Again??
Posted on 06/26/2011 3:08:13 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A recent attack on a 75-year-old woman by two pit bulls fuels the ongoing debate as to whether or not the breed should be considered dangerous.
The woman suffered severe injuries, including multiple bites and a heart attack.
The incident has reignited the debate: Are pit bulls unsafe?
Dangerous Dogs
The controversy surrounding pit bulls has been argued for decades. A special report released by the U.S. Center for Disease Control in 2000 displayed that pit bulls were responsible for the majority of dog bite related fatalities.
The report has since received an overwhelming amount of dissonance from pit bull advocates. The CDC later released a statement saying there was no accurate way to identify which breeds are more likely to kill.
However, advocates at the nonprofit organization Dogsbite.org performed its own study that revealed more than 50 percent of fatal dog attacks are from pit bulls. The Texas-based website serves to warn the public about dangerous dog breeds and educate the public about possible solutions to prevent pit bull attacks.
Colleen Lynn, founder of Dogsbite.org, said the example of the recent attack exposes pit bulls as a hazardous breed.
“We know not all pit bulls are going to attack,” she said. “Pit bulls are not born vicious, they are born dangerous. If you’re going to own one you need to know.” Lynn believes both genetics and a dog’s surroundings play a role in dog attacks.
“There’s no question that environment can play a role,” Lynn said. “But pit bulls bite, clamp, hold and shake. That’s totally genetic.”
Lynn suggested the pit bulls that attacked Emako Mendoza were displaying typical pit bull breed behavior. She said keeping multiple pit bulls elevates the risk, especially with puppies.
Lynn worries that the dogs’ owners will not be able to pay for Mendoza’s injuries. Because of instances like this, Lynn wants to enforce legislation, which would make pit bull owners obtain insurance.
“These dogs can cause serious damage,” she said. “It’s very self-centered considering the risk they could pose.”
Nature vs. Nurture
Are pit bulls attack dogs by nature, or does training play a role?
The Pit Bull Rescue Central website advocates against the notion that the breed itself is dangerous. Marcy Setter runs the website educating dog owners and restoring the pit bull image.
“It’s not a breed issue, it’s a dog issue,” Setter said. “I hear about dogs getting loose and that relates directly to irresponsible dog owners.”
Setter said it’s important to socialize any dog, and expose them to as much as possible.
“A dog is a dog at the end of the day, and all dogs bite,” she said. “Every breed has attacks or fatalities against them.”
Despite negative connotations people have of pit bulls, Setter said people are still interested in adopting them because they are friendly and loyal.
“I would tell a new dog owner the same thing I’d tell other dog owners,” she said. “Make sure to socialize the animal with other dogs and animals.”
Taking Responsibility
San Diego seems to be a pit bull hot spot; simply stroll by Ocean Beach and one will see owners walking pit bulls along the boardwalk.
Michaela Myers, a volunteer with the Pit Bull Rescue San Diego, said pit bulls are a popular dog type not just in San Diego, but also across the nation. As a pit bull owner, Myers believes the dogs make good pets despite unfavorable attention they often receive.
“They’re goofy, loving and great companions,” she said. Myers has two pit bull mixes, one that is a certified therapy dog.
Myers said some people want pit bulls for the wrong reasons, such as enhancing their image as someone who is tough.
“When they become popular with the wrong people for the wrong reasons pit bulls get a bad rep,” she said. Myers said the recent attack must take into account how the dogs were kept and treated.
At the San Diego league experienced trainers evaluate pit bulls to determine whether or not they are temperamental, according to Myers.
The local rescue league also encourages newly adopted dog owners to understand the image they present with their pit bull.
“I do think dog owners have an extra responsibility because the public scrutinizes,” she said. “We want them to be extra responsible with how they present themselves with their dog.”
It amazes me that there is any debate about the dangers of the Pit Bull breed. Stats do not lie, I/we tell that to the knuckle headed libs all the time, yet, I still see conservatives make the ludicrous statement that its not the breed, its the owners. Well, if that’s the case, then, by that logic, only bad people ever own pits because they are responsible for the majority of attacks. Not say Labradors or Blue Heelers, because they never top the dog attack/kill charts, so only good people must own those breeds?
