thats a horrible analogy and only feeds the stereotype
Maybe... Maybe not. First, let me start by saying I am not a dog person, but I have hugged, held, and played with many Pitbulls in my life and I am not against them. I just did a mini photo session with one a few weeks ago and was looking her face to face with our noses almost touching, then afterwards was rubbing her belly and scratching her ears. But I will say this, Pitbulls are a special breed, and it is foolish to combat the "bad stereotype" by pretending that they are always loveable and always well behaved. They were bred to kill, so it takes a special owner to have one, an owner that is aware of what they are and what they can become if not properly observed or cared for. Nature is nature, whether it be a Pitbull, a Sixline Wrasse, or anything else out there that can be aggressive or become such in an unexpected manner. We humanize and domesticate our pets to no end, and want to treat them all the same, but that doesn't always do them justice or give them the special attention that some require.
I was told by the owner of the Pitbull that I was photographing that more than 50% of deaths caused by dog killings are from Pitbulls, and most of those were in cases where there were no obvious indicators that the dog was going to attack. In most cases where Pitbulls do attack, it is because the owners want to treat them as if they are like any other dog. They are not. They can make great pets, can be very loveable, and can live their entire lives without harming a flea, but they are not like any other dog. The Pitbull owner (who is a specialized trainer for them kind of like the Dog Whisperer, I might add) told me that they wish Pitbull owners would quit trying to fight the stereotype and would rather they fight the justifications as to why Pitbulls can make great pets under the right circumstances, and wishes to raise awareness as to how they ought to be treated, observed, controlled, and loved, which is unlike other dogs.
Let's take the Pit out of it for a second and look at just a Bull. I have an In-law that owns a farm with cattle. He had a Bull that had been on his farm for years. He could hug it, brush it, lead it to where ever he needed it to go with no problems. About two years ago it started to get a bit of an attitude. This past Winter he decided that it was time to get rid of the Bull because he could tell it was turning. The very day he was going to load it up, it charged him and penned him against the wall of the barn, ramming him several times. He barely got out alive, had several broken ribs and internal bleeding, and is still recovering to some extent. I know I'm comparing apples to oranges (as was the guy with a Sixline Wrasse and a Pitbull), but the point is animals have instincts that we will never fully understand because our instincts are different. Just like a man will never fully understand what it is like to give birth because it is a part of nature we cannot experience, all people will never fully understand our pets. And because of that we have to acknowledge them for what they are, not what we want them to be, and treat them as such. So I'm not anti-Pitbull by any means. I am anti-Pitbulls are like any other dogs and ought to be treated as such.
Anyways... Enough hijacking of this thread, if we need to have more discussion of this, I'm more than willing to go on further in a separate, general non-tank related thread. Though I think I've said all that I can with where I stand.
A Sixline Wrasse has behaviors that we don't understand as well, but most of us will acknowledge them. Even the author of this thread, sixline, has done as much. That doesn't make a Sixline Wrasse a bad fish to own, it just makes it one that has to be treated differently. I don't think that the Sixline Wrasse ought to be ignored as a possible great addition to a tank, but I do think that owners need to be made aware of the needs a Sixline Wrasse has and how they can change over time. They are a specialized fish, like a shark or a seahorse.
