That was no Pit Bull, that was Mike Tyson!!
Posted on 01/26/2006 12:00:29 PM PST by iPod Shuffle
11-Month-Old Girl Loses Her Ear To A Pit Bull
(CBS) PALMDALE, Calif. An 11-month-old girl was in stable condition Wednesday but doctors were unable to reattach her ear that had been torn off when she was attacked by a pit bull, according to a Palmdale police lieutenant.
The girl was attacked by a 3- to 4-year-old male pit bull terrier at a home in the 2900 block of East Avenue R-13 about 1 p.m. Monday, according to the Antelope Valley Press.
The girl's injuries were mostly around her face, including a detached ear. That ear was shipped to UCLA Medical Center where doctors were going to try to reattach it, but were unable to, according to Lt. Don Ford of the Palmdale Station.
The infant was with her aunt who had gone to visit friends. The dog, who had had no problem with the girl on previous visits, attacked her without provocation. There had been no previous problems with the dog, Ford said.
The animal was euthanized at the Lancaster Animal Shelter.
But my point was that animal-fighting of all kinds was widespread prior to 1900. Hence, theoretically most of the "pits" used for pets were heavy on fighting lines.
If anything, now, the "pits" seem to be of 2 classes, altho I don't know for sure. (I'm assuming it's like the many splits in "German Shepherds" - basically, you're developing different breeds for the same origin thru "evolutionary" genetics following what you want.)
Though they've never been trained for it, I see a lot of "instinctive" behavior in my bird dogs, so that argument sounds reasonable to me, too.
Ping
Chihuahuas? Bijon Francaises?
That's true; Maybe they had more outlets for their aggressive instincts?
I'm not buying this. Dogs do not strike out of the blue, there are behavioral warnings. The trick is to identify them and nip them in the bud before these things happen. The owner was not the leader of the pack in this household and the dog was simply establishing his dominance over the new pack member. Owner's fault, end of story.
Labs are excellent dogs. Our kids grew up with a black lab and now they each have a black of their own and they have kids. Never had the slightest problem with any of them. My son's is 90 lbs but very gentle.
You have freepmail...
"There are thousands of emergency room visits each year caused by dog bites. The leading dog in this parade is, I hthink, either the lab or golden retriever."
Yes, but 2 qualifications go w/those assertions: dog BITES or dog MAULINGS?
And considering Labs are at #1 AKC regis w/more than 2x the regis as #2 Goldens, it's not surprising the sheer absolute NUMBER of "bites" is more. There are fewer "pits", I'm sure.
It's the %.
Oh, and the Dobe obsession was primarily the '70s. The '80s a little, but the '80s is when the "pit" "rage" 1st caught on. I did a pretty big report on it my '88 year of college for English. I'll never forget laying out all the pages on a floor and figuring out how to rearrange stuff (before real use of word processors).
It amazes me that nearly 100% of the people on this forum will in a heartbeat say:
"Not all arabs are terrorist, but almost all terrorist acts are performed by arabs...do the math"
Yet the same argument doesn't apply to pit bulls. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are SOME pit bulls, through luck or ALOT of training, that are managable around all people. I'm also sure that SOME dog attacks are from dogs other than pit bulls.
I don't know alot about dogs, breeding, which ones have good or bad dispositions, but I'll tell you one thing. Whenever I see a headline about a child being mauled by a dog, without reading any further, I feel comfortable betting my paycheck that it was a pit-bull. I happen to win this little bet with myself I'd say at least 90% of the time.
I have a friend whose dog was killed by a pit bull. Their dog was a dacshund(sp). He was watching the dog play in the front yard while he was out there with him. The dog was not on a leash, but was well trained and NEVER left their yard. The pit-bull jumped the fence, chased down the dog and killed it while my friend watched. He had to run inside for fear the dog would come after him next. Luckily, his THREE CHILDREN who OFTEN PLAY IN THE FRONT YARD were in school at the time.
I have a 20mo son. My wife is always with him when they play out in the front yard, but I know for a fact she could not fight a full-grown pit-bull off of herself, much less my son. Given that fact, plus the historical trend I described above, I can tell you with absolute certainty that there will never be a pit-bull living in our neighborhood. Read that however you like...
Bichon Frise?
"In a review of 109 fatal dog attacks in the USA, the breeds most frequently implicated were pit bulls, Rottweilers, and German shepherds. The focus on fatalities has driven intense coverage of the dog bite epidemic. However, attorney Kenneth Phillips has pointed out that the canine homicide problem (i.e., dogs killing humans) is a different problem than the dog bite epidemic, in that the homicides are not going up, there are only 15 to 20 incidents per year, and they involve mostly pit bulls and Rottweilers, while on the other hand, the dog bite epidemic is growing, it represents 5 million incidents per year, and involves all breeds of dog. From his perspective as an attorney whose entire law practice is devoted to representing dog bite victims throughout the USA, the most dangerous breeds are the Pit Bull, Rottweiler, Akita and Chow."
http://www.dogbitelaw.com/
So, if you survive a dog bite, it's most likely was not a Pit Bull.
I agree w/your latter P, to an extent.
You must remember that dogs are INDEPENDENT LIVING CREATURES, w/minds and bodies they operate THEMSELVES. It's not a perfect analogy to firearms. No matter how excellent you are w/picking dogs and training them, you cannot control them 100%.
Which leads to the disagreement w/the 1st P. MOST dogs are basically good, or can be adjusted to the safe range, but a very few are NOT. They are just BAD. It's GENETICS, it's not ALL environment, despite the pablum from so-called dog-lovers who molly-coddle their dogs w/treats and silly "methods" which declare all dogs want to please (usually the same people who renege on their poor methods declaring "all dogs are good" by cringing at the thought of a "pit").
There are plenty dogs who will never, ever be trust-worthy and stable, and only some who would be if you had 5 years of virtually non-stop attention to pay them.
Dogs provide many health and social benefits. Most of the approximately 70 million dogs in the United States never bite or kill humans. However, many people are indeed bitten and even killed by dogs every year. It is an unfortunate fact that some dogs are too dangerous.
From 1979 through 1994, attacks by dogs resulted in 279 deaths of humans in the United States. (Sacks JJ, Sattin RW, Bonzo SE. Dog bite-related fatalities from 1979 through 1988. JAMA 1989;262:1489-92; Sacks JJ, Lockwood R, Hornreich J, Sattin RW. Fatal dog attacks, 1989-1994. Pediatrics 1996; 97:891-5.) In the latter study, which covered six years, the researchers made these findings:
There were 109 bite-related fatalities.
57% of the deaths were in children under 10 years of age.
81% of the attacks involved an unrestrained dog.
22% of the deaths involved an unrestrained dog OFF the owner's property.
59% of the deaths involved an unrestrained dog ON the owner's property.
18% of the deaths involved a restrained dog ON the owner's property.
10% of the dog bite attacks involved sleeping infants.
The most commonly reported dog breeds involved were pit bulls (24 deaths), followed by rottweilers (16 deaths), and German shepherds (10 deaths).
I'll agree with everything you said. Read my post 20.
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