Pitbulls...

[manifold]

Speaking on those statistics:


If 0.008% of pit bulls are attackers, I would assume:

-Of the 0.008% who attack, there's likely many caused by the emotional immaturity of the owner or of the attacked. Meaning - the data is skewed higher because of abusive owners or kids who grab eyeballs. Most likely. I think it's safe to assume that in a caring home with none of the aforementioned behavior, pit bulls are even SAFER than 99.992%, but LESS SAFE for the emotionally immature.

I'm not debating the fact that a 2yr old is more likely to be "asking for it" than a 10 year old.

I'm saying I'd be no more accepting of the potential consequences of a pit bull attack for a 10 year old than I am for a 2yr old, regardless of the probability of an attack occurring.

But if you're comfortable owning a pit bull once your kid reaches age 10, have at it Wild Bill, just beware of aces and eights.

The potential is close to 0.

There are so many more voluntary things people subject themselves and their kids to that are more dangerous, that it's disingenuous to characterize a relatively low risk behavior (pit bull ownership) as "dangerous" because of the sensationalized stories of those fallen to said tiny risk - ESPECIALLY when it's likely that a lot of those attacks have a lot more going on with them then just an unprovoked innocent dog turned wild.

 

[G.T.]

I'm not debating the fact that a 2yr old is more likely to be "asking for it" than a 10 year old.

I'm saying I'd be no more accepting of the potential consequences of a pit bull attack for a 10 year old than I am for a 2yr old, regardless of the probability of an attack occurring.

But if you're comfortable owning a pit bull once your kid reaches age 10, have at it Wild Bill, just beware of aces and eights.

The potential is close to 0.

There are so many more voluntary things people subject themselves and their kids to that are more dangerous, that it's disingenuous to characterize a relatively low risk behavior (pit bull ownership) as "dangerous" because of the sensationalized stories of those fallen to said tiny risk - ESPECIALLY when it's likely that a lot of those attacks have a lot more going on with them then just an unprovoked innocent dog turned wild.

yea deude

 

[koshergrl]

Dogs are wired to eat small and/or helpless things.

Even my saint..I had to teach him not to hold my daughter down by the back of her head...if the kids were running and he was loose, that's what he would do! He'd run over her, knock her down, then grab the back of her noggin and not let her up. He did it 2x and he doesn't do it anymore, but how quickly that could go bad!

I STILL don't leave my children home alone with all three of my dogs...I have the pit, the saint, and a terrier....and they are not physcially capable of restraining them, so I NEVER leave them alone with the big boys. They're fine with one, or the other...but never both. The dogs act differently when they are together, and my 11 and 10 year olds are not capable of commanding respect or physically restraining the dogs. So I never leave them alone. At night, I sleep with my door open, so I can exert control over the dogs. The pit usually sleeps with my daughter, adn the saint in my room or the living room..if he gets up and walks into the girl's bedroom, I make him get out. Because dogs interact with other dogs in a way that is different from the way we interact with them. One dog with my daughter views her as something to protect...two dogs might just view her as a toy.

 

[Coyote]

That's because typically, ignorant, criminal people don't gravitate towards collies and golden retrievers.

If they did, then collies and golden retrievers would be the ones *going off*.

All animals are potentially dangerous, and the more powerful they are the more potential they have to be deadly.

But pits don't just explode for no reason. If a pit isn't safe, it's because it was raised wrong.

I agree. The vast majority of pits I know are awesome, I love the breed. But you have idiots breeding dogs to sell to people that have no business owning a dog. Or any living thing. I wish the Pit Bull community would take their breed's image more seriously and stop trying to promote them as a cool tough breed - have you ever looked at some of the breeder websites? They do their breed no favors

That occurs with every breed, not just pits.

Yes, it does and every decade we have new Tough-Dog Breed de jour at the end of a logging chain. It used to be German Shepherds and Dobermans, then Pits and Rotties, and now more exotic breeds and crosses. But I do think the breeder community can do something to help and that is choose how they market their dogs (actually - be more selective in who they sell to as well). The Doberman community faced a similar problem with their breed's reputation and a flakey temperment and they went all out to counter it. It was successful.

 

[koshergrl]

Plus there's the media hysteria over PITBULLS that has them labeling every mut as a "pit bull mix" or "pit bull terrier"....

 

[BullKurtz]

Dogs are wired to eat small and/or helpless things.

