Pitbulls simply aren't the hyper-aggressive breed they are made out to be. "Breeds scoring low for aggression included Basset hounds, golden retrievers, Labradors, Siberian huskies and greyhounds. The rottweiler, pit bull and Rhodesian ridgeback scored average or below average marks for hostility towards strangers*." (emphasis is mine)
Details of the study cited in the article can be found here. (*Graphs starting on page 10 illustrate different types of aggression. Oddly, basset hounds and springer spaniels were found to be more aggressive toward their owners than they were toward strangers and other dogs.)
I stand by the notion that the fault lies more with bad owners than it does with "bad" breeds. Zoning restrictions won't stop a bad dog owner from moving in next door to you. It would just mean that he would have to choose a different breed and five, ten years from now that breed will be the next monster-du-jour in the press.
I agree, and even animal control people, police, and veterinarians have been terrible at identifying dogs as pits that are not. My dad was attacked years ago by dog when he tried to break up the fight between the stray and his dog. Everyone tried to say the dog that attacked my dad was a pit. The dog was a big black dog that looked like a lab in the body and had a huge head. The dog didn’t even have the loose jowls.
I also agree that the losers that breed for agressive pits and want them to be mean will simply switch to another breed if pits are truly banned. I have been around 2 mean pits in my life, both were owned by druggies and they were bred to be mean, they bragged about breeding a mean male to the meanest female they could find and then having all their friends hit, kick, and otherwise be mean to the puppies as they were growing up. I have been around pits all my life and other than the two the druggies owned they have all been the sweetest dogs on earth.
My brother had a pit bull for awhile. A real pit bull, not some other blocky headed breed.
He got it because a good friend of his was forced to give it up, by his wife, who said “either the dog goes or I go”.
Seems the pit bull (who had never been trained to fight or guard or be belligerent in any way, and was actually quite friendly to people) had caught the wife’s cat under the bed... and bit it in HALF. With a SINGLE BITE.
As my brother used to say, “it wasn’t a fight, it was a bite”.
Those dogs are powerful. They are very very powerful. They have far more power than any dog should have.
Unless you’re using it to guard a military base, or a weapon’s stash, or a drug operation.
I remember that dog well. I used to play ball with it. I would bounce a rubber ball against the house in the back yard and that dog looooovvvved to go after that ball. Sometimes he would give it right back to me, sometimes he would want to hold on to it. If he held on to it, I could swing up in the air — a big, honkin’ heavy pit bull swinging way off the ground — swing him in a circle, and the only way I could get him to let go was to drop him in the pool.
He didn’t like being in the pool.
And I remember walking him on a leash, outside. When he saw another dog he would strain against the leash has hard as he could and it would take quite a bit of strength — with a choke collar — to hold him back. I was stronger than him so it wasn’t a problem, but I often thought about, what if I wasn’t?
He wouldn’t bark or snarl or growl. He didn’t want to fight. He just wanted to BITE.
I used to joke with my brother, if you put a steak on a plate and bounced a ball against the wall and let a cat loose running by, what would doggy do? What would he go for first?
It was just a joke, because of course we knew the answer: the cat.
He LIKED cats. And he LIKED dogs. And I can imagine that a cousin of his might LIKE kids, too.
Way, way, way more powerful than a dog ought to be. At least in human company. At least with children anywhere in the neighborhood.
I miss that ole’ dog. I had a good relationship with him. But we treated him with RESPECT. We treated him as if we were dealing with a freaking chimpanzee. We didn’t leave the door open or the back yard fence. Ever. Not ever. Not once.
We knew he wasn’t looking for a fight; but we sure as h*ll didn’t want him to take another BITE.