My Theory on why Bsl advocates are ‘Nutters’

“Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way - that is not easy.” – Aristotle

A few months ago, I experienced a serious foamer attack that led to countless personal losses, I found myself outraged at the system that had enabled such attacks to occur in the first place. I mean isn’t Government supposed to protect innocent people from such unnecessary brutal and violent assaults? It didn’t take long for me to discover why, I soon learned there was an aggressive and outraged Anti-pitbull advocacy movement that had influenced Government and prevented reasonable protective legislation from being implemented. So I turned to social media to interact with these people, only to realize that they felt they were the aggrieved party, even though they had suffered no permanent  physocological injury, as I had,   The only loss it appears they had incurred is that people hurt their feelings because they were critical of Bsl .  And yet their outrage was as if someone had murdered their entire family.  This disproportionate over reaction struck me as incredibly bizarre and until now I hadn’t been able to understand it sufficiently.

My investigation into the issue and how and why such attacks were still occurring in modern civilized communities.  It didn’t take long to discover there was a maniacally obsessed group of people who literally worshipped Bsl and were using it to eradicate all pitbulls.  I visited anti pitbull webpages that had posted graphical memes that had replaced Jesus on the cross with a pitbull with statements such as “He died for others sins’. They were literally insinuating the pitbull was the son of satan and was being fairly persecuted.  Needless to say, such revelations were shocking. I mean, aren’t all dogs wonderful, what is it about the pitbull that had elevated itself to such devlish status in the eyes of such people?  It didn’t make sense to me that a breed of dog that was/is regularly blamed for mauled and killed innocent people and animals.

Only recently did it occur to me, the foamer is more than a troll, for such people, for them, the DBO is a SYMBOL.  A symbol is an object that represents an idea, visual image, belief or an action.  For those whose lives have been forever negatively impacted by foamer attack, the foamer represents senseless violence, unimaginable pain and suffering, a lack of freedom and an ongoing threat to everyone’s safety and security.  But for those who worship the breed, the pitbull is a symbol of injustice and unfair persecution, unfairly despised because it is misunderstood. 

Now I feel I need to go off on a tangent here to further explain my theory. I have always had an interest in psychology, and why people behave in certain ways, and recently I have been exploring the issue of child rearing and its later impact on adult behavior.  I recently read some of Alice Miller’s writings on what she terms ‘poisonous pedagogy’, referring to destructive child rearing practices and its relationship to the later development of tyrants and serial killers and the like.  To simplify the theory somewhat, she espouses that children exposed to very harsh and punitive upbringings are forced to repress, deny or justify such humiliating experiences until they can be safely expressed at a later date.  She explores the childhoods of many prominent Nazis who almost always had incredibly punitive and harsh upbringings to highlight her theories.  The infantile rage felt during such harsh child rearing is pushed to the unconscious and often times expressed much later on as an adult through dysfunctional and/or anti-social behavior.  One of the ways this can manifest is through what Psychology terms 'Repetition compulsion’, the unconscious drive to replay negative past events in the here and now in the hope that they can achieve a different outcome and therefore resolve the initial issue.  For example, a young girl who witnesses her alcoholic father beat her submissive Mother may grow up to be submissive herself and marry an abusive alcoholic and make every attempt to affect a different outcome.

Now back to why I think Bsl advocates are 'Nutters’, for some people, Bsl is symbolic of their unacknowledged childhood hurts and any real or perceived unfair oppression they had to endure long ago.  They come to view the Bsl in the same light they do their wounded inner child, as an innocent victim, unfairly persecuted and deprived of the love every child craves and needs.  In effect, Bsl is a physical manifestation of their past childhood wounds long since buried deep in their psyche and any aggression shown by the Bsl Advocates (JDBOGART ETC) is more than justified due to the unfair and unacknowledged suffering they have long had to endure.  In effect, Bsll is THEM, it embodies everything they believe they are: misunderstood, unfairly persecuted, unloved or unlovable and justifiably angry and aggressive.

