Running head: THE PERSECUTION OF PIT BULLS

The Persecution of Pit Bulls

Alfredo Liggins IV
RWS 1301
The University of Texas at El Paso

Running head: THE PERSECUTION OF PIT BULLS

Pit bulls have been known to have a bad reputation in society. They are scene as
aggressive and vicious creatures, but they are capable of being loving and protective
towards people, mainly their owners. Provided by the website Daily Mail, the snapshot
is from a video of a Pit bull standing guard over its unconscious owner while a fire
breaks out in their home. I intend to break down both the image and the narratives use
of ethos, pathos and logos.
In a small house in Landover Hills, Maryland, a fire left a woman and her blind
father with an inhalation of smoke and burns. However, before they were taken to the
hospital, Precious, their pit bull, stood guard over the homeowner and his daughter
while they were laid out on the lawn, unconscious. Exhibiting much loyalty, Precious
refused to leave her owners side until firefighters were forced to remove the dog in
order to treat her owners. Then the worst came when the dog and her puppy, Molly,
were seized and taken to an animal shelter, thanks to a law banning their breed. A dog
of a different breed and two turtles were also rescued from the fire, but the dog was
returned to its family, seeing as it was not a pit bull. The story is not without a happy
ending, for the owners sister who lived outside the county took in Precious and her
puppy. As you can see, the story allows the authors to use a great amount of pathos. I
do not believe the narrative aims at one particular audience, but at the humanity of the
reader. It does not help as well knowing that the firefighters could have used gentler
means of removing the dog from the owner. Instead of using a leash or other tools to
take the dog, they had used a fire extinguisher to scare the dog back. The webpage

Running head: THE PERSECUTION OF PIT BULLS

also makes use of images of the dog and several other pictures of the burning house
with firefighters trying to put it out, inspiring sadness, grief, and possibly anger. It is seen
that in the beginning, the authors use a big font and bold letters for their title and a use
of bullet points to give the reader an idea of what the narrative is about to probably
create curiosity.
The webpage may not have much credibility to its name if it is not a well known
website for people to receive news from. The amount a likes from Facebook is high, but
does not necessarily give a sense of plausibility. The only relevance to this story is its
posted images of the dog, Precious, and the burning of the house, as well as a video
taken at the scene. The mood appears to be calm and the story is straight to the point.
The words used are not exaggerated to stretch the story. For example, they did not
fabricate a story where some people new the family had a pit bull, and much to their
dislike of the breed they set the house on fire. While the authors words may be relaxed,
that is not to say that they are not trying to get a sense of sentimentality or a response
from the reader. One might think of taking action to repeal the law banning pit bulls.
In the narrative, there is not much logos to draw from. The video provided gives
all the proof that these events had occurred. There is a law that bans all breed of pit
bulls had been in place in Prince Georges County since 1997, where the owners just so
happened to live in. To further give persuasion to the reader, the authors use quotes
from people who were either at the incident or were moved when they heard this tragic
story. Jessica Stuby, president of the pit bull advocacy non-profit Babes 4 Bullies
remarked, Her story is no different than 40,000 pit bulls who need a home right now,

Running head: THE PERSECUTION OF PIT BULLS

but her story is being covered and I hope it makes a difference for her breed. It is
evident that our society takes the actions of a few and enforces the law towards
everyone. If a person caused a crime, it should be only they that receive the
consequences. I am not insisting that we euthanize dogs that attack humans. Some
owners do not take special care of their dogs, which then leads to ill behavior. In this
case, the owners father was a blind man. Perhaps in the wake of his loss of vision, they
thought it would be fitting to adopt a dog and train her to be a guard dog.
The narrative of this sad story of a pit bull may not be the first one written, but it
helps spread more awareness that many of these innocent dogs are treated unfairly.
Many stories of pit bulls acting aggressively towards people and dogs were due to the
poor training and actions of some owners. The image clearly shows that Precious is a
gentle giant and very protective of their owner. It is how one is brought up while growing
up that determines how they behave in communities, and end this persecution of pit
bulls, and future breeds, for the actions of a few.

References
Konstantinides, Parry, (2015, December 3). Loyal pit bull who stood guard over her
unconscious owner after house fire only to be sent to an animal shelter due to county
breed ban finds a new home. Daily Mail.
Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3345394/Loyal-pit-bullstood-guard-unconscious-owner-house-fire-sent-animal-shelter-county-ban-breed-findsnew-home.html#ixzz417OgmTts

Running head: THE PERSECUTION OF PIT BULLS