Need pitbull friendly rental near Olympia, coming up empty (income, tax)

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by Angry-Koala

Yeah, go ahead and dishonestly "certify" your dog as a service animal. https://blog.dogsbite.org/2018/07/br...-bad-idea.html

I did not know what "certify" meant. Pit Bulls can turn. What happens to the owner if a child is hurt by a "certified" dog?

[fishbrains]

Originally Posted by Seacove

I did not know what "certify" meant. Pit Bulls can turn. What happens to the owner if a child is hurt by a "certified" dog?

Leaving aside whether pits are inherently more dangerous than other breeds, let’s consider what would happen if any assistance dog harmed a person.

The person who is harmed sues. In the case of a child who is bitten, the parent sues in their behalf. The jury makes a determination of fault and awards damages.

If it is uncovered during the trial that the owner presented the dog as a service animal, and the dog was not appropriately trained, then I imagine the jury will have a negative view of the owner’s honesty and credibility. They may, or they may not, award higher damages as a result.

All of this assumes the dog bites somebody badly enough to cause serious injury. That is not a certainty by any means, and many pit bulls are very gentle dogs.

[Angry-Koala]

Originally Posted by fishbrains

Leaving aside whether pits are inherently more dangerous than other breeds, let’s consider what would happen if any assistance dog harmed a person.

The person who is harmed sues. In the case of a child who is bitten, the parent sues in their behalf. The jury makes a determination of fault and awards damages.

If it is uncovered during the trial that the owner presented the dog as a service animal, and the dog was not appropriately trained, then I imagine the jury will have a negative view of the owner’s honesty and credibility. They may, or they may not, award higher damages as a result.

All of this assumes the dog bites somebody badly enough to cause serious injury. That is not a certainty by any means, and many pit bulls are very gentle dogs.

Yes, I agree that most pit bulls are gentle dogs but getting a fake certification means that landlords with more than five units can't say no to a "certified" dog, even if they have a policy that prohibits pets. Also, people that are quick to break the rules tend to be the same ones that don't know how to control their dogs and blame others when their dog causes problems.

As far as the lawsuit remedy, what good is that if the dog owner doesn't have the money to pay the judgement, or worse yet, someone gets killed? No lawsuit will fix that.

Last year 29 people were killed by pit bull-type dogs, most of them family pets. "In 2017, the combination of pit bulls (29), their close cousins, American bulldogs (1) and mastiff-type guard dogs and war dogs (2) contributed to 82% (32) of all dog bite-related fatalities. Rottweilers inflicted 1 death, killing an 18-month old Phoenix boy." (dogs bite.org)

"German shepherds had the second highest death rate in 2017, inflicting 4 deaths, followed by mixed-breeds with 3 deaths and two breeds with 2 deaths, Labrador retrievers and mastiff-types, and 2 deaths involving unknown/unreleased breed data." (same source)

As far as lawsuits: "In 2017, 21% (8) of all fatal dog attacks resulted in meaningful criminal charges, equal to the 12-year average.6 All 8 cases with criminal charges involved pit bulls, including one adopted from a city shelter that joined in a deadly pack attack." (same source)

Edit: I forgot to mention that these stats are for the U.S. In countries like Germany that restrict the breeds that are most likely to kill the number of deaths is quite low per year.

[fishbrains]

I get it. You don’t like pit bulls. I wasn’t advocating passing a pet off as a service animal. I was simply responding to your question as to what would happen if one attacked.

Essentially, not much difference than one that wasn’t masquerading as a service animal.

[Angry-Koala]

Originally Posted by fishbrains

I get it. You don’t like pit bulls. I wasn’t advocating passing a pet off as a service animal. I was simply responding to your question as to what would happen if one attacked.

Essentially, not much difference than one that wasn’t masquerading as a service animal.

Somebody else asked that question, not me.

Originally Posted by fishbrains

The person who is harmed sues. In the case of a child who is bitten, the parent sues in their behalf. The jury makes a determination of fault and awards damages.

You're making it seem like pit bull bites are no big deal, which is misleading. German shepherds aren't known for tearing people's flesh off but pit bulls are. Imagine trying to recover for damages in a case like that. In most cases you'll be out of luck.

Originally Posted by fishbrains

All of this assumes the dog bites somebody badly enough to cause serious injury. That is not a certainty by any means, and many pit bulls are very gentle dogs.

