Quote:
Originally Posted by Ellie May  These stories really bother me because it is very apparent that "pit bulls" get way too much media attention. Many dogs cause serious harm daily and they are not all "pit bulls". I feel unsafe around chow chows, husky/malamutes, dingo type dogs, and even some german shepherds. A couple of these make the dangerous dog/do not insure lists, yet they rarely come up in conversations when people think "pit bulls" are the problem.
Big dogs cause more injury than little dogs. That certainly doesn't mean all big dogs should be banned. Yes, they have strong jaws. That's a reason to want to ban them?? I don't take human injury or death lightly; however, I also don't think the media is at all fair when choosing the cases that they report. There is a such thing as media bias and there is no way to know to what extent taht exists unless really digging into it. Perhaps "pit bulls" do kill more than any other breed, but perhaps they are the most abundant in the US. The AKC list is far from perfect. There are tons of pits here. I would expect a dog that is the most popular to be blamed for all the problems. The many dog fighters in Detroit do not register their dogs and they certainly aren't going to submit to having their dogs insured. They just hide them more. That is probably how the breed numbers are out of control as far as population goes. They can be used for fighting. They make people money. If the government spent more time dealing with the people who fight them, then perhaps there wouldn't be so many pit puppies in the world. IMO, deal with the criminals who own these dogs and give them more than a few days in jail. Then you will have less to deal with as far as trying to legislate a breed away.
And I do think it is completely unfair to just say pit bulls are bad. Pit bull is not a breed. There are like 3 breeds and 2 others that sometmes look like pits. So maybe if we don't know which exact breed is responsible, perhaps it's only fair to divide the number of attacks by 3.
I'm very sorry for this family's loss. Still though, we weren't there and don't know what happened. Yes, the dog attacked her which was completely unacceptable, but we have no idea if the human initiated and was being abusive, etc.
Just because they can kill a person easier than the next breed doesn't mean that they are mean and horrible. I'll deal with one over a shepherd anyday. Much more friendly to strangers in general. |
Actually if you look up pregnant women mauled by pit bull you get a lot more stories of where the pit bull didn't really do it, but the only stories that are printed by reliable sources say preliminary autopsy results indicate the pit bull in question did it. So I don't think you can blame "media coverage" In fact the pit bull lobbyists have done a tremendous job over the last 20 or so years convincing most people there is no problem. I don't think anyone here is saying we should ban the breeds involved, but I think some of us believe that something should be done. Maximo linked this site: :
Pit Bull Myths - Dangerous Dogs - DogsBite.org After reading it, I would be interested in some of your views about it. I don't think they are saying Pitbulls are mean and horrible, but they are saing that they are dangerous.