‘But, My Pit Bull Would Never Attack’ May Be Wishful Thinking

boston.com ^ | June 24, 2014 | Megan Turchi

[ransomnote]

Pit bulls make up 6 percent of the dog population in Canada and the US, but they are responsible for 68 percent of dog attacks and 52 percent of dog-related deaths from 1982 to 2009, TIME Magazine reported.

So, how does Boston stack up?

According to data provided to Boston.com from Mayor Marty Walsh’s press office, there were a total of 661 dog bites in the city of Boston between January 2012 and June 2014, which included bites against animal, human and unknown victims.

Pit bulls make up a little over 3 percent of the entire dog population of Boston. There are 250 registered pit bulls, pit bull mixes and Staffordshires listed as registered in the 2014 list of dog licenses, as provided to Boston.com, with a total of 7,355 registered dogs in the city.

The data defines ‘pit bull’ as a dog having American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire, pit bull or Staffordshire as either the primary or secondary breed.

“Attacks by pit bulls are associated with higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than are attacks by other breeds of dogs. Strict regulation of pit bulls may substantially reduce the US mortality rates related to dog bites,” according to a 2011 study conducted by the Annals of Surgery. After a young girl was recently attacked by pit bulls at her grandfather’s house in Mississippi and suffered a broken nose, jaw, cheekbone and eye socket, TIME Magazine looked at the “problem behind pit bulls.”

Much of the attention given to this story on social media was drawn to the claim that a KFC worker allegedly asked the girl to leave the restaurant because of the scars on her face, but TIME gave attention to the initial dog attack.

[kanawa]

Is that what the owner of the dog in Jacks’ post #4 did?
Did she pretty well kill the dog to stop the attack?

[melsec]

MY son has what’s called an American Stafford-shire Terrier - he is a big dog. When he was about 1 year old he started getting really arrogant and pushing our other dog around - he would not listen and/or come when he was called even though he had been trained to do so.

He needed very firm discipline and a focus of that discipline - for us it was a light aluminium tube which he got a few good wacks with. I don’t like to do this but he needed it and is the best dog since - all I have to do is mention ‘The Stick’ and he comes over and sits down next to me. As good as he is I would not trust him with small children - he is just too big and could easily hurt them plus if he knocked them down the hunting/fighting instinct might kick in.

He is a great dog but you have to strict not mean and wary not complacent.

[expat1000]

>>Did she pretty well kill the dog to stop the attack?

No. A young man took two full power swings at it with a baseball bat sized club and it let go. After breaking multiple bones and causing gashes that required 50 stitches to close.

In fact, the owner was of no help at all, - not even sympathetic - and received a 6 month jail sentence.

[ansel12]

Good gosh, an aluminum tube?

How about a loosely rolled newspaper? It isn’t about the pain, it is about the gesture, the physical display of displeasure.

The loosely rolled paper allows for noise and a harmless (whooshy) whack, and even a harmless expression/release of the owner’s anger, yet covers all the bases of a firm expression of displeasure with a dog doing something intolerable, and for which other methods haven’t prevented him from doing.

[Paradox]

Pits, and other such breeds, should only be owned by people who can truly handle them. 90+ percent of pit bull owners I encounter are NOT qualified to have them,imho.

[Secret Agent Man]

my solution for the 6% of dogs doing 68% of the attacking is the same solution for the 3% of persons doing 75% of the gun murders in this country.

[ransomnote]

Do I have to repeat, yet again, my first hand knowledge and evidence
that dogsbite.org deliberately ignores evidence
and knowingly falsifies their statistics?

You’ve surely been around long enough to have seen it before.
__________________________

We’ll I’ve researched the false claims of pit nutters for years and they’re always blatant liars. If you have evidence that dogsbite.org “deliberately ignores evidence” and “falsifies their statistics” I’d appreciate it if you’d post it. I like to be informed and the change would be nice.

[gunsequalfreedom]

They are over 50 percent of the costs at a local animal shelter, more than 50 percent of the problem dogs the shelter experiences.

