Solarcat

I hope Mr. Cuthber watches these onez.

 

 

 

Emotional? Yes. Showing just one value(out of many) of a pit bull? Yes.

Cuthber you don't have a dog in this fight(pun intended) so I really don't understand why you keep posting in this thread. Have you ever watched The Dog Whisperer? Have you seen Cesar Milan's pack of dogs? Half of them are German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Pit Bulls...and they all get along. Have you ever watched It's Me or the Dog? Your countrywoman Victoria Stillwell shows how to handle problem dogs of all breeds including pit bulls.

To really understand hair you have to watch the movie.

Pit Bulls are not protected by the constitution....so they are fair game. DrDna

 

 

Wrong. Pets are considered property. You can buy them. This is why BSL is unconstitutional. No one can legally take your property away from you except through "eminent domain", which does not apply to pets.

Pangloss said :

 

"I think the problem is humans, no dogs. Banning them is ridiculous. Many breeds can be turned vicious."

 

The problem is always humans. However, in the case of pit bulls, the humans who began the problem were the original breeders. Pit bulls were originally bred as fighting dogs - to be put into a pit with another dog, and fight it until one was dead. This meant the ability to be highly aggressive, and to carry that aggression through to the final fatality.

 

To argue from individual cases is a bit silly. We all know that humans are capable of violence against other humans. However, I could argue, using my now deceased and gentle old grandmother as an example, that she would not hurt anyone, and therefore humans are not violent. Yeah. Right!

 

Pit bulls kill more people than any other dog. As a breed, they are dangerous. Individual pit bulls might be quite gentle, but that is not what this discussion is about.

 

Sure, in the overall picture, this is a very minor issue. I do not agree, though, that 66 deaths in 19 years is 'OK'. Any human death is one too many, when it is preventable.

The original breeders bred bull terriers to herd cattle and "bait" the bulls, grabbing their noses to turn them from attacking humans.

 

Several hundred years ago they started being put into "pits" to fight each other. The "dogmen" had to go in the pits and break up the fights when necessary. Any dog that bit a handler was put down(killed), so those dogs were bred to be dog aggressive but NOT human aggressive. And that's what we normally have now, a dog that will(but not always) be hostile towards other dogs, but not be aggressive towards humans.

 

The problem is the irresponsible owners who train their pit bulls to be human-aggressive guard dogs, which is against their nature, but it can be done. They make good watchdogs but should never be trained for guardian behavior.

 

My son had to go away for awhile so he gave me his 10 year old male pit bull. I knew he was dog aggressive but I had known him all his life and felt I could deal with that. I walked him with a prong collar and a short leash so he would stay by my side even when he saw another dog.

 

One day about six months after he came to live with me, we were walking close to a creek that runs behind my house and after looking around to make sure there were not people or dogs around I let him run around off leash.

 

He went down to the creek for a drink and I followed him to watch him. He suddenly looked down the creek and took off. I yelled but he did not return. Then I heard growling and yelping. A woman with her children and their dog were walking at the creek and Bo Bo attacked the dog. When I got there, the woman had Bo by the neck while her children got their dog up the bank.

 

Bo Bo NEVER ATTACKED THE WOMAN OR HER CHILDREN. He weighed 110lbs and could have overpowered her very easily but he didn't. I asked her if she was hurt and she said no he didn't attack me. I was amazed she could hold him. He was barking and growling but she had him sitting down. I couldn't believe it.

 

Needless to say I was shaking like a leaf, thoughts of a lawsuit taking me for everything I owned running through my head. I apologized profusely and said I would pay any vet bills my dog caused. She said she was able to get Bo off her dog in time so that he wasn't hurt. I told her what a brave person she was. She said she had owned pit bulls before and knew how to handle them. When I got the leash on him and she let him go, she petted and stroked him and he licked her.

 

So there you see the true nature of the pit bull breed I love so much. Bo Bo died of cancer last December. He plays in the meadow by the Rainbow Bridge now, waiting for me.

 

To all you pit bull haters;

 

I would love to throw you in a room with about 40 of those demon dogs and hellhounds and watch them lick your face raw.

 

iNow

 

You are calling for more numbers, but you are ignoring the ones we already have. More than one third of all dog attack-human deaths in the United States are from attacks by pit bulls.

