By Gaby Dufresne-Cyr, CBT
This piece is a direct answer to Joseph Facal's article L'Érotisme du Pitbull which appeared in the Journal de Montréal, May 26, 2016.
De Quelle est la motivation profonde de quelqu’un qui se procure un pitbull? J’imagine que les motivations varient selon les individus, mais j’aimerais quand même qu’on m’aide à comprendre. Dear M. Facal, I’ll try to keep my answers simple so you can follow along.
Est-ce parce que cette race est particulièrement gentille et affectueuse? Euh, non. Euh yes! First, pitbulls are not recognised breeds within the Canadian Kennel Club and the American Kennel Club. The term pitbull is actually a job description termed by people (yes, bad people) who bread various terriers, bulldogs, and god knows what, to fight. What you call pitbulls are actually specific breeds referred to as Staffordshires and Bull Terriers (all sizes). All three breeds were created to be the perfect working dog. Designed to be versatile, highly intelligent, extremely motivated, and easy to take care for, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Terrier, and Bull Terriers are part of the, you guessed it, the Terrier group.
Est-ce parce que cette race est particulièrement intelligente? Euh, non. Euh, yes! Your answer proves to us your knowledge of canids is equivalent to a six year old kid (since you insult people, I thought I’d give you a taste of your own medicine). Terriers are one of the most intelligent breeds out there. Anybody who has ever owned a dog knows that. Heck, why do you think the military trained them? Because they’re dumb? Euh, no!
Est-ce parce que cette race est particulièrement facile d’entretien et adaptée à la vie urbaine? Euh, non.
Euh, yes! These breeds don’t shed, don’t eat much, hate winter, are active but also love to stay inside when it’s wet, cold, damp, or too hot. Staffies (Staffordshires, in case you couldn’t make the connection) are easily trained, don’t bark much, are the perfect apartment pets, are excellent service dogs, and enjoy an active social life.
Je repose donc la question: pourquoi choisir cette race parmi les 350 disponibles? To be fair, over 800 dog breeds exist around the world, but since this is clearly not your field of expertise, I’ll let this one go by. Simple math should tell you, M. Facal, that if more and more people chose Staffordshires as their family pet, out of all those breeds in the world, it must be because they’re exceptional animals. In my practice, I get more Sheppard crosses and dogs less than 20 lbs who bite than Staffies and other molossoids (I don’t expect you to understand this term, so you might want to Google it) put together. Again, since this isn’t your field of expertise, I’ll let this one slip by too.
Danger!
Je ne me suis jamais interdit de dire du bien de la concurrence. Dans La Presse des 20 et 23 mai, la journaliste Marie-Claude Malboeuf livre les résultats de sa longue enquête sur les pitbulls dans la région de Montréal. You know, as an ex-politician, just how well one can manipulate information to make it seem as something else. Mme. Malboeuf didn’t look at all the information, just the one she needed to write her very bias piece.
Leur nombre est en hausse fulgurante. I just told you why, they are awesome animals.
Toutes sortes de chiens attaquent, mais les attaques par des pitbulls sont beaucoup plus nombreuses et beaucoup plus dévastatrices. They might cause more damage than a small dog, but size for size, no. If you did your homework and looked at longitudinal studies done by Dr. James Serpell, (yes, M. Serpell is a real doctor, and guess what, he writes about topics within his field of expertise) you would see how inaccurate your statement is.
Le chirurgien plasticien Nicolas Hamelin dit: «On pourrait bien débattre sur les pourcentages, mais l’écart est si grand entre les pitbulls et les autres chiens qu’on ne peut fermer les yeux sur ces statistiques». Uh, as a journalist you should know that sources would be nice to mention at this point because you have lost all credibility on the subject matter, but that’s your choice. Yes bigger dogs cause more damage, I agree, but it’s not specific to one breed. I can send you the content of my hard drive so you can read research papers on the topic, but just Google Dr. James Serpell and you should get an eye full since he has devoted his entire career to breed specific behaviours.
La réalité est probablement pire que les chiffres, car plusieurs propriétaires paient les victimes d’attaques pour qu’elles ne portent pas plainte. So too do other dog breed owners. That was just a sand in your eyes statement unsubstantiated and unsupported. How would you know people are paying off to cover their dog’s aggressive behaviour if they haven’t reported it? Again, sources…..
Toutes les armes à feu font des dommages, mais certaines sont plus meurtrières que d’autres. On connaît d’avance la cassette du lobby des pitbulls: c’est le maître qui est le problème, pas le chien. You really do NOT know what we are about, do you?! We are all about responsible ownership, not breed bashing, but since people like you keep writing trash statements, we don’t have a choice but to keep telling you, over and over again, it’s not breed specific.