Source:http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_States
Here is the 2010 US dog attack fatality list (Notice that MOST are pit attacks):
January 13 Pit bull-type Makayla Woodard 5 years Killed by neighbor’s two pit bulls
January 9 Pit bull-type Omar Martinez 3 years Killed by his family’s dog
January 17 Pit bull-type Johnny Wilson 56 years Killed by his daughter’s four dogs
February 12 Pit bull-type Anastasia Bingham 6 years Killed while walking to a friend’s home
February 18 Siberian Husky Robert D. Hocker 11 days Killed by his family’s dog
February 20 Pit bull-type Christine Stabb 38 years Killed by her mother’s dog
February 20 American Bulldog Violet Serenity Haaker 3 years Killed by one of her mother’s dogs
February 22 Pit bull-type “Jane Doe” 5 days Killed by her family’s dog
March 1 Rottweiler Ashlynn Anderson 4 years Killed by her stepfather’s dog
March 4 Pit bull-type Ethel Horton 65 years Killed while defending her husband against an attack by her nephew’s dog
March 8 Rottweiler Justin Lopez 8 months Killed by his family’s two new dogs
April 14 Pit bull-mix Thomas Carter, Jr. 7 days Killed by his family’s dog
May 20 Mixed-breed dog Krystal Brink 3 years Killed when she wandered into her neighbor’s sled dog yard
May 28 Pit bull-type Nathan Aguirre 2 years Killed by his family’s dog
June 3 Pit bull-type Savannah Gragg 9 years Killed in her home while opening the door to let the dog outside
June 15 Bullmastiff-mix Pit bull-Boxer mix Rottweiler-mix Michael Winters 30 years Killed by his nine dogs (5 Bullmastiff, 3 Pit bull-Boxer-mix, 1 Rottweiler-mix)
July 12 Labrador Retriever-mixGerman Shepherd Dog-Husky-mix Kyle Holland 5 years Killed by the dogs of his mother’s live-in boyfriend
July 20 Pit bull-type William Parker 71 years Suffered a fatal heart attack when attacked by two of his neighbor’s dogs
July 22 Pit bull-type Jacob Bisbee 2 years Killed by three of his step-grandfather’s dogs. The dogs had decapitated the family’s pet Akita and killed the family’s pet Chihuahua and parrot within the past year.
July 31 German Shepherd Dog-mix Aaron Carlson 2 years Killed by his family’s dog
August 19 Pit bull-type Tracey Payne 46 years Killed by a pack of pit bull-type dogs that had been abandoned by their owner.
August 22 Pit bull-type Jerry Yates 69 years Killed by 2 pit bulls a tenant was keeping on his land.
August 25 Pit bull-type Mixed-breed dog Jason Walter 7 years Killed by a neighbor’s three pit bull-type dogs and a mixed breed dog while staying at the neighbor’s residence.
August 26 Boxer Taylor Becker 4 years Killed by her family’s dog.
September 4 Pit bull-type Mattie Daugherty 85 years Killed by her daughter’s 9-year-old dog.
October 13 Pit bull-type Rev. John Reynolds sr. 84 years Killed by his son’s pack of 17 dogs.
October 14 Pit bull-type Edward Mitchell 67 years Died of complications of his injuries inflicted by his family’s dog.
October 24 Pit bull-type Justin Valentin 3 days Killed by his family’s dog[18
November 2 Pit bull-Weimaraner-mix Christina Casey 53 years Killed in her own yard by her neighbor’s two dogs
November 10 Pit bull-type Kaden Muckleroy 2 years Killed by his grandfather’s dog[187][188] November 15 Mixed-breed dog Cason Bryant 5 years Killed in his own yard by five of his neighbor’s dogs November 15 German Shepherd Dog Shirley Lou Bird 79 years Killed by her own dog
Explain that pit bull deniers...
Our Shiu-tzu was mauled by one many years ago and he was never the same dog.
I wouldn't allow my son around them, and if one ran spontaneously onto my lawn I would shoot it. It's a bad, polluted breed, big among illegals and gang members. It's not the dogs fault, but don't bring one near me or my child or I will use deadly force.
There are very few actual pit bulls on your list.
Explain THAT Sparky.
Playing the semantics game huh, I think the word Pit bull is the most used word in that list..
Pit bull-mix is a guess.
Pit bull-type means they have no clue.
Pit bull is used anytime an idiot wants to make a sensational story out of a dog bite.