 

This figure alone is enough to say that pit bull owners are more likely to have dogs that kill people than owners of other types of dogs.

 

The only number I am missing to make this conclusion absolute proof is the percentage of dogs in the United States that are pit bulls. For my conclusion to be wrong, pit bulls must be more than a third of all dogs in the United States. While I cannot 'prove' this to be wrong, I have been to the US, and I have seen heaps of dogs - and very few pit bulls. It seems probable that pit bulls are a lot less than one third.

 

Does anyone else have the required figure?

You might have seen "heaps of dogs", but you haven't been to the animal shelters and pounds to see that they are overrun with pit bulls and bull-type dogs. Pit bulls are now the most popular breed in America(unfortunately for the wrong reasons-fighting and guarding). Many of these dogs are the products of back-yard breeding by those who do not care about genetics; they only want the money from other unsavory characters who fight these unstable dogs. These dogs, none of whom every had the love of a human in their miserable lives and were chained as well, are responsible for the vast majority of bites and fatalities.

 

There was a time in this country when pit bulls were respected and loved. In England they were called "nanny dogs" because they took care of the little ones while the parents were out working. Hellen Keller's service dog was a pit bull. Sgt. Stubby, a pit bull, was a WWI hero. The dogs who starred in Spanky and Our Gang were pit bulls. Pit bulls can be trained as service dogs, therapy dogs, Search and Rescue dogs and Law Dogs.

 

I find it very instructive that on the pit bull forums I'm a member of, 99% of our members are women. As you are no doubt aware, women are the care-givers and they will NOT put their children in harm's way for anything, especially a 70lb dog with the pit bull's fighting history if they're not sure of him or her. With proper training, exercise and love, no pit bull will be a danger to its family or society.

 

The pit bull is the greatest dog breed ever conceived by Man.

I don't think the problem is necessarily with the pit bulls themselves. They are bred for aggression but they, like all other dogs, are also bred to listen to people. In the hands of the right owner, any pit bull can be as safe as a kitten. But the real problem is that not every owner has the desire or knowledge to safely control their dog. So if a country or state wants to ban a certain kind of dog because they can't trust that their owners will be responsible, then that's their decision to make.

This is all true. My Bo Bo was a very gentle, loving dog around people, but he was VERY dog-aggressive. I watched Cesar Millan and tried to use his techniques for stopping DA but was not successful. I NEVER let him off leash when walking him, and walking him in a park was difficult when other dogs were there.

 

Pit bulls are very strong, willful dogs with high activity traits. An owner MUST BE THE PACK LEADER or he will not be able to control a pit bull successfully. I give Millan as THE example of a successful pack leader with 50 dogs in his kennels, half of which are pit bulls and he controls them all.

 

Having said all that, let me also say that once you have experienced pit bull love, no other breed will take its place.

We think Bo Bo the pit bull was one but we're not sure. He was given to me by my son when Bo was 10 years old. Jeffery always said he was, but at 27" tall at the withers and 100-110lbs, Bo was much bigger than the average pit bull. He was a beautiful brown/black brindle with a white chest and four white paws.

 

He had a certain feline grace about him when he walked, always keeping his head down with his massive shoulder muscles bunching and relaxing. Many adults would not approach him, but most children would. Bo Bo thought of them as popsicles to lick on, which he did with great gusto.

 

One day last year, a new family with three young boys moved in three houses from us. I took Bo Bo on walks at least twice a day by their house and the boys immediately went to him and I showed them how to give him their hands so he could smell them before petting. Their parents were afraid at first, but Bo showed them how he treated children, and they quickly lost their fear. Bo Bo was a great ambassador for his breed.

 

A couple of weeks later I neglected to close the gate and Bo got out. I was in the garage doing manly things:rolleyes: and the boys walked up with Bo in tow. The oldest boy said we saw him and called to him and he came right over and licked us. We thought you didn't know he was out so we brought him home. Bo was standing there between them with his big mouf open and his tongue lolling out.

 

Bo Bo contracted cancer in 2006, but with the medicine our vet gave him, he lived almost two more years. He is playing in the meadow with all the other Rainbow dogs by the Rainbow Bridge now, waiting for me.