulls” are predominantly made up of other breeds – from Lab to poodle. The term “pit bull” designates an appearance, not a breed.

Pit bulls are family-oriented dogs, blessed with a tremendous sense of loyalty.

No neutered or spayed family pit bull has ever killed anyone.

Pit bulls score at or below average for aggression when compared to other dogs. Temperament evaluations by the American Temperament Test Society give American pit bull terriers a very high passing rate of 82.6 percent. The average passing rate for the other 121 breeds of dogs in the tests was 77 percent.

And no, a pit bull’s jaw does not lock.

Dogs are not naturally aggressive. Almost any dog can be taught to be aggressive, and, like many other breeds, pit bulls are strong dogs who can inflict real injuries. However, the evidence shows clearly that this is not a dog problem, but a people problem. The needless, senseless, killing of homeless pets by animal shelters and animal control agencies comes at an enormous economic and moral cost. Public and private agencies spend $2.5 billion each year caring for and /or killing homeless dogs and cats. Pit bulls represent one in four of all animals taken into shelters. Only one in 700 of them will ever find a new home. More than 80 percent of pit bulls in shelters will die before their second birthday.

Some Facts

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More than a million healthy, adoptable pit bulls are killed in shelters each and every year.

Millions of Dogs Needlessly Killed at Shelters

Of the 4 to 6 million dogs and cats still being killed in shelters each year, most – roughly 1.5 million – are pit bulls. The great majority of these are healthy, good natured and adoptable dogs.

Great strides have been made in bringing an end to the killing of homeless pets. Only 20 years ago, more than 15 million dogs and cats were being killed in shelters every year. People were afraid to adopt shelter animals, just as they’re still afraid today to adopt pit bulls. Shelter dogs were thought of as dirty, unhealthy, aggressive and generally unsuitable as pets.

In the early 1990s, however, a grassroots “no-kill” movement, pioneered in large part by Michael Mountain and Best Friends Animal Society, began to sprout all over the country. Spay/neuter and adoption programs took hold, and very soon, animals once considered unadoptable, from three-legged dogs to one-eyed cats, were finding new homes. It soon became more fashionable to adopt a shelter pet than to buy a puppy or kitten from a store. It was a remarkable achievement.

Today, we need to do the same for pit bulls, because killing these innocent dogs is not the answer.

The Big Challenges for Pit Bulls

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The mass media regularly:• Report any dog attack as being by a pit bull – even when it turns out the

attack was by another kind of dog

• Hype and sensationalize attacks

• Promote these dogs as gang mascots, exclusively created for dog-fighting.

Fear trumps sympathy

While media coverage of the Michael Vick case, for example, generated sympathy for the dogs who were rescued, the net effect of all the publicity, two years later, was that people felt more afraid of pit bulls than before, not less.

When stories, language and photos all focus on depictions of animals being bred and trained to be violent, the message is inescapable: Pit bulls are dangerous.

It’s no surprise, then, that today most people instinctively cross the street at the mere sight of a dog who looks like a pit bull.

Demonized by the Mass Media

Pit bull stories make headlines.

A story about a pit bull attacking someone can run hundreds of times. A story about a different breed may only appear in a couple of places – and is often buried.

Case in point:

August 18, 2007: A Labrador mix attacks a 70-year-old man, sending him tothe hospital in critical condition. Police officers arrive at the scene and the dog is shot after charging the officers. This incident is reported in one article and only in the local paper.

August 21, 2007: A 59-year-old woman is attacked in her home by twopit bulls and is hospitalized with severe injuries. This attack is reported inover 320 articles in national and international newspapers, as well as on major television news networks, including CNN, MSNBC and FOX.

When stories, language and photos all focus on depictions of animals being bred and trained to be violent, the message is inescapable: Pit bulls are dangerous.

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As a consequence of media hype, anti-pit bull legislation is gaining momentum throughout the country. All of this feeds further negative perceptions. These breed bans are entirely counter-productive.

After Sioux City, Iowa, imposed a ban on pit bulls in 2008, dog bites went up, not down. But in July, 2010, a timid city council voted to keep the ban in place.

Ironically, one of the members of the council who was pushing for the pit bull ban had a dog at home who attacked the mailman and was taken away by the city’s animal control department. That dog was a Labrador retriever.

Are breed bans really about the dogs?

In the 1930s, laws were passed that banned the sale of alcohol. But many sociologists note that these laws were not basically about morals and health. They were a way for the wealthier “WASP” classes to target working-class Irish Catholics, whom they feared, particularly in cities like Chicago.

Status politics, as these measures are known, are a form of discrimination in which a majority group displaces their prejudice onto something associated with the minority group they fear.

It’s not difficult to see status politics at work in the banning of pit bulls. While the bans in themselves do nothing to protect people, they take aim, once again, at an inner-city minority.

Breed Bans

What’s Being Done and What Needs to Be Done

Humane organizations are doing critical work rescuing and rehabilitating pit bulls, shutting down dog-fighting operations, and contesting laws that target dogs rather than their abusers.

These groups are also:

• Lobbying at the local level against legislation that outlaws any dogs with a “pit bull” appearance

• Rehabilitating and re-homing rescued dogs

• Shutting down dog-fighting rings and prosecuting the offenders

• Protecting young people from being drawn into fighting rings and toteach them good pet guardian practices, including spay/neuter.

These are all valuable activities, but they have not succeeded in changing public perceptions. That’s because the well-meaning organizations behind them tend to focus largely on explaining, often defensively, that “not all pit bulls are like that.”

But, as the well-known PR aphorism goes, “When you’re explaining, you’re losing.”

A new strategy is needed.

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Changing the Conversation

At StubbyDog, we won’t hesitate to the set the record straight when that’s required.

But our overall strategy is to change the conversation.

Rather than continuing the old, negative, and apologetic conversation, we are generating a new, positive storyline – one that shows pit bulls, holistically, as heroes, healers (therapy dogs, etc.), rescue dogs, athletes and loyal and loving pets.

With your help, we can “change the conversation” from offering defensive explanations to engaging people with lovable characters through entertainment media.

And just as public perceptions have changed regarding other homeless pets – from Chihuahuas to Rottweilers – the same can be done for the millions of pit bulls who are still being killed for reasons of fear and prejudice.

Our goal is very simply for people to no longer view pit bulls as a special category of dog – but, instead, as just a dog.

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