These numbers are even with groups that take up pitbulls as their mission trying to relieve the stress on the shelter by taking the breed out of the shelter.

The worst part is all the owners that never realized how dangerous their choice of a pitbull is. The ones that don’t come in with some pathetic story that it was the neighbor’s cat or the child’s fault all say I had no idea. The dog seemed so nice, was a part of the family. Then come the words put him down.

[gunsequalfreedom]

Of course they are, same as people. The difference is with pits, Presa Canarios, and the like, is when they do, you pretty well have to kill them to stop the attack. Almost impossible to do without a firearm and dangerous with one.

Exactly.

[gunsequalfreedom]

“Pit bulls are very strong dogs. They were bred initially to hunt large animals. And for more than 200 years after that, they were bred to be fighters. You can breed certain things out of dogs, too. But that does not happen after just one or two generations. It will take a while, during which time any change will be attributable to responsible dog ownership.”

Shall we now do a Google search of "Child pit bull attack" to get an idea of the horror that continues while we wait for responsible dog ownership.

[ansel12]

I’m not big on the, ‘the right person can keep this animal from killing the kids in the neighborhood’ and control him as a “pet” position.

[ransomnote]

Just another day spent waiting for pit advocates to become responsible:

Pit runs through intersection wagging his tail gleefully as he singles out small game, a four year old child, and attacks her without warning. Note the witnesses who moved to help were dazed by the gore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Fh2X7LmuY

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

My post from an earlier thread;

““Pit bulls are not naturally mean dogs. If they are mean it’s because some human made them so. “

Not so! Their genes tell the tale. So do the horrible scars on my friend’s leg, the result of his Staffordshire suddenly attacking him whilst he was on the phone talking to a friend. Daisy had been a very lovable, and well loved, dog, until she suddenly snapped. They are a very dangerous breed because of what they carry in their genes.”

[ansel12]

I couldn’t see the video, it was covered with ads or something.

[ApplegateRanch]

“Pit bulls are not naturally mean dogs. If they are mean it’s because some human made them so.“

My standard reply is, then train Shelties to point & retrieve; a beagle to herd sheep, and an Irish setter be a police dog: why do their genes predispose them to what they were bred to do, but a pit's don't?

They never have a coherent answer.

[tired&retired]

We must be careful with statistics...

Blacks make up about 12.6 % of the US population but account for over 50% of the crime! Parallel arguments for analysis sake?

Per Wiki: According to the US Department of Justice, blacks accounted for 52.5% of homicide offenders from 1980 to 2008, with whites 45.3% and Native Americans and Asians 2.2%.

The offending rate for blacks was almost 8 times higher than whites, and the victim rate 6 times higher.

[kanawa]

Angry?, pfft. it is no use getting angry with one trick, control freak, kill 'em all fanatics,
who presume some intellectual and moral superiority
because they are willing to eradicate all dogs they find unexceptable
regardless of the individual dog's traits.

To them I say,

Obsessive behavior, narrow focus, inability to see all sides of an issue are the hallmarks of a fanatic
You give no import to the human factor in these attacks and to the fact that virtually all of them
could have been prevented if the humans owning the dogs had behaved responsibly.
Nor is the fact that millions of these dogs never attack anyone given any relevance.
Your tunnel vision blinds you to the other attacks, fatal and otherwise, attributable to other types of dogs.
You exhibit no concern for the victims of those attacks.
Your fanaticism leads you to quote for personal affirmation sources that are either kooks (Clifton),
or financially invested (injury lawyers),
or as in the case of dogsbite.org, out and out liars, who deliberately publish false information.

Fanatic Statists with your own little personal Jihad against a whole nebulous group of dogs.
You are more dangerous to a civil society than any dog.

Fanatics, like you, used to annoy me, you contribute nothing to the prevention of dog attacks.
Instead of rationally approaching problems, educating people on how to avoid them
and suggesting practical improvements in by-laws and local Animal Control procedures,
your Jihad against 'pit bulls' blinds you to all else.

