Looks like Denver is running their own version of "The Final Solution". Yessiree, them thare LIE-berals has done gone and banned pit bulls. Who says we can't get too liberal in the USA? It starts with Pit Bulls, but where will it end? Your Dobermans? Guns? Motorcycles? Jews? Gays? Celine Dion? (Okay, maybe the last would be a good idea :-).
Before you know it, them thare evil communistic LIE-berals is gonna make all us good red-blooded American men have to gay-marry other men, and outlaw sex between mens and womens! The NERVE of them LIE-berals! Meanwhiles, unlike guns, pit bulls CAN decide to kill you without needing a human hand pulling the trigger. How DARE them LIE-berals in Denver deny us good hard-working Americans the right to be killed by some owner's pit-bull that dug its way out of its yard! Why, it's our PATRIOTIC DUTY to just bare our throats to that thare pit bull and die for the sake of our country!
- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
"Pit bulls are different; they're like wild animals," says Alan Beck, director for the Center for the Human Animal Bond at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine, West Lafayette, IN. "They're not suited for an urban environment. I believe we should open our eyes and take a realistic approach to pit bulls."
ReplyDeleteThe Longmont(CO) Humane Society has an expert animal trainer examine any pit bull turned over to them in order to detirmine whether the dog is safe to adopt out. In 3/4ths of the cases, the dog is deemed a danger to human life and is destroyed. That is not exactly a reassuring number.
Pit bulls account for less than 2% of the dogs in America but account for over 18% of all fatal dog attacks in America. Walking a pit bull in public without a muzzle is like shooting a gun in the air. Sure, chances are that the bullet isn't going to come down and kill anybody. But it does happen, from time to time. In response, cities have outlawed shooting weapons into the air ("celebratory gunfire", it's called in the Hispanic sections of many major cities). Your right to walk your dog, or shoot your gun, ends at the point where your behavior threatens my life. Period.
While I personally disagree with the Denver ban because I feel that less stringent regulations (such as the muzzle law recently passed in Boston) would be more respectful of the rights of dog owners, the numbers are such that I cannot disagree with the notion of a breed-specific law targeting this breed. Unlike my sarcastic post, I do NOT believe that it is my duty to endanger my life in order to preserve the life of a dog. If a pit bull comes onto my property, I will assume that my life is in danger. Period. And as a good Libertarian, will take action appropriately.
-- Badtux the Well-Armed Penguin
Just the other day, my Governator, in a speech outlining his newest ideas for prison reform, said we CalleyFourYuns had the right not be the victims of crime.
ReplyDeleteWith everyone curtailing our rights at every level, I maintain it is my right to be a victim of anything.
Meddlin' foriegn people!
For a while there was a pit bull living in the apartment above us. Fine. The apartments share one narrow back urban lot alley, kind of like a New Orleans enclosure but is trashed out. I'd endeavored to fix it up some and would go out there with my son. The people upstairs had started letting the dog out alone in that alley to walk itself but the owner had talked to them when it had attacked him (the building owner's words) and I'd thought this had stopped. So one day I go out there with son. We take a few steps out and then there is this frenzy of barking as the pit bull comes racing down the fire escape. My son screamed (6 at the time). As it came charging around the fire escape I had no idea if those were my last seconds or if the dog was just being friendly, but of course taking no chances I yelled at my son to get inside and moved to block the dog so my son would have time to get in the apartment. He got inside and the dog stopped a couple feet in front of me(huge dog) and continued its frenzy of barking. I backed toward the apartment and inside. About five minutes later there was a knock on the door. Upstairs neighbor. Were we all right? But not really an apology. He said his dog was territorial, it thought of the back alley as its own, but it wouldn't hurt anyone. He said the dog had responded to our fear. It could tell we were afraid and that's why it had done this.
ReplyDeleteAs long as they were upstairs my son never went back out in the back area, petrified the dog would appear out of nowhere.
I did a fair amount of reading on pit bulls when this happened and there are sites that say they can be great family pets. They are however very territorial. And these people who refuse to take responsibility for their pet aren't helping the situation (speaking as a person who had dogs and cats for many years). Because of the way the neighbor managed his pet, I reasoned he likely had chosen a pit bull for pure intimidation factor and a sense of superiority.
