It's hard to look up the 'pit bull' deaths by breed, because so many different breeds are described by onlookers, media, and police as a 'pit bull.' Only if the dog is further described by a legitimate shelter do we know what the really was. In one case, the 'pit bull' was a Bullmastiff/Labrador Retriever mix.
First, I have to believe that American Bully Terriers are involved in the problem:
If I was this dog biting a person, I'd swear it was a 'pit bull' - an American Pit Bull Terrier, an American Staffordshire, or (they shouldn't be in the mix) or a Staffordshire Terrier.
It's not. It's the American Bully Terrier, and it's becoming more popular by leaps and bounds. Just like the American Pit Bull Terrier, I'll wager than American Bully owners are ten times more likely to have a criminal history than owners of non-bully breeds.
Yet, the American Bully is not on my country's 'pit bull' list and the miniature American Bull Terrier is.
The miniature is on the right:
Unfortunate, official shelter staff have no problem lying to the public, whom they deem as unreliable and aggresive, instead of the pit bulls.
WHen so many pit bulls flooded the animal shelters in New York, the shelters kicked of a campaign refering to the pits as New Yorkies in order to avoid the “stigma” of the name. WHen those New Yorkies started killing neighborhood pets (the gateway drug to human attacks), the program was dropped.
I read through an official shelter PowerPoint presentation wherein the shelter’s director toed the pro pit bull lobby’s line, “they are gentle if treated right” “they are lovable and cuddly, reliable pets that are stigmatized by the public.” It wasn’t until I got to the last few slides of the presentation that I came across stern reminders that when pits are handled at the shelter, two employees must be present, no exceptions etc. This was unique to pits, no other instructions for two adults handling other types of dogs.
Official shelter staff are happy to lie to the public, it makes them feel morally superior. But if your family was adopting a New Yorkie, wouldn’t you be a little angry to discover it was a pit?
So there’s no assurance that the Bullmastiff/Labrador Retriever mix wasn’t actually a pit bull. Pit bull owners will ridicule you to your face for correctly identifying the breed of their dog and tell you it’s some other variation of the name. Then there are those pits bred to have the coloring of rotties. A 2 year old “rottie” service dog, weighing 30lbs, did major damage on a a crowded municipal bus. Later, someone would ask the question “how many 2 year old rotties weigh 30lbs?”
And there is a video on the web about a 30lb pit killing a horse. The small ones can kill but may just over represent at the major mauling level.
I read up on the bully pits about a year ago. They are APBT stock selectively bred for size. THe AKC chooses not to register pits over a certain weight but the bully type is just a gigantic pit bull. On the web, there are many sleazy sites with dogs up to 120 pounds - the website uses brags “Bully Breed” but when you read up on their breeding stock, it’s pit bulls. So the AKC won’t register massive pits but they are pits.