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When Jody Mokler volunteered to administer injections at a rabies vaccination clinic not far from the Ontario veterinary office where she practised, she expected it to be like every other canine inoculation clinic – standard procedure, uneventful.But the day was far from uneventful.
“There was a guy I could see a little ways back in the lineup, and he had two pit bulls – these were big, solid dogs,” said Mokler, a 15-year veterinarian who was in her first year of practice at the time.
“You could see their ears were torn and ripped. They had scars all over their face and you could tell these were fighting dogs.”
As the line of waiting dogs moved closer, Mokler noticed a sheepdog and its owner ahead of the two pit bulls. What happened next caught Mokler, and the dogs’ owners, completely off-guard.
“The sheepdog was getting antsy and whipped around to sniff one of the pits and that pit bull grabbed ahold of the sheepdog right over top of the eye and the head.”
The pitbull locked onto the sheepdog’s head, Mokler said, popping its eye out of the socket as it violently shook the sheepdog while its owner screamed and watched in horror.
The owner of the pit bull, however, had a different reaction to the scene.
“The guy took the other pit bull and ran away, leaving the one attacking the sheepdog attached to the poor dog’s head,” Mokler said.
Mokler’s husband at the time, who was a cop and at the clinic with her, had to use his billy club to pry the pit bull’s mouth off the sheepdog.
“It took everything he had to get that pit off.”
While many would be quick to blame the dog’s breed on the vicious attack, Mokler’s criticism was directed elsewhere – at the owner.
“The dog innately was not a bad dog, it’s just that its whole role in life was to fight.”
That reputation as a fighting machine has come back to bite the breed.
Near the turn of the millennium, pit bulls were making headlines in Ontario.
In 2003, an Ontario court judge ordered the euthanization of a pitbull that attacked a young boy who tried to kiss the dog. The toddler suffered serious injuries and required over 250 stiches.
In 2004, Toronto police fired more than a dozen bullets into two pi tbulls after they turned violent on a friend of the owner who was taking them for a walk.
Following those incidents and a few others, the Ontario Legislature amended its Dog Owners’ Liability Act to ban the breeding, sale and ownership of pit bulls.
Mokler said the media’s excessive coverage of the attacks was likely a contributing factor to the 2005 ban.
“As soon as the media takes ahold of it, they sensationalize everything, then everyone assumes pits are horrendous animals that kill.”
Pit bulls weren’t the only controversial breed around that time.
Troy Sproule is a 38-year-old tattoo artist from western P.E.I. For most of his adult life, Sproule has owned not only pit bulls, but another dog many people might find intimidating – a Rottweiler.
Sproule lived in Ontario around the same time the pitbull ban came into effect. He experienced, firsthand, the preconceptions many people have about dogs that appear dangerous.
“I was walking the dog down the road, heading towards the beach,” said Sproule, who owned a purebred American Rottweiller named Jaxxon at the time.
“There was a family – a mother and her kids – and as soon as they got close, I wrapped Jaxxon’s leash right up tight so he stayed close by my side. It wasn’t to make them think he was going to lunge, I was just being polite and keeping to my side so they could go around us.”
As soon as he did that, however, Sproule said the mother started yelling at him and at Jaxxon.
“She was screaming, saying ‘That dog is vicious! Stay away!’ and she was pushing her kids off the sidewalk.”
It’s not the only prejudice he encountered with Jaxxon.
Over the years, Sproule ran into problems with landlords when trying to rent apartments.
“As soon as I mentioned that I had a Rottweiller, I was told I couldn’t have that kind of dog around. But I’d tell them, just get to know him first before you judge him.”
Jaxxon, who lived to be almost 13 years old, wouldn’t hurt a flea on his own back, Sproule said. And it wouldn’t take long for the lovable pooch to make friends with even the biggest skeptics.
“Some people would be just terrified as soon as they came into my place and saw Jaxxon. But by the end of the night, they’d be down on the floor playing with him.”
Mokler said a dog’s temperament has nothing to do with its breed. But it can be dictated by its breeding. An example is a puppy mill – a commercial dog-breeding operation that places emphasis on profits above animal welfare.
Defective genetics can cause problems, Mokler said.
“The gene pool is getting narrower and narrower, so breeders can get the desired look they want in a dog. But by narrowing a gene pool, what you’re doing is you’re keeping things in an incestuous sort of group – where mothers are bred with sons, fathers to daughters.”
Inbreeding – in any type of dog – can lead to mental instabilities, which can surface in the form of aggression, Mokler said.
It’s no different than mentally ill humans who act out violently, Mokler said.
Singling out or restricting the ownership of one breed doesn’t address aggressive dog behaviour, she said. There are many other breeds with aggressive tendencies, such as German shepherds, Dobermans and bullmastifs.
“Even Golden Retrievers,” said Mokler. “We all think of them as so sweet and loving, but over 15 years of doing this job, I’ve had to put down at least a dozen golden retrievers for severe aggression.”
Although Prince Edward Island has no breed-specific dog legislation in place, the provincial government did look at introducing new regulations around the time the Ontario ban was enacted.
“It was taken into consideration at the time it was a hot topic in Ontario,” said Brian Matheson, manager of agriculture regulatory programs with the Department of Agriculture and Forestry.
However, department staff at the time concluded it would be difficult to determine specific breeds that could be considered dangerous, he said.
“They felt it would be more effective to deal with issues on a case-by-case basis. They felt it was more of an ownership issue as opposed to a specific breed of dog issue.”
Mokler agrees.
The root cause of aggressive behaviour isn’t so much the dog as it is its owner, its upbringing and its environment, she said.
“People don’t research the breed before they get the dog,” said Mokler. “Because of that, people have a tendency to get a dog for the wrong reasons.”
Anyone considering dog ownership should research the breed’s territorial and behaviour needs before deciding if that dog is right for their family. For instance, no one should get a herding dog, like a border collie, without a field or a flock of sheep for that dog to run among, she said.
Often, picking the wrong dog is why negative behavioural tendencies – such as chewing and hyper-activity – surface as well, Mokler said.
“If they’re in an inappropriate environment and don’t have the proper stimulation, those negative behavioural tendencies emerge and can escalate to aggressive tendencies.”
Sproule is one owner who did his research before getting his dogs.
Sproule is now the proud owner of a five-month old pit bull named Ares, after the god of war.
“I check on the background of the parents of the dog, to see what kind of aggression they might have had, if they were mix-bred, or if their bloodline involved any incest.”
You can usually tell if there’s something wrong with the dog within the first few months of trying to break its temperament,
“If you still notice an aggression after three or four months old, and they’re still biting and growling and snarling, there’s definitely something wrong. And if you have children, or for the safety of anyone who comes into your home, you have to decide if you should keep the dog. It’s a hard choice, but it’s one you have to make.”
Mokler agrees responsible ownership includes the possibility of having to make difficult decisions.
The best thing owners can do in situations where a dog is not fitting into a family, is to find it a new home. Euthanization should be a last resort, she said.
“To me, that is the bottom line.”
As for banning specific breeds, however, Mokler stands firm.
“I 100 per cent disagree with breed bans,” she said. “To me, there’s no justification in blaming the breed. And I don’t think there’s a veterinarian on the planet who wouldn’t agree with that.”
Photo: Troy Sproule poses with his five-month-old pitbull, Ares. Sproule did research on the dog before deciding to make her part of his family and says any responsible dog owner should do the same. Melanie Jackson photo
First appeared on The Surveyor Online - November 7, 2013
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