[News] Pet Owners Looking For Answers After Pit Bull Attack

[Annie&Badger]

I'm really not trying to blame the breed or upset anyone on here who's familiar with them but I'm entitled to my view. I may not be an expert but I've researched this issue enough and I've read alot about bull terriers (Pits, Staffs, English etc.) who have been perfectly happy and come from good homes that suddenly just turn. It's just their nature. My husband is a renowned statistician and has done an extrapolation on the current figures available for fatal dog attacks in America... do you know that you are 170 times more likely to be bitten by a Pit Bull than by any other dog? (since this issue has come up, he's found the figures fascinating and is doing a paper on it for a goverenment think tank he's a member of). Sure the smaller terriers are designed to rat and go after smaller mammals but scale that tendency and size up and you've got a bull terrier that goes after other terriers. It is their nature and there is enough evidence to prove that this trait can not just be 'loved or hugged' out of them

[Breeze]

do you know that you are 170 times more likely to be bitten by a Pit Bull than by any other dog?

I would like to see which studies prove this. There are very few studies out there and the few say "Pit Bull type" which could mean any number of breeds. These stats are only as good as the people making them. Who says the attacks were by pit bulls? The victim, the police, witnesses.....? Was every attack verified by breed experts? No, they were not. Many people mistake any stocky short haired dog for a pit bull. Which does not give a true number of actual pit bull attacks or fatalities.

I have a friend in the states who had to prove to animal control her dogs were boxers by showing him their papers as he could not tell the difference between a boxer and a pit, you would think that someone working in animal control would know.

This is part of an article....... Link at bottom for full article.

Pit Bulls in particular have been in a firestorm of bad publicity, and throughout the country Pit Bulls often bear the brunt of breed specific legislation. One severe or fatal attack can result in either restrictions or outright banning of this breed (and other breeds) in a community. While any severe or fatal attack on a person is tragic, there is often a tragic loss of perspective as to degree of dangerousness associated with this breed in reaction to a fatality. Virtually any breed of dog can be implicated in a human fatality.

From 1965 - 2001, there have been at least 36 different breeds/types of dog that have been involved in a fatal attack in the United States. (This number rises to at least 52 breeds/types when surveying fatal attacks worldwide). We are increasingly becoming a society that has less and less tolerance and understanding of natural canine behaviors. Breed specific behaviors that have been respected and selected for over the centuries are now often viewed as unnatural or dangerous. Dogs have throughout the centuries served as protectors and guardians of our property, possessions and families. Dogs have also been used for thousands of years to track, chase and hunt both large and small animals. These natural and selected-for canine behaviors seem to now eliciting fear, shock and a sense of distrust among many people.

There seems to be an ever growing expectation of a "behaviorally homogenized" dog - "Benji" in the shape of a Rottweiler. Breeds of dogs with greater protection instincts or an elevated prey-drive are often unfairly viewed as "aggressive or dangerous". No breed of dog is inherently vicious, as all breeds of dogs were created and are maintained exclusively to serve and co-exist with humans. The problem exists not within the breed of dog, but rather within the owners that fail to control, supervise, maintain and properly train the breed of dog they choose to keep.

CANINE AGGRESSION - AN OVERVIEW
It is important to emphasize that dogs bite today for the same reasons that they did one hundred or one thousand years ago. Dogs are no more dangerous today than they were a century or millennium ago. They only difference is a shift in human perception of what is and is not natural canine behavior and/or aggression and the breed of dog involved.

Examination of newspaper archival records dating back to the 1950’s and 1960’s reveal the same types of severe and fatal attacks occurring then as today. The only difference is the breed of dog responsible for these events. A random study of 74 severe and fatal attacks reported in the Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia, PA) from 1964-1968, show no severe or fatal attacks by Rottweilers and only one attack attributed to a Pit-Bull-type dog. The dogs involved in most of these incidents were the breeds that were popular at the time.

Over two thousand years ago, Plato extolled a basic understanding of canine behavior when he wrote "the disposition of noble dogs is to be gentle with people they know and the opposite with those they don’t know...." Recently, this fundamental principal of canine behavior seems to elude many people as parents allow their children to be unsupervised with unfamiliar dogs and lawmakers clamor to declare certain dogs as dangerous in response to an attack.

Any dog, regardless of breed, is only as dangerous as his/her owner allows it to be.

