Posted on 06/04/2005 8:54:05 PM PDT by churchillbuff
Pit bull terriers may be one of the most controversial breeds around, but they are also one of the most misunderstood by the public, dog experts said Friday in the wake of the fatal mauling of a 12-year-old boy in San Francisco.
If bred and trained properly, pit bulls can be wonderful pets, experts said. If there is a lack of stability, though, they have the proclivity and ability to inflict serious damage.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Anyone owning one of these monsters is out of his or her mind. I was talking to a friend not too many days ago and he used to have one and it turned on him and nearly bit his shoe in two. He summarily executed it out in the back. No one should own one of these unless they have about a billion dollar liability insurance policy and be willing to go to jail. I had one of these things come at me one time and thought I was a dead man.
My insurance has a sensible policy -powerful dogs are OK but they will drop coverage if there is a biting incident.
Pit Bulls are much maligned. Actually, around little children, they are statiscally far less dangerous than crocodiles, Bengal tigers, spitting cobras and Kodiak Bears. In fact, if Pit Bulls are raised carefully in a loving home environment, properly trained, and brushed daily, they are apt to eat no more than one, or possibly two children a year, and perhaps once in a blue moon, the odd small mail carrier or pizza delivery guy.
This is an acceptable risk, especially given the hours of enjoyment they give their unfailingly intelligent, attractive, and intellectually gifted owners. In fact, IMHO, Pit Bull owners should be allowed to keep these charming pets in their cells.
Then the Akita, Rot, and Chow owners will get the message.
Dogs that kill other dogs will eventually kill people. I wouldn't miss any of the above breeds if they vanished in ten years.
Genocide? Not very multicultural of you.
That may have been breed that injured the elderly woman we knew (she recently passed away - not from dog ) - liitle white fluffy dogs with sharp little teeth. Is that what a bichon looks like?
How glad to know you aren't a fan of private property.
Here locally we just had our 3rd Pit attack of the year. Three went over a 6 foot fence and attacked a meter man at the house next door. It took two people with metal pipes to get them off of him.
So you tell me. I have owned and known people who owned dogs all my life, and I have never seen another breed that was such a timebomb. Are owners to blame sure. But I have owned Goldens, Labs and Springers and none of them have ever attacked anyone. When my Springer gets annoyed by my grand nephew and neice, she just looks at me mournfully and goes in the next room and stays there until everybody goes home. The same was true with my other dogs when these kids parents were kids.
My Lab and Springer were intense natural hunters and water dogs, which based on their breeding, you would expect. The Golden, god bless him, was just a big sweety that didn't hunt anything but his food bowl.
Any dog can be trained, but all dogs have instinct and breeding and Pits were bred for years to attack and keep attacking until either their opponent or they themselves were dead. Someday that instinct may be bred out of them much like the Golden's hunting instinct, but that is a long way off. And until then they are going to continue to be a hazard in most situations.
An elderly neighbor told me how they were developed to trail cougars. I thought nothing of this tidbit of information until recent years. Why?
After being mostly missing from the midwest for generations, cougar sightings are on the upswing. I can't say I've seen it with my own eyes, but I'm told these dogs will trail a big cat if given the opportunity. Hmmm.....How could they do that? They HAVEN'T BEEN TRAINED.
Think about that. Traits that were bred in decades ago are still present with NO outward appearance of the trait.
The owners of little lap dogs (not that there is anything wrong with lap dogs) seem to hate "pitbulls" the most.
The whole show dogs thing is weird to me - many of the AKC dog breeds seem to have all function breed out of them - at least the lap dogs don't pretend to be anything other then small pets that look cute.
Could be I've been taken in by AKC "propaganda" for the last 35 or so years. AmStaff people I talked to at shows are my primary source of that post. If it is wrong, then I'm sorry.
I was in Shelties, so about the only contact I had with pits was my foot to the jaws of a loose one when riding a bike; and when "taking care of" a couple trespassing ones literally pulling one of my barn cats in half.
Just reading the two Standards, it is hard to make a real comparison, due to differences in language style, comparable descriptives, and emphasized points.
Just one example, UKC gives a broad range of acceptable weights; AKC gives heights.
I also notice that AKC is still using a 1936 approved Standard, but UKC's was revised late last year. I've been out of breeding & showing for about 15 years.
A 6-year study in Palm Beach County of "most severe dog bite by breed" shows the top 10 breeds who have been identified in this comparison.1988: APBT ranked 9th w/9 per cent of bites
1989: APBT ranked 5th w/15 per cent
1990: APBT ranked 5th w/16 per cent
1991: APBT ranked 9th w/10 per cent
1992: APBT ranked 2nd w/20.4 per cent (w/cocker spaniel showing in 1st)
1993: APBT ranked 5th w/16 per cent
In a 1993 study, also in Palm Beach County, the bites were ranked by severity from 1 to 4 and the animal that was recorded as having inflicted the greatest number of severe bites was the domestic short-haired cat. A breed labeled as "pit bull" was in 5th place, following cat, German Shepherds, Chow and Lab.
I guess I have led a sheltered life - lived in urban areas over 40 years and lived in a few ghettos and have never seen a pitbull attack. Seen a few dog biting incidents (none pitbulls) and had several of the breeds you mention attack my AmStaff & APBT dogs. I'm sure if I had let my dogs fight back against the attacking dogs it would have made the media as a "pitbull attack".
The other day a big English Bulldog in my neioghborhood got loose and tried to jump om my APBT - I had a difficult time keeping the dogs apart but I held the dog until its owner came and managed to keep both dogs apart - not an easy feat.
I guess I was able to avoid another "pitbull attacK' as over half of the so-called attacks I read about seems to consist of ordinary dogfighst that would not get any press if other breeds were involved.
I have two Labs and I hate pit bulls with a passion. They are nothing but a dog mauling waiting to happen.
I am neutral on lap dogs, but would never have one.
As far as laws against pit bulls goes, there are laws agains keeping lions, tigers and all manner of dangerous animals in your house and no one complains. Pit bulls are just another type of dangerous animal.
I have noted that both the socio-economic status and the intelligence of the average pit bull owners is well below the norm for owners of more gentle breeds. Seems like the dumber the person, the more vicious the dog they like.
They are both good dogs - "pitbull" hysteria is media generated fear and teh dogs look like powerfll little "bulls" so the fear is understandable . I am afraid of agrresive dogs myself - most APBT I come across are not particullary aggresive to people - OTOH I have come across many german shepards & rotties that are super aggresive.
Pure B S. end of story.
LOL!
A source for statistics and studies on bites and fatal attacks:
The National Canine Research Foundation
http://ncrf2004.tripod.com/
My dogs have been attacked by large Labs twice. Both were aggresive dogs allowed to be off leash by their owners.
I've met smart people who own labs and some real morons. The morons usually don't keep their dogs on leashes.
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