Why PittBulls get their bad name!!

[GalvestonDuck]

Some breeders say that American Pit Bull Terriers are all wonderful, friendly. obedient and fiercely loyal pets. Who is right? Maybe they all are - depending on the bloodline of the individual dog.

I don't know if you realize it or not, but you just offered a solid argument for the dog aficionado's side.

The dogs should be judged on an individual basis, whether it be a pitt or a poodle, a shepherd or a shih tzu. You can't condemn an entire breed...maybe an entire bloodline, but not the breed.

[Miss Mary]

Wow j - you sure are cautious when it comes to dogs! I'm probably the opposite now. Let me explain - I'm a major cat lover, can't own one because Nina is highly allergic. But that didn't stop all my neighbors' cats from coming over for attention. I encouraged it! Nina developed a real fear of dogs and we could never trace it to anything - she was never chased or bitten. The only explanation we could come up with was some school kids told her a dog along the walk to school was vicious, but actually this dog was sweet. All bark, no bite. This fear was ruling her life. She would not go to a friend's house with a dog. If we were invited to someone's home with a dog, she stayed in the car. Friends said get a dog. So for 2 years we went to shelters, my hope was to rescue a dog. But we couldn't find puppies available, since so many older dogs are abandoned. They of course barked like crazy and jumped up on her. She was scared even more. There went that dream of mine. We finally got a Golden Retriever puppy, from a breeder. Best decision we ever made, we all say now. Since Hope (named after a pound dog that wasn't family compatible) was small, she wasn't as afraid. Her fear just evaporated, poof - gone! She went from being afraid to dog sitting a neighbor's husky. Yes neighbors would do a double take driving down the street seeing her walk this huge husky! Long story short, I never thought I'd be a dog person too but I am so much a dog lover. Dogs just seek me out! Just like cats do. They smell Hope's scent on my clothes and that's all it takes for 99.9% of dogs I encounter to be gentle. Now there were 2 dogs loose at a local park we walk at. I was about to take Hope there one school day. No one was out near the school or park. One dog was big, but I wasn't as worried about him as I was about the little dog. Couldn't tell which breed it was, but it did make me afraid. So we just turned around, I put Hope inside. She is too friendly and if that little dog were to start something, I'd be all alone. She was attacked by one neighbor nasty Jack Russell - this dog went right for Hope's face. After we pulled this dog off her, Hope wagged her tail to try it again. She wants to be friends with everybody - human or animal. Now that is one dog I will attack, if it attacks my dog. So I'm on the defensive when we walk past that house. But that's the exception in my area. Most owners take care of their pets and most are well mannered.

Mary

[Lindaloo]

LOL! You give Helen enough rope and she will hang herself eventually.

She is stuck on the issue of the Pitt Bull killing not the issue at hand.

[weatherluvr]

I have a friend that has a Rottweiler, and the biggest problem I have with her is that she gets so excited when she sees me, she pees on the floor!

It really does depend on the individual dog, and their upbringing. In my friends' case, they got their dog from a breeding farm that they were invited to tour. The whole facility was very clean, the faculty regularly took out the animals to wash them and play with them, and they had all sorts of certificates of approval from the SPCA and the like. Unfortunately, many animals come from places with much lower standards, to say the least. It's these dogs that give certain breeds a bad rap.

[chadtm80]

Why I think Pits are vicuios dogs and I would NEVER own one.. I also would never say they all need to be rounded up and killed.. A comment like that is just rediculous.. I remind you all to consider the source though rainstorm just does her best to stir up controversy and trouble.. Lets try the old ignore it and it will go away theory.. lol

[Rainband]

Why I think Pits are vicuios dogs and I would NEVER own one.. I also would never say they all need to be rounded up and killed.. A comment like that is just rediculous.. I remind you all to consider the source though rainstorm just does her best to stir up controversy and trouble.. Lets try the old ignore it and it will go away theory.. lol

It's not the dogs Helen it's the owners They breed them to be mean. I had a PB named Mercedes and she was a sweetheart.

[Lindaloo]

Why I think Pits are vicuios dogs and I would NEVER own one.. I also would never say they all need to be rounded up and killed.. A comment like that is just rediculous.. I remind you all to consider the source though rainstorm just does her best to stir up controversy and trouble.. Lets try the old ignore it and it will go away theory.. lol

You are exactly right Chad. ROFLMBO!!

[coriolis]

I am just sitting here looking into Beauty's eyes. And she's looking back with nothing but love and devotion, pure and simple. No lies, no duplicity, no evil intent at all. All she wants is loves and the chance to give me kisses.

