Monday, July 11, 2022

The Pit Bull Name Game



"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet


When it was created in 1878, the American Kennel Club refused to register Pit Bulls, seeing them as dogs kept by people of low breeding. The Kennel Club was interested in dignified dogs, not working dogs, and especially not dogs that acted as the canine equivalent of a barbed-wire and locust-post fence.

In frustration, Pit Bull owner Chauncey Bennet created his own registry -- the United Kennel Club -- in order to to register his own dog. Today, the UKC is the second largest all-breed registry in the U.S., and it remains a for-profit, privately-held operation.

When the "Little Rascal" movies of the 1930s popularized a Pit Bull by the name of "Petey," the American Kennel Club decided that the smell of cash money beat out sniffing social theories, and so they changed their de facto position on the Pit Bull, while maintaining a de jure ban on the dog.

How did they do this? Simple: they renamed the Pit Bull the "Staffordshire Terrier," and admitted it to the Kennel Club as a terrier (and never mind if it is not). In 1972, the Kennel Club changed the name of the dog again, making it the "American Staffordshire Terrier," to distinguish it from the smaller and thicker-bodied dog of the U.K.

So next time someone tells you that a "Pit Bull" is not a breed, or that the only breeds are AKC registered dogs, or that the dog that just did the wonderful thing (or the horrible thing) is "a mix" and not a "true Pit Bull" (or American Staffordshire Terrier), just remember that this semantic nonsense has been going on since the beginning and is more about forcing pigeons into holes than it is about the dog with four feet on the ground in front of them. 

A rose by any other name will smell as sweet ... but do mind the thorns.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

The AKC managed another thing by recognizing the AmStaff: They circumvented breed specific import restrictions. AmStaffs are legal in both Australia and New Zealand, while pit bulls are banned. Probably true elsewhere, too.

Anonymous said...

Yes. In Switzerland there are huge variations between cantons. In some the breeds are banned, in others they aren't, and then there are those with banned Pits and AmStaffs, StaffBulls and Bulls are okay... many dogs may only be got with a licence in and in two cantons you can't get a dog of the breed of Pit Bull, AmStaff, Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull, Rottweiler, Dobermann, Fila Brasileiro or Dogo Argentino unless it comes from a registered breeder *haha*.
And if in doubt, the veterinary office of the canton will decide wether a dog is or looks too much like one of the breeds in question.
While I just recently found out that "pure bred" Jack Russells with breeding licence and all most probably have some bullterrier added to make them look more like bullies than jacks. Just waiting for the trouble coming from that. Maybe we will soon have to have a licence for our terriers... just sayin'