APBT Myth

APBT Myths
MYTH: Pit bulls bite more people than any other breed.
FACT: It is hard to pin down, as accurate records by breed are seldom kept. Those records available show what a myth this is. Farmers Branch, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, has kept accurate records since 1980. During a 7 year period from 1980 through 1987, this is what was recorded. Total bites: 1,593. Pit bulls, 30 bites, or 1.89% of the total. Other studies tend to show the same results and because of so many mongrels that have similar features to the American Pit Bull Terrier, it seems reasonable to assume that the figures are actually much lower.


MYTH: American Pit Bull Terriers are born mean.
FACT: In a letter to James Huffman of Columbus, Ohio, Alfons Estelt of the American Temperament Test Society, Inc., an international dog temperament test organization, wrote the following: "The American Pit Bull Terriers participating in our temperament evaluation have thus far shown a passing rate of 95%. The other 121 breeds of dogs in our tests showed the average passing rate of 77%. While the heredity factor is of measurable importance, these results show that a dog, even if used for dogfighting, is not pre-disposed as such, but is brought by his environment."


MYTH: American Pit Bull Terriers have 1600 P.S.I. in jaw pressure.
FACT: Dr. 1. Lehr Brisbin of the University of Georgia states, "To the best of our knowledge, there are no published scientific studies that would allow any meaningful comparison to be made of the biting power of various breeds of dogs. There are, moreover, compelling technical reasons why such data describing biting power in terms of "pounds per square inch" can never be collected in a meaningful way. All figures describing biting power in such terms can be traced to either unfounded rumor or, in some cases, to newspaper articles with no foundation in factual data." Need more be said?


MYTH: American Pit Bull Terriers lock their jaw to the death.
FACT: Again from Dr. Brisbin: "The few studies which have been conducted of the structure of the skulls, mandibles and teeth of pit bulls show that, in proportion to their size, their jaw structure and thus its inferred functional morphology, is no different than that of any breed of dog. There is absolutely no evidence for the existence of any kind of "locking mechanism" unique to the structure of the jaw and/or teeth of the American Pit Bull Terrier."

Good post, thanks

We need to post this where anti-pit bull people will see it. Great post btw

I know this post is very old, but am hoping someone would answer, why on earth does the breed get such negativity in how its seen, other then the obvious ignorance and stupidity... of people not the breed. now PERSON banning I can understand.

Purrson wrote:

I know this post is very old, but am hoping someone would answer, why on earth does the breed get such negativity in how its seen, other then the obvious ignorance and stupidity... of people not the breed. now PERSON banning I can understand.

IMO people either fear or are fascinated by what they don't understand. and that seems to me to be the crux of the problem. some people look a pit bull and see a gape jawed warrior dog who will loyaly rip apart that person's enemies. they see a dog to make them appear tougher. when in truth apbts don't seem to be best suited as a protection dog due to their lack of distrust in humans. and the news picks up on it and that's where the terrified portion of the populace comes in. they see swaggering types with burly dogs draped in spikes and chains and again these folks don't have a comprehensive understanding of the apbt so they fear. the (IMO) cowards that use these dogs to bolster their own self image and glorify that image to others feeds a situation where bybs can easily make money off of crappil bred pups and more people with bad information from all angles misuse these dogs and create situations that allow the media to fuel the fear of those others I mention. ugly thought.....