What’s In A Name?
I spend a lot of time, in a lot of different forums, arguing that semantics- words -matter. Yes, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, but if we called it a “flower” when talking about how sweet it smelled and “rose” only when talking about the thorns, would roses really be the number one romantic gift? (not a fact)
When Dogs Attack
I was thinking about this last Thursday when I was flipping channels. I was on a news program long enough to hear that they were going to tell me about a dog attack after the break. The lede “dog attack” let me know that it had not been Pit Bulls that attacked. If it had been Pits, they would have said “Coming up after the break, Pit Bulls attack teenage girl.” Or perhaps it would have been “Girl survives Pit Bull attack” or “teen on crutches after Pit Bull attack”. Instead, they simply said there was going to be a story about a dog attack.
The dogs that attacked the teen in question? Boxers. The breed was mentioned once, in passing, as if it made no difference, as if all dogs have the potential to attack.
Oh wait, that’s true. Breed doesn’t make a difference. All dogs do have the potential to attack.
Oh, the other thing that was glossed over in the story- the girl knew the dogs or the dogs knew the girl, however you want to put it. They belonged to a friend of hers. She was taking a shortcut through their yard (though the dogs were fenced in a different part) that she took almost every day to get from the bus stop to her home. She was past their property when the dogs somehow got out and came after her. The teen even said in the interview that she doesn’t want her friend to lose the dogs. (Her step-mother, who rushed her to the hospital, after the girl managed to fend off the dogs and walk another quarter mile home, has, understandably, slightly different feelings.)
But, in the story, there was no call, by anyone, for the dogs to be destroyed. There was no discussion of whether Boxers were inherently dangerous or if there should be laws banning Boxers.
How different is that from any story you hear about a Pit Bull attack?
Heroic Pit Bulls
That was a local story, but recently there was a story that made national (or at least MSN) headlines. It was about a dog who managed to pull it’s owner, who had fallen unconscious, off railroad tracks, as a train approached. The woman was unhurt, the dog was badly injured.
Raise your hand if you knew that dog was a Pit Bull? Maybe if you got your news from the MSPCA. Actually, I want to give props to the Boston Globe whose headline read “Loyal pit bull recovering after pulling woman from path of oncoming train” Thank you to Alli Knothe and the Boston Globe editors who chose to put the breed right out in front, in a positive light.
But most stories are “Dog pulls owner off railroad tracks”. Dog, not Pit Bull. One of the stills for the news story shows a woman sitting with two dogs- right next to her is a Golden Retriever, which she has her arm around. Sitting a step or two down is a Pit Bull, which is being held by leash.
Now, I understand that this is the picture they had of the woman and her dogs before the accident, but to make it the video still, when your headline is “dog saves woman”. Which dog do you think most people assume did the saving?
Words Matter
Roses would smell just as sweet if we only talked about rose thorns and beautiful flowers, but they wouldn’t be the top choice in all floral departments.
Those of us who know and love Pit Bulls know that they are loving, sweet, goofy, loyal and protective dogs. I used to tell people “I’d say Smokey wouldn’t hurt a fly, but that’s not true. If I were in danger, he would kill or be killed protecting me.” This remains true of Pit Bulls no matter what the media wants to make of them. And yet, the words still matter.
It is up to us, as consumers of media, to bring this to the attention of our local papers and newscasts. We need to let them know we see the deception, that we are wise to it. If you are going to lead with the dog breed in any story, you need to lead with the dog breed in all stories (good and bad). Or, if you are going to use the generic “dog”, with only a brief mention of breed, than you need to do that for all stories.
All dogs are capable of devastating attacks (okay, a Chihuahua can’t do as much damage as a Pit Bull, but they CAN still attack) and all dogs are capable a great heroics (again, a Chihuahua is not capable of pulling a person off the train tracks, but they can bark, try to get attention, etc.)
If we can be honest and fair in our media, we take a giant step towards being able to treat all dogs honestly and fairly, according to the dog, not the breed.