Once a large dog barged into my house and plopped itself down on my couch, as though he lived there. He was the kind of dog we call a pit bull in T&T. The last dog I owned was a golden brown Pomeranian-Pekingese, the toy locally known as a PomPek. The Internet tells me it’s not a true breed; in other words, it’s a tiny, cute, fluffy pot hound. So too are many of the dogs that will soon be roaming our streets, if they aren’t already out there. Perhaps they are not as cute or as fluffy, but the dubious breeding practices that predominate in the average neighbourhood—where, I would bet, most pets aren’t spayed or neutered and most fences aren’t secure—surely have given rise to a local breed of pot hound—pit bulls.
I use the term “pit bull” here to refer to any or all of the breeds listed in Schedule A of the Dog Control Act of 2014, because like most of the general population I neither know nor care about the difference between these breeds. I’ve seen American Staffordshires called pit bulls as often as I’ve seen actual pit bulls called pit bulls; and it seems to me that without papers such a dog can hide in plain sight. Of course, without papers such a dog is not as valuable as its pedigreed brethren; but correct me if I’m wrong in presuming that papers aren’t high on the list of things the common or garden pit bull owner asks for in buying a pup.
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