‘They are not safe.’ Get rid of your pit bull, fans tell pregnant reality show star
Paola Mayfield, one of the stars of the reality show “90 Day Fiance,” ran into the buzzsaw of divided public opinion about pit bulls.
Mayfield is pregnant with her first child with husband, Russ Mayfield, according to People.
On Sunday she posted a photo of herself lounging on a front stoop with her dog, Phoebe, next to her.
“I hope you guys had a great #thanksgiving so much to be thankful for everyday,” she wrote in a post-holiday greeting.
But some people paid more attention to the dog - muscular, caramel and white coloring, with a broad chest. They saw a pit bull, and soon an emotional and heated debate took off among Mayfield’s followers about whether the breed is safe to have around children.
In this case, more people than not defended the dog.
“Paola. Please listen. I’ve owned pit bulls, fostered them, and volunteered with them,” one fan wrote on Instagram, Fox News reported.
“They are not safe, especially for children. And they were NEVER ‘nanny dogs ... If you cared about your child, you wouldn’t have a pit in your home. So many mothers said the same thing as you, ‘all it takes is love and you can erase genetics.’ And they are shocked when their pit snapped ...”
“No pits around babies,” warned another follower. “No matter if you think you know your dog or not. They can flip real quick.. I know my friend lost her 3 month old. To a dog she had and was a family member to to them.. She was a sweetheart and it changed real quick.”
One person called pit bulls a “vicious” breed. “I’ve noticed when there are pitbull attacks on children, people tend to flock to the Pitbulls’ defense which is so insane to me,” she wrote. “People care more about these dogs that babies and children and their safety. We live in a crazy world.”
Another fan posted a link to a year-old video about a doctor who believes pit bulls are dangerous around children.
Mayfield adopted Phoebe when she was 3 months old, according to an Instagram post in March, one of a handful showing the dog as a member of her family.
Pit bull owners posted testimonials touting their own animals, sharing stories about how protective the dogs can be of children. The word “sweet” popped up time and again.
“I own a pit bull i have for years and he is the sweetest dog I’ve ever had,” wrote one fan. “Any dog is capable of attacking and killing someone, it’s the owners who raise them. Pitbulls aren’t born evil, their owners make them that way.”
“i hate when people look at pits like their sharks ugh!” commented one person. “Any dog can attack anything or anybody it doesn’t matter the breed! If any dog is raised to attack they’re going to attack but if you raise them like sweet little angels then that’s who they’re going to be. “
“In all honesty any dog be it a pit bull or a little dog can easily kill you,” wrote another fan. “It really doesn’t matter the breed of dog at all. What does matter is that people want to blame a specific do . I also don’t think that you should tell someone that there dog is dangerous or could harm the child cause that really isn’t your place to say something like that because you don’t know that dog or interact with that dog every day.”
Fox News reported that Mayfield responded to one of her critics by saying Phoebe “isn’t a pit bull she is a hound mix and she is the sweetest dog.”
But some people didn’t believe her; one person told her “don’t be ashamed.”
“And so what if she is a Pit bull?” Mayfield wrote to one fan, according to Hollywood Life celebrity news website. “I care less if my dog has part Pit bull. I love her like that and I wouldn’t get rid of her because I know who my dog is!
“I’m not being misinformed about anything, and I have better things to do than check if my rescued hound mix dog is a Pit bull or not. At the end I wouldn’t get rid of her!”
This story was originally published November 27, 2018 at 4:37 PM with the headline "‘They are not safe.’ Get rid of your pit bull, fans tell pregnant reality show star."