OPINION: Is it fair to ban pit bulls as pets in South Africa?
There is a growing call to ban these dogs as pets due to their 'vicious' nature.
Animal lovers everywhere are feeling it as the recent petition arose to ban pit bulls as pets in South Africa.
Taking things from an objective standpoint can be tricky when you consider your fur babies as family.
And rightfully so, things can get blurry when you look at them from one point of view.
In this case, the motivation behind the petition came from the number of cases where pit bulls viciously attacked children.
"Recently a ten-year-old in Nelson Mandela Bay was killed by two of the family’s pit bulls." (eNCA)
Many people have shared their opinions on the petition, which has more than 20,000 signatures. Some strongly believe that this breed are naturally vicious and should be banned from being pets.
According to LiveScience, pit bulls are high-risk dogs. This comes from the interesting fact that "they were originally bred as 'catch dogs' for hunting and attacking large animals like wild boar, for herding livestock and for pit fighting." (LiveScience)
But this doesn't automatically mean that all pit bulls are vicious. There are a range of factors to be considered before placing all of them under the same umbrella.
If we place all pit bulls into one box, marked with danger, then we are following a limited mindset. They are known as combative by nature, but their upbringing and training has a lot to do with their behaviour.
Michaela Berger from Science Leadership said: "While some of them can be tough animals, many of them are super sweet, caring, and compassionate dogs. This breed in particular matters to me because I have seen ugly, stereotypical “dangerous” pit bulls in the media, but I know they are not true. I have a pit bull of my own that counteracts these negative things. I have met so many pit bulls who are kind, loving, and loyal."
For more from East Coast Radio
Pit Bull Awareness Day is on the 28th of October, as laid out by the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals).
"The National Pit Bull Awareness Day website is another website that spreads awareness for the love of pit bulls. Their goal is to educate people on how some pit bulls can be tougher, there are so many that are not." (Science Leadership)
WATCH the clip about the petition below, courtesy of YouTube.
Image Courtesy of Pexels