There was an awful story in my area news recently. A family with 2 huskies and a 2 yr old child -- she got out of the house through the 'dog door' into the area with the dogs and they disemboweled her. I can't imagine finding your child in that condition.
ReplyDeleteSome folks say that the same reasoning used to ban pit bulls could be used to ban guns. The difference is that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Guns don't pull their own trigger, people do. Same deal with pit bulls, with one important difference: pit bulls are not machines, and what triggers them is not always known.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that everybody knows that if they point their gun at a person and pull the trigger, bad things happen to the person the gun is pointing at. Most of the pit bull maulings and deaths that I've seen mentioned in the media over the years happened out of the blue. "I don't understand what happened, Fang is just so gentle with our children, why did he decide that our neighbor's toddler was an appetizer?!" I.e., it happens unexpectedly, because DOGS ARE NOT MACHINES. Unlike guns, they have a brain and their own set of hard-wired instincts that we as dog owners only imperfectly understand. Thus while most people know what sets off a gun (you pull the trigger!), few people seem to know what sets off pit bulls.
I'm not saying that pit bulls should be banned. I'm saying that no matter how gentle Fang seems, he is a loaded weapon with a hair trigger that is easy to accidentally set off, and he should be treated accordingly. Some pit bull owners, alas, refuse to admit this, and thus we end up with laws like the Denver pit bull ban, which happened after two people were killed and several others severely injured by pit bulls that, their owners maintained, "were perfectly gentle with our children, we don't know what set them off!"
When pit bull owners refuse to treat their pit bull like a loaded weapon, well... pit bulls aren't needed for modern society to function (unlike the automobile) and aren't protected by the Constitution (unlike guns), so if it comes down to a choice of protecting dogs or protecting people from irresponsible dog owners, the majority will come down on the side of people every time.
-E
You know, German shepherds can be pretty territorial, too. Same for Rottweilers. How come I don't hear nearly as many grisly stories about German shepherds or Rottweilers gnashing away at people than I do pit bulls? I've never been attacked by a pit bull, but I've been the target of their aggression -- just one example, I was walking down the sidewalk one day past a guy with a leashed pit bull, and that dog lurched and growled at me even though I wasn't even looking at it. It reminded me of the time years earlier that a black lab did the same thing, scaring me shitless. Turned out the lab had rabies. I strongly doubt this pit bull had rabies, too...
ReplyDeleteI'm opposed to breed-specific dog law because it is rarely the breed per se that is at fault.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to pit bulls (a blanket term for several breeds), a well-bred pit bull is actually less likely to attack a human than a German Shepherd Dog, for instance (I own a GSD, BTW). GSDs have been bred for a century to go one-on-one with a human being (the sport of Schutzhund, which includes a protection phase involving a kind of martial art against a human "agitator" is the basis of selective breeding in Germany for GSDs).
OTOH, pit bulls were trained to fight in a pit against other animals yet allow themselves to be pulled out by the collar in the midst of a fight by their human handler. Pit bulls that turned on their handler were shot. I used to participate in Schutzhund with my GSD, and it was very much harder to train a good pit bull to take on the agitator (the "bad guy" in protective clothing) than a GSD or Rottweiler. (However, pit bulls do tend to be more dog-aggressive.) They liked it as a game, but not when it got serious.
What has happened with pit bulls is that they have been carelessly bred and there are a lot of trash dogs out there: dogs with bad genetics and bad temperaments. Same thing with other breeds: for instance, I'd insist that the so-called White German Shepherd is even more dangerous.
Now, this is perhaps (I stress perhaps) a basis for a breed law, in that, as you point out, currently pit bulls account for a disproportionate number of bites. But in a couple of years the pit bull will fall out of favor, some other dog will become popular, get carelessly bred by puppy mills and backyard breeders, and become the next "dangerous breed." What then?
What I favor is draconian laws imposing strict liability on dog owners. Make an example of the idiots who own such dogs and let them run loose. Enforce the leash laws--don't let them slide. In most cases of a dog mauling, there's been ample warning of the dog's proclivities. Too often the animal authorities don't follow through on complaints as severely as they should.
