A funny thing about dog panics that I learned from Bronwen Dickey's book...
In the 1870s, Americans lost their shit over ANOTHER type of dog believed to be uniquely vicious. They pointed to stats that alleged most bites came from that kind of dog. There were formal bans. Dogcatchers rounded them up and clubbed them to death.
Y'all. It was the *spitz.*
Y'all. It was the *spitz.*
From an @nytimes editorial:
“There are but four venomous beats among the fauna of the United States. These are the rattlesnake, the copperhead, the moccasin and the spitz dog, and of the four, the latter is by far the most aggressive in its hostility to man.”
Again, the spitz:
“There are but four venomous beats among the fauna of the United States. These are the rattlesnake, the copperhead, the moccasin and the spitz dog, and of the four, the latter is by far the most aggressive in its hostility to man.”
Again, the spitz:
@nytimes The NYT went on: the spitz, it said, was “misanthropic, malicious, and useless; and if we can truly judge a man by the dogs with whom he associates, the keeper of a Spitz is deficient in those qualities which secure the respect and love of high-toned and intelligent dogs.”
They thought these dogs were rabid and dangerous, and even after they started to understand germ science better and realized that all mammals could carry rabies, Dickey said that medical textbooks continued to describe pitbull bites as "the worst kind" of dog bite.
The spitz was a poor people's dog. More specifically, it was a dog brought over by German immigrants, and its reputation was bound up in xenophobia.
Other dogs that would have their moment as Public Menaces over the next century...
the dachsund (during the height of WWI) the German Shepherd
the Doberman
the St. Bernard
...often w/ some dubious science abt how that type of dog was uniquely aggressive and resistant to pain.
the dachsund (during the height of WWI) the German Shepherd
the Doberman
the St. Bernard
...often w/ some dubious science abt how that type of dog was uniquely aggressive and resistant to pain.
They all shed (🍅🍅🍅🍅) those reputations eventually.
The stigma around pitbulls is very similar — they have the most dangerous bite! they were bred to be killers — but the reason it's prolly stickier is its proximate to a hardy set of antipathies toward Black people.
The stigma around pitbulls is very similar — they have the most dangerous bite! they were bred to be killers — but the reason it's prolly stickier is its proximate to a hardy set of antipathies toward Black people.
Before I go, please enjoy this Amazon review of Bronwen's book, "Pitbull: The Battle Over An American Icon."
And again, here’s our episode: one.npr.org/i/671354988:67…
* not pitbull but spitz, obviously
