Since 1982, pit bulls are responsible for 68 percent of dog attacks and 52 percent o

I still say too many people care more about the needs of animals than they do about the suffering in this world. And now here, too many people care more about preserving a dangerous species of dog than making a law all pit bulls are to be spade or neutered until we rid the world of them. There are many other dogs available to fill that need. That is merely my opinion, but even one child death a year by a pit bull is one too many. And the statistics in the title says half the child deaths from dogs would be avoided since 1982 if there were no pit bulls. The last thing I want to hear is people do not train them well enough. Fine, but that will not stop that happening by citing that point.


http://www.myajc.com/news/crime--la...iously-injure-another/Bk4UvnMpm44D18ZEa1eXHK/

Owner arrested after dogs kill one child, seriously injure another

By Alexis Stevens and John Spink - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Weekday mornings on Gideons Drive are filled with laughter and shrieks of children toting backpacks to the school bus stop. But Tuesday morning, the shouting took on a different, frightening quality.

“I realized the kids weren’t playing,” Angie Smith said. “It was a different kind of scream and a different cry.”

The scene on the southwest Atlanta street was horrific. A 6-year-old boy lay covered with blood in a front yard. Nearby, a 5-year-old girl lay in the street with grievous injuries to her head and face.

In an extraordinarily savage attack, two dogs that had wandered over from another street set upon the children as they walked to their bus stop. Logan Braatz, 6, died at the hospital later in the morning. Syari Sanders, 5, underwent emergency surgery at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston and was in stable condition Tuesday night, her great-aunt said.

The scenes from Gideons Drive Tuesday were shocking and unforgettable. Little kids fighting with vicious dogs, trying to keep the animals off their friends. An Atlanta police officer, gun in hand, approaching a dog on the porch, the dog’s fur tinged pink with the children’s blood. A neighbor going after the dogs with a gun of his own.

Clayton said he first saw the badly injured girl. Then, he saw one of the dogs behind a house. When he followed that dog behind the home, he saw other children on the porch, trying to shield themselves from getting attacked. He chased the dog away.

Next, Clayton said, he saw Logan.

“The dog tried to get back to him,” Clayton said. “I chased the dog off with my gun.”
Logan wasn’t moving, and his mother was beside him in tears.

“I picked up the child’s body because the mother couldn’t do nothing but sit there and just cry, which that hurt me,” Clayton said. “I carried the child’s unconscious body — bloody body — to the ambulance.”

...Since 1982, pit bulls are responsible for 68 percent of dog attacks and 52 percent of dog-related deaths.

 

The only good pit is a dead pit.

 

Banning the breed isn't going to happen, either.

The way I see it, there are two problems here, and they both involve people, not dogs:

1) Some people should never own large powerful breeds of dogs that they cannot control

and

2) Those large powerful breeds of dogs attract the wrong kind of owners

I have friends who have owned and own pit bulls and there's nothing wrong with those dogs. I have also owned Rottweilers and they were exceptionally friendly and affectionate dogs that never harmed a hair on anyone's head.

Bottom line, irresponsible people have no business owning any breed of dog. They're not toys.

 

I feel the same way about some of their owners.

 

Pitbulls are no more apt to bite than most other dogs. It is just that pitbulls have strong jaws.

 

Large dogs do more damage when they bite, and small dog bites tend to go unreported, so any statistic reported in the "dog bite" field is inherently false.

I am all for responsible dog ownership, but blaming the breed when the owner is at fault.... is kind of dubious. Should we outlaw Chiuahuahs and Pomeranians and Shi Tzus?

 

No, because they do not kill people. If you accept the statistics 52% of all deaths from dogs are from pit bulls, then maybe we need to worry about the bite of a pit bull and not a Shi Tzus so much?

I care far more about the life of one child than I do about the need for some dog owners to have a pit bull instead of another breed. And all I said was sterilize all pit bulls so the one currently in peoples' care can remain, but none going forward. Either that, or make it legal to have wolves as pets too, since most might not cause any problems if the owners care for them properly. Neither one makes sense to me.

 

Yes, I understand what you are saying.
But your solution is that we just have to accept there will be bad owners and there will be a number of deaths to innocent children or older people because some pit bulls will act that way again? I cannot accept that.

 

I'll get on this, after the other major killers of children are addressed.

https://www.cdc.gov/injury/images/lc-charts/leading_causes_of_death_age_group_2014_1050w760h.gif

Much bigger fish to fry.

 

Pit bulls are alright. Those who are rescued from their, eerrr, virility-challenged owners are turning out to be excellent dogs.