Another thing that would help would be to restrict people to keeping one dog unless they get a kennel license. One dog is less likely to attack a human: it's the pack mentality that makes dogs dangerous. Most people really can't handle more than one dog, because they don't understand dog "culture." Not a problem when it's a couple or three Fifi's; a big problem when it's two or three 80-pound dogs that are, pound for pound, at least three times stronger than a human being.
Welcome, Dave. I didn't realize you came by here, though I occasionally drop by your place (but not in the last month or so, or I would have noticed your pointer to my article on "Bring'em On" vs. a real hero). I have admired your articles on training your dog, it is a process which I would not have the patience to do, which is why I am instead owned by cats. As for Pit Bulls, the statistics regarding them are rather apalling, and while breed-specific laws are rather draconian, if the owners of these dogs refuse to treat their dogs like the loaded weapons that they are, then those laws will continue to be passed.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about the "white" German Shepherd is well noted. In the American South where I was born, these dogs were often used to attack black people, and along with mounted troopers were a preferred method for breaking up gatherings of "uppity niggers". When the corrupt police commissioner of my home town rode his horse down the aisle of a black church in order to pistol-whip the preacher for having the audacity to hold a memorial service for the just-assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. ("I'm not gonna have nobody memorializing that commie in *my* town!"), he was backed up by troopers holding the leashes of snarling German Shepherds in order to keep the congregation in their place.
But in the years since, they appear to have fallen out of favor amongst the anti-social, and besides, have been acknowledged as being dangerous and are usually only owned by those who know their dangers. The Pit Bull, alas, went through a fad phase a few years back that put it into the hands of the ignorant, and we are reaping the results of that.
Sad to say, the German Shepherd Dogs used in the South (and at Abu Ghraib) were the real thing, not "White German Shepherds." Color in animals is closely linked with temperament because melanin is involved in the development of the midbrain, which governs emotions. White shepherds tend to be what dog trainers call "nerve bags": prone to bite out of fear, without provocation.
ReplyDeleteThey're useless for law enforcement (or law abuse!) because, like all fear biters, they tend to bite with their front teeth and run away, rather than, as in a well-trained working GSD, biting "full mouth" and holding on, which is what you want in a police dog. This is part of what Schutzhund tests for.
In fact, strictly-speaking, a White shepherd is not a German Shepherd Dog at all: the color is forbidden, and white puppies are culled at birth in Germany.
BTW, it could be that pit breeds are more dangerous on average because they've been selected for centuries to hold on after biting, even if they bite out of fear. They are different in that way, even if they're not "like wild animals" as that credentialed fool you quoted says. Wild canids are by definition fear-biters: they will bite and run away unless in a pack. Courage in dogs is a characteristic selected for by humans.
I am a lover of amimals, however after reading and hearing about the morbid and brutal killings of
ReplyDeletenumerous people, children, babies and other animals by pit bulls in the later years, I decided to
do some research.
To put it simply, pit bulls have a split personality, inbred, rooted and ingrained in them. They WILL attack even those who love them, without reason.
Yesterday, my sweet lovable, fat black kitty, sitting in my front yard was attacked and killed
by two pit bulls within seconds of going into my house to get a glass of milk. I live in a secluded
area and have for 30 years, and my animals have never been in danger.
Two weeks ago the same pit bulls walked right into my house and into my living room toward one of
my absolutely adorable Himalayan cats Boo Boo, (I also have her brother Yogi) who was sitting on
the sofa. I turned around from what I was doing and Yelled "NO" and they ran, but later they tried
to return. I told them to "GET", (I have a very strong voice) and they left. I Didn't see them again till yesterday July 22, 2007. A week ago they killed a dog a couple of blocks away.
They are smart though, because the animal control cannot seem to find them, which means, they WILL
be back.
Pit bulls should be either banned or licenced in every city and state. They are VERY dangerous and
those who choose to let them live among themselves and their children, are in GRAVE DANGER.
I pray for everyone who owns these demon inbred animals, that their children and themselves are not
malled to death and eaten alive like so many others who also loved and adored their sweet and
loveable doggy.
