bluefish;1697596; said:
Exactly right. In the past few years we have had 2 children killed by pit bulls in my area. In one instance 2 pits attacked a boy riding a bicycle, dragged him off of it and mauled him to death after escaping their backyard.
You start with a potentially dangerous animal and put it in the hands of someone irresponsible and disaster occurs--for the owner, the dog, and of course the victim. Pits can be great dogs but they seem to have a procilvity for being acquired by people who have no business owning one, who do not investigate the bloodlines of their particular pup throughly before getting it and/or do not know how to train it. Sadly, a large part of the problem is the deliberate breeding for agressivness that has infiltrated so many bloodlines.
I am sure the folks here have wonderful animals. I love dogs and have always had one but we can't ingnore that fact that pits are illegal many places for good reasons--reasons pretty much traceable to human, not canine, behavior. Congrats on on some beautiful dogs in this thread.
I have to Chime in here, I have been around APBT's for the last 31 years (since a young boy), and as a responsible adult owner for the last 15. I have also had shepherds and dobermans.
Pit bulls are terriers, and terriers are people dogs that will almost never attack. Of course there are cases that prove this wrong, but you will find that most dogs that attack are shephards, chows, dalmations, labs and even retrievers. I have 1 pit bull ( 6 years old), and a bandog (6mnths old/ my first bandog ). My pit is hardly agressive, and the worst watch/guard dog I have ever owned ( all of my pits were bad watch dogs). I had 1 red nose about 10 years ago, that was an really intimidating looking dog (short cut ears about 25 inches tall at the withers), but he was all talk!!! he was a 75lb lap dog..lol....
I grew up in NYC and I will be the first person to say that there are way to many people that own these animals for the wrong reasons.. ie. want to be thugs or gangstas and put 50 lb lock and chains around there dogs necks..
My father was a detec in east NY,(kind f'd area) while i was growing up, our first pit "lucky" was a wreck. Back then, there were more issues with inbreeding, to get physically superior dogs with no brain power. But now its not as bad, but some of these things do still go on.
The point I was trying to make before I started rambling. The most agressive dog, I have ever owned ( towards animals and people ) has been the shepherd, with the dobe a close second.
IMHO, pits get a bad rep because of there history. If you are a responsible pet owner and have experience with dogs then pits are great dogs.
Beleive it or not I actually got my new male bandog, because I wanted a dog with more drive, not as passive, with better guard dog qualities. IMHO, these are qualities/traits that pits do not naturally have.
Just my .02