very powerful piece on pitbulls

[GSD]

i got that terst on hthe ast klink right 1st time but i agree pit bulls are soo misundersood

i know people think im worng when i say thins but i think any dog from the oit bull to a poodle can become an agressive dog it all comes down to the way they are raised and taught and socilised not by what breed they are

 

[lilfishie]

Yes a very powerful piece and it goes to show just because one is bad doesn't mean they all are

 

[ladyhawke]

That's a great link. Thanks for posting it. I've seen that video before and it never fails to make me tear up.

(Proud owner of 5 pit bulls, or should I restate that I am "owned by" by 5 loving pit bulls.)

 

[gaya]

How many could pick out the real pit out of these pictures, and how many would just call all of them a pit bull?

excellent example haiku!

 

[oneponygirl]

I got it first try but I when I was in my vet assisting class we had to watch the Westminster Dog show and identify every breed by sight. The APBT is not an AKC breed but I also think it's important to be able to tell the difference between a Pit, a Staffie, an American Bulldog (which is what mine is) and others for the reasons listed above. I think it's important to be able to defend the APBT with as much knowledge as possible, to tell people what they can really be like, and how the media has taken part in the destruction of their reputation.

 

[Opcn]

I clicked on the bull terrior, but still I'm against most of those dogs, anything that was bred to hunt or fight was bred to be agressive, and they have it in the to kill a human, not a good mix.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

By the hunting example, that would knock out poodles, beagles, umm, all the terriers... and hounds.... wow, a whole lot of dogs....

 

[Fiddlesticks]

That was very moving. A very good article. It is true that some dogs have certain tendancies from breeding but as the owner of that breed people need to educate themselves on how to train that breed of dog in order to over come those traites.If the proper steps are taken by the owner they can be great dogs. I am a lover of all dogs. After all pits didnt ask to be bred for fighting or hunting. It was stupid people who came along and messed with mother nature. I love all dogs but can take or leave on most people. And I would have to agree that more people are bit by Jack russels dalmations and labs than the breeds that everyone considers "dangerous" you jsut dont hear about those because it doesnt advance anyones poitical career at the moment. Thats my 2 cents.

 

[Opcn]

the smaller hounds and more sane terriors I'm fine with, hounds were bred to chase down prey, not subdue it. you see whenever you have something out there that requires work (i.e. training a dog that can kill someone not to) a good portion of the people who should won't, just look at how many people don't pay there taxes.

 

[Haiku]

You have it wrong Opcn, they don't have to be trained NOT to hurt people, they have to be trained TO hurt people. As I've said, here and in other threads (and the information is out there for those who want to verify it), pits and other bully breeds were bred to be ESPECIALLY docile with humans so that humans could interupt the bull/bear bating or take the prey away and not have the dog attack them. Labs bite more than pits, but the media doesn't cover lab attacks. They document in screaming headlines every "pit bull" attack (though again, a number of them probably aren't even actual pits) and of course they always portray the bites as unprovoked. Therefore people feel pits are "inherently" vicious. Why do you think they used a pit for Little Rascals if they are inherently vicious and had the potential to turn and maul the kids any moment? And you even extend your prejudice to all bully breeds such as bull terriers who also have extremely docile natures. In my experience, bully breeds tend to have more stable temperments than many "safe" breeds who have been poorly bred and poorly raised in the U.S.

If you want to ban any dog that can be taught to bite/attack and be mean, you'll have to ban all of them. All dogs should be socialized and receive obedience training in order to for certain be 'good canine citizens.' Those wonderful, well behaved, social and affectionate family dogs you see have more than likely been raised right and socialized right. A bully breed's behavior under those circumstances will be the same.

On this Petition against BSL, there are thousands and thousands of signatures, many of them by people who have worked as vets, trainers, dog sitting, and other dog-related careers for years and never once have they had a pitbull show aggression to them despite caring for many of them. Do their experiences amount to nothing compared to sensationalist media hype?

Here is an excellent article. Please, please read it with an open mind. Do not let media hype be your sole source of information before forming a judgment.

http/www.pghdogs.com/articles/article03.php

 

[Opcn]

Interestingly enought I've only seen one media report on a pitbull attack. I get everything I have from breed histories and BS spued by pittbull lovers about how great and loving they are, I ask you; How many of the dogs in this piece were really ameriocan pit bull terriors? You hear the same thing for pitbulls as you hear for dobermans and rottys, you hear about all the people who had them as loving animals,but the people who had em and thought them meaner than piss and vinegar never speak up and everyone assumes its in how theyw erre raised. Yes LAbradors do bite alot more than pittbulls, they are also much more common and have weak bites, golden retrievers bite more than any other dog as I recall but golden retrievers were bred to have very soft bites so as to not hurt the game they are retrieving, the owerful hunting and fighting and guard dogs were bred to have a bite that maims and kills.

