An example of negative favoritism

DryCreek

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#1
Day in and day out you can search the news for story's about the ABPT. The positive ones are few and far between.

Many people don't even bother to wonder why, they just assume all they read in the papers is true, only this breed is dangerous! (and the many who look the same)

Who's fault is it? Well, the actual issue is usually the owners fault, but what the press does with any story is theirs. This is where the Negative Favoritism comes into play.

Observe....

This is a story that basically wraps up the year in Texas as related to dog incidents

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=21621

Pit bulls played big part in local, national news

good title huh? :rolleyes:

What the reporter neglected to mention were the other breeds of dogs that happened to be involved in more, and more serious events.

Read about it here....

http://badrap-blog.blogspot.com/2007/12/target-much.html

Make sure you check out the links in the list. The pattern of story telling becomes more obvious when you read about the other breeds.

I notice it all the time....do you?
 
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#2
I notice it. In OK in the past few days, we've had some different headlines involving bull breeds. First was a family in Midwest City who is having their Bull Terriers siezed due to a local law against Pit Bulls. The second was a story about a Bull Mastiff who attacked a meter reader who came in his yard. When I talked about these stories on a local news forum, in both instances, people referred to the dogs as Pit Bulls, and I had to clarify that in fact, they were not.

I know this is not exactly what you're talking about. But it illustrates my point that when people want to see a Pit Bull, they'll see a Pit Bull. No matter what they're looking at
 

DryCreek

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#4
Sounds like the story of Lucky....only Lucky was a registered purebred Lab in Ontario that was seized and set for destruction due to being a "Pit Bull"



Now, if the people, the "professionals" can make this big of a mistake, I can imagine how many mistakes are made by others (reporters, police, victims...etc)
 
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#5
One thing I know quite well from all the years I worked in criminal defense is that the worst, most inaccurate possible testimony - aside from the cops' - is eyewitness. You get 10 eyewitnesses and you'll get 10 different stories . . . until the cops and the DA get them all together :rolleyes: It's the same thing with any story involving dog bites. No matter what the truth of it is, by the time witnesses, the victim, animal control, cops and the media get done with it, the story doesn't bear any remote resemblance to what actually happened.
 

DryCreek

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#6
Sounds a lot like that kids game, telephone :rolleyes:

That's why "truth" is such a funny little word. Everyone has their own version of the truth in any event, though it may be different from the truth of the person right next to you in the same situation.

There's your version, my version and even Jack Sprats version of the truth. We all believe in our version or we wouldn't say it was so. But there's always the question of what is the whole truth LOL.

They did a study on memory that I was delighted to watch. A group of people were exposed to a situation, then they were asked to recall the event at differing lengths of time after the situation occured. Besides each person having a different memory of what exactly happened, each persons memory of the event changed each time they were asked about it.

Interesting isn't it? LOL
 

Zoom

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#7
I think this is one of those situations where the new word "Truthiness" is quite apropro. People scare the crap out of me though, especially after my Lab was called a "pit" the other month. I said she was a lab, but because she's got the wider, older-style head and isn't a waddling tub of lard, obviously that meant "pit".
 
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Sounds a lot like that kids game, telephone :rolleyes:

That's why "truth" is such a funny little word. Everyone has their own version of the truth in any event, though it may be different from the truth of the person right next to you in the same situation.

There's your version, my version and even Jack Sprats version of the truth. We all believe in our version or we wouldn't say it was so. But there's always the question of what is the whole truth LOL.

They did a study on memory that I was delighted to watch. A group of people were exposed to a situation, then they were asked to recall the event at differing lengths of time after the situation occured. Besides each person having a different memory of what exactly happened, each persons memory of the event changed each time they were asked about it.

Interesting isn't it? LOL
And scary too. I've witnessed several accidents - I'm one of those people who always stays until the party NOT at fault, along with whatever authority gets there - has my contact info and an account from me. It got funny there for awhile because I witnessed four different ones that involved the same insuror on the at-fault side. They shut up and paid up on every one, lol. My line of work makes me one of those rare people who actually IS a good, impartial witness who gets the details right and doesn't waffle. They hate that ;)
 

DryCreek

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#9
I notice it. In OK in the past few days, we've had some different headlines involving bull breeds. First was a family in Midwest City who is having their Bull Terriers siezed due to a local law against Pit Bulls. The second was a story about a Bull Mastiff who attacked a meter reader who came in his yard. When I talked about these stories on a local news forum, in both instances, people referred to the dogs as Pit Bulls, and I had to clarify that in fact, they were not.

