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So let me ask you this. Have the studies shown WHY the dogs attacked? No one is arguing that if a pitbull attacks there is likely to be some severe consequences. That's known.
But pitbulls by and large do not attack without a reason. No dog does.
Again, it goes back to the owners.
If the owner has a pitbull who is showing signs of aggressiveness and they do nothing to stop the behavior, they are reinforcing to the dog that the behavior is acceptable.
There was a case in California where a woman locked her child in the house with pitbulls who had shown signs of aggression for quite a while so that she could go shopping. She came home to find the child dead. Is that the dog's fault, or the mother's?
The more recent KY case mentioned that the dogs had shown signs of aggression towards a 14 month old and the parents didn't stop the behavior. Instead the dog eventually snapped and attacked the baby while she was being fed.
Whose to blame in that case? The dog, or the parents?
They're not that much different than human beings.
Society has no issue arguing that a Muslim shouldn't be labeled as a terrorist simply because of where they came from, yet a lot of terrorists come from Muslim decent. That doesn't mean they all are.
We know that not all Mexican immigrants as illegal immigrants even though we know how many do come here illegally.
We know that not all blacks are thugs, though many are shown to be in the media.
We know that not all whites are racists, though many are depicted that way on tv.
It's a social construct. Not how things really are. What has happened to pitbulls is that people have blamed their lack of responsibility in owning a powerful (yet loving) animal on the dog instead of blaming themselves for mishandling.
"According to the Center For Disease Control (CDC), approximately*4.5 million dog bites occur in the United States every year......The U.S. population is approximately 325.8 million people as of 2017. That means a dog bites*1 out of every 72 people."
"Approximately 4.5 million dog bites occur each year"
"30+ breeds of dogs and mixes are incorrectly identified as “pit bulls”* in dog bite incidents, attributing the pit bull with an unfair and overstated number of incidents"
According to them the dogs that bite the most are:
Akita, Cocker Spaniel, Blue Heeler, Chow, Collie, Dalmation, German Shepherd, Jack Russell terrier, Lhasa Apso, Rottweiler.
Dogs that bite the least: American Bulldog
American Bully
American Pitbull Terrier
American Staffordshire Terrier Boston Terrier
Boxer
English bulldog
Mini Schnauzer
Pug
Standard Poodle
The difference is that the media has sensationalized pitbulls as being dangerous. Once that is in someone's head you tend to focus more on those events and subconsciously ignore others.
When you hear enough about a certain thing, you begin to notice it more. The media has been doing this for years with advertisements. Remember when seatbelts became a big thing? The media is quick to point out that a person was wearing a seatbelt if they survived, but rarely do they discuss an incident where someone died because of one.
Same goes for guns. People constantly see news about shootings and immediately blame the guns because the media has sensationalized gun violence. They rarely focus on the people behind the gun.
I have owned quite a few breeds of dogs throughout the years, and my dad spent about 15 years breeding dogs.
To date I have owned:
3 German Shepherds (trained police dogs)
2 white Dobermans
4 Australian Shepherds
4 Blue Heelers
2 Rottweilers
1 Chow
2 Boston Terriers
3 Daschunds (2 full size, 1 miniature)
1 miniature Schnauzer
2 Boxers
3 Pitbulls
Our current mix is:
1 mini daschund
1 Boxer
1 blue Pitbull
Do you know which out of the ones I've owned were the meanest and nastiest to people?
The daschunds. The one we have now is extremely temperamental. One minute he can be loving and the next biting your hand. He is the only dog that has drawn blood from me simply because he didn't want to go outside to use the bathroom.
The second meanest was the chow. I cannot tell you how many times that dog attempted to bite me when I was a kid. Dad had to get rid of him. The best dogs I owned as a kid were the German Shepherds, the Dobermans, and the Pitbulls. They were my best friends growing up. Dobermans are often frowned upon, but one of my Dobermans saved my life when I was 10. I was playing outside and as I was running through the yard I stepped on the tail of an Eastern diamondback rattlesnake. As it turned to strike at me Sable (they were named Sable and McGuire) grabbed the snake and yanked it away from me. The snake bit her in the head and she didn't recover. McGuire grieved himself to death not long after. They were never mean towards me though they could have easily eaten me had they chose to do so.