If you love yourself and your children, you would NOT own one, nor let them come near you. They
should be banned, and breeders of pitbulls should be fined and imprisoned for every life their
creation destroys.
http://christianfunfair.org/lifesavers.htm
Click on the links below. I'm sure you will find it interesting the statistics on pit bull killings, verses all other dog killings. Half of the killings are done by pit bulls, mostly children, and half were attacks on the owners.
http://www.dogbitelaw.com/Dog%20Attacks%201982%20to%202006%20Clifton.pdf
http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html
Links on the dangers of Pit Bulls: http://www.mywvhome.com/pitbull.html
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=007nut
I am a lover of amimals, however after reading and hearing about the morbid and brutal killings of
ReplyDeletenumerous people, children, babies and other animals by pit bulls in the later years, I decided to
do some research.
To put it simply, pit bulls have a split personality, inbred, rooted and ingrained in them. They WILL attack even those who love them, without reason.
Yesterday, my sweet lovable, fat black kitty, sitting in my front yard was attacked and killed
by two pit bulls within seconds of going into my house to get a glass of milk. I live in a secluded
area and have for 30 years, and my animals have never been in danger.
Two weeks ago the same pit bulls walked right into my house and into my living room toward one of
my absolutely adorable Himalayan cats Boo Boo, (I also have her brother Yogi) who was sitting on
the sofa. I turned around from what I was doing and Yelled "NO" and they ran, but later they tried
to return. I told them to "GET", (I have a very strong voice) and they left. I Didn't see them again till yesterday July 22, 2007. A week ago they killed a dog a couple of blocks away.
They are smart though, because the animal control cannot seem to find them, which means, they WILL
be back.
Pit bulls should be either banned or licenced in every city and state. They are VERY dangerous and
those who choose to let them live among themselves and their children, are in GRAVE DANGER.
I pray for everyone who owns these demon inbred animals, that their children and themselves are not
malled to death and eaten alive like so many others who also loved and adored their sweet and
loveable doggy.
If you love yourself and your children, you would NOT own one, nor let them come near you. They
should be banned, and breeders of pitbulls should be fined and imprisoned for every life their
creation destroys.
http://christianfunfair.org/lifesavers.htm
Click on the links below. I'm sure you will find it interesting the statistics on pit bull killings, verses all other dog killings. Half of the killings are done by pit bulls, mostly children, and half were attacks on the owners.
http://www.dogbitelaw.com/Dog%20Attacks%201982%20to%202006%20Clifton.pdf
http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html
There are many good, good people who own pit bulls that have been attacked and yes, killed. Can one honestly say that out of 1,141 pit bull killings that these good people abused their dogs? That would be absurd.
ReplyDeleteThe Pit Bulls Ancestry
ReplyDeleteThe breed known as the American Pit Bull Terrier was selectively bred specifically with the idea of it becoming the ultimate canine gladiator. In the beginning, the strongest bull dog was taken from one litter and bred with the strongest bull dog from another liter and again and again. Then the largest, heaviest bull dogs were crossed with smaller, quicker terriers to produce the "bull terriers" who became the fountainhead of today's prominent fighting breeds. Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and Pit Bull Terriers all hail from this ancestry. Commonly, dogs who fall into this broad class are identified as pit bulls.
It is important to understand that not just any dog can be trained to fight. Much like herding dogs, trailing dogs and other breeds selected for particular roles, fighting dogs are born ready for the training that will prepare them to succeed in the pit.
The breed is reported to have been pitted against leopards in the ancient Roman arenas.
The largest, heaviest bull dogs were crossed with smaller, quicker terriers to produce the "bull terriers" who became the fountainhead of today's prominent fighting breeds. Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and Pit Bull Terriers all hail from this ancestry. Commonly, dogs who fall into this broad class are identified as pit bulls.
It is important to understand that not just any dog can be trained to fight. Much like herding dogs, trailing dogs and other breeds selected for particular roles, fighting dogs are born ready for the training that will prepare them to succeed in the pit.
The Neapolitan Mastiff is a descendant of the Molossus, the mammoth war dogs of the Middle East, and was frequently used in the Roman arenas pitted against lions, bears, and gladiators for entertainment. As dogs of war, they fought alongside the Roman legions, and in this way they were spread throughout Europe. Eventually the descendants of the Roman Molossian splintered into several different Mastiff breeds known across Europe.