Now where do the DBO Cultist attack victims fit into this picture?  It isn’t unusual for those who have been negatively impacted by a bsl advocate attacking either them, their loved ones or their pets to feel aggrieved and outraged, as often time such attacks cause a disproportionate amount of damage in comparison to incidents involving non foamers (DBO cultists).  Over recent years, foamer related fatalities have become inevitable and occur every few weeks and those attacks that don’t kill, often cause serious and permanent injuries and countless other losses.  To feel outraged after such an experience is a normal and healthy response to such an injustice.  The victims, previously unaware of the level of threat such people (foamers) present, they soon realize that some type of legislative protection is needed.  Out of a healthy concern for both themselves and others some victims choose to speak out either in the media, in public or via the Internet.  They soon learn that for quite some time many others have also been trying rather unsuccessfully to achieve the desired protection and stand up to a hostile and aggressive Bsl lobby group.

It is at this point the foamer attack victims and the pitbull supporter’s confer, with the former usually experiencing shock at the hostility and abuse they receive when they initially express their disappointment at being attacked by Bsl Advocates and their desire to seek future protection to prevent such an incident occurring again.  Many victims never overcome this shock and learn they were thoroughly unprepared for the well-rehearsed onslaught of those who have been deterring such dissenters from expressing their desire for legislative protection for many years prior to the recently created victim entering the fray. At this juncture, many victims simply give up, as the thought of experiencing even more suffering on top of the Bsl  Advocates attack is too overwhelming.  The initial Bsl advocate attack experience was overwhelming enough and the thought of any more unnecessary suffering after that quickly dissuades them from pursuing any further attempts at speaking out.

Some victims do overcome this initial onslaught and develop the resolve to continue speaking out with the goal being that society puts in place appropriate protective mechanisms to ensure the safety of innocent people from other peoples poor choices of Legislation.  And this is where the Bsl advocates focus their unconscious fury; you only need visit any online pitbull news stories to see the Bsl advocates aggressively insulting and taunting anyone who dares disagree with them.  It is not unusual for Bsl Advocate attack victims who speak out to receive regular messages of hate, abuse and even threats from those who promote Bsl and DBO. 

Such advocates try to dissuade the outspoken victims from blaming the foamer and suggest that irresponsible ownership has nothing to do with the  reason as to why there is a disproportionate amount of pitbull attacks causing serious injury and death.  But this argument makes little to no sense to victims, frequently  the owner was just as surprised as the victim at the sudden assault  irresponsible ownership is the cause of dog bite related fatalities, why do we not see similar statistics associated with the many other varied breeds that irresponsible people own.  And honestly if it's a breed thing how come many other breeds have attacked and killed humans.

In all honesty, such arguments mean little to the victims who seek legislative protection, they don’t really care why such incidents occur, much like rape victims don’t care too much about the unfortunate childhood of the perpetrator of the crime.  The family and friends can praise the perpetrator all they like; it’s unlikely to matter to the rape victim.  At the very least, the victim of such a crime that society has already legislated against can at least feel that their experience and its negative consequences are recognized and acknowledged by the society they live in.  This cannot change what has happened to them, but at least the majority of society will understand and offer the appropriate support after such a traumatic experience.  Bsl advocate attack victims have no such luxury, they are often left to pay all the costs associated with recovery from such a serious attack, only to learn their society didn’t care enough to provide reasonable legislative protection in the first place and then they eventually run head on into an aggressive and abusive Bsl lobby determined to promote their selfish desires ahead of the safety and security concerns of other citizens.  Bsl advocate attack victims feel their communities have let them down and worse yet, refuse to acknowledge it.  There are few places such a victim can go to seek the consoling so sorely needed for healing to occur.   Appropriate cyber bully legislation would go a long way to minimizing such serious attacks in the first place but also provide the already countless victims the much needed societal understanding they so desperately need.

