The Pit-Bull Problem

[tgm21234]

newsweek.com/id/220497/page/1

I read articles such as this one about how pit bulls are such loving dogs, but that is not what I see on the street.
The other day this man was walking his pit bull (A beautiful muscular dog) on a lech (spelling). The pit bull saw another dog and went crazy, wanting to kill the other dog.

 

[JimG]

Within the past few years, there have been news stories locally about pit bull attacks on humans. In one case, a pit bull attacked a baby; in another, a pit bull jumped a fence, attacked and killed an elderly woman who lived next door. I don’t care how human friendly they are alleged to be. When people are attacked and killed, that is not human friendly behavior.

 

[cyberwolf001]

The issue is the owner needs a very firm hand with them, but even many spank happy parents are utterly unwilling to discipline a dog other than just lecture it.

 

[purplesunshine]

The real problem, as indicated by this article is letting “trailer trash” own dogs. While it is America and a free country, I think dogs should be the landlord’s legal responsibility rather than simply the owner’s. Across the board the dogs that yip, bite and threaten come from that demographic…the very poor, the mentally ill, and the poor who are ALSO mentally ill need to have some sort of accountability becuase time and time again they are NOT seeing a dog for what it is. A dog can be a deadly weapon.

If people object…well you have a domesticated version of a wild animal living in your home! Selective inbreading has created a truly unstable population. And with all these Akitia’s, huskies, “exotic” dingo-types and dogs from Iraq…etc…around they may not even HAVE been truly domesticated. In breading and breeding of wild animals have contributed beyond counting to animal attacks.

The breed of the dog will just be whatever is popular…weather it be Datamation, German Shepard, great Dane or even a chiwowa…will be abused and misunderstood.

Heck, there were a few dog attacks reported in the last few weeks. Their was a handbag chiwowa being teased by a 2yr who wasn’t familiar with dogs and was unsuperivsed…the dog went balistic and I believe she lost an eye. The rest of the attack reports have been pitbulls…including a 3yr old sleepwaker who got out of his aparment and fell down a small landing,(5 or 6 steps) waking a fellow neighbors’ dog. The dog charged the door, and unprovoked attacked the child. I believe he lived but will be a paraplegic becuase the dog snapped his neck. (they believe it was the dog due to the location of the bite marks, the neighbor was saying it was the fall down the stairs).

As a note one of the problem with pitbulls is their size/power ratio. People will stay away from a German Shepard because they are large dogs. They get surrendered before they are even fully grown. However, pitbulls are in the weight category of a large dog but the size category of a medium dog. This means they can inflict just as much damage, if not more, when attacking due to their sheer muscle mass.

 

[latin_rite]

The real problem, as indicated by this article is letting “trailer trash” own dogs. .

Yes we don’t want those poor people owning dogs, now do we? What are poor people doing owning dogs anyway? Every minute spent caring for those dogs is one less minute they could be in my cotton fields picking my cotton. I’m outraged! I’m writing a letter to the president. I will also tell him that if there are parents who can’t afford to send their kids to college, that those kids should be made to leave school once they have learned to read and write to come work in my textile factories.

 

[stanmaxkolbe]

You know I’ve posted threads about this I will post news articles about parents saying they raised the dog from a pup never had a problem it the dog never sunk their teeth into anyone.

The last one I post happened here in Texas and what I posted above is what the parents said.

The little boy was in bed with the dog watching TV the dog turned and ripped that boy’s throat out.

I got a guy at work has pit bulls around his kids I told him I pray they never turn on your kids and he says that will never happen. I’ll tell him that’s what the parents of dead kids said too.

Then the other argument is, “Well it’s the owners not the breed.” HOCKEY PUCK!!! It’s the breed!!!

Same thing with parents that have infants and have large snakes for pets why would you put your child in danger like that?

What can I say that in the United States people have the freedom to be stupid.

 

[purplesunshine]

Yes we don’t want those poor people owning dogs, now do we? What are poor people doing owning dogs anyway? Every minute spent caring for those dogs is one less minute they could be in my cotton fields picking my cotton. I’m outraged! I’m writing a letter to the president. I will also tell him that if there are parents who can’t afford to send their kids to college, that those kids should be made to leave school once they have learned to read and write to come work in my textile factories.

What? You made my comment into a racist, bigot. EVERY dog that has been involved in an attack has been owned by a chronically unemployed person…or one with a long criminal record…I’m not talking bad luck becuase of the economy, either. I currently live on an OK street that’s near a bad neighborhood. The employed non-gang-banger types have decently behaved dogs…including a well behaved docile old pit bull that is the sweetest dog you’d ever meet. I’ve known people with WONDERFUL rotwilers. But across the board poverty encourages violence in both humans and dogs.

