pit-bull

Pit Bull ‘Hate Walk’ Scheduled for National Pit Bull Awareness Day

19
by Michael dEstries October 22, 2012
Categories: Animals, Causes.

While thousands upon thousands of Americans and their families celebrate National Pit Bull Awareness Day on October 27th, one group will be staging an event against the breed with a “Walk For Victims of Pit Bulls and Other Dangerous Dogs” in Tucson, AZ.

“The first ever public event supporting and raising awareness for dog bite victims, Walk For Victims of Pit Bulls and Other Dangerous Dogs, is shaping up to be a remarkable and memorable event taking place right here in Tucson,” the press release states. The list of people the group is hoping will attend include “members of neighborhood associations, parents, teachers, walkers and joggers, medical health professionals, dog bite injury attorneys, letter carriers and many more who encompass the large range of those affected by dog bite-related injuries.”

Oh – and the Mayor of Tucson, Jonathan Rothschild, is slated to kick off the event. Update: They Mayor’s office contacted us to say that he is not attending the event and does not support breed specific legislation.

Several sites are pointing towards a woman named Colleen Lynn and her Dogsbite.com website as a main promoter of the event. In 2007, Lynn was involved in an unfortunate jogging incident involving a Pit Bull; which inspired her to create the website. So yea, she’s biased towards damning the breed to hell.

“Colleen Lynn blatantly lies on her website when she claims that pit bulls lead dog bite fatalities,” says the pro-pit site BSLNews.org. “She gathers all of her information from media reports, no questions asked. Clearly she doesn’t ask questions because most of what is reported in the media surrounding pit bulls and “attacks” is incorrect and has been repeatedly proven to be untrue.”

What’s truly unfortunate is that this walk is intent on spreading fear and breed ignorance on the very same day that organizers across the country are attempting to do the opposite. There’s no denying that dogs can injure people – but education, and not breed-specific legislation, should be the answer.

You can read more about the event and its backers over on the Examiner here.

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

About Michael dEstries

Michael has been blogging since 2005 on issues such as sustainability, renewable energy, philanthropy, and healthy living. He regularly contributes to a slew of publications, as well as consulting with companies looking to make an impact using the web and social media. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his family on an apple farm.

View all posts by Michael dEstries →
  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Hp-Morgan/100002566196204 H.p. Morgan
  • snowbird04

    Like the article says, dogsbite.org was created by a woman that blatantly lies. It is not a credible website at all, and ALL trusted canine agencies strongly disagree with her. Are we to believe a lunatic with a grudge that was bit by what she thinks might be a pit bull, that has no canine knowledge, and goes on a rampage? Or are we to believe groups like the ASPCA, Human Society, American Veterinary Association, and the many other expert canine organizations? Personally, I will take an expert’s advice over an ignorant amateur any day, and so will 99.99% of everyone else. Dogsbite.org is NOT well documented at all, and only someone on that small idiot list of yours would buy into such trash.

  • Michael d’Estries

    An October 13th press release stated that the Mayor was attending. That is where I received the information from.

    And what facts exactly am I misrepresenting? I am against such actions as demonstrated in the post; specifically BSL. Thanks for your comment!

    • ItsTucsonNotTuscon

      You could have called the Mayor’s office for confirmation, or looked at more recent flyers as the Mayor’s appearance has been removed. You could have also fact-checked Colleen Lynn’s statistics rather than depending on a blog-site that links to others blog-sites (remember in the old days when our parents played ‘telephone’?) This kind of reporting is very much repetitive of that ‘game’.

      You could have focused more on the event coordinators/planners. There is an interesting story. You could have focused on the fact that there is POSITIVE pit bull events underway in Tucson during this debacle of a ‘victims honor-fest’ (bologna). You could have focused on any of the 3 events that Tucson had scheduled BEFORE the BSL ACTIVISTS (not victim advocates) selected Tucson for their ‘walk’.

      There is a lot to this story that you didn’t report because you didn’t ‘investigate’, you just read a blog that linked to a blog that linked to a blog….and instead of helping Tucson, you helped draw attention to their walk of shame.
      disappointing…. *you may wonder about the user name, if you look at their press releases they post on media community boards — they can’t even spell the name of the city. Brilliant.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1174837622 Jon Anonnon

    so many walks for pit bulls but people cant have one for the mauled and killed?your a sicko

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1174837622 Jon Anonnon

    Yeah they say as no one knows what a pit bull is,non have killed anyone.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1174837622 Jon Anonnon

    nothing to see here dont you know pit bulls have never killed anyone they are the nanny dog,in the old days they were used to torturer and hold slaves.These are America’s dog may kids all sleep with pit bulls when i am at the bar getting drunk i know my kids are safe at home with our little love bug,i saved my pit bull from dog fighters and i know it was raised right Darla helped me train it.No dogs ever have lost a fight with my dog in our neighborhood and for some reason the mail man has stopped bringing our main this is racism i tells you,ban doggie racism dogs are people too.
    pit bulls have killed over 340 people in the US.