Now back to the original topic, why I think Bsl advocates are Nutters.  In my years of advocating online via the use of social media I have often wondered what Bsl advocates gained from sending me hate mail, littered with insults, abuse and veiled threats.  I mean it’s not like my humble facebook page called ‘All Things Foamers’ threatens to change any politicians minds anytime soon, after two years of diligent and thoughtful work on the page, it is yet to see a thousand likes. Yet, it isn’t uncommon for a Bsl advocates to find a pitbull on death row after a serious attack to have a facebook page started to try and guarantee  euthanasia to attract tens of likes in just a few days.  So what is it Bsl attack victims represent to Bsl advocates?

Well it goes back to what I was saying earlier, about how the Bsl becomes a symbol for the wounded inner child of the owner.  Now as I also alluded to earlier, those who were unfairly treated as children find ways to repeat such incidents later in life in the hope of mastering the trauma and creating a different outcome.  Bsl comes to represent all the unresolved hostilities the once wounded child experienced but had long since pushed to the back of their conscious awareness.  Any attack or criticism of Bsl is seen as personal attack on the once innocent, unfairly treated child.  I mean who wouldn’t be upset at adults unfairly criticizing and attacking an innocent child who had already endured untold suffering and oppression by the parents they loved and depended upon?  That would be outrageous!  Except everyone else knows that Bsl isn’t an innocent child that was long ago mistreated and left with unresolved and unconscious torment.  This fact escapes the foamers, who arn’t consciously aware of how they are using the pitbull as a psychological prop to repeat past traumas in the hope of securing a better outcome and hopefully resolution to the pain and suffering that remains outside of their conscious awareness..

The owners of pitbulls , who are in essence the driving force behind seeking legislative protection for pitbulls come to represent to the Bsl advocate the oppressive and authoritative force that long ago treated them poorly and didn’t take the time to understand them and as a result withheld the love they so desperately craved and needed.  The goal of the Bsl advocate and their ‘'Repetition compulsion’ is to get the oppressive force to come around to their way of thinking, to finally understand their point of view and only then can love and respect flow between the two.  If this is achieved, the initial trauma has been repeated, mastered and in the mind of the afflicted, overcome.

But is this really all that is needed to overcome their childhood oppression and humiliation?  Even if Bsl advocates are successful in their attempts to convert those they believe represent their childhood oppressors, such pseudo victories don’t really heal the initial wound.  Because the initial hurt, shame and rage experienced as a child has been repressed, denied or justified and later displaced without the initial causes for such feelings of hurt and humiliation ever rising to conscious awareness.  The initial oppressors, the parents or caregivers have been absolved and the resulting adult rage has been displaced onto a pseudo parent figure, in this case the pitbull owners who dare speak out.  It isn’t any wonder then that such people that have let the idealized parents/caregivers of the hook by idealizing the parents and displacing their negative feelings elsewhere, in this case pitbull owners who speak out.  They then go on to do the same with the owners friends and family, absolving the idealized Bsl and displacing the blame on pitbulls, in this case ‘Irresponsible owners’ or any number of justified culprits are obviously to blame.  

So what is the answer for both the Bsl Advocate attack victims and those that promote them? Well, the theory goes that those who don’t find a way to bring past unresolved transgressions into conscious awareness are doomed to displace unconscious negative feelings onto others, at best only creating relationship difficulties or self-destructive behaviors and at worst, severely harming or killing other people.  Only when someone comes to realize the deep pool of pain and suffering buried in past unresolved hurts and humiliations  can someone then rightly experience the resentment and the sorrow such incidents caused.  They can then eventually grieve and move towards healing thereby reducing the future chances of participating in similar destructive behaviors and further traumatizing other people needlessly, in other words, breaking the cycle.

