If you've done even a minimal amount of research on the Pit Bull breed, you have most likely read or been told somewhere along the line that Pit Bulls love to fight; that duking it out in the pit for an hour or more is a fun and enjoyable activity for these dogs. And if you are like most people, at the very least you probably cocked your eyebrow in skepticism in response, if you didn't outright reject such "information". "How could dogs like getting torn to shreds", you may have asked. "Surely they are goaded and tormented and trained to kill before they would ever engage in such behavior." Your assumptions would be understandable, but not correct.

Pit Bulls fight. That is the fact of the matter. It is what they have been bred to do for close to two hundred years. Even today, where pit fighting is a felony in most states in America and the majority of Pit Bulls here have been bred as companions and show/working dogs, the blood of the breed's gladiator ancestors runs strong. Selective breeding is an extremely potent tool. Not just physical, but behavioral traits can be selected for and purpetuated in future generations. Aggression towards other animals and a willingness to engage in--and then finish--a battle were behavioral traits that were selected for in Pit Bulls. Behavioral traits that are manifest in domestic, selectively-bred canines are traits that occur normally in wolves and other "natural" canines. Certain traits have been "customized", however, through selective breeding. Border Collies, for instance, are herding dogs. Dogs bred to herd have had their prey (hunting) insinct streamlined through selective breeding. While herding a flock of sheep, they go through, more or less, all the behaviors a wolf would go through while out hunting a herd of elk, minus the climax of the predatory behavior sequence--actually biting, bringing down, and then killing/consuming the prey. Inter-species aggression and fight-drive in Pit Bulls are examples of naturally occuring canine behaviors that have been exaggerated and customized by selective breeding by humans. Over the course of many generations, dogs with the strongest desire to fight have been bred with other dogs of the same temperament type, in the process of creating and then maintaining the Pit Bull breed. We are talking about genetics here, not environment. Fighting dogs are born, not made.

Considering genes--unchangeable, as far as we know, and permanent--are what largely drive a Pit Bull to fight, let's forget once and for all the notion that pit fighting dogs are trained to, made to, forced or tormented into fighting. "Allowed" to fight is much more accurate. Any owner of multiple Pit Bulls that has had to deal with an accidental fight can tell you: the dogs--even when raised with the utmost care, concern, and proper training--still retain that exaggerated innate drive to fight. They can't help it, any more than you can help being born with blonde, brown or black hair. Like a person who dyes their hair to conceal their natural color, the fight drive in Pit Bulls can be managed and altered (on the surface) to some degree by environmental factors. But the underlying genetic material cannot be altered.

So Pit Bulls are "born", as it were, to fight. But what about this supposed love of fighting? The drive to fight is instinctual. It can be a compulsion, even, in some dogs. One could argue that there is no choice involved for these dogs, it just happens. So while there may be some release of frustration or initial pleasure due to endorphin release experienced by a dog who is finally able to engage in behavior that his genes scream at him to perform, it is incorrect to assume "love" of fighting is the main driving force behind this behavior. Allowing a dog to fight because that is what he does on his own is cruel, inhumane and neglectful. There are many things that our dogs would do on their own that could potentially cause great harm. But as gaurdians it is up to us to keep our charges from harm. The "but they love to fight" defense has been used too often, and it is time this notion was put to rest.