508 #107: Pit Bulls

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Tim Hart, Pam Toomey, Brendan Melican, and Carly.

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We discuss proposed Worcester pit bull restrictions and think they are a bad idea. (You might enjoy this Malcolm Gladwell article about pit bulls.)

Clark students continue to support unionization of their dining hall workers; there have been two incidents in the past year when Leominster cops caused trouble in Worcester; it’s Holy Week; Mike is a little confused about how Michael Hlady is supposed to have scammed Venerini Academy; there’s now a documentary about Lemmy.

One thought on “508 #107: Pit Bulls”

  1. To a degree, most rational persons are persuaded to nurture over nature with animals, but for some reason, the pit bull question sticks. If the facts — the numbers from reports on dog attacks — show that pit bulls are not as violent as rhetoric suggests, then there must be some other reason to move for their dismissal.

    Two reasons come to mind:

    1) They are a breed that exists among minority communities which serve as protection, defense and authority for those people. The minority is a counter-culture to police authority, one often characterized as drug-harboring, tax-evading and welfare-dependent. Thus, with the evil/good binary value living on, the dog is but an extension of that evil (like baggy pants). Instinct tells me that, while most mothers shiver more at the notion of their 2 year-old being sniffed by a pit bull than by, say, a golden in any neighborhood, a pit bull in Tatnuck is less of a threat than one on Vernon Hill for simple reasons of color. I will not use the word ‘race’ here.

    2) The appearance of the so-called pit bull (and it’s local variants) recalls a demonic image. It might appeal, subconsciously, to our Western archetype of evil. In other words the argument for the ordinance is: they look bad, they are bad.

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