Luckily, I'm a good dog!
Posted on 03/14/2012 8:01:11 PM PDT by Altariel
Is United Airlines profiling dog breeds? If so, I'm a logical person to ask for help. I've stood up against local governments banning specific breeds (usually municipalities seeking to ban any dog looking like a Pit Bull). Breed bans have never demonstrated success at lowering the number of dog bites.
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United Airlines confirmed its adoption of the Continental Airlines Pet Safe program as the merger of the two carriers became official earlier this month. The Pet Safe program, which had been in place for several years, bans nine dog breeds on planes, including the American Pit Bull Terrier and the American Staffordshire Terrier.
From the perspective of United, the decision was based, in part, on an incident which occurred on a 2002 American Airlines flight from San Diego to New York. A dog identified as a Pit Bull (who knows if the dog was really a Pit Bull, since so many dogs with Pit Bull characteristics are mistakenly identified as Pits) broke out of its kennel and wreaked havoc in the cargo hold. The dog chewed through the plane's electrical system, causing a potential safety issue, not to mention thousands of dollars in damage.
Luckily, there was no damage to the plane's vital flying systems, and the flight landed safely. The dog was not dangerous, per se, but apparently panicked. Had this happened with a Standard Poodle, I'm not sure if the response would have been so extreme. As a result of this one incident, American banned several breeds, including Rottweilers and Dobermans (even though these breeds were not involved in the 2002 incident).
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
PFL
First they came for the rottweilers, and I said nothing because I didn’t own a rottweiler.
Then they came for the dobermans, and I said nothing because I didn’t own a doberman......
Doggie Ping.
Brought down the bites from over 60,000 a year to a negligible number.
So, what to do with a big dog getting loose on planes ~ the answer is PROHIBIT big dogs!
And, if you don't like that ship your doggie by Aero-Mayflower!
Rotties and Dobbies are great dogs. Watch out for those little bastards..
The banned breeds:
American Pit Bull Terrier
American Staffordshire Terrier
Rottweiler
Doberman
PressaCanario / Pero de Pressa Canario
Dogo Argentino
Cane Corso
Fila Brasileiro
Tosa
Ca de Bou
Mallorquin Bulldog
Hopefully ‘muslim’ is one of the breeds that are banned.
seems to me that airlines should be able to ban anything they like. Kind of like that sign is restaurants... Re reserve the right to deny service to anyone.
If you don’t like it, fly a different airline.
(unless perhaps you think dogs have constitutional rights)
It’s not the dogs fault.
Ban the owners not the witlle little doggies.
Bad dog owners are drawn to Pit Bulls.
It’s a private company Up to them *shrug*
Absolutely.
But dog owners/enthusiasts also have the freedom to take their business elsewhere—and let United Airlines know why.
Wonder what they would say about my “attack” trained miniature poodle? He would lick them to death.
American Pit Bull Terrier
American Staffordshire Terrier
Rottweiler
Doberman
PressaCanario / Pero de Pressa Canario
Dogo Argentino
Cane Corso
Fila Brasileiro
Tosa
Ca de Bou
Mallorquin Bulldog
My sister was a flight attendant and she said that Scotties
were the worst. Very territorial and the owners tended to
spoil them and not discipline them well.
Sadly, foolish dog owners don’t take smaller breeds as seriously as larger breeds. I always feel sorry for a small dog which is convinced *it* is the alpha in the family pack—because Alpha Male or Alpha Female won’t take the lead so that the dog isn’t convinced it *has* to do so.
Why create bad PR? Just have the pilots not flip the “dead dog switch.” (Putting on flame retardant suit.) One of my most exciting days was seeing my German Shepherd’s crate being successfully offloaded from a plane. Might be crazy, but it was up there with marriage and births.
Instead of worrying about dogs, they should be more worried about nutso attendants and pilots.
Scotties, and other small breeds can be foul little monsters, and biters. Personally... I’ve never met a Pomeranian that wasn’t just a nasty yippy little turd.
But... Unlike pits... While they may nip and fear-bite, they don’t rip throats out. I fully understand that there are some great pits out there that are wonderful dogs. Yet there is something that I have yet to see a pit owner acknowledge— and I think it is a fair point— that the fighting breeds fight differently. A lab may bite, but they usually bite to frighten and then stop. Fighting breeds instinctively fight to kill. There’s a world of difference between the dog that nips at a child’s hand because they pulled too hard on a tail, and the dog that gets a vice-grip on a throat and doesn’t let go.
I do believe that all dogs have the potential to be awesome companions, but I think it is said to acknowledge that different breeds have different traits, and different instincts, and require different training and sometimes different precautions.
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