Have you ever noticed how the breed of dog that is considered to
be "evil" or "mean" changes by generation?
At the time of World War II, everyone hated German Shepards because
we were at war with the Germans and since "German" was in the name
of the breed, then those dogs had to be "bad dogs." Pit Bulls were
the breed of choice, and American pilots put pictures of them on
their airplanes.
As time went on and the 1970s rolled around, the "villain dog" was
the Doberman, following the release of the movie The Doberman Gang.
This movie was followed by other movies showing Dobermans in a
similar bad light. People used to debate which Doberman was the
worse, the black or red dog. Everyone "knew" a Doberman would turn
on you in a heartbeat. They were considered cold-blooded killers.
Then came the movie Cujo in the 1980s, which turned the large
beloved dog that was known as "the dog that saved peoples lives"
into a dog that people feared. People talked about how easily the
dogs got sick, and were told to never look them straight in the eye
because it would bring out the evil sickness in them.
The 1990s made the Chow the villain dog. This was due to the fact
that a Chow looks like a bear. Some people even told stories of how
the Chow actually has a "bear heritage" and why it looked like it
did. Chows remained the villain until New Millennia.
Now we are condemning any and all bully-breed dogs, along with any
other dog that has a large square head without even knowing the
dog's breed and personality. We have turned beloved sports mascots,
such as the Pit Bull and Bull Dog, into the mean, evil villain dog
of this era. We have allowed the media to spread fear of these dogs
because fear stories are always good press. The media reports
heavily about bully-breed attacks without including the condition
the dog was kept in, what the owners were like, or any of the
circumstances surrounding the actual attack (such as, did
the "victim" provoke the dog, etc.). They want us to believe that
only bully-breeds attack without reason, when in most cases you can
find a reason for any breed of dog to attack (and usually it goes
back to "bad owners").
Maybe this should be the era when we stop marking any one breed or
type of dog as the villain and we start seeing the real villain —
the bad dog owner.
