Pit Bulls

[Caedmon]

I had a friend some years ago with a Rottweiler named "Lucy". he was teasing her, you know the way people will playfully mess with a dog's muzzle and make funny noises teasingly ?

That dog tore his forehead open. I knew this dog and never would have imagined that from her because she seemed so friendly and timid.

Rottweilers were bred as herding and draft animals, not for aggression. If you want to take exceptions as the rule, that's your prerogative, but history and breeding speak against you. And if you take their police work as an indication of lethal aggression, you'll have to eliminate German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds, Belgian Malinoises and a slew of other breeds from the general population as well.

 

[BAFRIEND]

Pit Bulls are bred to be what they are. Humans are rational, dogs are instinctional.

 

[BAFRIEND]

Rottweilers were bred as herding and draft animals, not for aggression. If you want to take exceptions as the rule, that's your prerogative, but history and breeding speak against you. And if you take their police work as an indication of lethal aggression, you'll have to eliminate German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds, Belgian Malinoises and a slew of other breeds from the general population as well.

Rottweilers are #2 on the CDCs list of most dangerous breeds. How did I just offer up an exception to the rule ?

 

[Lady Bug]

Ok this sounds silly but with all this talk about dog attacks I'm kinda afraid to go outside to take a walk

 

[Caedmon]

Rottweilers are #2 on the CDCs list of most dangerous breeds. How did I just offer up an exception to the rule ?

That may be true, although I disagree with this CDC list of supposed "most dangerous breeds." There are lies, damned lies, and then there're statistics. But does that mean we should systematically eliminate them as a breed? How about German Shepherds, Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes, Doberman Pinschers, Chow Chows, Great Danes, St. Bernards, Akitas, Dalmatians, Boxers and Presa Canarios? Should we kill off all these breeds? How far are you willing to go?

 

[OnTheWay]

I really do not get it.

I feel that someone is presenting here that there is some kind of unfair conspiracy against dogs categorized as pit bulls.

The fact is that even if you are less likely to be attacked or just as likely to be attacked by a pit- which I don't believe is the case, you are far far more likely to be killed during the attack or injured and disfigured than by other breeds.

ironically, I am watching an episode of Judge Judy right now in which a pit bull attacked a little girl in her own back yard.

Conspiracy, not really. Just large numbers of ignorant people, like yourself, that buy into media hype because you don't bother thinking for yourself. Bully breeds are defamed for the same reasons Dobbies, German Shepards, Rottweilers, and the like are, they look scary. It's easy for the media to sell ignorant people the myth of a monster dog because they don't know enough and are too lazy to inform themselves.

 

[OnTheWay]

Any dog is not bred intentionally to take down livestock.

Dude, does your ignorance know any bounds? First they were fighting dogs and now they're livestock killers. They were bred to assist butchers ply their trade, humans did the killing, not the dogs.

Not just Any dog has made the CDC's most dangerous breed list. And I have no reason to believe that CDC has any political motive to go after this breed. That govenment agency is not biased.

Yes, it's really fair, sane, and rational to compare a grouping of several breeds against single breeds. Wonder if that might produce a flawed study....

 

[OnTheWay]

Pit Bulls are bred to be what they are. Humans are rational, dogs are instinctional.

Both are animals and both operate on both instinct and experience. Dogs, like humans, would naturally run from gun fire. However, through training both can be taught not to do that. Humans, like dogs, who are abused and mistreated can become aggessive, even killers. We call them sociopaths. In the same way an abused dog might never become aggressive, just as an abused person might become well adjusted inspite of the abuse. Both dogs and humans are more than the some of our parts. It's just a shame some people, like yourself, are so ignorant and short sighted you'd rather let silly beliefs control your world view than facts.

 

[Caedmon]

Conspiracy, not really. Just large numbers of ignorant people, like yourself, that buy into media hype because you don't bother thinking for yourself. Bully breeds are defamed for the same reasons Dobbies, German Shepards, Rottweilers, and the like are, they look scary. It's easy for the media to sell ignorant people the myth of a monster dog because they don't know enough and are too lazy to inform themselves.

Not to mention they make fantastic stories that make people want to watch their news shows and the commercials interspersed throughout.

 

[OnTheWay]

Ok this sounds silly but with all this talk about dog attacks I'm kinda afraid to go outside to take a walk

You'll be killed by a drunk driver long before you're ever attacked by a dog if that makes you feel any better.

 

[Lady Bug]

You'll be killed by a drunk driver long before you're ever attacked by a dog if that makes you feel any better.

hmmm

 

[pgp_protector]

Killed in car accidents 42,116*
Killed by the common flu 20,000*
Killed by murders 15,517*
Killed in airline crashes
(of 477m passenger trips) 120 (1)
Killed by lightning strikes 90*
Killed by Dogs 30
Killed by Anthrax 5

(1) Annual average over 19 year period.
*Average annual totals in United States.

http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html
http://www.unitedjustice.com/death-statistics.html

Looks like we need to ban a few other things before we worry about dogs.