My annoyance with folks like you has abated with the understanding that,
your impotent cut and pasting will never bring about the outcome you desire.

In fact, your final solution can make the problem worse.
I live in a very large juristiction that has banned 'pit bulls'.
After almost 9 years there are now more than ever.

Very liberal idea, thinking that by passing a law,
you haved waved a magic bannishing wand
and that the problem will disppear.

The responsible owners do not break the law
but as always when an unjust law is passed
people will rebel against it and work around it.
And they will find support both in the law enforcement and Animal Control communities
who recognize the totalitarian, kill 'em all attitude is inherently unfair and unjust.

The difference affected is that advocates for responsible ownership
of these dogs can no longer do their job publically.
The very people that can provide the education needed to prevent dog attacks
are forced underground and into ineffective positions

I don't expect you to change your mind, it is, after all, obsessed.
But the majority of poeple are not like you.
they care about all dog attacks, big or small,
irrelevant of the type/breed involved.
They are more than willing to listen to stories
like that of a woman, her child and her dog
and respect the lesson she is trying to impart.
It is not for you I have made this post and am sharing this story,
but for those who care about all dog attacks
and are willing to learn how to prevent them

It is not a story you'll find using your 'pit bull' search parameters
but it is an important one and to those willing to listen
may save some other child from being attacked.

-----------------------

~Mother tell courageous story about dog bite, responsibility~

I do not have a blog. If I did I would post this there, as this will be lengthy. I keep things here on Facebook pretty light and post about my crazy, funny family life. I am posting this for 2 reasons. First, I see more and more pictures of babies with their pups. I am absolutely not saying there is anything wrong with that… I do it, too. Second, I am noticing my son being more and more aggressive with Daphne, our amazing white lab.

Putting together these pictures and writing this post brings up so many emotions that I really never wanted to feel again. I have realized, that when faced with it, the pain never goes away, ever. I can put myself in that hospital again in my mind like it was happening now. It’s a horrible, heart wrenching feeling.

Our gorgeous Scrappy suffered constantly from ear infections. This we knew. We have a pool and there was no way to keep him out, he loves to swim. Oftentimes I would come home and he would be alone just doing laps… So funny!! He was on meds for his ear infections but I became lazy on taking him to the vet which seemed like constantly. I started splitting his pills in half so they would last longer. Why? To save a buck? Shame, shame, shame on me!! I assumed he learned to live with the pain… I mean, why keep swimming? He was a smart dog!

THIS WAS/IS THE SWEETEST DOG ON THE PLANET!!

Hey, I consider myself pretty sweet too but I snap on occasion.

I was not home when this happened, I was on a shoot. I got a call from Tom saying he was on his way to the hospital, he told me what happened. I could not understand? I got in my car and drove. I don’t think I said a word to Britt, who was with me. My mind was numb. When we got to the hospital Brittany was ahead of me when walking into the room. She tried to stop me from entering. I have never felt that kind of pain in my heart, never. It is a different kind of pain when it is your child. The pain was crippling, hurt me to the core. When they stitched up Zach I had to leave the room because they had 2 nurses holding him down and the doctor straddled over him. I seriously thought I was going to faint. Daddy was with him, Zach was not alone.

Zach was playing with Scrappy… Sitting on him and reached forward and grabbed both of his ears, hard. Scrappy snapped. In about 5 seconds he ripped my son’s face to shreds. It was knee jerk. Kind of like when someone steps on your broken foot, you lash out.

Dogs can’t yell, they can’t curse you out or say ‘OUCH!!’ It was a knee jerk reaction from the sweetest Golden Retriever that would actually die for Zach. It just happened.

When we came home from the hospital I went to the backyard and looked at him and just cried… He cried, too. He felt awful, I know he did.

Because the hospital considered this a mauling, it was reported and he was to be put down. Within 24 hours animal control was at our door for quarantine. He did his 14 days. In the meantime my mom, who happened to own property in Texas at the time (but lives here), made a massive plea and campaign to keep him alive and she would take him to Texas (he is with her still). This was granted.