My advice to fellow victims of Bsl advocates and DBO Cultists attacks, whether they be the direct victims of a serious attack, or they are the relations of a loved one that has been attacked and seriously injured or killed, and even those who have lost beloved pets to foamers attack is that you are justified in despising and hating those that are responsible for what are obviously preventable attacks.  And who is responsible? We can rightfully blame those who promote Bsl and actively prevent society’s reasonable attempts to prevent such serious attacks occurring with appropriate legislation.  Once the cause for your suffering has been identified, and the true feelings of how you feel expressed, you can then move onto a grieving process that will hopefully produce some level of acceptance.  In the long process of healing, from hatred to acceptance,  it is probably best to avoid those who promote Bsl so called "public safety advocates" and ignore their abuse and hostility and see it for what it is, a manifestation of their own past hurts and sufferings that have nothing to do with you.  If you have the strength, advocate for legislative protection, it is good for your self-esteem and shows you value yourself and others  and that you have a healthy sense of self preservation.

 If you allow the Bsl advocates to shut you down,  forcing you to repress, minimize or deny your true feelings of hurt, anger and rage about the injustice you have suffered, you run the risk of pushing such feelings into your unconscious and at a later date displacing your unconscious hurt feelings onto inappropriate targets.  Just as Bsl advocates are currently doing.   The difference being, the DBO attack victim is expressing normal healthy emotions typical for anyone who experiences a serious injustice and directs their outrage at those who are collectively responsible. Whereas DBO Cultists outrage and anger is displaced, and the cause of such hostility is from injustices experienced long ago in childhood and long since pushed out of conscious awareness.  No amount of raging and temper tantrums directed at Bsl attack victims will help them resolve their underlying issues until the rage is directed at those responsible for treating them poorly in the first place, in this instance, their parents or caregivers.

Bsl Cultists can argue all they like they aren’t responsible for these regular and now inevitable serious attacks, but it is only because of their determined efforts that society has yet to implement suitable legislation that at the very least could minimize these unnecessary attacks and possibly even eliminate them altogether. and unacceptable levels of actuarial risk for the sole benefit of the person behaving in such a manner, then anyone who behaves in this way is complicit in any and all suffering caused by the collective of individuals acting in such a manner.

As for the Bsl advocates themselves, what would my advice be to them?   I would suggest they seek psychiatric help to uncover what led them to use pitbulls as a physical manifestation of their unconscious childhood wounds that continue to remain unresolved.  By treating pitbulls who are unwilling participants in the pitbull political drama as substitutes for the caregivers who long ago hurt you is futile.  It is only likely to draw towards you more hatred and abuse and moving you further away from your goal of being loved and understood.  I highly doubt this advice would ever be taken by Bsl advocates, but at the very least you should be willing to remain open to the idea that maybe you are drawn to pitbulls for more reasons other than the fact it is a dog. 

There are many reasons people don’t look to childhood hurts inflicted on them by their parents or caregivers as being responsible for current dysfunctional behavior, some of these are religious and others cultural.  It is easier to idealize one’s own parents and childhood than to risk losing the love and support of the only parents you have.  Also to do so would cause a great deal of pain and suffering that many people aren’t prepared to bear.  The alternative is though; to repeat the same old abusive patterns again and again, often on those who are too vulnerable to be able to do anything about it.  As the old saying goes 'Hurt people, hurt people”.  The only way to overcome the hurt is to acknowledge it’s origins, express the long repressed emotions associated with the negative experience, eventually grieve the loss, heal the hurt and move to a point of acceptance.  But this process can never start if the individual can’t even recognize the origins of their pain and suffering.

It is readily apparent to anyone who even moderately investigates the issue that the only way to repair the well-deserved reputation of the pitbull breed is to prevent the underlying causes that led to the reputation in the first place. DBO cultists and lies and nonsense science and smudged numbers and dodgy dog identification, smoke and mirrors.  No amount of propaganda or bogus news stories can help the Bsl's chances now.  There is no evidence that the serious attacks even involve pitbulls .  These types of results cannot come about under the current paradigm, and worse yet, the current efforts of Bsl advocates has only increased the frequency of these attacks and also increased the rate at which pitbulls are routinely destroyed.  In effect, their advocacy has been bad for civilized communities and those concerned for its citizens welfare, it has been utterly detrimental for the pit bull breed itself, with more pitbulls destroyed each year than ever before, estimated at nearly a million a year, and it obviously isn’t helping  those who have used the pitbull as a means to heal their wounded inner child.