The origins of the breed can be traced back to antiquity and the Molossian family of dogs. The Molossian family of dogs bears the name of the people with whom they were most often associated - the Molossi tribe, a group of people who lived in ancient Greece and favored the use of robust, muscular dogs in warfare. Officially termed canus molossi (dogs of the Molossi), these animals were reknowned for their fierceness, and for their innate ability to intimidate the enemies of the tribe.
The Molossians gave rise to another family of dogs known as the Mastiffs. The early Britons employed a variation of the Mastiffs as pugnaces - fighting dogs that could be used in either a guardianship or warfare capacity. When the Roman emperor Claudius defeated the Briton Chief Caractacus in 50 AD, the powerful pugnaces piqued his interest. He quickly seized on the opportunity and began exporting select quantities of the dogs back home to satiate his countrymen's appetite for entertainment in the arenas and coliseums of Rome.
Once in Rome, the British dogs were crossbred with their Roman counterparts. From the years 50 AD to 410 AD, the breed was widely disseminated throughout the Roman Empire for use as fighting dogs. Along the way they mixed with other indigenous breeds throughout Europe, creating a genetic melting pot for the bulldogs that are the immediate antecedents of the American Pit Bull Terrier.
Fighting bulldogs were bred with terriers who were known for their feistiness and indefatigable focus. The result was the bull-and-terrier, more commonly known as the first pit bull terrier - a muscular, canine gladiator bred specifically for combat with other dogs.
You can't get their killer ancestry bloodline out of them anymore than you can get your ancestry's blood out of you.
Yesterday the animal control gave me an address to see if I could identify the two pits that killed my cat. I drove over to the address given, went into the back alley and I was saddened through and through. These two Brendil pits encaged in a pen not much bigger than their bodies. One in one part of the cage in a cage, the other in another. I was appaled. I stopped my car in front of the cage and asked the pit in front, "Do you remember me"? I looked at him in his eyes, and they were very, very sad.
ReplyDeleteThere is something I always do with my cats and that is make eyes at them, which means I look them in the eye and close my eyes slowly, then again. They always make eyes back, that is a sign of love and trust. The pit did the same. I cannot believe the animal control said these were family pits, but obviously they don't know animals as well as they think. These were breeding pits, and these breeders need to be fined and jailed. I don't believe any animal should live outside, they need a home with loving care, but to live under these conditions, I would rather be dead, and I can assure you, so would they.
No it's not the pit bulls fault. It's the breeders and every breeder knows the consquences of their actions. They know the multitudes of maulings, maimings and deaths of innocent people, yet they continue to breed the pit. They know that out of each litter born, that a minuet few are going to get into the right hands. And the way the world is today, it's only going to get worse, not better.
Banning is the only solution. You'll not help the pit if you don't ban the breeders. A ban doesn't mean kill the pit, it means not to allow any more be born, and those who already have them must register them. Registration of the dog involves having a microchip implanted under the dog's skin, spayed/nutured, a tattoo applied to its leg, an up-to-date photograph of the dog as well as a $50,000 liability insurance policy. It would also require a cement floor and a roof on the top. A HOME is what they need. They are no different than us. Even death row affords a bed with a mattress in their room.
If this law were already in effect, I could find these pits, and live again in peace. Oh yes, I could not make a 100% identification. Maybe it was them, maybe not. I couldn't see their entire bodies because they were laying on their sides. I took a good long look at them though, and if it is them I will know next time, when they come back. Then I will hold the owners responsible.
We need laws not only for the pit, but for every animal deprived of a good home life with their loved ones. Cages should only be used for exercise, and fun. The head of Springfield Mo, human society said to me one time, "there is an amazingly amount of people who own animals simply to have something to control. They will get a dog and either chain them outside, or leave them to live their lives in a caged yard. These animals lose their spirit and ability to learn. Then their children see the way their parents raise animals and follow suit. It's become an epidemic, and it's enough to break any animal lovers heart."
Please click on the link below and send this link to eveyone you know.
ReplyDeleteThis is the latest pit bull attacks recorded to date:
http://pit-bulls.christianfunfair.org/attacks.htm