 

[OnTheWay]

Is there any such thing as a dangerous breed of dogs? The answer is not really, dog's of any breed aren't dangerous. Between 1979 and 1994 (15 years) 279 people were killed by dogs. That's an average of 18.6 per year. They didn't start keeping track of alcohol related traffic deaths until 1982, but what they hey, we'll be sports. Between 1982 and 1994 (only 12 years) 290,357 lost their lives in alcohol related traffic accidents. Note that's just alcohol related deaths, total traffic deaths were much much higher. So literally for every person killed by a dog 10,754 died on the roads due to alcohol. Let's take this a little wider (these are all taken from the OP's unbaised CDC mind you), between 1982 and 1994 76,324 were killed in drownings. That's a rate of 2827 to 1 for drownings vs. dog related deaths. We really need to ban swimming pools, build high walls around lakes, and ban people from the ocean. Between 1982 and 1994 453,334 were killed by fire arms. During the same period 68,146 people died in fires from burns, 15,318 were killed by machines other than cars/trucks, 131,996 people were killed in falls, 170,799 people were posioned, and 370 died from working out too hard. Of the many things in this world that may kill you dogs are not high on the list, and lower still are bully breeds.

 

[Teshi]

A reasonable question to ask before demanding that an entire type (not breed, even, but type) of dog be outlawed is "What percent of the total dogs of that type have mauled or killed someone?" Considering how many pitbulls there are total, and the low number of serious dog attacks overall, I bet it's a pretty low percentage.

The other thing is that a lot of dog attacks result from mistraining (and/or deliberately making the dog "mean"). It's not like those stupid owners aren't going to get a dog at all if pitbulls are outlawed - they'll just get a different kind of tough dog, and make that dog mean, and then that dog'll be the big bad scary critter of the moment instead.

 

[WarriorAngel]

People, no need to get bent out of shape over an opinion.

Bafriend will continue to maintain his opinion, as will OnTheWay...
So keep the noise down...i am trying to think.


Seriously, i dont care about stats... really i dont.
All i care about is if someone raises a dog to attack and they do, i truly hope its not someone's kid who suffers the consequences.

I dont think a total banning will work.
I dont think letting certain ppl raise them is a good thing either.

 

[OnTheWay]

Dogs aren't dangerous, guns are. When we mange to disarm this country then we'll worry about who can have access to what type of dogs.

 

[AMDG]

Dogs, guns, driving--nope. As that comic strip once said, "we have met the enemy and he is us".

 

[PassthePeace1]

The UK, Australia, and New Zealand along with at least another half dozen countrys like Italy have bans on these violent dangerous animals. Why does the US always have to be the last to do the right thing. I think this country is like only one of two in the world that is not on the metric system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Wn_Ha6mec

Update on video: the owners, a couple, have been arrested and are sittting in jail on 250k each.

The boy was on a public road 150 yards from his house, 50 yards from the pit bull owners' home. The drivers who saw the boy's body and came assist were chased back into their cars by the dogs and the police arriving shot the two pit bulls when the were charged by the dogs.

The American PitBull Terrier is one of the best breed of dogs!!! I have been in animal rescue for 15 years with the local SPCA, and have rescued my fair share of APBTs....and have had less trouble with them, than the tons of labs and lab mixes that have crossed my path. Shoot, my standard poodles have given me more trouble than the pitties.

I have two, was used and breed for fighting so she has dog aggression issues....so I have to have her separated from other dogs, while unsupervised. She is however fine, when we are around and I can let her run and play with the others. My other is a house dog, and she lives in peace and harmony with my 5 little chis, two cats and a dozen some odd birds. Both are wonderful with people, even strangers.

They are however, not a breed for every person....they have high energy, and thrive on human companionship....but this too is true of other breeds as well.

Peace be with you.....Pam(forever a pittie lover)

 

[MichaelFJF]

Pit bulls are dangerous by nature. OnTheWay is an obnoxious, uneducated pain. Some things are just fact.

 

[PassthePeace1]

This represents the true ignorance of the American public. Pit Bulls are hardly dangerous animals, in fact your much more likely to be biten (or even killed) by a Lab or a Chow. Most breeds on "most likely to bite" lists are small toy breed dogs. A dog ignorant public simply has it out for "pit bulls" (actually it tends to be American Staffordshire Terriers that people are most afriad of but in their ignorance don't even know what an actual pit bull is) in the same way a dog ignorant public had it out for German Shepards and Dobbies in the 80's. Truth is there are no "aggressive breeds or bad dogs," just bad owners. Blaming a breed of dog for the behavior of a certain subculture in soceity is stupidity in its worst form.

Truth is pit bulls, and related breeds, have less aggression towards humans because of their breeding. Back when dog fighting was a legal sport (not ghetto street trash running absurd cruel shows) a fighting dog had to be able to be handled by its owner in the middle of a fight. A dog that would bite its handler was unacceptable. Media sensationalism aside, pit bulls, amstaffs, bull terriers, and the like are very good natured dogs who make excellent pets.