Kinda like people loading clips into their Glock automatics.
The media doesn’t deal in semantics, they deal in lies.
At one time I was blessed (or cursed, lol) with six large rescues. One was an ancient GSD and one was a relatively young Pit. The others were various mixes of Labs, Husky/Wolf and just big mutts.
The pack was very congenial for a couple of years, so I was pretty relaxed. But for some reason Ginger (the Pit) decided to try to take down the ancient GSD. Why? In retrospect,I suspect that she was old and vulnerable.
Probably one of the scariest, and most heart rending dog fights I have ever seen. I was finally able to separate the two, but Ginger was still in a frenzy and looked at me like she was in another world. I was really afraid I WAS GONNA DIE right there on the spot. I finally got her calmed down, took the GSD to the vet for extensive surgery (she lived)and had to keep Ginger separate from the other dogs.
Since I know how abuse can happen with this breed, I didn't feel comfortable just turning her over to someone. Arranging all the schedules for each dog for “people time” was a real pain in the rear.
She was a beautiful dog with a big smiley face and very affectionate.
Would I have another?No Way!!!
That would be where you trip over them and fall down the stairs. ;-)
LOL
I’m not good enough at being the alpha with my sheltie mix to have a pit bull.
It’s the breeders that are breeding aggression into these dogs.
One problem is pits are probably the most misidentified breed out there. I have seen many articles about pit bull attacks with photos of dogs that looked nothing like a real pit. Many times if a large dog with an ugly head bites anyone it is immediately called a pit. Not too long ago there was an article about 2 pits attacking a child and the animal control folks said the dogs were not pits so the paper did a retraction. Most of the time there is no correction if the dog isn’t really a pit.
I notice on your list there are several that are listed as pit bull type- what is with that word “type” are they or aren’t they?
I have been around pits all my life and have never seen a mean one. I know there are mean ones, I am not saying that- just I have not seen one in person. We only owned one dog that was mean and she was a red heeler.
Some people shouldn’t own any type of dog- they either won’t make them mind or make them mean on purpose through abuse/neglect/stupidity. I think there are a lot of issues in cities because of irresponsible owners. Dogs of any kind should not be loose- ever where others live.
The other issue is in my opinion no dog large enough to cause serious injury should ever be trusted around small children or the elderly and no dog should be trusted around babies. Any dog that is dangerous needs to be put down, period end of story.
The problem is that pit-bull terriers are actually a type of terrier, not a breed, per se. Just as there are greyhound types (not capitalized), and retriever types, and spitz types.
Even using “type” as opposed to “specific breed” - PBT loses, I’m afraid.
Of course, there’s also the problem that many morons can’t tell a Labrador from a PBT, anyway, much less any mutt. There are many more mutts out in the world than any lists would imply. So we can’t always count on the ID being correct. (Which is why I totally oppose “breed” legislation.)
Again??
I do think SOME breeding programs have resulted in mean dogs of many popular “mean dog breeds”- might be true in some areas where there are a lot of idiots that want a mean dog and breed for that. I have only been around pits bred and raised to be nice dogs and that is what I have seen- nice pits. Whether or not one is nice probably has to do with breeding and raising. Most of us can’t imagine breeding two mean dogs of any breed to each other but there are idiots that do and other idiots that want to own them.
Banning pits would not solve any of the issues because the idiots would just find another large type of dog and again breed mean dog to mean dog and the problems would still be there.
A 100 lb dog is not a pitbull.
That is a wonderful Idea.....I also figured that pit bulls on ships would stop the pirates also...Keep them caged and slightly hungry, if pirates board the ship, press a button and all cage doors open...you wouldn’t have to feed them for a week...
Yes, but let us first test my idea in Washington DC, Boston, Ma, Hollywierd, caliphony, and Chicago.
We have a pit/red heeler mix and he is the sweetest dog ever. Guess you never know.
Here he is as a puppy.
Here he is as an adult.
You can see as he got older he was less blurry too.
What Pit Bull? You mean this dog? Yeah, her name's Killer and that's why she's on this leash . . . !!!????!!!
Vets don't always ID breed mixes correctly, let alone Animal Control (notoriously inaccurate) or the newspaper reporter who probably never saw the dog, but thinks that "Pit Bull" sells papers. I'm totally opposed to breed legislation too, given the mouth breathing morons who would be "identifying" the breed.
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