Dangerous Dogs A Business Asset, Says Sociologist

Dangerous dogs, including pit bulls, are on the rise. Dr. Simon Harding, a sociologist with Middlesex University London, recently performed a study to find out why. The professor interviewed gang members and people who owned their dogs both illegally and legally to hear what they had to say.

His chilling conclusion? The dogs are big business that can be bred for big money. They also allow entrepreneurs including people in underground businesses like selling drugs or loan-sharking to enforce their demands in a country where guns and other weapons are notoriously hard to get.

According to Harding’s research, a “prize pit bull” can sell for as much as £10,000 — over $15,000.

And that’s a lot of incentive to breed more dangerous dogs.

In the 15 years between 1993 and 2008, the number of Americans hospitalized for dog bites doubled to around 9,500. Children under age 5 and adults over 65 were most likely to be the victims.

In the UK, there was a 5 percent increase in people being hospitalized as a result of dog bites in just one year between 2011 and 2012. Over the past 20 years, there’s been a stunning 550 percent increase in hospital admissions caused by dogs — a statistic given grim urgency in the wake of the horrific killing of a 14-year-old British girl in March. Jade Lomas-Anderson was visiting a house in the greater Manchester area when she was torn apart by a pack of five dogs.

In America, pit bulls and other dangerous dogs just can’t seem to stay out of the headlines.

This weekend, the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office in rural Idaho announced the first murder in their county in over a century — a chilling triple slaying of three adults in a house where there was a large pit bull breeding operation, a dog-fighting ring, and also a marijuana growing operation. That case is still under investigation.

For months, there have been repeated reports of unprovoked pit bull attacks, including a case where a New York dog could be seen on a surveillance camera crossing the street to run at a 6-year-old girl walking with her grandmother.

Dr. Harding’s findings were presented to the British Sociological Association annual conference on Friday.

However, Harding doesn’t want to demonize pit bulls or other potentially dangerous dogs. He told British news sources that, “It is humans that are responsible for making dogs either sociable or aggressive.”

[pit bull mix photo by Elaine Radford]