I’m not wealthy and I own a dog. I’m not advocating for the rounding up of dogs of people who make x amount a year. I’m saying that there should be restrictions and building owners should be held liable. I’ll tell you that these “accidental” deaths of dogs turning on owners and non-owners alike would disapate if landlords knew what was going on on their premis’.

As more people are on the search for more exotic animals I am in favor of greater restriction. If you have an animal that bites (that draws blood) and isn’t a trained guard animal than you should NOT own that animal. And poverty seems to encourage this. I don’t care if you’re an 90yo on social security with a toy poodle that bites or a 18 gangbanger with a pitbull.

Yes, there are poor people who are responsible for their animals, but as a population they are producing the problems.

Many of the people in my neighborhood don’t think logically. I can see it at the grocery store…two female teen chashiers who were still in HS were playing with an ipod one girl had just baught. I asked them if they were going to the local CC when they graduated. One girl looked at me and was like, “I scored a job and I got me a hunny, I got the stuff I need, I don’t even have to go to (high school) anymore, probably won’t.” The other one looked at me curiously, “you think I’m a damn foo and waste my money on ******** education? I got this (ipod) and its only my third week here, its way too much work and I’ll just have to be a ***kisser.”

I don’t know how to fix povery…but I do know that dogs coming from this situation are killing and mauling children as (as the adults kill and molest, too).

 

[7_Sorrows]

i rescued a pit bull that had been abandoned and left to die. she was about 1 1/2 years old and pregnant with double pneumonia. i had never been around pit bulls. she was the sweetest and most lovable dog i had ever owned. i did not know her past. she did show agressive signs around other dogs, so i don’t know if she had been trained to fight or if that was her nature. i owned 4 other dogs and she was kept separate from them. because of the history of pit bulls, i was very careful not to let her around strangers. as much as i loved her, i always worried about the one chance there could be that she might hurt someone. she got skin cancer and later had to be put down, but the 5 years she was in my life, i could not have had a better protector and friend. i don’t think i would ever have a pit bull around children.
in the city i lived in, many gang members wanted to show off with their pit bulls and they taught them to be mean.
my pit bull got a hold of one of my cats once and didn’t leave a scratch on him. this cat would always tease her and she easily could have killed the cat, but didn’t. my cat wasn’t in a big hurry to tease her ever again.
some people own pit bulls for the wrong reasons.

 

[celticsfan1983]

Within the past few years, there have been news stories locally about pit bull attacks on humans. In one case, a pit bull attacked a baby; in another, a pit bull jumped a fence, attacked and killed an elderly woman who lived next door. I don’t care how human friendly they are alleged to be. When people are attacked and killed, that is not human friendly behavior.

I read a story about a human who savagely beat and killed another person!!! We should ban people, since they are not human-friendly and WILL attack other humans! Every day I read stories about a human being hurting another. Needless to say, I wouldn’t let a human being near a young child.

Grow up. This hatred of specific breeds of dogs is a trend. Used to be German Shepherds, then Rottweilers, now pit bulls.

Cite some scientific evidence that says Pit Bulls are genetically dangerous, or drop your rants.

 

[Nec5]

Virtually all dogs will behave if raised properly. The one possible exception might be a Wolf-Hybrid, which isn’t really a “dog” in the traditional sense.

 

[Sonic]

My father new a man that kept a pit bull to guard his used auto parts yard. He used to carry a baseball bat with him for protection. He was that afraid of his own dog! This was back in the sixties.

 

[Snerticus]

I had a pit bull back when I lived in PA. She was a very sweet dog. She did get excited at times, but it was a happy excitement. That kind of excitement was enough to scare anyone who saw her simply because she was a pit bull. She’d lick you to death, that’s about it.

However, the history of the breed does contain violence and for that reason only experienced dog people who know dog behavior should own one. Also, there are disreputable breeders out there who actually breed violence into their dogs. So yes you should be concerned but if you know dogs and their behavior, you’ll generally know what to avoid when buying a pup. If you don’t know anything about dogs, it’s a good idea to stay away from them. However, there are other breeds that have even more violent tendencies so if you know nothing about dogs, stick with the reliable labrador or golden retrievers.

I also once had a borzoi and when I walked her down the streets of a certain New Jersey town, everyone went to the other side of the road. Why? Well, I overheard a woman walking with her child who said to the child, “don’t go near that dog, it’s a pit bull”. If you google pictures of pit bulls and borzoi, I’m sure you’ll see they’re verrrry similar… Just to give you an idea of what most people on the street know about dogs.

Anyway, it’s good to be cautious of certain breeds of dogs, but don’t go crazy.