Addressing the issue of severe and fatal dog attacks as a breed specific problem is akin to treating the symptom and not the disease. Severe and fatal attacks will continue until we come to the realization that allowing a toddler to wander off to a chained dog is more of a critical factor in a fatal dog attack than which breed of dog is at the end of the chain.

Only when we become more knowledgeable, humane and responsible in our treatment of dogs can we hope to prevent future tragedies.

http://www.fataldogattacks.com/

[Annie&Badger]

Urgh. I really can't be bothered with this. It's one thing having my threads locked and being threatened with a ban when all I'm doing is expressing my personal opinion and quite another when I'm being consistently denigrated or misunderstood. If my views are that upsetting to you, please don't bother to respond. I've been perfectly fair and reasonable in everything that I've said

I couldn't honestly care less what people say a pit bull is. In truth, anyone with a pair of eyes, can determine a bull terrier type. Any terrier/mastiff hybrid that was designed for bull baiting and then further bred for aggression is a dangerous dog and should be eliminated as a breed for the simple reason that they are hardwired to attack other dogs and that makes them a serious threat to human beings for any number of reasons: both physically and pyschologically (as the topic of this thread has proven). This does not include terriers as a group or mastiffs as a group (with the exception of those mastiffs used as baiters and not herd dogs). This covers any dog and it's cross from the American Pit Bull, Staffordshire Bull Terrier right through to the English Mastiff, Presa Canaria, Dogue de Bordeaux, Napoleonic Mastiff and the Dogo Argentia. I am not talking about the traditional mastiff breeds (such as the English Bull Dog or Boxer) or their crosses. I really hope that's clear. If you think I'm such an awful person for being pro BSL legislation, then that's up to you but I really have researched a lot on this subject and this is my opinion and I'm sticking to it

[hunniebunnie]

this is a very sad and unfortunate mishap. let's not turn this unfortunate accident into a debate over pit bulls. in this case, the pitbull squeezed its way out of a fence. who knows if the owner could have kept the dog in check with a "leave it" command if the owner was present?

i feel so badly for the owner of the chihuahua. it does tell all of us, as owners of fragile, toy breeds that we should act defensively for the safety of our little ones. but even then, accidents can still happen.

[Breeze]

I don't think you are awful person. I understand your views but feel that when there is information about pit bulls that is incorrect or misleading posted I feel I have to say something. It is one thing to have an opinion but another to use a opinion as fact. This is one topic I am passionate about and have spent many, many hours learning and researching as well.

Peace, lets get back to yorkies!

[Cola]

to be fair, if you look in the training thread? two of the topics you will see right now are "Biting!!!!" and "Growling and Snapping- Advice needed!!". while to an adult a yorkie bite may only be a mild annoyance and a tiny bit of blood. but scale that adult down to the size of a curious toddler- who will reach his hand out to the cute puppy on the leash at the park- or where ever and it becomes a much larger issue. nobody is lining up for mass yorkie genocide. why? because they can be trained. don't mistake me, i'm completely behind you that it "can not just be 'loved or hugged' out of them". but they can be trained just as yorkie can be trained. some have been trained by irresponcible owners to be killers (and those dogs should be put down. there's no saving them. you will not find anyone that really knows arguing that point.) but we haven't seen any proof that they will just up and snap for no good reason with the proper training anymore than any other breed will.

[BABEYORKIEMOM]

This makes me so sad and sick to hear of this happening all too many times i heard this I have been a breeder for well over 15 years and about 20 calls people asking to adopt another pet reason their beloved pet was killed by no other then a large dog. i say the laws have to be changed and have the pet owners be held for his or hers pets action I'M so very sorry for your loss .http://www.freewebs.com/babeyorkies/
My link above is to make all smile my little yorkies~

[StewiesMom]

Originally Posted by Annie&Badger

From now on, I'm carrying a screwdriver or ice-pick. Any bull terrier or mastiff tries to attack my dog, I will lift it up by its hind quarters and drive a screw-driver into the area between it's neck and it's head. If they don't want to do anything about our dogs getting attacked, then we might as well do something ourselves - at the very least we'll get some kind of rough justice

What if a Westie, Beagle or a Rottweiler attacked your dog? Or what about a Golden Retriever? Would you lift it up by its hind quarters and drive a screwdriver into it? Or are you just discriminate against certain breeds?