Since pit bulls kill far more people in America every year than any other type of dog (29 people this year, many of them their owners or owner's children) there's got to be something to the warnings.

Go ahead and ignore the information I provided if you want and claim that I hate pit bulls, if it makes you feel better, (I don't hate them. I just don't think most people should own them.) But what's wrong with letting people know what they are capable of so they can make their own decisions?

[Jason2112]

Originally Posted by Angry-Koala

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Originally Posted by Seacove

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Originally Posted by fishbrains

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Apparently none of you saw the OP, you know where I said I don’t care about anyone’s opinion about the breed. But I will address the following:

- certified service animals and emotional support animals are not the same thing and the terms are not interchangeable. ESA has become a convenient way for people to get around blanket breed restrictions with regard to rental housing. Whether the breed restrictions put forth by insurance companies are worse than people getting ESA certificates for their restricted breed dogs is an individual assessment and NOT for discussion here.

- most of the stats reported on that site have been challenged and proven false. That site is run by an outspoken anti-pitbull maniac and the content should be viewed as biased.

- regardless of the opinions of the breed, every pitbull owner faces a steep uphill battle with regard to housing, insurance, and public opinion. For those of you who don’t face these challenges daily, be thankful.

I was fortunate to get a job and housing in Salem, OR so there really is no need for further discussion in this thread.

[Huckleberry3911948]

Can you imagine an apartment complex full of pit bulls

[fishbrains]

Originally Posted by Angry-Koala

Somebody else asked that question, not me. You're making it seem like pit bull bites are no big deal, which is misleading. German shepherds aren't known for tearing people's flesh off but pit bulls are. Imagine trying to recover for damages in a case like that. In most cases you'll be out of luck.

I don’t see how you can twist my post in this manner. I never said pit bull bites were minor, nor did I say they were horrendous. I never compared them to a different breed bite. I did say that if a bite occurred damages are assessed by the legal system, and whether a dog is alleged certified or not makes no difference.

I was completely neutral on bites

[/quote]

Originally Posted by Jason2112

Apparently none of you saw the OP, you know where I said I don’t care about anyone’s opinion about the breed

See above. I was neither addressing your opinion of the breed, or the breed as a whole. I said that you did the right thing by not abandoning your animal 8n favor of housing, and I noted that Angry-Koala didn’t like pits, at which point A-K denied that a moment before blasting them as dangerous.

I am glad you found a job and an apt. Congrats. I hope that you, and your dog, are happy.

[Angry-Koala]

Jason2112 - Apparently none of you saw the OP, you know where I said I don’t care about anyone’s opinion about the breed.

No, I saw it. I was responding to post #29, where BakerWilliams32 made a suggestion for you to use CertaPet to fake certify your dog so you could get into a rental here.

Jason2112 - most of the stats reported on that site have been challenged and proven false.

Not true. Even though people that don't like the site like to make that claim, all the stats are backed up by links to police reports, media reports, owner's online postings, etc.

Jason2112 - That site is run by an outspoken anti-pitbull maniac and the content should be viewed as biased.

I wasn't aware that raising public awareness about a potential danger means one is crazy.

fishbrains - I don’t see how you can twist my post in this manner. I never said pit bull bites were minor, nor did I say they were horrendous. I never compared them to a different breed bite.

This: "All of this assumes the dog bites somebody badly enough to cause serious injury. That is not a certainty by any means, and many pit bulls are very gentle dogs."

To me this comes across as, "pit bull bites are no worse than bites from poodles or golden retrievers, people, so no big deal." My apologies if that's not what you meant.

fishbrains - and I noted that Angry-Koala didn’t like pits, at which point A-K denied that a moment before blasting them as dangerous.

Being aware that something has the potential to be dangerous doesn't mean one will automatically hate it. I know many of the people that warn about the dangers of pits do hate them, but I don't. I do hate when clueless and/or naive people own them (which happens way too often) and little babies and children end up getting mauled or killed.

[AleeGee]

Pitbulls (and Staffordshires), Chows, Dobermans and Rottweilers are not acceptable pets almost everywhere in Washington, except maybe trailer parks, sorry for the stigma, but it's there.
Even if your Rottweiler is a little baby in a dog's body, they get you with a weight requirement, which is usually no dogs over 100lbs.
That's the way it is, sweetie. You are going to strike out in apartment hunting. You're wasting time trying to get an apartment. Besides, most people in apartments have lap dogs, and the majority rules. Try trailer parks.