If you saw the story on MSNBC
"12-year-old boy killed by family pit bull" and the subtitle "Mother had shut son in basement to protect him from dog", you might be forgiven for thinking that this mother was somehow protecting her child from a dangerous beast. A quick review of the article tells a different tale:
Maureen Faibish said she ordered Nicholas to stay in the basement while she did errands on June 3, the day he was attacked by one or both of the dogs. She said she was worried about the male dog, Rex, who was acting possessive because the female, Ella, was in heat.
"I put him down there, with a shovel on the door," Faibish told the San Francisco Chronicle. "And I told him: `Stay down there until I come back.' Typical Nicky, he wouldn't listen to me."
Typical Nicky, indeed. More below the break.
Many dog owners are aware of the debate surrounding pit bulls. Some feel that they are a dangerous breed that should be wiped out, others feel that they are maligned for the actions of some irresponsible owners.
Let's review the facts.
1) This woman has two dogs, a male and a female, at least one of which is not fixed, both of which belong to a breed popularized for its tendencies towards aggression.
2) This woman is well aware of the fact that the male dog becomes overly aggressive when the female goes into heat.
3) This woman decides to leave her son alone with these animals while she does errands.
4) This woman decides to try and lock her son in the basement with a shovel while she is gone to "protect" him from the dogs.
5) This woman is not surprised that her son was able to figure a way to escape the basement.
6) Perhaps most disturbingly, this woman has the following to say:
"It's Nicky's time to go," she said in the interview. "When you're born you're destined to go and this was his time."
This woman unabashedly killed her son by placing him in this situation. Would we read a story about how a mother placed her blindfolded son in a busy intersection and conclude in a headline "Boy killed by traffic"? Hardly.
Should we also blame "typical Nicky" for figuring a way to escape being locked in the basement? Oh, if only he'd listened to his mother instead of disobeying her and trying to figure out a way to get out of the cellar. Please.
The idea that pit bulls are by nature "evil" or "bad" creates an easy target for people. This story should not require anyone to read it more than once without coming to a conclusion that the woman was responsible for her son's death.
In fact, the media here is incapable of escaping tired old story lines. Perhaps the pit bull was a dangerous dog, but chainsaws are dangerous as well if you don't know what you're doing with them.
As the owner of a rescued dog (not a pit bull), I am well-aware of the plight of the pit bull breed. I didn't adopt a pit bull because I was a first-time dog owner who didn't have a lot of time to devote towards training an animal; all pit bull owner associations recommend being an experienced dog owner with time to train the dogs before taking one home.
Is this particular dog a threat? Certainly. But only because of the actions of this owner. Rex the dog could have been living in an environment with no unfixed female dogs, no unsupervised 12 year-olds, no creepy mother who believes in preordained fate and leaving her child in a situation that she acknowledges is dangerous. Rex could have been owned by a responsible person, and you would have never heard about that particular pit bull.
I can't say one way or another whether I think that a specific breed of dog should be banned or strictly controlled. But I certainly think that a lot of dumb-ass people tend to own pit bulls, which is the real problem.