Even my saint..I had to teach him not to hold my daughter down by the back of her head...if the kids were running and he was loose, that's what he would do! He'd run over her, knock her down, then grab the back of her noggin and not let her up. He did it 2x and he doesn't do it anymore, but how quickly that could go bad!

I STILL don't leave my children home alone with all three of my dogs...I have the pit, the saint, and a terrier....and they are not physcially capable of restraining them, so I NEVER leave them alone with the big boys. They're fine with one, or the other...but never both. The dogs act differently when they are together, and my 11 and 10 year olds are not capable of commanding respect or physically restraining the dogs. So I never leave them alone. At night, I sleep with my door open, so I can exert control over the dogs. The pit usually sleeps with my daughter, adn the saint in my room or the living room..if he gets up and walks into the girl's bedroom, I make him get out. Because dogs interact with other dogs in a way that is different from the way we interact with them. One dog with my daughter views her as something to protect...two dogs might just view her as a toy.

You got that right...my last two Shepherds were brother and sister. Each on their own were mild-manned, quick to obey a command, and generally pleasant around strangers. But together out in public? LUNATICS! Once my gal and I came out of a store I'd parked in front of and the two of them had their heads out the car windows (rolled down half way) snarling and growling at passersby to the point small groups had formed in each direction afraid to pass by them.

Since I rarely miss an opportunity to grandstand, I pretended we didn't know the dogs. I asked aloud how so many could be afraid of a couple dogs cooped up inside a car....most of them looked down at their shoes. So I had to walk over to the car, tell them to "LAY DOWN" in a forceful voice, which of course they did, and we walked away to finish the stunt. I heard one guy say "that guy's got some balls on him alright"....

 

[Unkotare]

Dogs are wired to eat small and/or helpless things.

Even my saint..I had to teach him not to hold my daughter down by the back of her head...if the kids were running and he was loose, that's what he would do! He'd run over her, knock her down, then grab the back of her noggin and not let her up. He did it 2x and he doesn't do it anymore, but how quickly that could go bad!

I STILL don't leave my children home alone with all three of my dogs...I have the pit, the saint, and a terrier....and they are not physcially capable of restraining them, so I NEVER leave them alone with the big boys. They're fine with one, or the other...but never both. The dogs act differently when they are together, and my 11 and 10 year olds are not capable of commanding respect or physically restraining the dogs. So I never leave them alone. At night, I sleep with my door open, so I can exert control over the dogs. The pit usually sleeps with my daughter, adn the saint in my room or the living room..if he gets up and walks into the girl's bedroom, I make him get out. Because dogs interact with other dogs in a way that is different from the way we interact with them. One dog with my daughter views her as something to protect...two dogs might just view her as a toy.

You got that right...my last two Shepherds were brother and sister. Each on their own were mild-manned, quick to obey a command, and generally pleasant around strangers. But together out in public? LUNATICS! Once my gal and I came out of a store I'd parked in front of and the two of them had their heads out the car windows (rolled down half way) snarling and growling at passersby to the point small groups had formed in each direction afraid to pass by them.

Since I rarely miss an opportunity to grandstand, I pretended we didn't know the dogs. I asked aloud how so many could be afraid of a couple dogs cooped up inside a car....most of them looked down at their shoes. So I had to walk over to the car, tell them to "LAY DOWN" in a forceful voice, which of course they did, and we walked away to finish the stunt. I heard one guy say "that guy's got some balls on him alright"....

Your fiction writing really sucks.

 

[BullKurtz]

Yes, it does and every decade we have new Tough-Dog Breed de jour at the end of a logging chain. It used to be German Shepherds and Dobermans, then Pits and Rotties, and now more exotic breeds and crosses. But I do think the breeder community can do something to help and that is choose how they market their dogs (actually - be more selective in who they sell to as well). The Doberman community faced a similar problem with their breed's reputation and a flakey temperment and they went all out to counter it. It was successful.

Same thing happened with Golden Retrievers in the 1980s....the breeders couldn't keep up with demand so they went ahead and in-bred them, tricking the AKA with false paperwork. In the early 90's the hip-displacia and epilepsy started showing up. These days you'll be lucky to find a Golden who doesn't develop real health problems before they're 2 or 3 years old....same thing with German Shepherds in the 70's....bad hips.

