Pit Bull Owner's Survival Guide -- UPDATE! Barbara Haywood, author of The Pit Bull Owner's Survival Guide, will talk about what pit bull owners must do to protect themselves and save their dog's life on Bully Domain's "Keeping It 100". The interview will be broadcast on Tuesday, September 30, at 9:55 p. m. Eastern time. Visit the Keeping It 100 website for further information. Tune in! If you haven't read the e-book yet, you can purchase it online using the links below. Just click on the image of the book's front cover -- its easy! _____________________________________________________________ Pit Bull Owner's Survival Guide: Strong medicine. Dog owners need it. Make no mistake, they ARE coming to take your dog. Breed specific laws are on the rise. In smalltown USA and in cities like New York and Chicago, pit bull owners and their dogs are marginalized, stereotyped and discriminated against. When legislators fail to deliver an outright ban, they can always try to get in through the backdoor with "humane" breed specific mandatory spay neuter laws, or anti-tethering ordinances aimed at the owners of pit bulls. It all comes down to the same thing: dead dogs, and grieving families. Media war, with pit bull owners in the trenches The Pit Bull Owner's Survival Guide presents the author's clear-headed analysis of a key fact: this is a media war. Justice, facts, humanity, the U. S. Constitution, and all the other niceties of daily life in a democracy mean next to nothing when pit bull hysteria hits. The proponents of breed specific laws have millions -- millions -- of dollars to invest in PR campaigns. And guess what? They spend their money well. Ever wonder how Gavin Newsom (then mayor of San Francisco and prime architect of San Fran's surgical sterilization requirement for "pit bulls"), CNN anchor Paula Zahn, and NYC Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. all sound just like HSUS president Wayne Pacelle when it comes to "pit bulls"? Read The Pit Bull Owner's Survival Guide for the explanation to this phenomenon and many more. Pit bull owners don't deserve civil rights Warrantless search and seizure. Due process violations. No equal protection under the law. Barbara Haywood lays it out for her readers in black and white: pit bull owners have been so successfully marginalized as drug-dealing, gang-banging, dog-fighting thugs that its easy to strip us of our civil rights. We're the lowest hanging fruit. Its like taking candy from babies for whackjobs like Denver's Kory Nelson. Anybody who shoots a pit bull running loose is justified -- Cory Nelson, Denver city attorney, San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, June 27, 2005 And get ready, owners of other dog breeds. You're next. Unkindest cut of all: animal protection groups are in it up to their eyeballs The Pit Bull Owner's Survival Guide answers this question for its readers: Which animal rights organization supports breed specific legislation? a. PETA b. HSUS c. ASPCA d. Best Friends e. all of the above Protect yourself. Save your dog's life. Because no one else will. The Pit Bull Owner's Survival Guide not only tells the story of how we got rammed between a rock and a hard place. The book gives us the tools to get ourselves out again. (More about the Survival Guide tools in Part II of this review. ) The book is a practical, step-by-step "how-to" guide that no pit bull owner should be without. Because its not your imagination. They ARE coming to take your dog.

Ethnic Cleansing for Pit Bulls DNA-based breed identi-kits 99 44/100% pure what? HSUS and AKC partner up on DNA profiling. Does it get any worse? Sonia Dias' suit against the City of Denver -- hyped as the long-awaited animal protectionist salvation of "pit bulls" from one of the most brutal animal control policies in the country -- shows its true colors. Purity of blood, Humane Society of the United States-style In its sly amicus brief in support of Dias, the Humane Society of the United States, an animal extremist organization which condones, endorses and lobbies for breed specific legislation, bases itself on the subjective nature of breed standards and their unsuitability for identifying dogs impacted by breed specific restrictions.

This is not a new argument. Dog lovers have been arguing--for a long, long time, both in and out of court--that breed standards adopted by registries such as the American Kennel Club and the United Kennel Club were never intended for such a purpose and are unconstitutionally vague.

Someone spent some time at the library and on PubMed's website, it seems. . .

Blood. The newest arbiter of race breed

HSUS' amicus asserts that "researchers concluded 'microsatellite' DNA testing enables researchers "to assign 99% of dogs to the correct breed." But HSUS lies.

In the one cited study that yielded a 99% result, researchers used DNA from a mere 414 dogs representing only 85 of the 152 breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club.

The American Kennel Club doesn't recognize the American Pit Bull Terrier. In fact, the AKC doesn't recognize a long list of breeds, including the Catahoula (the state dog of Louisiana), the Cane Corso (the breed owned by Pete Georgoutsos, one of Blue Dog State's biggest heros), the Dogo Argentino (often misidentified as a "pit bull"), and depending on how you slice and dice it, something like 250 other breeds.

Would those dogs all be labelled mutts, using HSUS's suggested methodology? Because it could really matter. An exemption from mandatory spay-neuter requirements so that you can breed your line of mutts just ain't happening.

Whose DNA is it, anyway?

When the AKC solicited DNA samples from its constituents, ostensibly to screen for genetically-linked canine illnesses. . .did everyone sign a release like this one ?

I hereby relinquish all rights to, and ownership of, the DNA sample.

Not much wiggle room, is there? If you don't own your dog's DNA, what do you own? Huh?

The AKC/UC-Davis Database: Money in the bank

With all the whining Ron Menaker's been doing about revenues, and hints about making changes. . .did Ron already cut a deal?

PETCO is already marketing "Canine Heritage" DNA ID tests at $119.99 each.

MMI Genomics, the manufacturer of the kits, is a long-time AKC partner.

The company has offered genetic parentage testing for purebreds through the AKC since 1998. The service compares a given dog's genes to the genes of its parents to verify paternity.

The kennel club has also built a genetics database including information from hundreds of thousands of purebred dogs. This database allows for DNA comparison to clients' animals for a match, said kennel club spokeswoman Daisy Okas.

Did all those dog owners that donated canine DNA, thinking the DNA was going to be used for medical research . . .get ripped off? Did they mistakenly contribute to the destruction of dog breeding as we know it?

Not pure enough. Savvy the AmStaff fails his DNA test. No puppies for Savvy. "Science" says he's a mongrel.

Open up. In the name of the law.

If HSUS -- and the AKC -- get their way and municipalities discard pedigrees in favor of DNA swabs. . .will every short-haired dog owner in the country have to submit the dog to a DNA test? At $119.99 each?

Will the test rely on an AKC-owned database?

Will thousands and thousands of dogs be relegated to mutt status and surgically sterilized ?

One generation and out. That's always the goal when it comes to HSUS.