A friend of mine just recently got a pit bull from a local animal shelter, and now just two weeks later she’s returning it because she said the dog is acting very aggressive and starting to bite. She has two young sons so the dog has to go. I know nothing about dogs, and specifically pit bulls. We’ve seen a number of fatal maulings over the past few years by pit bulls or pit mix breeds. Maybe it has a killer instinct that can’t be eliminated by domestication. Just awful for that man’s family!
While no vetting is perfect, a good shelter should do a very thorough job of determining whether a rescue dog is aggressive and cannot be socialized. I know this for a fact.
So while it’s possible this dog slipped through, it’s also possible that the dog was not properly vetted.
Like most of the things that we read in the news there are so many things that are left out for one reason or another.
Not do much that, as aggressiveness and urge to kill things far larger than they are was systematically bred into pit bulls.
They were bred to fight and kill a friggin' enraged BULL fer cryin' out loud!
See, that is the problem. Most people do not understand that dogs have been bred for certain purposes/jobs. I would usually have a dog from the Herding breeds, I just like the intelligence. Hubby and I are older now, so we have a "companion" dog, a toy poodle. What we didn't understand is that we are HIS companions, not the other way around.
Dogs are bred for herding, hunting, retrieving, etc. I once had a lovely little Shetland Sheepdog. One day my mom has over some lady friends of hers and as everyone is getting ready to leave, I notice that the Sheltie had separated them into little groups and was weaving in and out and around the little groups. She had "herded" them. Now, I never taught her to do that. She had never seen a sheep in her life. But, the instinct is there. It has been bred into them.
Now, a Pit Bull was bred to kill things. Either in a dog fighting type of arena; or, per it's name, in a pit with a bull to see who would come out on top. Usually the pit bull. Also, I have recently learned that pit bulls have teeth that interlock. It made a certain sense considering how badly they damage their victims when they bite them. The only other creature that I know of, that has those type of teeth, is a shark. I suppose for the same reason; once they get a hold of their prey, the prey has a very tough time getting away, and, even if they do, they are very damaged in the process.
These dogs were not meant to be family pets. They were never meant to live in the house with the family; and, most especially not around children.
I can't recommend enough to people looking for a dog as a family pet, to do some research into what the dog was originally bred to do. You will get an idea of the dog's personality that way.
A pit bull is not just another dog. They are not a collie or a lab or a golden retriever. I wish people could just understand that; and, not buy into the B.S. from the animal activists that every dog fits every person or any circumstance. They don't.
It is possible that you may find this information of use.
https://www.animals24-7.org/2017/08/08/pit-stop-archive/
In the interests of disclosure, these journalists at this website (Animals24-7, Merritt and Beth Clifton) are not conservative at all. However, on this topic I find the statistics accurate. Best, Norski