 

[koshergrl]

For a while I had a group of old nosey men congregating on the street across from my house. There were up to 5 of them, often with dogs. They'd hang out across from my driveway, and the dogs in my house would go NUTS. I found out this was happening by coming home at odd times during the day, incidentally. Anyway, they'd all hang out there with their little dogs and their idling vehicles, and glare up at my house when the dogs would bark.

I took to coming home, bringing the pit out very lightly restrained on his leash, putting him into the car, then backing out. He of course went ballistic in the car when I did this...slavering and snarling and barking at them (I left the window open about 2 inches to allow them the full impact). What assholes! They can go congregate in front of their own houses, why of ALL the places to hang out, they felt compelled to hang out THERE, I'm sure I don't know.

But after doing that a few times, they finally broke it up. Mylo got out once and ran over the dachsund..she didn't even bite the little shit (who would walk back and forth in front of the house with its owner yap-yap-yapping) but I still got to pay for a vet visit and..get this...ANTI-ANXIETY meds for the little fucker.

 

[Coyote]

Yes, it does and every decade we have new Tough-Dog Breed de jour at the end of a logging chain. It used to be German Shepherds and Dobermans, then Pits and Rotties, and now more exotic breeds and crosses. But I do think the breeder community can do something to help and that is choose how they market their dogs (actually - be more selective in who they sell to as well). The Doberman community faced a similar problem with their breed's reputation and a flakey temperment and they went all out to counter it. It was successful.

Same thing happened with Golden Retrievers in the 1980s....the breeders couldn't keep up with demand so they went ahead and in-bred them, tricking the AKA with false paperwork. In the early 90's the hip-displacia and epilepsy started showing up. These days you'll be lucky to find a Golden who doesn't develop real health problems before they're 2 or 3 years old....same thing with German Shepherds in the 70's....bad hips.

I know, German Shepherds are one of my favorite breeds, but the health problems

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Dogs are wired to eat small and/or helpless things.

Even my saint..I had to teach him not to hold my daughter down by the back of her head...if the kids were running and he was loose, that's what he would do! He'd run over her, knock her down, then grab the back of her noggin and not let her up. He did it 2x and he doesn't do it anymore, but how quickly that could go bad!

I STILL don't leave my children home alone with all three of my dogs...I have the pit, the saint, and a terrier....and they are not physcially capable of restraining them, so I NEVER leave them alone with the big boys. They're fine with one, or the other...but never both. The dogs act differently when they are together, and my 11 and 10 year olds are not capable of commanding respect or physically restraining the dogs. So I never leave them alone. At night, I sleep with my door open, so I can exert control over the dogs. The pit usually sleeps with my daughter, adn the saint in my room or the living room..if he gets up and walks into the girl's bedroom, I make him get out. Because dogs interact with other dogs in a way that is different from the way we interact with them. One dog with my daughter views her as something to protect...two dogs might just view her as a toy.

You got that right...my last two Shepherds were brother and sister. Each on their own were mild-manned, quick to obey a command, and generally pleasant around strangers. But together out in public? LUNATICS! Once my gal and I came out of a store I'd parked in front of and the two of them had their heads out the car windows (rolled down half way) snarling and growling at passersby to the point small groups had formed in each direction afraid to pass by them.

Since I rarely miss an opportunity to grandstand, I pretended we didn't know the dogs. I asked aloud how so many could be afraid of a couple dogs cooped up inside a car....most of them looked down at their shoes. So I had to walk over to the car, tell them to "LAY DOWN" in a forceful voice, which of course they did, and we walked away to finish the stunt. I heard one guy say "that guy's got some balls on him alright"....

Can't be your balls you're talking about.

Have your dog neutered.

 

[Sunshine]

And who identified the dogs as pit bulls?

Difficulty of Breed Identification | Stop BSL

This is just another pathetic excuse made by shameless people who don't care how many innocent people, especially children, are torn apart by these vicious dogs.

50 children a year are killed by their cribs. A child is 25 times more likely to die because of a crib than because of a pit bull.

Well then put a muzzle on the crib. That is a stupid comparison.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

What would you do if one of your kids was a liberal? Stop loving him? Be abusive? Say he is worthless and has no place on this Earth? Tell him he has no value as a human being?

That ain't never going to happen. but yes he would be dead to me.

That's just pathetic.

That's just the facts of life. If any of my sons ever turn liberal I would disinherit them

 

[koshergrl]

My sons aren't liberal.