[Lindaloo]

You have three Pitts right Ed? And not one is mean. Hmmmm... go figure. You are a good pet owner Ed!!

[rainstorm]

Why I think Pits are vicuios dogs and I would NEVER own one.. I also would never say they all need to be rounded up and killed.. A comment like that is just rediculous.. I remind you all to consider the source though rainstorm just does her best to stir up controversy and trouble.. Lets try the old ignore it and it will go away theory.. lol

sorry, dogs arent people. all the dogs in the world arent worth the life of one child. pit bulls are bred to kill, and nature designed them to be killers. and as i said before, the bite of a scottie and the bite of a pit bull are like nite and day

[rainstorm]

PIT BULL MAULING: Boy has more surgery

Doctors attempt to remove loose bone fragments that might have entered brain

By FRANK CURRERI
REVIEW-JOURNAL



Andrea and Sean Hughes await word on their son's condition Wednesday at University Medical Center. Austin Bechtel, 7, was attacked Sunday in North Las Vegas by two pit bulls.
Photo by K.M. Cannon.



Austin Bechtel
7-year-old's response to mauling has impressed those around him





Austin Bechtel, 7, should have been at his youth football practice late Wednesday afternoon.

Instead, the boy sat in a hospital bed awaiting another surgery for the fractured skull he suffered in a pit bull attack Sunday.

But it was victory -- not misery -- that was on the boy's mind.

"First place again!" Bechtel declared after beating his grandfather once more at a car-racing video game.

Within 30 minutes, Bechtel had traded in his Nintendo joystick for scheduled neurosurgery at University Medical Center.

Doctors attempted to remove loose bone fragments that might have entered the boy's brain, said the child's parents, Andrea and Sean Hughes.

Bechtel's response to the mauling by two pit bulls -- his parents said he had received dozens of stitches from the deep bites -- has impressed those around him.

"He showed me more toughness than I ever would have thought from him," Sean Hughes said.

Bechtel had been playing with two other boys before 2 p.m. Sunday in the 400 block of Villa Espana Drive in North Las Vegas.

In one moment, Bechtel was playing with his neighbor's dog. In the next, he was on the ground in the fetal position, with one pit bull biting his head and another tearing at his ankle, his parents said.

The boy's neighbor, Jeff Goodrich, came to his aid by striking the pit bulls in the head with a baseball bat and chasing them off, said North Las Vegas police spokesman Mark Martin.

The sight of the boy and his wounds overwhelmed his mother.

"It's very hard when you're sitting there and you wonder why he's covered in his own blood," Andrea Hughes recalled.

"You sit and wonder why one minute feels like 10 minutes when you wait for the ambulance to come," said Sean Hughes, a technology manager for a copy firm. "You don't want him to look in your eyes and see the fear and the anger."

Martin said animal control officials captured the dogs. Dog owners are supposed to register their animals with the city, but both pit bulls had apparently not been registered, Martin said.

There is no evidence that animal control officials had received prior complaints about the dogs, police said.

The dogs' owner had not come forward Wednesday. If identified, he could face criminal charges, Martin said.

The dogs were being held at the Dewey Animal Shelter. Whether they will be euthanized will be determined when the investigation is completed, Martin said.

The Hugheses said they didn't want to think about the pit bulls on Wednesday. Rather, they just wanted their son to get better. They hope he can leave the hospital by Saturday, so the quarterback can attend his football team's season-finale party.


scotties dont do this

[rainstorm]

The majority of Pit Bull attacks and deaths have occurred when a seemingly loving pet, without any provocation, attacked. Prior to the attack, the dog was a loving and playful animal. It, in most cases, was raised by responsible dog owners who did not possess the dog because of it's "killer" reputation, but owned the dog because their parents once owned a Pit Bull, and their parent's parents once owned a Pit Bull, or that they just fell in love with a puppy that was being sold at the neighborhood grocery store.

Unfortunately, the majority of Pit Bull owners do not know the massive strength of the dog's jaw, or that, time after time after time, something just seemed to "click" in what was once a loving pet, and a child happened to be in the way.

There seems to be some trigger mechanism in this breed that cannot be anticipated or controlled. In the majority of the cases where a child or person has been attacked or killed, NOTHING was done to provoke the dog. There is also a problem with this breed when there is more than one, especially if there is three or four. Often, it appears that a "pack instinct" actually occurred before a mauling and the group of dogs went "looking" for something to attack.

