What ever happened to the good pit bull terriers like Petey from the Little Rascals?
Click on article to look at the picture
Pit Bulls Kill Owner
Posted on 12/11/2002 11:32:54 AM PST by ambrose
GARFIELD, N.J. -- An 80-year-old woman was mauled to death by two pit bull dogs that she had known since they were puppies, Bergen County authorities said Tuesday.
Wounds caused by claws or teeth covered more than 80 percent of Julia Mazziotto's body, and the medical examiner found she had also suffered a broken right wrist, county Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.
Blood soaked her clothing and was spattered on the walls and floor of her apartment, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
I'm with you.
She told him: 1. The puppies wouldn't fight, and 2. He was out of his mind. (In other words "no".) He did eventually find someone's Dane to use, and told her later that she was right - those pups wouldn't fight, so he "had to put them all down".
Temperament and breeding do have something to do with how the dog turns out - it's why retreivers point, after all, but something about this story stinks... like keeping them in an apartment all day, and having them as "watchdogs".
Hey, take those pit bull carcasses around to the Korean restaurant, they'll love you for it.
No, that would be "peace". Love your screen name btw.
ROTFLMBO!
I've never had a pit bull but I know that to be true about Dobermans. I used to have a Doberman named Boris. I worked very hard to both obedience and protection train him. He was a fantastic dog, great with kids and very protective of them and was as loyal as they come clear up till he died. Some neighbors of ours had one of his brothers. They just did stuff to make him mean. They finally had to get rid of him because he got nasty with their kids. He was uncontrollable and eventually had to be shot to keep him from killing another dog.
They once had names like Beast, Satan, Jaws, Psyco,Assassin and Rage. Now they're called Buster, Dancer, Tessie, Banjo,Bart and George. They're pit bulls and pit bull mixes rescued from fighting rings, drug dealers and backyard breeders -- often in the cruelest circumstances -- by Stamford animal control officers.
In spite of their reputation for viciousness, many of the dogs have become much-loved pets, adopted by families in New Canaan, Greenwich, Norwalk and North Stamford.
In the last year, well over 40 pit bulls have been adopted from the Stamford pound, most through Adopt-A-Dog, said Marsha Biggar, who serves as liaison between the pound and the non-profit Greenwich agency that finds homes for unwanted dogs.
"It's people, not pit bulls, who have maligned the breed," Biggar said.
"People don't call up Adopt-A-Dog and say 'Gee, I want a pit bull.' They call asking for a nice family dog and I show them a pit bull terrier." Biggar said. "When I tell them what it is, they say, 'Oh no.' Then I launch into my educational lecture. But the truth is, we have not had a single serious problem with any of the pit bull adoptions. In fact, people tell us their pit bull is the best dog they've ever had. Some come back for a second one."
Linda Morrissey of Norwalk, said a pit bull named Banjo was all the education she needed about the breed.
"I never in a million years thought I'd own a pit bull. Now I own a 90 pound one." Morrissey said. "I called Adopt-A-Dog and they sent me to the Stamford pound and this dog caught my eye. When they told me what it was, I was taken aback. I was ignorant, but not enough to let it stop me from looking at the source of my ignorance."
She learned that Banjo had been taken from a house in Stamford along with several other dogs in a cruelty case.
"Someone in the house was trying to train them to be fighters." Morrissey said. "Banjo was injured and severely dehydrated."
For three weeks, Morrissey visited Banjo in the pound before adopting him.
"He thought everyone wanted to hurt him." said Morrissey, who's had Banjo for a year. "Now he is the best. I'd always had dogs -- German shepherds, Labs, Newfoundlands -- but this dog has given me more affection and loyalty than any other animal. I have cats, nephews, and I've never had a problem. Banjo sleeps with me, cuddles me. I trust him completely."
But across the United States, pit bulls have an image of violence. Stamford, like many other cities, has had its share of attacks, with about half a dozen reported in recent years. An attack on two teenage girls in New Haven and another on a boy in West Haven earlier this month prompted state Sen. Win Smith Jr., R-Milford, to announce last week that he intends to propose a measure that would ban the sale and possession of pit bulls in Connecticut. The trouble with pit bulls is they posses a quality that could either make them a good family dog or the favorite of owners with ill intent, said Rob Mullin, who owns K-9 Wizard & Co. in Trumbell and trains puppies, problem dogs, sporting dogs, show dogs, and even police dogs in narcotics and explosives detection.