  • Blitz

    I dislike the idea of a hate walk because the opposite group tries to get the people to see there´s a another side to the media´s bloody stereotyped image. They want to courage people to have an open mind and to see this breed from another positive angle. But the goal of the other group is total opposite. They clearly find the idea of a ´good dog´ pit impossible and want people only to rely on the negatives, since there´s usually zero positive pit stories in news because they don´t make as much noise as the accident ones. I know rottweilers also have a bad image, but I´ve known two personally and they´re really good, well trained and behaved dogs. I know about the news of a rottie attacking another dog/human but because of those should I dislike the two people for owning a rottie, which they´ve trained well and are great with people and other dogs? Of course not! Why should a dog who´s never showed it´s teeth to a person or another animal, suffer because another dog of it´s breed has done exactly that? It´ll never be seen as a good well mannered tail swinger dog because from the far people can already make out the features of it. the Situation kinda reminds of racism in the older days and also, sadly, today as well. I could never tell to a person related to a fatal dog attack victim that none of the accidents in the past happened, because generally dogs cause attacks numerously every year. But I could never jump to the hate train.. it´s like dissing a whole big family because one of their members committed crime (that happens inside the “finer” social rings, doesn´t it?).

  • DCbutterfingers

    If this was about victims of dog aggression, they would focus on all victims, not just a cherry-picked few that satisfy their personal agenda.

    The CDC and the American Veterinary Medical Association concluded in a study that there is no link between breed and potential aggression, and that other factors such as spay/neuter, supervising children and dogs, socialization, etc. are common denominators in most dog bite-related incidents involving all breeds. The logical conclusion recommended as a result of this study is to implement education and enforcement of leash laws, and to target habitually bad owners, dog fighters, and backyard breeders.

    Intelligent, rational people wish to lower all dog bite-related incidents and fatalities. 31 people died from dog bite-related aggression last year, and the dogs involved comprised 22 different breeds, including a Jack Russell Terrier. Focusing on factors that will achieve responsible dog ownership is a much more sensible approach, and one that has been proven effective. Breed bans have been proven 100% ineffective.

    Using hurt children to advance a personal agenda is, quite frankly, despicable.

    • http://twitter.com/AdmiralApparent Nancy Franzi

      Welcome to politics…unfortunate but true.

  • DCbutterfingers

    Actually, they are not well-documented. The only research done by this sham website is “Google research” which is not acceptable in any academic or (real) journalism environment.

    Studies have proven that the news media will not report on a dog aggression incident unless it can be attributed to a “pit bull”. Many times, the attribution is incorrect. Four boxers that attacked a child in Texas were called “pit bulls” by AP, until it came to light that they were full-bred boxers. A child attacked by two lab/shepherd mixes in West Virginia last spring was called a “pit bull attack” until the sheriff’s office released a picture of the dogs and corrected the media. “Google research” results in inaccurate and unscientific conclusions, which is why it is not allowed in an academic setting.

    The site ignores real academic studies, such as a report produced by the American Veterinary Medical Association and the U.S. federal government, which concludes, “neither pit bull-type dogs nor Rottweilers can be said to be more “dangerous” than any other breed…” in favor of personal blogs and Google. The website is run by a woman with no academic credentials (beyond a high school diploma), who has been a failed online psychic and a failed actress, but has never been a veterinarian, vet tech, researcher, journalist, or authority of any kind in any animal behavior or biology field. Most of the statistics found on this site are manipulated, or completely fabricated. Nothing is cited, and no actual research from trusted, academic sources is presented.

  • 123tl78

    If you look on dogsbite’s site they posted what they HOPED would be a pit bull attack but it turned out not to be so and you know what? There wasn’t any one of the usual people from her site, including the ones below complaining about all those mixed breed dogs attacking a woman when she went to the mailbox. Apparently a woman in Rusk County, Texas was walking to her mail box and was attacked by five or six mixed breed dogs. The family and thankfully, the news articles in most cases specifically stated that the dogs were mixed breed dogs and NOT pit bulls, so Colleen and her followers couldn’t do their usual gripes about pit bulls but Jaloney Caldwell and a couple jumped the gun and started complaining about pit bulls and how awful they are. Also, they had another report of a mail carrier in Henry County, Virginia that was attacked by pit bulls but there was no picture nor any way to confirm the dogs were any breed that falls under the term pit bull. I tried to post some comments on one article (I am not abusive at all) and they didn’t allow all my comments meaning some of these articles are done by people (as you already know) that really have it in for pit bulls and will even go as far as to not print your comments to fulfill their agenda of persecuting pit bulls. Colleen on her facebook page always deletes any commenter that tries to speak up for pit bulls. She will not allow any person except someone who wants to get rid of pit bulls to post. That’s the truth about dogsbite. They use the media and manipulate and skew the facts to persecute pit bulls. They don’t care about other dogs biting or their victims. If you follow their history, including Dawn James at Craven Desires and Maul Talk they really have a true hate for pit bulls and their owners and could care less that other dogs bite. I am glad I am with the majority of people who have common sense and compassion about dogs, people and wanting to reduce ALL dog bites, not just some dog bites.

