Posted on 06/15/2006 6:38:54 PM PDT by SLB
http://www.breederville.info/petnews/humane-insane.htm
Humane or insane?
Importation of foreign stray animals into US shelters
threatens health, sustains ‘overpopulation’
http://www.breederville.info/petnews/redefining.htm
Redefining pet overpopulation: The no-kill movement and the new jet setters
http://www.breederville.info/petnews/relocation-rabies.htm
Stray pet relocation brings rabies to Massachusetts
Cesar Milan mentions just that point in his recent book. In the '70's it was the Doberman, in the '80s it was the German Shepherd, in the '90's it was the Rottwieler. Now it's the new millenium and it's the Pitt Bull. So many people know next to nothing about dogs, yet they think they are experts by pushing for breed ban.
Ball pythons are an environmental issue. They get loose and become an entrenched, invasive, non-native species. They are disrupting the ecosystem in the Everglades in FL and will do the same in LA. Not saying the ban is the way to go, just sdhedding light on how that situation is different, as you mentioned, from dog bans.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1497226/posts
Snake Swallows 6-Foot Alligator
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1497132/posts
Python eats gator, stomach ruptures
I have reported it to animal control, and I am sure the only thing they did was send them a form letter stating that they were issuing a warning about the dog and that is about it. The only time I have seen them show up for anything was to clean up road kill or to take down a rabid dog. They could care less about anything else.
I guess I could push it, but nobody else in the neighborhood has a backbone so I am not going to be labeled the neighborhood troublemaker. Believe me, thats how it works. Say something and your labeled trouble. Let your dog roam around and nobody says a damn thing!
I haven't seen the dog lately, but that doesn't mean that they are still not letting it roam the streets at night(I have personally seen this).
Those were the stories I was thinking of, but I couldn't remember if they were Burmese pythons of Ball Pythons. Thanks. I have also seen iguana's that have gone wild in FL, too.
Isn't a cur a dogo? Because a dogo is listed as a pit bull type dog which will be put down like they did in Colorado.
So I know the 'image' you think of when you say 'you know what a pit bull is'; but you don't seem to understand what a legally defined pit bull type is. And yes, that includes an American Stafforshire and all the dogs I listed in post 49 that made you chuckle.
The pit bull was recognized by the AKC as the American Staffordshire Terrier because they didn't want the name to make the dog look bad. There are two schools of thought on this. One is that they are two seperate breeds, as they have gone in two seperate directions because one must be held to rigorous AKC standards and the other wins in shows where it's obviously not what was intended. However, many of these dogs are dual registered as both AmStaffs and APBT's, making them essentially the same.
When you talk about the pit bull of today being a combination of breeds, you are really referring to the "bully" or "bluff" type, which in any responsible, knowledgeable pit bull owner or fancier's opinion, is simply that. No longer are those huge, drooling, smiling, bow-legged dogs pit bulls any more than they are giraffes. The problem is that Americans want a bigger, badder dog, so these idiots breed their pits to all kinds of other dogs to get them bigger, more extreme, and in most cases, since they are only breeding for looks, unknown temperaments. The sad part is that they get away with calling these dogs pits. They simply add "freaks", "monster", "bully style", etc. to the name, almost like they're trying to make another breed altogether.
There are still many people who have original pit bulls which are from 35 to 60 pounds max, and although they have been bred for a long time to fight other DOGS, they are absolutely people friendly. You are right that you cannot take the genes out of the dog, but you are wrong in the idea that these dogs were bred to be mean to people. For centuries, these dogs have been bred to fight dogs no matter how painful, AND to be so human friendly that a person could walk up in the middle of a fight and not get bitten.
The dogs you hear on the news are the exception to the rule, and that's a fact you can read for yourself by looking at the top three registries. The sheer population of these dogs right now is astounding. If it really was a breed problem we would have about four to six million attacks just from them.
Responsible breeders and owners of this breed do not tolerate any kind of human aggression whatsoever. I mean none. If the dog stiffens up while eating when you walk by, it's not going to make it. That is because the responsible ones want what is best for not only the breed, but society, and would never intentionally bring out negative qualities such as human aggression.
The few dogs that have mauled people should not give the rest a bad name considering they represent only 0.000002% of them, and even a high percentage of them are not really pit bulls, but other dogs mistaken for them.
When the CDC did their numbers for deaths, they included all "bully" breeds for the pit bull, instead of dividing them all up into their own, like they do with huskies, malamutes, and other sled dogs. That is seven different breeds at least, that got lumped up into one cagegory. Of course the numbers will look high if that is done. If you divided the breeds up, you find that each one has the same amount of deaths as labradors.
What is really making these dogs look bad is the media. I know from experience with a few friends that they willingly leave things out when writing stories for the sake of ratings and money, and most severe attacks done by other dogs just don't get reported at all. They just don't draw people in like pit bulls.