What pit bulls want to do most, Mullin said, is please humans. "A strong-characteristic of pit bulls is that they want to make you happy," said Mullin, whom Adopt-A-Dog hires to evaluate dogs before they are adopted and to follow up with families afterwards. "If being aggressive makes you happy, the dog will become more aggressive. Pit bulls are especially good at pleasing people since they are strong and smart, they learn quickly and they are very adaptable. And because of their vicious background - not nature- people think they are aggressive. So they attract a certain kind of owner." Pit bulls' reputation for fighting dates back at least 200 years, when their ancestors, English bull dogs, were trained for bloodsport, Mullin said. Their job was to bring down bulls in a ring for entertainment. Interestingly, the result has been that pit bulls are "pliable" not "hard" Mullin said. "A hard dog is one that doesn't worry about, say, jumping in ice or plowing through a thicket becase once it has it in its mind to do something, there's very little that will stop it," he said. "Most pit bulls aren't hard. It's more that they're pliable to what their owner wants." Sometimes too pliable, Biggar said. "By the time they get to the pound and I see them, they are torn to shreds, starving, bleeding from their ears, faces or legs." Biggar said. "Some have been tied to fences for weeks. Some have bullet wounds. One was found in a pool of blood wagging its tail when an animal control officer went to pick it up. Pit bulls go that far because they have a high tolerance for pain and they want to please their owners so much."
Those same two characteristics are what make them excellent pets, said Tom Maxson, a Norwalk man who, with his wife, just adopted a pit bull they call Marcus. Two years ago on New Year's Eve, the Maxons took in a starving, freezing stray pit bull they liked so much that, after it died, they wanted to get another one. Maxson said he remembers the time a neighbor's toddler stood on the pit bull's paws and how the dog, though wincing simply waited for the child to step off. The Maxsons adopted Marcus last week. At the pound, Marcus jumped and barked and "tried to look mean." Maxson said. Then one of the animal control officers took him out of his cage. "He looked worried." Maxson said. "And he was a leaner. He leaned on your leg or your foot or wherever he could. I'm a sucer for leaners. In the week Marcus has been at their home, "he's very bashful and has yet to bark," Maxson said. I grew up having all kinds of dogs, but I've found that pit bulls are the most affectionate and by far the smartest," he said. " Marcus is as cute as they come."
Susan O'Rourke knew that when she first met her pit bull, Tessie, at the pound. But friends, neighbors and relatives almost changed her mind. "I live in New Canaan and all my friends here are hightly educated. But when I took Tessie home, they had a fit," said O'Rourke, who lives with her husband and two boys, ages 7 and 9. "Some of them said, 'I can't let my kids come over you house any more.' One couple said 'We didn't think you were like that.' After a while I started to question what I was doing. It was then that Tessie came down with the often-deadly Parvo virus. O'Rourke vowed to herself that, if the dog lived, she would keep her. Tessie survived the virus. "I thought that if she could survive this, it was meant to be. It's now a year and a half later and I haven't regretted it for a moment." O'Rourke said. "This dog is smart, playful, affectionate and loves to sit and watch TV. I've had many other kinds of dogs, but this one is calmer than a Lab or a golden retreiver and easier to train. We say Tessie is a love bucket with a hole in it, because you can't give her enough." As for those wary friends and relatives? "My brother-in-law now thinks she's a great dog, they love her at the vet's office, my parents want to get a pit bull and most of my friends aren't afraid," O'Rourke siad. "There are always going to be some people who won't be convinced. That's the sad part, considering how loving these dogs are." Biggar said there are some in the breed that are unsuitable for adoptions, but that's true for any breed. Two of the worst bite cases reported last year in Stamford, for example, involved golden retrievers, she said.
Mullen said he carefully evaluates each dog before it is adopted. The keys are sociability and stability -- how comfortable the dog is being handled by people, how it tolerates the presence of other animals, and how stable its personality is, Mullin siad. " Most of the pit bulls at the pound did not have what it takes to be a fighter -- that's how they ended up there," he said. "They tend to be very sociable." Gina Battista of Greenwich would agree. She and her husband took home a pitbull mix named George two years ago and are considering adopting another. "There's one there now with chopped-off ears that could use a home," Battista said. "I believe there are pit bulls that aren't safe, but I know there are a lot that are safe. They are wonderful dogs." If you will notice these Pitts are all pre-used and most pre-abused an still the owners and pound officials sing their priaise. It's the owners that make them what they are. BTW, I added the emphasis to the Golden Retriever bite stuff, for obvious reasons.