The blue pit belongs to my 7 year old. He's a little over a year old and 86 lbs. Every night he lays in the floor on his back with paws in the air whimpering for my son to scratch his belly. They will lay there for hours playing. But let someone knock on the door that he doesn't know and it's instant protection mode. He hunkers down between my son and that door and you will not get around him. I wouldn't hesitate for one second to believe that he would maul whoever comes through that door if they approached my son. That is precisely WHY I have him. To be our kids' protector when we aren't around. If someone comes in and we tell him it's ok, he goes over to sit with them begging to be petted. Then he's your best friend unless we tell him otherwise.
You have to consider how a dog was raised. In most cases the dogs were raised improperly and as such have reverted to aggressive behavior. When you spend time with a dog, care for it properly, and raise it as a part of the family it becomes protective of you. Not aggressive towards you. Pitbulls are aggressive by nature, but that doesn't mean they can't be loving and friendly. It all depends on how you have socialized them with other people and animals. If they haven't been around others as a puppy, you cannot expect them to behave around them when they get older. It has to start young and continue throughout their lifetime.
Don't blame the attacks on the dogs. Blame it on the owners for not raising them properly.
I was going to say miniature schnauzer. My sister has one and he is a turd.
So let me ask you this. Have the studies shown WHY the dogs attacked? No one is arguing that if a pitbull attacks there is likely to be some severe consequences. That's known.
But pitbulls by and large do not attack without a reason...
You need to read more of the comments in this thread. There are numerous instances of pit bulls attacking completely unprovoked.
And here is a great example of these monstrous beasts doing precisely that. This is a video of a woman walking her two pit bulls. They happen to pass by a cat sitting there doing absolutely nothing. The pit bulls go and attack the cat and kill it, and the woman cannot control her dogs. Unfortunately, this is precisely the kind of thing they were bred to do.
Warning for the faint of heart - especially cat lovers.
When I see videos like that it makes me realize the people trying to defend that monstrous breed are basically sick.
You need to read more of the comments in this thread. There are numerous instances of pit bulls attacking completely unprovoked.
And here is a great example of these monstrous beasts doing precisely that. This is a video of a woman walking her two pit bulls. They happen to pass by a cat sitting there doing absolutely nothing. The pit bulls go and attack the cat and kill it, and the woman cannot control her dogs. Unfortunately, this is precisely the kind of thing they were bred to do.
Warning for the faint of heart - especially cat lovers.
When I see videos like that it makes me realize the people trying to defend that monstrous breed are basically sick.
Often we think animal behavior is unprovoked when actually its that we do not understand the language.
I am not trying to defend any breed but you do realize many dogs of many breeds have run down and killed cats, right? APBTs were not bred to hunt down and kill cats. Can we stop making these ridiculous assertions. I can pull up numerous video of bullies snuggled with cats and kittens and baby rabbits and chicks.
The only thing you said that I agree with is the woman can not control her dogs.
So what if in a pit bull attack it's the fault of the owners and not the dogs? The problem is not who is to blame - the problem is the damage caused and the people and other animals killed and maimed once the pit bull is triggered to go into attack mode.
All pit bulls have the potential to maim and kill. The commonsense course of action is to figure out how to prevent these maulings and deaths. And one way, is to spay and neuter all pit bulls outside of licensed and registered breeders. And to make sure that any potential pit bull owner is qualified to own one and has the proper home and fenced in yard to keep it in.
And the reason for the explosion in numbers of unqualified owners of pit bulls of unknown breeding and upbringing is due to all the abandoned and confiscated (the owners weren't allowed to keep them) languishing in animal shelters all over the country and the backyard breeders.
? could have been territorial. Could just be the dog dosent like other dogs. You think a "pit bull" is the only dog that does this?
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