In the majority of cases, the owner of a Pit Bull will have a loving and playful pet for the entire life of the dog. However, when a Pit Bull makes a mistake, it often leaves someone severely injured or dead. The Pit Bull possess 1,800 psi of jaw strength. The closest other breeds in jaw strength are the Doberman Pincher and Rottweiler. They have an estimated 900 psi. If you do the math, that is double the strength of two of the strongest "jawed" dogs in the world! Compound this staggering statistics is that "trigger mechanism" which just seems to go off without any reason or provocation one day, and the pack instinct which is severe in the case of this breed.

This in not an issue of responsible dog ownership, although the problems inherent to this breed are often magnified or induced by ignorant and/or irresponsible pet owners.

However, the main problems inherent with this breed can and will never be controlled by human beings unless there is a concentrated effort to "breed out" some of the jaw strength and "breed in" stability of other breeds. I do not, however, think we are ever going to know what causes or what controls that "split second" when this breed looses it's mind and attacks. We will never be able to tell when it is going to come or what individual dog may be harboring it in their brain.

Consequently, I think it is a dis-service for anyone, especially any of your talk show hosts, to keep the myth that the Pit Bull is "only as good as it's owner." Unfortunately, when you keep this myth alive, it leaves people dead.

Carmen


i couldnt sum it up any better. a good owner doesnt mean a pit bull wont attack with out warning, and they do have a pack mentality. i feel strongly that it should be a crime for a family to own a pit bull with a child. further, pit bulls arent like other dogs. yes, very few of them kill people, very very few. but which one will? is it worth the life of a child to find out?

[petal*pusher]

Whew! Lots of opinions coming to the surface! Here's a site that will help explain rainstorm's views.....and all the rest of you too! It is unfortunate that ANY dog has to gain negative popularity ONLY because of its owners whim. This breed.....because of its particular characteristics, seems to be a "natural" for those who profit from and enjoy dog-fighting.

http://www.canismajor.com/dog/amerpit.html

A dog-fighting ring was uncovered near me in Toledo last week......almost 40 pitbulls.....but none of them will be adopted out. The police were sickened at conditions the dogs were kept in....training techniques....and the fact that neighbors on all sides of the area had been so intimidated by the dog owners that it had continued so long.

Last year, I overheard some students discussing dog-fighting here in my home town. I was aghast!! Not in MY town! Boy, was I wrong! I was surprised that kids of 15, 16, 17 had actually been to some of these. I was also relieved that they seemed as sickened by it as I was. How is it that this seems to go on in so many places and it's kept so much in the background?!? The discussion was that dogs are picked up from yards and streets......."free to good home" ads are answered and those dogs are used too...... cats, puppies, rabbits are all used in "training" these dogs.

Sometimes we are faced with horrific problems that we do not want to get involved in......I think this is the case of this terrible sport. It seems that other laws that get broken take precedence over this.......how sad.......perhaps the lack of value/respect for anything living that is attached to this sport has aided in many other problems........p

[coriolis]

I could search the internet and copy 1500 articles here to support any position I wanted. Some people have their mind made up and no one is going to change their mind. That's everyone's right. I guess the only reason that we get sucked into these stupid debates is to try to right a wrong or to prevent people who haven't already made up their mind from being swayed.

[Lindaloo]

I agree Ed.

[mf_dolphin]

I happen to be a real dog owner but I wouldn't have a pit bull. They are just too unpredictable. There is no doubt that the breed was created to be agressive and when and where that agressive side comes out is anyone's guess.

[petal*pusher]

Hmmmm......I don't think this is a "stupid debate"!! The great thing about these forums is they offer the opportunity to jump in and join the discussion! You're right......many opinions surface......and the possibility of learning more about any given topic comes about by interaction.....p

[Lindaloo]

It is a stupid debate when one person keeps copying and pasting the same thing over and over again.

You raise them to be a gentle dog and they're going to come out to be a gentle dog. Raise them to be a fighting dog and that's what they're going to want to do is fight. You don't introduce that to them. Nothing but pure stereotyping in regards to this breed. That goes for all breeds.


I could train my Pomeranian to fight and she would win.

[mf_dolphin]

I understand the loyalty of dog owners to the Pits. We have a girl at wok who has one and when whe brings it in on the week-end we have a blast with Hercules. However, I've also know several pits that turned on there owners for no explicable reason. True it doesn't hapen with every dog but when it does it's devastating. A pet like that just isn't worth the risk IMO

btw I had a Doberman when it was the "bad" dog. I wouldn't have had it around my children though because they Dobie's are just too high strung....

[rainstorm]

i continue to say there is no reason for anyone to own a pit bull. they have earned a vicious reputation. there are plenty of non harmful dogs. own one of them. there are alot of mangled people(and dead) due to pit bulls.