Oui et non.
Oui, parce qu’il semble que les nouveaux propriétaires de pitbulls sont surtout des jeunes hommes qui n’ont rien à foutre des cours de dressage et de la réglementation sur les licences et le port des laisses. Where did you get THAT information, the Allo Police? Seriously, I want to finish this rebuttal because I feel I’m getting dumber by the minute. Almost everybody I know owns or has owned a Staffy. Every single one of them are families, people above 30, are women who just love to cuddle with an awesome pet, or animal-assisted therapy practitioners. Yes, some twits do get dogs for the wrong reasons, but I don’t see you offering any solutions. Oh yah, I remember, because this isn’t your field or line of work.
Non, car c’est indiscutablement un chien plus «compliqué» que les autres. OMG, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Staffies are the simplest breed I can think of. What I find complicated are people who write about things they know nothing of. This makes me think, I should write my next article on ineffective politicians who just write stuff because they like the sound of their own thoughts.
Toutes les armes à feu font des dommages, mais certaines sont plus meurtrières que d’autres. So, if I follow your logic, people go out of their way to buy a breed they know could inflict more damage while understanding a small calibre dog could do the job. Did I get that right?
Toutes exigent cependant un permis valide et des cours de maniement. Certaines sont carrément interdites. Well, here’s a solution (too bad I thought of it before you). Educate people. Education is the way to control dog bites, attacks, and deaths. Notice I wrote dogs and not pitbulls because ALL dogs bite. I have proposed many ideas to make that happen, but people with a tribune like yours prefer to vomit words onto paper because it sells newspapers, which in turn, pays for your salary. I, on the other hand, have nothing to gain from writing this rebuttal other than peace of mind, and possibly a chance to educate someone.
Rien de tout cela dans le domaine canin, avec des conséquences chiffrées et irréfutables qui donnent froid dans le dos. Why not write about the lack of education and possible solutions; after all, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, but that we already knew.
Je reviens donc à ma question: pourquoi diable se procurer CETTE race parmi toutes celles qui existent? Because THAT breed is awesome.
Virilité?
Il y a des crétins partout, mais le chroniqueur Yves Boisvert avançait l’hypothèse qu’ils sont probablement surreprésentés chez les propriétaires de pitbulls. This is getting slightly boring and repetitive.
Intéressons-nous un instant à cette frange idiote, sans doute majoritairement composée de jeunes à la testostérone vigoureuse. You really like to insult people don’t you? If anything, your article makes you sound like a bully. You’re what I call a penbull, a person who forces inaccurate statements in order to scare people.
Se pourrait-il qu’ils éprouvent une sorte de plaisir viril à se promener avec un chien qui installe la peur dans les yeux de ceux qui l’aperçoivent? Seems you’re doing the same thing with this piece of trash writing, but what can we expect from a columnist at the Journal de Montréal other than trash.
Se pourrait-il que ce soit un peu l’équivalent de se pavaner avec un Colt 45, chromé argent, dans leur ceinture de pantalon? Maybe this is a projection on your part. Maybe your deep inner desire is to be a bad boy, only you’re too afraid of guns or dogs, so you carry around a pen and write vial sentences. On that note, I grew up in the army and my father made sure we knew how guns worked. My father educated us in order to prevent accidents from happening, and guess what, although we had guns in our house, I never had the desire to kill anybody. Knowledge empowers people to do the right thing. Ignorance fuels fear.
Se pourrait-il que ce soient des jeunes dont les études ou les carrières ne gonflent guère leur estime d’eux-mêmes? Maybe you could propose a solution and become a role model to these teens. I created a program to help the kids you criticise. I go to their school once a week for ten weeks. During this program, the at risk teens work with my students and learn to train dogs. Now, you might want to hold on to something before you continue reading, all the dogs in the program are Staffies rescued from the SPCA. Yes, the dogs you were ranting about help at risk teens learn to communicate, develop their self-esteem, increase their confidence, and learn to exchange with other adults. Overall, these teens love the program. Again, what do you do?
Je demande ça, comme ça...
Comme on ne peut légiférer contre la bêtise humaine, on devrait viser l’arme: l’Ontario a interdit cette race sur tout son territoire, tout simplement. Faisons pareil. Only to find dog bites have increased. Ontario is currently studying the abolishment of BSL for a better, more equitable, dangerous dog act. You forgot to mention that fact probably because it didn’t make your argument seem plausible. Journalism, after all, isn’t about reporting facts from both sides without being biased, right?
D’ici là, je continuerai à habiter Laval. Allons, Monsieur le Maire Demers, un geste courageux? The only courageous decision the mayor Demers could take, in my opinion, is to kick you out of town.