Look back over the years. You will notice the same thing happened with other large breeds. It is not that there are any less dobermans, gsd, or rotties, and they certainly aren't attacking or killing any less, but they hardly make it on the news at all because they aren't the money makers right now. The pit bull is. And soon it will be the American Bulldog, the Presa Canario, the Bullmastiff, the Ca De Bou, and the Boerbel.
I agree that cats aren't as dangerous as some dogs are, but they can spread diseases and they can destroy property, and they can be a nuisance. If your cat happens to use your neighbors' flowerbed for a litterbox, that could be dangerous if your neighbor was pregnant.
Not to mention you are increasing the cat's chances of picking up all kinds of nasty diseases like panleukopemia, feline herpes virus, and feline leukemia, and of course getting mauled by other animals wild or not, getting hit by cars, and getting tortured to death by people. All of these things happen on a daily basis. It's so bad now that even out in the country your cat isn't safe. Cats living indoors live much longer than cats living outdoors, and the above are only a few reasons why that is.
No, they really aren't an environmental issue. I realize that everyone thinks that The Everglades and Louisiana are the same, but they aren't. We are quite a bit north of the Everglades, and we get more freezing temperatures every year. Those temperature extremes would kill any kind of python.
While there's some evidence that burmese pythons are breeding in the Everglades, ball pythons are a different situation. First, the buremese pythons generally go into the wild as top predators because someone has let one go after it becomes too big to keep. A twelve foot burmese is going to have few natural enemies. A four or five foot ball python is going to have many natural enemies.
According the Louisiana Marine Education Resource page, the three conditions needed for an invasive species to become a nuisance are:
1. The species has to have prolific reproduction.
2. The species has to have advanced adaptability to environmental stresses.
3. The species has to have advanced ability to compete for food.
Ball Pythons don't have these characteristics.
They don't reach sexual maturity until they are three years old in captivity and may need an extra year or two in the wild. When they begin reproducing, they produce only about six to ten eggs a year and don't usually produce every year in the wild. Typically, they don't live more than about ten years in the wild. A male and female baby nutria, Louisiana's worst invasive animal species, will produce about 500 offspring within four years. They begin producing at six months and produce about ten or twelve little ones a year. That fertility is why they are a successful invasive species. In the same four years, a male and female ball python hatchling might produce six more ball pythons. With the nutria, predators can kill quite a few of the young without changing the 500 nutria produced. With ball pythons, if a predator gets either of them before year four, no babies will be produced.
Ball pythons are not superbly adapted to environmental stresses. They are never top predators as the big burmese pythons are. Their natural range is within about 20 degrees of the equator. The Everglades are about 26 degrees, and Louisiana is near 30 degrees. The difference impacts how much cold weather we have, and the cold weather impacts their survival.
Ball pythons wouldn't have any competitive advantage in getting food in Louisiana. They are used to eating certain rats native to Africa. They convert to domestic rats and mice easily enough in many cases, but they have no traits that would make them better at hunting than our native kingsnakes are.
Another factor that weighs against them being released to become a nuisance is that adult females have real value in the breeding world. I can see how finding a market for a 12 foot burmese python could be difficult. Ball python breeders will snap up any healthy adult female for use in their projects. Typical market value of a female of breeding size is about $300. There's no reason to release a snake that one could sell for $300.
Bill
Congrats to your mother for being a responsible dog owner! People everywhere could stand to take a page from her book. I just hope she knows that even if the dog is socialized very well with other dogs, when it reaches maturity, it still may not end up liking other dogs. It just happens, and it can be controlled, but that part of their history is very ingrained.
I know of my two, my gamebred (I'm not a fighter, I mean gamebred like what she is supposed to look like, not a freakishly large pit)girl, Gabby, picks and chooses which dogs she likes, but my younger, Kaya, "bully style" who is "purebred" from a backyard breeder, loves all dogs, and wets herself around cats. It all depends on the dog, but just a word of caution. Something tells me if your mother is doing the puppy classes she may already know all this, but just in case.
It gets a lot of people when their dog, no matter the breed, reaches about 2 and seems to change overnight when it comes to other dogs and also their territory. They don't sometimes realize that it's a completely natural thing that happens, much like puberty for us. I know when I was that age I was a terror.
That is the best thing you can do. Get the dog socialized around people and other pets early and frequently. But as solosmoke mentioned, bully breeds can be very stubborn and will test your 'pack' leadership. Around 2-3 is likely the last big push. Just don't let the dog be dominant and you shouldn't have any problems. What you describe is just likle the bully breeds - naturally friendly to people. Also, spaying or neutering at a young age also helps with behavior issues when done early.
Very good information. I'm not a snake person so I know less than diddley about them. And, based on what you wrote, it looks like another ignoratn legislature reacting to emotion and not knowledge. Georgia did the same thing when they banned quaker parrots as pets.
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