They were undecided for a while, but they've come around.

My daughter in law voted for Obama...but I think she learned a valuable lesson in doing so. And I love her anyway.

 

[gallantwarrior]

See....it took awhile for me to actually talk to the vet the day gracie was put down. THEY thought it was epilepsy. It was a brain tumor after all. She could not be saved. When she was a puppy and I brought her home from the swap meet where she was being sold for 50 bucks, once we got her home, she was afraid of brooms. She was afraid to come in the house. She didn't like being touched on the head at all. You could pet her back, her butt, her chest, her belly. But not her head. It took about 4 years before she would let me kiss her right between the eyes, my hands gently on each side of her head as I kissed her. She was no longer so afraid. But I think those people bonked her with a broom, or hit her on the head, or did some other damage to her brain. It didn't manifest into a tumor until she was 8 years old. So no telling what ANY dog experiences in their lifetime that will turn into something else. Like alzheimers in people. One minute, they are smart business people. The next? Vegetables. Ya just never know.

I've never heard of someone with Alzheimer's brutally shredding another person, animal, or small child when the "lose it".

 

[koshergrl]

Well they don't have the teeth that a pit does.

Look, there are lots of things that are dangerous for kids..that doesn't mean you ban everything that poses a threat to children.

Dogs are dogs. They have always posed a potential threat to children. That's the way it is.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

That ain't never going to happen. but yes he would be dead to me.

That's just pathetic.

That's just the facts of life. If any of my sons ever turn liberal I would disinherit them

No matter how often I read this kind of rw shit, I'm still shocked at how utterly inhuman some of you are.

If you're really that callous and uncaring of your own child why did you have him? Does he know how little you care about him?

I suppose if he were gay or transgender, you'd just kill him.

Don't answer. I really don't want to know.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

The 10 Most Dangerous Dog Breeds

No surprises but - there it is.

 

[Coyote]

The 10 Most Dangerous Dog Breeds

No surprises but - there it is.

Actually...the surprise is in the lack of critical thinking.

Pit Bull – To anyone who knows dogs, the American Pit Bull Terrier is no surprise at #1 on a list of deadliest dogs. In this study the Pit Bull stood far ahead of all the other breeds with 66 fatalities attributed to it. Known for their extremely aggressive nature, many states have legislation banning the breeding of pit bulls

66 fatalities.

Out of an estimated 55 million dogs in the US, Pits makes up maybe 9% of the total canine population and as much as 30 to 40% in some regions.

That's a shitload of Pits and only 66 fatalities? This is a VERY RARE event.

"Known for their aggressive nature"? WTF? If the fatality rate is so low, how aggressive is their nature?

You could go further and extrapolate dog attacks and bites as a whole in which case the numbers would be marginally larger. However - there would still be a caveat. Most dog bites by small dogs go unreported (so those aggressive buggers get a free pass in statistics) - bites by large dogs do more damage so get reported more.

But in the end you are looking at a lot of pits who do nothing more than munch dog chow, sleep on the couch and go out to poop.

 

[Noomi]

For a while I had a group of old nosey men congregating on the street across from my house. There were up to 5 of them, often with dogs. They'd hang out across from my driveway, and the dogs in my house would go NUTS. I found out this was happening by coming home at odd times during the day, incidentally. Anyway, they'd all hang out there with their little dogs and their idling vehicles, and glare up at my house when the dogs would bark.

I took to coming home, bringing the pit out very lightly restrained on his leash, putting him into the car, then backing out. He of course went ballistic in the car when I did this...slavering and snarling and barking at them (I left the window open about 2 inches to allow them the full impact). What assholes! They can go congregate in front of their own houses, why of ALL the places to hang out, they felt compelled to hang out THERE, I'm sure I don't know.

But after doing that a few times, they finally broke it up. Mylo got out once and ran over the dachsund..she didn't even bite the little shit (who would walk back and forth in front of the house with its owner yap-yap-yapping) but I still got to pay for a vet visit and..get this...ANTI-ANXIETY meds for the little fucker.

Little fuckin' yappy dogs are the worst. And pits get a bad rap (mainly media bias) for some reason, yet the little mongrel dogs who nip at your heels and are basically vicious fuckers, get a free pass.

If a yappy dog came up to me when Cooper was out for his walk, and I couldn't restrain him (likely because he's extremely strong) he'd devour that little dog in seconds.