That is true. I believe any dog that is raised with real love and care will return that love and care a thousand-fold. (Dogs want to love, and to be loved.) That kind of disciplined dog/human relationship can be a very healthy, healing thing for humans.
I place responsibility on the owners for the death.
Me too. Some people shouldn't even own a goldfish, much less a dog.
I found the dog a few blocks over. It looked like a collie/rott mix.
I must be getting soft in my old age, I didn't have the heart to shoot it. Just told dispatch to leave a note for the dog warden.
There was a restaurant in the next city over, on the border of our city that was shut down for serving pup chow mein. This was about 10 years ago. I ate there once. They said it was chicken.
Well at least they waited for her to die.
I read an article about a man in a wheel chair who couldn't feel anything below his waist...who discovered one day that his dog had begun chewing one of his legs off.
What ever happened to the good pit bull terriers like Petey from the Little Rascals?
Click on article to look at the picture
Pit Bulls Kill Owner
I agree. Around the S.F. Bay Area, once or twice a year, someone or some toddler, gets mixed up with some Pit Bulls, resulting in death or horrible disfigurement.
I've saved this article for such occasions as this. It is by John Dvorak, who used to write a column for the S.F. Examiner. The article is at least 12 years old. It's late, so I'll just post the highlights.
"The Pit Bull is a direct decendant of the fighting dogs first bred after the banishment of bull-baiting in England in 1835. Before then, the great mastiff was bred into the bull mastiff and finally into the king of bull-baiting dogs, the bulldog. The bulldog would put on a show by attacking a bull and hopefully clamping its huge jaws onto the bull's nose where it would lock on until the bull suffocated or was ripped to shreds by other dogs. The amount of blood and guts this produced amused Victorian English society, but was finally banished when the Brits came to their senses.
Funny thing about the bulldog. He was so specifically bred to kill bulls that he had no animosity toward man or another dog. Some breeders fearing loss of revenue from bullbaiting pulled a switcheroo and proved that the still legal dog fighting could be amusing to the blood sport lovers if the dogs were vicious enough. Their goal: Breed a dog who hates dogs and can fight. The perfect combination came about when a now extinct line of the unpredictable and manic white English terrier was bred with a bulldog. The result was the Staffordshire terrier and eventually, the American Staffordshire terrier or, as we know it, the American pit bull. It was a dog with the bulldog-like ability to clamp down powerful jaws with the instincts of the crazed and skittish White English terrier and it's go-for-the-throat attitude when in doubt.
The White English terrier is extinct because it was made extinct by public decree when it was decided that this dog, a notorious biter,was a menace to society. Imagine how bad this dog must have been! Unlike breeds such as the boxer and other dogs bred down from the ferocious bull mastiff, and turned into gentle creatures that act like dogs should act - man's best friend - the White English terrier was a lost cause. Unfortunately, the legacy of this dog's bad genes thrives in the blood line and psyche of the American pit bull.
...Unless breeders can regain control of the breeding and weed out this dog's instability once and for all, then the breed should be abolished. All talk of training and socialization is pure bunk. The apologists for this breed make it sound like these dogs are people who can change their nature with education. They are not people - they are dogs! Dogs breed to kill, This particular dog is a bad and dangerous breed that should be exterminated once and for all to rid us of the dangerous antisocial blood line of the White English terrier and to stop the senseless attacks on innocent children (and grandmothers). And who knows how many pet owners have had their animals mauled and killed by pit bulls? THere is no other solution but to end it."
ANY Dog, given the correct set of circumstances, can harm or kill. It's just a couple of breeds that the press has decided to 'single out' and add one more item for 'good Anericans' to turn on each other about....
There was a group, in the county that I live in, that offered "...Free Spaying / Neutering for any Pit Bull..." that was brought in to them. Add to that insult...$5.oo was also given to each person that used their services.
Reminded me of a line from Braveheart when the King of England wanted to "....Breed Them Out....".
I'm not forcing anyone to get any breed of dog...
..but I'll be hanged if anyone will Tell Me what type of Dog that I can or can't have as a Family Pet or Family Guard.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.