another pit-bull incident
 

Yesterday, a family pet pit-bull attacked and killed a 4 year old girl as she was playing in the back yard with her 6 year old sister. The 6 year old ran in the house to get the baby sitter. Efforts to get the dog off the girl was useless. Even the police tazed the dog with no effect, so the dog was shot and killed. Very sad that the family pet kills one of the family. Heartbeaking.

Oh dear! that is awful, so sad ...
why would the dog attack the child?
Was there provocation? Are pit bulls just simply "mean"?

On the news tonight there was an 11 year old boy attacked by the family pitt bull. He and his 9 year old brother were playing in the house and the dog jumped off the couch and attacked the boy. By the time the mom and grandmother got the dog off of him, he was dead.

(((shudders)))

Omg that's terrible!! Why is it always Pitbulls? I don't understand...i thought they can be the friendliest dogs if raised properly but then i always hear stories like this of them turning on their owners, family, etc.?? I know someone that has a pitbull and she is the friendliest, biggest baby in the world! Although, there are no kids in their household, just a grown couple and another big dog so who knows if she would ever hurt a kid but she is the sweetest, i swear. I just don't get it, why is it always Pitbulls?

It is not always pitbulls. Pitbulls are in the news for every thing they do. The media doesn't talk about it when other breeds like labs attack people. It is the backyard breeders and bad owners that make pitbulls or any other breed bad dogs. Good breeders do not breed people aggressive dogs. Backyard breeders don't care. Any dog gets excited when children are playing or people get into a fight. A dog is very likely to get excited and join in and sometimes their play turns into something else. There is no bad breed just bad owners.

For anyone contemplating getting a pit there is nothing wrong with it. I would suggest that you do get your dog from a reputable breeder where you can trace the lines and know the temperment of the dog. We all know that this is a biggie with any dog you buy. They are wonderful dogs (I have had them in the past and my family still has two) and I would get another again if I didn't mind having a big dog in the house. In all the years of raising pits in our family I never have had a people aggressive dog unless you were attacking or threatening one of us. They can be a bit more aggressive towards a dog that is bigger than they are.

It's so true that there are many other dogs attacking from the smallest thing to the biggest but they tend to spotlight pitbull bites. Very sad that they get a bum rap all the time.

Exactly, its not always pit bulls, its just always pit bulls that make the news. Dogs of all different breeds injure and kill people everyday, for a variety of reasons, lack of socialisation, training, people not realising the warning signs, sometimes its even a medical reason such as the dog is producing an unhealthy amount of certain hormones. Also alot of the time when people say 'he did it without any warning' really the dog did give a warning but they failed to notice it. No dog should be left unattended with children, no matter what. Say no to breed specific legislation and prejudice. The way the media portrays pits is racism plain and simple.

Up-date: It was a pit/american bulldog mix. Still very horrible.

I saw that on the news this morning. Very sad for the family of that little girl.

all kinds of dogs attack not just pits personally if you cannot be responsible to watch your children around pets of any kind you shouldnt have them ..what kinda person in their right mind would leave a 4 & 6 yr old alone with any kind of dog this babysitter should be held responsible to some extent!

This is very sad that this happened.

Here is my opinion though: Pit Bulls are not mean animals. Yes they may tend to have a slightly more aggressive tendency but they need to have the right owners. Dogs aren't born mean, they are made mean... even if it's unintentionally. Pit Bulls can easily be the sweetest dogs ever and are truthfully one of the best breeds for therapy dogs. I find it a shame that these wonderful dogs a pegged as mean but there are two things to blame for that: the ones that raise them for dog fights and the media. Because of all the dog fights, everytime a family pet or a pit bull attacks, it's publisized. I work in medical records and I've seen reports of people coming in for dog attacks all the time and none of them I have seen is from a Pit and we live in one of the largest growing cities in the country. I really think that before a Pit Bull is brought into a new home, the prespective owners need to be thoroughly examined and questioned because of all that has happened. A girl that I work with - she's in her late 20's and has had her Pit since she was 8 weeks old. Her Pit is now 9 and this girl now has a 5 year old daughter. She has said that her Pit doesn't even have a mean bone in her body and is more of a wuss than anything. Another Pit I knew would jump on your lamp and curl up on your lap like our yorkies. Chip, my lil yorkie, got a Pit Bull to submit to him. One of the vet techs at our vet has a Pit and 3 yorkies and she says her Pit submits to them all the time! There is nothing wrong with the breed. It is solely the owners that cause them to be this way.

I'll step off my soapbox now.

Sometimes there are genetic defects in a breed that you don't see right away. Like a person who can be totally normal their whole life then snap and be crazy. I think that a lot of bad breeders CAN ruin a breed of dog, which might have happened with pit bulls.

My dad had an American bulldog that had to be put to sleep. He was over 5 years old and just one day killed another dog(beagle). He had never been abused or mistreated in anyway. He later found out a few from that same line of breeding had to be destroyed because of killing other animals. There was something "just not right" with him that took years to show.

Because you don't know how far back a dogs line goes you run this risk with pitbulls(rottweilers too were horribly inbred around the small area I live for awhile). Me personally, I would never take the risk.

Actually, I dislike big dogs. I'm only 5ft tall and wouldn't want to own a pet I can't control. A bigger dog makes a bigger impact when it bites or attacks, that's why it's so devastating. I know there are exceptions to the rule, there will be a small dog that's killed or done horrible damage but not in comparison to the amount of large ones that have.

I actually agree with you too. I am only a little over 5 feet tall and big dogs just don't work with me. I even have had trouble walking medium sized dogs! In my area, there are two mean Labs (and they are supposed to be friendly). I think they are simply undersocialized and they always look like they want to kill my yorkie when we passed by them as they are often left out in the backyard during the day hence they could see us. There is also another Rottweiler (neighbour on my right) whom I am so afraid of each time I walked pass the house because there is a piece of fence that was broken and is not fixed and he could put his head out. Who knows when he would just break the fence further apart and jumps out!

Thats awful!!