What pit bulls can teach us about profiling

Malcom Gladwell’s piece in _The New Yorker_ isn’t specifically about Pit Bulls, but my new puppy happens to be a Pit Bull mix, so the article hits home anyway. Actually, she’s a Pit Bull, Rotweiller, German Shepherd mix. Ooooooh Scary! Not.

If thinking about muscular terriers as pit bulls is a generalization, then thinking about dangerous dogs as anything substantially similar to a pit bull is a generalization about a generalization. “The way a lot of these laws are written, pit bulls are whatever they say they are,”

Eighty-four per cent of the pit bulls that have been given the [Temperament] test have passed, which ranks pit bulls ahead of beagles, Airedales, bearded collies, and all but one variety of dachshund.

The junk-yard German shepherdwhich looks as if it would rip your throat outand the German-shepherd guide dog are the same breed.