Читать книгу American Pit Bull Terrier Handbook - Joe Stahlkuppe - Страница 19

Some print and broadcast journalists saw the name “pit bull” as a way to insure a wider audience for their news stories. Rather than zheck out the actual kind of dog involved in a dog bite, or the circumstances under which these bites occurred, some newspeople were content to take the first version of an incident that they heard. Unfortunately, a class of “killer dogs” developed in the public mentality from their poor reporting. Suddenly, as if in a self-fulfilling prophecy, every dog bite became a “pit bull” attack. Boxers, yellow Labs, and all short-haired, medium-sized mongrels were transformed into “pit bulls” or the equally vague, “pit bull-mixes.”

American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Bull Terriers, Boxers, Bull Mastiffs, and other breeds suffered right along with the APBT. The public believed what they heard or read about this new canine scourge, a sort of Attila the Hound. A War of the Worlds mentality took over as headlines on the evening news read: “Two pit bulls terrorize small town” or “Policeman savaged by pit bull.” Combined with all the false “pit bull” stories or accusations were legitimate accounts that did actually involve some APBTs, Amstaffs, Staffy Bulls, and others. Unable and perhaps unwilling to put the “pit bull” genie back into the bottle, a media avalanche swept away the nearly 100 years of good reputation that the American Pit Bull Terrier had earned.