I know this is not exactly what you're talking about. But it illustrates my point that when people want to see a Pit Bull, they'll see a Pit Bull. No matter what they're looking at
It's all connected Bahamutt99, what other source of information does the average person use in these cases besides what they read in the paper. I highly doubt that, after reading an article pertaining to dogs, the average Joe will do any research to confirm or deny what was presented by the media!
 

DryCreek

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#10
I think this is one of those situations where the new word "Truthiness" is quite apropro. People scare the crap out of me though, especially after my Lab was called a "pit" the other month. I said she was a lab, but because she's got the wider, older-style head and isn't a waddling tub of lard, obviously that meant "pit".
You should be scared LOL.

All it takes is some form of BSL, and a persons insistance that your dog is of a banned breed, and dangerous :rolleyes:, to open up a world of hurt on dog owners. The kill now, clear it up later mentality in regards to these breeds leaves little hope for those who can't afford a court battle!

All the negative sensationalized press has created a near mob mentality. For some reason, people feel free to confront you about your dangerous killer dog even though your pet may be in a calm sit during the whole episode. Since when is it an acceptable practice to verbally, and some times physically, assault a dog owner in the streets?
 

DryCreek

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And scary too. I've witnessed several accidents - I'm one of those people who always stays until the party NOT at fault, along with whatever authority gets there - has my contact info and an account from me. It got funny there for awhile because I witnessed four different ones that involved the same insuror on the at-fault side. They shut up and paid up on every one, lol. My line of work makes me one of those rare people who actually IS a good, impartial witness who gets the details right and doesn't waffle. They hate that ;)
Of course they do LOL, what good is a witness that you can't lead in the direction you want? :D
 

Dizzy

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#12
Day in and day out you can search the news for story's about the ABPT. The positive ones are few and far between.
Find me a positive story about pretty much ANYTHING in the news and I will be suprised ;)

Bad news sells. People like to read about others misfortunes.
 
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#13
You should be scared LOL.

All it takes is some form of BSL, and a persons insistance that your dog is of a banned breed, and dangerous :rolleyes:, to open up a world of hurt on dog owners. The kill now, clear it up later mentality in regards to these breeds leaves little hope for those who can't afford a court battle!

All the negative sensationalized press has created a near mob mentality. For some reason, people feel free to confront you about your dangerous killer dog even though your pet may be in a calm sit during the whole episode. Since when is it an acceptable practice to verbally, and some times physically, assault a dog owner in the streets?
Interestingly, most criminal codes make room for assault charges against a verbal assault . . . we may have to, in the near future, start making use of these, whether they're prosecuted or not, to create a paper trail to protect ourselves and our dogs.
 

Miakoda

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#14
Grrrrrr . . . . I've seen obvious Lab mixes labelled as "Pit dogs" by the media, animal control, etc.
When at a city council meeting fighting BSL (& our own idiot AC head officer), another officer testified that if he gets 10 calls about "pit bulls", there is a possibility that 1 of them might be categorized in the "pit bull" category. He even showed pics of a Chi running loose that was called in as an aggressive "pit bull puppy" running loose.

Like Baha said, people see what they want to see. But that's exactly why I will NEVER quit trying to educate people. If the pattern continues, not only will I lose my dogs, but so will anyone & everyone else who owns a dog with short hair, some muscular features, and weighing between 30 and 130 lbs. (Now be honest, do those criteria apply to your dog? Because that's exactly how generic some of the government definitions of a "pit bull" are in cities with BSL)
 

Amstaffer

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#16
Humans as a rule, just love stereotypes. It is just makes us feel so comfortable if we can cleanly categorize everything.... Pit Bulls bad vicious killers.... Golden Retrievers good loving family pets etc..... Humans also refused to take the blame when they can find a silent scapegoat.

Great post...thanks
 

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