Tammy Coetzee’s letter of 9 October (“Shocked by pitbull attack on resident and dog”) refers.
I had a poor opinion of pitbulls, but while in Villiersdorp, in the recent past, I was walking my yorkies when I realised that there was a third dog present.
It was a young dog and it followed us. I took it into my yard and put a photo of the dog on the local WhatsApp group. Within minutes I had identified the owner and had a number to call.
I called the dog Smily and whenever we walked past Smily’s home we would have a greeting and nose-to-nose. Smily is a pitbull. He did no harm to me or my yorkies.
Just over a year ago my son got a pup from Tears. Her leg had accidentally been broken while at Tears and she has a pin in a back leg and was given the name Snap. She is now a medium-sized dog and, at some point, looking at her facial profile, I realised that she had pitbull in her. She is a lovely and loving dog.
The point is this: is a dog’s viciousness dictated by nature, or nurture, or a mix of the two?
I am much more tolerant of pitbulls than before, being of the opinion that while the pitbull may have an inclination to be mean, that meanness is amplified by its upbringing.
The owner is more to blame than the dog. If you have a mean dog, control it.