  • http://www.facebook.com/WFVPBODD Mellie Barbalaco-Baze

    Michael, you’re just a hopeless mutant-loving dummy. Sorry for you.

  • http://twitter.com/AdmiralApparent Nancy Franzi

    Won’t lie…mess with me and my chihuahua will rip your throat out like a zombie from Walking Dead. :D

  • http://twitter.com/AdmiralApparent Nancy Franzi

    So since I got bit by an over agressive chihuahua when I was little, does that mean I can schedule a hate walk against them too? Give me a break. Every single one of those people who walk in a “hate walk” of any kind should make sure they’re walking over a cliff…idiots…everywhere. UGH!

  • Chihuahua_4_the_Win

    See this is what’s really starting to piss me off. EVERY friggin time I read an article about the pit bull being persecuted, someone has to make an ignorant comment about the Chihuahua. And that makes them just as bad as the people who make untrue comments about pits. I’ve been open minded to the pit bull’s plight, not willing to stamp them with judgement and move on. I certainly don’t seem to find the same willingness among pit bull advocates regarding other breeds…especially the Chihuahua.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=510591069 Azhure Sunsoar

    A study was done in a us city(Kansas I think) of media reported dog bites. over the period the study ran 98 percent of media reported dog bites were pitbulls. want to know the precentage of pitbull bites in relation to ALL dog bites during the same period? less than 5%. an animal control officer has said that media outlets don’t want to hear about an attack unless a pitbull was involved. I live in Ontario. in 2055 BSL was brought in. dog bites ranged around 5000. FIVE years later(and drastically fewer bully breed dogs) the dog bites ranged around 5000. some breed is making up for the lack of pitbulls. I know a story of a pomeranian that killed a 6 week old baby. huskies that have killed children. if you honestly believe Colleen and the drivel the media spouts then just go bury your ignorant head in the sand because you arent worth the air you breathe.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Debbie-Bell/100002528946349 Debbie Bell

    After the AKC, founding 1884, refused to accept dogs designed to KILL OTHER DOGS, the UKC was formed in 1898m by Mr. Bennett to register the American PIt Bull Terrier. He gave the first registration his own beloved APBT “Bennett’s Ring”.
    While the AKC is a beauty pageant for dogs, the UKC stresses form and FUNCTION. In order for your UKC registered dog to become a UKC Champion, he/she must prove she could do the task for which the breed was created. Herding dogs must win sheepdog trials. beagles must win field dog trial. What di your APBT need to “accomplish”? No, not a nanny dog competition, as the “nanny dog” nickname wouldn’t be invented for many decades, till the 1980′s. No, APBT’s needed to win 3 dog fights (kill other dogs) with a UKC referee to report the results of the “competion” to the UKC.
    No one wonders why a beagle sniffs, barks and runs after bunnies because all “good” beagles do! When a pit bull attacks without reason, attacks without warning, immediately does damage and won’t stop even if the other yelps, submits, says uncle, won’t stop even after suffering horrendous injury, it is being a “good” pit bull. These traits were necessary for pits to be the best fighting dogs, and pits are the best. Proof is the FACT that essentially all US dog fighters use pits.
    Pit mongers are insane. Proof is the fact that they try to defend their choice of dog by saying that pits were not created to kill humans, but were created to kill dogs. As a person who cares about all dog welfare, I can think of no behavior worse that unpredictable, unprovoked intentionally deadly dog aggression.
    Don’t ban pits, but do ban pit breeding. Enact and enforce mandatory spay/neuter microchipping of all pits, pit mixes, all dog aggressive dogs. Everyone who cares about dog welfare wins; all dogs win too, especially the most abused pit bulls.

  • laurie

    I wrote my senior thesis on pit bulls and whether or not they were more dangerous than other breeds of dogs. Coleen Lynn is the ONLY person that did not get back to me about her research and findings and experience with pit bull dogs. That really said something to me.

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