Post by megan on Apr 4, 2014 20:22:44 GMT -5
So, I was showing some folks pictures of Roxy the other day and heard some funny things about her perceived breed and it made me think back and laugh at how many different people have tried to label her a specific breed. These comments have come from a broad range of people, including rescue folks, dog owners, and folks who have never owned dogs, so I'd say it's a fairly random sample, albeit a small sample.
I thought this was an interesting way to look at this, and I included it in this section because BSL laws and policy is predominantly based on visual identification by a variety of people. And when it comes to visual identification of dogs involved in situations in the media, the identifications are coming from bystanders, neighbors, and the average Joe. This does make things incredibly challenging in the rescue and adoption space, when we're dealing with how to label dogs, especially when we're talking about mixed breed dogs or dogs of unknown lineage. And while I recognize the importance of being able to identify breeds of shelter dogs, especially when dealing with appropriate placement and breed traits, when we're talking about BSL based on visual identification, I simply can not understand how anyone can think it's appropriate to make broad generalizations about thousands of dogs simply because they might look like a certain breed of dog sometimes.
Obviously if you think this should be moved to the photo section, that's fine, but I just thought it was interesting to take a look at how one mixed breed dog can so often be identified as various breeds and how simply the angle of the picture or the specific situation can change so much in terms of how a dog may be identified.
When I adopted Roxy, we were told she was a Plott Hound.
And when I sent a picture to my friend, she responded with, "My mom said that's a Pit Bull."
Then I talked to someone at the rescue as a "follow up" to adoption and she told me, "There is absolutely no pit in her."
Then I've had people come to my house and say, "What, did you adopt a Dingo? Look at those ears!"
Then I had a brindle foster dog (we believed her to be an Australian Cattle Dog mix), and people commented on Facebook asking if they were from the same litter. When I said not even a little bit, they asked how I wound up with two pits that looked exactly alike.
At agility class, someone told me, "She looks like a purebred Pit Bull!"
I told them she could be mixed with AmStaff or APBT, but we didn't know for sure.
A girl in one of my current classes pointed to the brindle markings on her forehead and said, "You can definitely see pit in her."
And I've heard German Shepherd Mix (sometimes Dutch Shepherd mix) and Australian Cattle Dog mix a lot, with reference to her ears and the coarseness and length of her fur (in comparison to the typical coat of an AmStaff or Pit Bull).
I've heard Lab mix because she has Lab neck, i.e. a bunch of extra skin and sort of coarse fur that bunches up around her neck.
And, well.... I look at her and all I see is a beggar with ridiculous ears.
We've gotten all of the breeds mentioned above, and more that I just can't remember. At the end of the day her breed mix is anybody's guess. Certainly, we can make educated guesses and sometimes it's significantly easier than others, and some people will be better at it than others, as well. But how is it that laws and policy are based on something that people are clearly not very good at...?
I thought this was an interesting way to look at this, and I included it in this section because BSL laws and policy is predominantly based on visual identification by a variety of people. And when it comes to visual identification of dogs involved in situations in the media, the identifications are coming from bystanders, neighbors, and the average Joe. This does make things incredibly challenging in the rescue and adoption space, when we're dealing with how to label dogs, especially when we're talking about mixed breed dogs or dogs of unknown lineage. And while I recognize the importance of being able to identify breeds of shelter dogs, especially when dealing with appropriate placement and breed traits, when we're talking about BSL based on visual identification, I simply can not understand how anyone can think it's appropriate to make broad generalizations about thousands of dogs simply because they might look like a certain breed of dog sometimes.
Obviously if you think this should be moved to the photo section, that's fine, but I just thought it was interesting to take a look at how one mixed breed dog can so often be identified as various breeds and how simply the angle of the picture or the specific situation can change so much in terms of how a dog may be identified.
When I adopted Roxy, we were told she was a Plott Hound.
And when I sent a picture to my friend, she responded with, "My mom said that's a Pit Bull."
Then I talked to someone at the rescue as a "follow up" to adoption and she told me, "There is absolutely no pit in her."
Then I've had people come to my house and say, "What, did you adopt a Dingo? Look at those ears!"
Then I had a brindle foster dog (we believed her to be an Australian Cattle Dog mix), and people commented on Facebook asking if they were from the same litter. When I said not even a little bit, they asked how I wound up with two pits that looked exactly alike.
At agility class, someone told me, "She looks like a purebred Pit Bull!"
I told them she could be mixed with AmStaff or APBT, but we didn't know for sure.
A girl in one of my current classes pointed to the brindle markings on her forehead and said, "You can definitely see pit in her."
And I've heard German Shepherd Mix (sometimes Dutch Shepherd mix) and Australian Cattle Dog mix a lot, with reference to her ears and the coarseness and length of her fur (in comparison to the typical coat of an AmStaff or Pit Bull).
I've heard Lab mix because she has Lab neck, i.e. a bunch of extra skin and sort of coarse fur that bunches up around her neck.
And, well.... I look at her and all I see is a beggar with ridiculous ears.
We've gotten all of the breeds mentioned above, and more that I just can't remember. At the end of the day her breed mix is anybody's guess. Certainly, we can make educated guesses and sometimes it's significantly easier than others, and some people will be better at it than others, as well. But how is it that laws and policy are based on something that people are clearly not very good at...?