Another Pit bull attack

False. I'll post the link later, but IIRC pit bulls have one of the most powerful set of canine jaws.

Never said any dog should be banned, Ever.

But I'll never own a pit bull or several other breeds as a matter of personal choice, and personal responsibility.

 

If you have personal responsibility you have the single most important ingredient for owning a large breed dog.

 

She has passed, sad to say. But I don't disagree. One of our JRTs would bite first and ask questions later. The trouble with big dogs for me is that when they fuck up they can kill or maim well beyond the degree that a JRT could.

Keep in mind that I'm at least tangentially involved in defending about a dozen dog bite cases a year, many claims relating to kids with horrific facial injuries.

 

Some dogs bite. Sometimes its the way they were treated by humans. Sometimes not.

Some breeds bite with more frequency than others. Some of that is because of the people who tend to own them.

There's no hard and fast rule. Each case should assessed independently, IMHO.

 

I never, ever trust any dog not to bite.
Or any animal, for that matter.
All it takes is the right circumstance.

 

I rarely come across any dog lovers who will readily admit that some dogs are just assholes, just like some people. And I mean individual dogs, and not breeds. Sometimes, it doesn't matter who the owner is.
When I had a pair of Rottweilers, they had very distinct personalities. One of them I easily could leave alone in a room with a baby and never worry for a second. The other, I would always keep an eye on if there was a small child around that was raised by people who taught him/her that "no" is merely a request. Both were adopted together and raised in the same household from the time they were 12 weeks old.
Dogs are not robots.

Reminds me of a clip I saw earlier today on the news of a leopard attacking a guy in India after getting cornered in a school. That cat knew exactly what it was trying to do, and that wasn't leaving right away. He was gonna punish that guy first (whom, it was said, had tried to chase the cat away before the video was rolling). It was kind of hilarious in retrospect, since the guy only had superficial wounds. The leopard handed the guy some justice, then walked away without even rushing.

 

You are right they are not robots but I can't ever in my experience point to a dog that was just an asshole without the intervention of some dumbass human or one that showed all the signs of becoming an asshole that their human either did nothing to correct it or thought it was cute.

 

During the most recent five year period for which I could find statistics, the combination of pit bulls and Rottweilers accounted for 72% of all dog bite fatalities, with pit bulls represented at a four to one ratio over rotts. I was unable to find a poodle related fatality, although that does not mean that it has never happened. These are simply raw numbers. Interpret them as you will. On average, an American is killed by a pit bull every 21 days. By a poodle, approximately never.

 

These numbers are a bit skewed... Almost anytime there is a dog bite if you don't have a clear knowledge of what breed the dog is the cops automatically assume it was a pit bull. My wife was bitten by a mut running around in our neighborhood. She had to get stitches, when she went to the hospital they asked what kind of dog and she said she didn't know it was a mixed breed. The cop replied with "so a pit bull then"

Everybody wants to always blame pit bulls but it's been stated in this thread 99.8 percent of the time it is the owner that did not raise a dog properly. I've had smaller dogs try to bite me more than any pit bull I've ever encountered.

 

The most recent pit bull attack in my town occured five days ago. The six year old victim was life flighted to another city and is fighting for his life. One week prior to that, a 13 year old boy was dragged off his front porch and mauled, again by a pit bull. I am not in favour of government intervention in the affairs of private citizens, but do some open minded research on dog bite incidents in municipalities with a pit bull ban in place. In reality, a goodly percentage of their owners should be banned, but that is not feasible.

 

Ohh it's feasible...just not palatable to most.

 

What about in France? I bet lots of french people get killed by poodles and almost none by pit bulls

 

http://stopbsl.org/bsloverview/the-failure-to-improve-safety/

Here's your research. Even in other countries it had little to no effect on the amount of dog bites..

 

The argument that certain types of breeds are pre-disposed to be violent is sort of a wag-the-dog situation. In nearly every case, it will come back to the owners. It just so happens that the assholes that treat animals in the ways that tend to lead to violent, aggressive behavior gravitate to these types of breeds. It's sort of like drivers of sports cars getting disproportionately more speeding tickets than drivers of minivans - the performance of the car attracts assholes and encourages aggressive driving.

 

Agreed, although not all pit bull owners are assholes. People are just irresponsible. If you know you have an aggressive dog or a dog that doesn't do well in certain situations then it is your responsibility to prevent these things from happening.

 

Only the yapping toy versions. You know, ornamental dogs.