I also subscribe to the theory that in most cases it’s not the dog, it’s the owner. Although there are dogs that I had come across that were just plain nasty no matter who owned them, and in that list was a basset hound, a golden retriever, a rottweiler, a german shepherd and a chesapeake bay retriever, many cocker spaniels and a toy schnauzer… just to name a few. The bassett had to be put down because it was so nasty that it attacked children, so this trait is by no means confined just to pit bulls or other percieved “nasty” breeds. But in general - and I have seen probably thousands of dogs - I believe that most of the “attack” circumstances could have been avoided had the owner simply learned about the breed and paid attention to it’s behavior .

Not all, but most. There are exceptions to everything.

Snert

 

[celticsfan1983]

A nurse at the local Quorum Court meeting told us that most of the dog bites she had seen in more than 15 years were from Chows. Should we go ahead and ban them too?

 

[Ridgerunner]

A nurse at the local Quorum Court meeting told us that most of the dog bites she had seen in more than 15 years were from Chows. Should we go ahead and ban them too?

At one time, I had occasion to research this and talked to veterinarians as well as read the stats on pit bull attacks. Labs are actually responsible for the greatest number of attacks on humans; possibly because of their numbers. Veterinarians will tell you that in their practices they find that pit bulls are no more likely to bite a human than is any other breed, and less so than some.

But I also talked to people who bred pit bulls. Those breeders who are serious and conscientious about the breed maintain that the breed in general has been “ruined” in the U.S. by poor genetics and improper rearing.

The “true” breed is, by nature, inclined to attack other dogs. But not humans. Back when dog fighting was legal and overt, it really was not a desirable trait for a dog brought to a ring to attack humans instead of the adversary dog. I’m not defending dog fighting. I think it’s a horrible thing. I’m only saying that pit bulls were not originally bred to attack people; quite the contrary. However, there have been unfortunate changes in the breed over the last few decades.

But without question, pit bulls have very strong jaws and are relatively impervious to pain compared to other dogs. That’s why attacks by pit bulls are hard to stop and cause so much damage when they do attack.

 

[Celtic_FC]

Yeah where I grew up, my neighbor had a couple of these dogs and they were vicious. I never would trust a pit-bull around children.

 

[Soutane]

This dog breed is a loaded COCKED pistol that can and usually does go off without obvious provocation.The problem lies in the breeding of these killing machines which were originally used in the "sport "of fighting bears,bulls,and other dogs in pits.We don’t allow folks to walk around with hand grenades especially with the pin out.After innumerable savage attacks upon humans,usually children,we banned them in Ontario.The existing dogs are grandfathered but any breeding or posession of pitbull puppies is outlawed.Fine by me.

 

[st_lucy]

We had a pit bull once and she was the sweetiest dog ever. The only flaw in her was constant steeling of food off the kitchen table. No matter what we did she seemed to always still food. She did however attack a ham once and tore it apart, and then got rid of all the evidence.

Dogs, from my experience tend to mimic their surroundings. We have had a few dogs most from the pound and a couple from the breeders. We have seen very little difference in their behavior they were all just a little corky just like their owners.

 

[7_Sorrows]

A nurse at the local Quorum Court meeting told us that most of the dog bites she had seen in more than 15 years were from Chows. Should we go ahead and ban them too?

a few years back i had also read that the humane society put out a report that most dog bites were from Chows. i had a neighbor once that had one. he looked really mean and killed one of my cats. the neighbor didn’t even tell me. the cat was missing and i found his body in the garbage dumpster. i think it is best to be wary of any dog no matter what size they are. i had a toy fox terrier that was a biter. he had to finally be put down.
once i had to jump in the canal as i was walking to the store because a stray dog decided to come after me. luckily, the canal was there. it happened so fast and i only had a split second before he would have latched on to my ankle and leg. the dog looked like it might have been part boxer and pit bull. i tried not to look him in the eye and talked nicely to him. didn’t do any good. he came after me. i am an animal lover, but animals are animals. they aren’t humans. they have their own instincts and personalities and i am not going to try to be the “dog whisperer” with any strange dog.

 

[Havard]

I don’t trust the statistics on “bites” because there’s a vast difference between “bites” and “maulings”. Many dog bites are instances where the dog snaps playfully, or reactively, and unfortunately uses too much force. These have to be reported when injury occurs, but they are not in the same league as dog maulings.

If you look at the statistics for fatal dog maulings, I believe that you will find that pit bulls are grossly overrepresented with respect to their population.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_killed_by_dogs_in_the_United_States

 

[SamH]

The pit bull is bred for fighting and I would no more trust one than I would a range bull or a pet lion (ask Roy Horn how that works out). I know three people attacked in the last two years by dogs, all involved multiple dogs, one was a pitbull/chow pair the other two were pairs of pit bulls. They also had the following in common, dirt bag owners, no leash, no registration, no kennel and no shots.

Thankfully all three attacked were adults that kept their heads, had any involved a child that attempted to run they people attacked are convincd the child would have been killed.