Cape Town – Pit bull owners and lovers have come out in defence of the breed after calls for its ban in South Africa, following a spate of deadly attacks.
Earlier last week, the Sizwe Kupelo Foundation started a petition to ban people from having pit bulls as pets in South Africa.
The petition has since been signed by over 40 000 people.
This was allegedly “following years of vicious attacks on innocent citizens” by pit bulls.
However, Lee-Ann van Staden who created the “Do Not Ban Pitbulls as Pets” petition seems to think the problem is not with pit bulls but with their owners.
“PITBULS are NOT the problem. Its the people that OWN them.
“People should not choose pets based on looks, they should choose pets based on handling them. You will not get a 5 year old tiger. People that can not train their pit bulls should have cats,” van Staden argued on the petition.
She questioned why all the blame was placed on the pit bulls and yet nothing was done to find out what caused the dogs to attack.
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According to Mbasa Nyegane who owns three pit bulls and claims they have no history of attacks on humans, the American pit bull terriers were not behind attacks on humans but cross breeds that looked exactly like pit bulls, reported New24.
He claimed backyard breeders started cross-mating the dogs with other breeds for show and illegal dog fights, the report said.
“Some of them are [what we call] pitboers. You can see it is a combination of a pit bull and boerboel. They look like pit bulls but they are not,” the report quoted Nyangane.
He said that American pitbull terriers with pedigree were historically known as nanny dogs that had strong love for humans, especially babies.
“These are nanny dogs. People would leave them in the house with the kids while maybe [going to do] shopping and these dogs would take care of the kids because they love the kids,” said Nyangane.
The report said Pit Bull Federation of South Africa agreed with Nyengane that the dogs behind the spate of attacks were mixed breeds.
“Sadly, times have changed. Gone are the days where the majority of these dogs were of safe known origin. Gone are the times where dogs were selectively bred and only placed with knowledgeable owners. The APBT of today barely resembles the APBT of old. The dogs that do are kept in the hands of the pit bull enthusiast and are never placed with a novice,” federation spokesperson Lehanda Rheeder was quoted as saying.
She advised owners against leaving their children alone with any dog.
“Dogs do not possess the mental capacity to ‘protect’ a child and they lack mental capacity to feel remorse. It is unfair to demand this from them.”
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