In conclusion I think Bsl advocates are ‘Nutters’ aka ‘Crazy’ because they remain unaware that through their advocacy and promotion of Bsl many innocent people and animals (including pitbulls) suffer unimaginably as a result.  This can only lead me to conclude that the reason they persist with such efforts isn’t to do with the well-being of the community itself, as their efforts have undeniably harmed the breed.  There is obviously some other underlying cause leading them to continue to advocate for and promote Bsl in the relentless manner they do.  I hope this essay has shed some light on why I think it is certain people are drawn to Bsl is a physical manifestation of an antisocial attitude, and why it is difficult to convince those that promote Bsl or DBO to consider a more suitable legislation in the interest of community safety..

To any reasonable human being, it would be considered crazy behavior to abuse and harass victims of serious Bsl Advocate attacks who advocate for sensible legislative protection from all breeds of dog.  These victims have suffered serious and permanent injuries,  these are people that have experienced unimaginable and unspeakable horrors, and to attack and harass such people all because they react normally to having to experience such injustice, for me this is pushing the boundaries of even ‘Crazy’.  To act more outraged than these victims because these people have hurt your feelings and criticized your obsessive need to Breed Specific Legislation is ‘crazy’. To be unwilling to choose any of hundreds of far more suitable methods to stop "ALL" attacks is ‘crazy’.  To claim to care about the community and yet advocate in such a way that only harms the community is ‘crazy’.  To use an animal as a psychological prop is ‘crazy’.   To try and use propaganda to cover up the fact pitbulls don't actually regularly maim, maul and kill innocent people is ’CRAZY’.  And that’s my theory as to why Bsl advocates are ‘Nutters’.

Disclaimer: As the author of this article, I claim no expertise in either animal behavior or psychology.  I am simply a victim who has chosen to have a voice.  My goal is to develop an understanding of how it came to be that in modern day civilized society I could be seriously injured by foamers  A scenario, that prior to the attack, never occurred to me to be a possibility with the understanding I had at the time regarding the meaning of domestication in companion animals.  I had always mistakenly assumed that domestication was the process of making animals safe to live together with humans, eliminating the fears that would normally accompany humans living in close proximity with wild animals.  I believe developing an increased awareness of why such incidents happen, is for me, a path to healing. 

There appears to be an aggressive minority defending the pitbull breed as a companion animal based on a claim of concern for animal welfare.  This claim has never made sense to me. As humans slaughter 150 billion animals a year because they taste good.  The majority of people seem content to destroy so many animals for what appears to be a reasonably trivial reason, animals that can claim to be truly innocent. Not only that, the pet industry destroys countless innocent animals because they are viewed as a commodity, therefore they are overbred, creating an excess that are simply destroyed.  Many of these animals would be far more suited as companion animals in civilized communities.. 

Considering this, I don’t believe community safety is the reason Bsl attract such vociferous support, as there are countless opportunities for those wanting to protect the community rather than promoting dog genecide, dogs that in every society they have been allowed to be kept as a companion animal.  This essay was my attempt to understand why I, as an outspoken victim of Bsl troll attack receive regular abuse and harassment, and why those who promote the Bsl do so in such an aggressive and excessively defensive manner.  I believe there are several different types of people drawn to Bsl, this essay was the exploration of only one of those types.  For me, this type is particularly offensive, because not only are they complicit in supporting an unsuitable form of advocacy for society leading to serious injuries and fatalities, they do it in good conscience, in such a way that they believe they are holy and righteous and everyone else who opposes them is evil and wicked.