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Royal Marshall on WSB this morning had a great analogy. "If you had a gun that had a habit of going off out of the blue and firing by itself, into tables, walls, people, whatever was in the way, you'd get rid of that gun, wouldn't you? What's the difference when it comes to a breed of dog that goes off out of the blue?"

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

I've been told by a breeder that the original papered lineages are ok but there are a lot of "street" lines out there that are not good. The two papered dogs that I have seen were both very submissive. I think if I were going to get a pit bull I would be very careful. Go with a papered line and pick a submissive puppy. Personally, not my choice of dog though.

"If you had a gun that had a habit of going off out of the blue and firing by itself, into tables, walls, people, whatever was in the way, you'd get rid of that gun, wouldn't you?

Yeah...but first I'd use it to shoot the dog.

"What's the difference when it comes to a breed of dog that goes off out of the blue?"

Such behavior in a dog is preventable. Vaccinations, training and such. A machine such as a handgun...cannot be trained or vaccinated.

"Royal Marshall on WSB this morning had a great analogy. "If you had a gun that had a habit of going off out of the blue and firing by itself, into tables, walls, people, whatever was in the way, you'd get rid of that gun, wouldn't you? What's the difference when it comes to a breed of dog that goes off out of the blue?"

Mike, let me lend a little local perspective and point out why I think the much esteemed Royal Marshall is wrong to use this analogy.(Personally, I could use less Boortz and more Royal, he's more willing to listen to a different viewpoint.)

Out here in the more rural areas of Georgia, there are many pit bulls, rottweillers, dobermans, german shepards, kept by responsible owners as farm dogs. With the recent infestation of coyotes, these dogs make great "bodyguards" for cow, sheep. and horses, which are expensive investments for farmers.

There have also been a rash of big cat tracks found around slaughtered livestock carcasses, but the DNR and Dept. of agriculture are in full klintoon denial mode over that one. Typical phone call to them goes:

DNR: We haven't the proof big cats exist in Georgia.

Farmer: It ain't gonna rain for a week, so the prints that are twice as big as my 100 pound lab ain't going nowhere, and I'll be nice and leave the carcass out for you to look at bite marks.

DNR: We haven't the proof big cats exist in Georgia.

Farmer: Well, when the county railroaded the nice lady with 100 acres and the desire to rescue unwanted big cats from zoos and spent the quarter million dollars for the required fencing mandated by the county to do so, but was then made to shut it down because her land abutted the hunting club belonging to our counties most esteemed citizens(I.E. Judges, DA's, Sheriff, county commissioner etc..)because they felt the cries of the big cats in the morning scared the deer off, I imagine she might get pissed and set a few cats loose just to teach those power hungry hunters a thing or two.

DNR: Did I say we have no proof big cats exist in Georgia.

On the other hand, there are many people(I'll reserve my personal nasty adjectives I use for these type of people)who raise pit bulls and other potentially violent dogs for the sole purpose of loosely organized dog fights, which usually occur right over the line in Alabama.

People that raise fighting dogs are already breaking the law, so they don't care about maintaning shots or about raising them in an enviroment that brings the "meaness" out of them. Once a dog is made to be mean, I believe that trait can be passed down to a future generation, hence pits that are housed pets going mean.

In this case, the dogs meaness was caused by a rabies infection, due to the owners neglecting required shots, not because of a natural bad temperment on the dogs part. Rabies infection will cause any breed of dog to go "bad".

Therefore, like an irresponsible gun owner who leaves their gun laying around for a child to pick up and shoot themselves causing the media to rush into their "evil gun" routine, blaming the breed in this case is wrong. The blame should be placed with the owner.