It should be illegal! (2010, live, pit bulls)

[PaperTrail]

Yeah, clearly identified "from press accounts since 1982." That's leaving it to the media to accurately report the breeds based on what people with "evident expertise" has told them.

Seeing as I've had one employer refer to pit bulls has hounds, I'm balking at the idea of trusting the media with this kind of issue.

Furthermore, it sounds like counting the pit bull as a group of dogs would naturally skew the data -- that's comparing at least three breeds (that you've mentioned) to one type of everything else. Pitt bulls, to me, mean the American Pit Bull Terrier, but I will acknowledge that others have a broader impression of what being a pit bull means. I just hope they factor that in when they're looking at any relevant data.

I have been wondering, along with you Sean, about whether it's because pit bulls are larger/stronger that their victims are just injured worse. Kind of the equivalent to air travel vs. auto travel. In a car, there are lots of crashes, but more often than not, you can walk away from them. In turn, a plane crash gets lots of press because, well, the odds of survival are slim. Maybe there's a similar sort of scale embedded in reports about pit bull attacks.

Just thinking out loud here. I hadn't really thought through an argument, but that's where my train of thought is going at the moment.

[PaperTrail]

Originally Posted by seanpecor

The CDC data was a scientific study ...

And just to make sure that we stay on point, was the data you linked to a CDC report? It mentions that it was compiled by the editor of Animal People (a publication of some sort, I presume). The only CDC report I've found is:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/dogbreeds.pdf

I don't think this report has been mentioned yet, but it, too, said it was compiled with "data from the The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and media accounts ..." That again brings up the reliance on what newspapers and perhaps other media refer to as pit bulls. Though, it should be noted that this CDC actually does call them "pit bull-type" dogs, suggesting that we're looking at a broad range of breeds.

[seanpecor]

That's the same CDC report I found. An excerpt that struck me:

Another concern is that a ban on a specific breed
might cause people who want a dangerous dog to simply
turn to another breed for the same qualities they
sought in the original dog (eg, large size, aggression
easily fostered). Breed-specific legislation does not
address the fact that a dog of any breed can become
dangerous when bred or trained to be aggressive."

There-in lies the risk of an outright ban. I guess I'm liking the zero tolerance policy on dog bites. It acknowledges that most Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Great Danes, etc, are as affectionate and "safe" as your typical lap dog. Such a law would still be biased against large breeds because larger dogs would be more likely to cause an injury serious enough to trigger a complaint.

Sean

[j1n]

Originally Posted by PaperTrail

I have been wondering, along with you Sean, about whether it's because pit bulls are larger/stronger that their victims are just injured worse.

or maybe because they are the only dog attacks regularly reported?

[ladypaints2play]

i have pit bull mixed breed dogs, they came to us from a neighbor that was not feeding them, they chose us, and the big red dog was very friendly, and was readily accepted, the white mixed pit, was the big red dog's dog, and he was not accepted at first, but when i fed the red, i noticed him taking mouthfuls of food, up the driveway to the top of the hill, and dropping the food in front of the white dog to eat, well that was heartbreaking, at our home we have a majority of strays, we keep our home open just for those types of animals, one german sheppard for salem turnpike in roanoke and the rest from franklin county. The man had a family of three children and a wife, and in the winter time was always running out of gas for his car, and sitting on the side of the road, with the kids in the car, and when i asked about getting the white dog neutered, they orginally said no, they wanted to breed the dog, i went off, what is wrong with people that can't even keep gas in the car, and food on the table for their children, and they want to breed a mixed breed pit? Finally i convinced them to let me have the dog neutered, and then he went off to prison for having sex with underage children and left the dogs, when the dog warden was called, i told him the dogs did not belong to us, and he said they would have to be put down, so he said if you feed them, they are yours...the white dog has bitten people right in the butt,a couple of times and chased and bitten a boy on the leg on a pocket rocket that was riding by our house and aggravated him, but he is i tell you one of the sweetest dogs i have ever seen, we have a 4 yr old gdaughter and he has never even thought about biting her, she puts hairbows in his hair, so i don't know why he likes to bite one time in the buttocks area, we keep him mostly on a chain run, and in the house.....but i would not have chosen a pit bull, but he chose us.......the neighborhood knows this dog and his situation, and most love the dog, and others tollerate him, he is not a bad dog, the neglect maybe, i just don't know.....he even barks now at the bad person that owned him before, that's back in the neighborhood, and if he came to our house, he would probably bite him in the butt!

[ladypaints2play]

read thing about the dogs and breed specific and it is right on, the part about irresponsible dog owners, and family oriented, and neutered, all part of what was wrong with the dog i took in, and now that guy has another dog (pit mix i am sure) that i have heard he is training to fight.....where do these stupid people come from, i agree with fining the crap out of them.....give us humanitarians that are trying to help the dogs a break...

[stan4]

Any dog can and will bite you. Certain breeds are more likely to continue a persistent attack. That's really the problem. Maybe if we up'd the criminal charges on people whose dogs do this (outside of a setting where someone is bitten doing something wrong)...

[askdc]

Can Pit Bulls "turn" on people?In fact, no breed of dog does. Dog aggression is nearly always preceded by some kind of warning, and there is always a reason behind the attack. However, many inexperienced owners do not recognize the dog's behavior as aggression, or refuse to acknowledge it as a warning sign. The only exception I can think of is Springer Rage, a rare and controversial neurological condition that manifests itself as a spontaneous attack, followed by confusion, and then a return to normal behavior. Pit Bulls are NOT prone to this condition. There are individual dogs of any breed that may be more aggressive to others.

[askdc]

The Bulldog was known at this time as the “nanny dog” because children could hang on to their tails and ears, poke them with sticks, or any other form of childlike torture and the Bulldogs would merely wag their tails harder. This trait has passed to well-bred APBTs as well.


In the APBT, as a breed, we see primarily two types of aggression: competitive aggression and dominant aggression. These forms of aggression are natural and very common in a wide range of animals from humans to birds. Competitive and dominant aggressions are also common in all canines, including the APBT, and are natural, controllable, and certainly not the worst aggressive tendency for canines to possess.

• • • dog toward dog aggression

Even though competitive and dominant aggressions are perfectly normal for all canines, without question, a well bred, well trained and well socialized APBT, no matter what the bloodlines (germlines), will not have overt or uncontrollable aggressive issues toward other dogs. This is likely hard to believe these days, and many novice and pit bull fighter wanna-be owners feel that overt aggression is a good thing. Poorly bred, poorly trained, under socialized dogs, or dogs that are trained to display such behaviors by idiot owners, are when we typically see these overt problems occurring.

[j1n]

i'd like to train a pack of vicious attack chihuahuas and run the iditerod with a team of boston terriers