 

[Haiku]

I'm baffled in what you mean by gathering your info from "breed histories." I'm guessing you mean in those encyclopedic dog breed books where they state what the dog was originally developed for (in many bully type breeds, it would say bred originally for bull or bear baiting). I fail to see how that transfers to "vicious dog towards people." The fact that you chose the bull terrier thinking it was a pit bull, and then went on to say that you felt it was also a dangerous breed type anyway, shows me that you really don't have much education and experience around dogs as a whole.

And no... golden retrievers are not at the top of the most common biter list. Currently the two breeds that are the most likely to bite statistically are:
1) the German Shepherd
2) the Chow Chow

I've also read that the majority of dogs surrendered to shelters for aggression are small dogs, usually small terriers.

By your logic, draft horses should be banned due to the fact they weigh so much and are powerful, if they kick someone in the head they can do more damage than being kicked by miniature horse.

Most fatal attacks by dogs are larger breeds because they are more powerful, but that does not mean that larger breeds are more aggressive than small breeds. If you start getting into the logic of banning them due to potential, that gets rather ridiculous and opens up a whole new world of things we can ban due to dangerous "potential."

The last link I provided gave very nice descriptions of the true nature of pits when given a loving and responsible home. If you choose to base your opinions on reading horror stories with questionable basis in fact, there's nothing I really can do about that. I prefer to form my opinions by meeting the dogs themselves (my sister had a lovely apbt whom adored her kids and gave them 'piggy back rides'), and by talking to people who have 20 or more years in experience in dealing with dogs of all types.

 

[Opcn]

Holy Cow, a police dog made the top of the list, one thats most often raised as a family dog.

Draft horses don't kill as many people as dogs maul, and normal horses do just as much damage, more people die my donkey each year than by shark.

Most fatal attacks by dogs are larger breeds because they are more powerful

Thats my argument exactly, they do have alot of potential for damage and they do have natural agressive instincts.

Yes most of the dogs are kind and loving to there owners, thats part of the dog pack structure, its people outside of that pack structure that suffer.

Also alot of agressive dog deffenders try to deffend dogs by saying "oh there not human agressive" but as we see with humans and chimps and cats and bears and dogs (although we seem to want to deny it) is that agression of one sort easily transfers into agression of another sort. Abusive people often start out cat agressive or dog agressive and then move on to people agressive.

 

[Haiku]

Draft horses don't kill as many people as dogs maul.

Where is your proof for that? I actually know many more people who have had accidents with horses than have a dog attack them. Also.. it was an analogy between a draft horse and a miniature horse (i.e. a horse the size of a dog).. but the whole point was moving your logic about dogs to an analogy of something else.

they do have natural  agressive instincts.

Yes, if a large dog bites you it has the potential to do more damage than if a small dog bites you, so you support the banning of all large dogs? Let's ban a bunch of other 'potential' dangers then. Horses, cars, guns, and how about the human race while we're at it? Where do you get that large dogs have natural aggressive instincts? If anything smaller dogs have more aggressive tendencies than large.

I read another page not long ago (and I'd search for it, but obviously the time and effort of digging all of this up is wasted), that the vast bulk of fatal attacks happen on the dog's own property, a big percentage by dogs who live their lives on the end of a chain with very little human contact. It's most often kids who were tormenting the dog, or owners jumping in to break up a dog fight and getting caught in the middle, or even someone trespassing, i.e. trying to break into the owner's home.

Finally, comparing a dog being aggressive to another dog to a person who abuses animals and then moves on to people is just completely ridiculous. A dog who is territorial to a strange dog has ZERO in common with a person who abuses animals for kicks. You are really reaching now. I think I'm done though as it's obvious you're going to continue to cling to your apallingly fallacious reasoning no matter what proof is offered to the contrary. You really seem to know very little about the true nature of dogs, nor do you seem interested in learning.

edit: The bite statistics did not include dogs that were part of the police, just like a shooting crime statistic would not include police officers shooting someone who drew a gun on them.

 

[mm_simb]

Just wanted to include that a pitbull is not a large breed. It is categorized as a medium breed dog.
I agree with you Haiku.
What baffles me most is everytime they do a report on a dog bite and they don't provide a picture of the dog. I bet that more than half of those dogs aren't even real pits .