I can’t tell you enough how this was such a blow to our family because Scrappy was family, he was not just our ‘family dog.’

I am sharing these pictures after all of these years because if your animal is trying to tell you something, please listen. If your dog swims regularly there is a good chance they will have ear infections. Be proactive, listen to their eyes… They really want to tell you.

I LOVE my pets so much and I have learned so much by this experience. I ask, no I beg, that you share this because I wish I would have paid closer attention. Please, take your pets to the vet, the clinic. Anywhere where they can get the help they need because they do love you so much.

<> http://www.swaylove.org/mother-tells-courageous-story-about-dog-bite-responsibility

Woof!

[kanawa]

This “pit nutter.. and.... blatant liar..”,
has already given up 4 hours of his sleep time on this thread
and is not inclined to give anymore it at the moment particularly to you given your opinion of me.
Be that as it may and for the sake of others...

Short version..
dog attack San Antonio TX attributed to ‘pit bull’
photo in paper raised questions in my mind
called long distance from Canada to San Antonia
able to make contact and speak with Animal Control Officer
who had actually seen the dog in question
she identified the dog as Lab.

Ignorantly thought dogsbite.org was a reputable site
as concerned as I about compiling accurate information.
They had identified the dog as a ‘pit bull’
sent them my report with contact info so they could correct.

To this day they have they have not retracted the false identification
Deliberate ignoring of evidence and knowingly publishing false data.

You may find that behavior acceptable, I don’t.
Once a liar always a liar as far as I’m concerned.

[Salamander]

The same people who scream for the outlawing of a dog breed will be the first to scream even louder when somebody tries to outlaw a particular model of “scary gun” they prefer.

If we’re talking the sheer force of “statistics”, guns kill a lot more kids [and adults] than dogs every year...*many* more.

And they will always say, “But guns don’t kill...people do”.

I seriously doubt that that logic comforts those who lost their loved one, much.

I hate nanny staters.

Whether their pet crusade is against guns, dogs, food, global warming or cigarettes...I really hate nanny staters.

There is no reasoning with them.

[and the dogsbite site is the canine version of Snopes]

Not that anyone asked, but of all the causes of death among children, their own parents are more likely culprits than any other.

Ban parents.

I hardly know what to say about “Scrappy”.

Ear infections are agonizingly painful and it astounds me that she let the dog suffer like that.

It’s horrific that her innocent child paid the price for her negligence.

I have discussed Odin’s hypothyroidism at length, here.

His first symptom was sudden, surprising, serious -aggression- just shy of his first birthday.

Since Hypo-T is fairly odd in a Dobe that young, the vet balked at running the tests.

I said take my money and humor me.

His T levels were nearly non-existent.

Hypot-T is the #1 cause of “sudden, uncharacteristic aggression” in dogs.

If I were a dumber owner or less informed, it’s entirely possible that my own beloved 100 pounds of teeth and muscle could have, one day, ripped me apart.

Instead, he will get 2 doses of Soloxine every day, just as he always has, for the last 4 years.

If the dosage needs adjusted, I can tell immediately because he growls at me, even though he shakes and looks ashamed.

He cannot help himself, it’s that powerful a disorder.
He is at the mercy of his own disfunctional endocrine system.

Even so, he would gladly kill or die for me and adores kids to a ridiculous degree.

And it’s up to me to keep him on an even keel by providing the medicine he needs.
[even if I had to starve for a week just to pay for the pills]

Would that I had known *3* of his brothers who were killed soon after their 1st birthdays for “aggression”, they would still be alive and well.

His hypothyroidism is not genetic or immune-related.
It’s “familial”, meaning his dam was low-T during her pregnancy and none of the pups had normal thyroids.

To the best of my knowledge, he is the sole male survivor.

And that, only because I “know my sh*t”, as it were.

The rest of this endless bickering can go merrily on without me.

As if anyone listens, anyway.