I don't know how old you are, but there's always were a "most dangerous breed" of dogs of the time, that was used as scapegoats for the sins of their owners. Bulldogs, German sheperds, Rotweilers, Dobermans, Malamuths... and all of them revealed good dogs after the craze has passed on to another breed.

A dog is a pack-mentality animal, and will try its best to do what pleases his pack superior - its owner - at the best of its capacities. I think that someone who is racist toward dog breeds are really close to be racist about humans as well.

 

They actually are far less apt to bite. Chihuahuas and Dachshunds were the most bitey breeds the last time I checked. It's just that they can't do nearly as much damage as a pitbull.

 

The problem isn't pit bulls. The problem is the people raising pit bulls that are menaces to society. We should be charging dog owners who's dogs attack unprovoked with the crime their dog committed. With your suggestion, all that will happen is that evil people will start raising mean German Shepherds, Dobermans or Rottweilers.

 

I remember reading some years ago a report saying that Collies and Dalmatians were the breeds that bite most often.

 

Are pitbulls mor aggressive or are they more likely to be owned by aggressive or irresponsible owners?

 

This "only one child" standard is the same crappy logic Obama uses to try and ban guns. 52% of dog bite deaths are due to pitbulls, who makes up the other 48%? We would have to ban a lot of breeds if we used the "just one child" metric.

Some of the nicest dogs I've ever known have been pitbulls, or part pit. There's also a lot of causal errors made in your assumption. How many of those deaths were the result of the wrong type of dog owner making the conscious effort to pick what he/she believed was the most dangerous dog imaginable? There are a lot of dogs trained to fight, and the ones who train dogs to do this are going to pick a pitbull, due to their power and reputation.

 

It seems to change all the time, based on which source you're reading. Little dogs are more likely to feel intimidated and nervous, so they try and compensate. It's why you see a Pomeranian going insane trying to attack a Rottweiler walking by, and the Rottweiler barely pays attention. Confidence.

 

But Chihuahua's fight to the death!

 

I'd like to see them licensed and the owner has to provide the City/County with proof of insurance every year.

 

I used to believe the idea that it was the owners of the dogs responsible for their behavior. I no longer think that. After many years of working with rescues and volunteering with various animal organizations, I do think there are some breeds that "go bad". For no reason at all, the dogs can turn on people, even their owners without history of abuse or neglect. The different with pit bulls is that they are so strong and they do not let go once they bite down. There are a couple other breeds that can be dangerous.

I know for years when I would read or hear of a story of a pit bull killing or seriously injuring a person, we would get the instant reaction from the defenders of the breed that it was the fault of the owners for one reason or another. For years, I believed that. Since then, I've seen for myself that some pits who were raised in caring homes, no abuse, no neglect, can turn on people and when they do, it can be deadly. That doesn't mean that all pits can or will do this, but it's a risk I would not be willing to take with the breed. The smaller breeds mentioned here that can bite are different since they are small, can be controlled, and aren't deadly.

Sometimes it surprises me that I agree we need to do away with the pit bull breed. I'm such a dog lover, but I'm tiring of reading stories of children dying at the jaws of this breed.

 

I like strong opinions offered, such as yours. But as it is, it really does not hold true near all that much to make a judgment on someone, imo. Many people do not like certain dog breeds because they have far greater sympathy for the children and others who are terrified to be near them and all the others who are seriously maimed by them. There is no comparison in the value of a human life vs. a dog, imo. And probably the same goes for God's opinion. This child's death in Atlanta could have been totally avoided if pit bulls were no longer allowed in the confines of a city.

 

With no pits, the people who train their aggresion will just train other breeds to be aggressive and there will be no difference other than it might be German Shepherds or Bull mastiffs

 

Well, that position has some merit to it, imo. But why are those who want to raise angry dogs mostly raising pit bulls instead of German shepherds Dobermans or Rottweilers? A pit bull must possess something the others do not as much?

But if you answer they are raising just as many of the other three breeds to be angry fighters, then I ask why are 52% of all dog deaths and 68% of all serious dog attacks attributed to pit bulls and not the others? As dangerous as the others could be, they do not possess the same ability to kill like pitbulls. These dogs need to be done away with or made illegal to have in town just like a wolf or a mountain lion. (imo)

 

Source? The last time I saw someone cite numbers like this, it was based on the number news headlines of the attacks, not on the actual number of attacks, so I'm curious to see if someone has better data now.

And how was the breed defined in said data? "Pit bull" can refer to a few different breeds, or even just a catch-all for any dog with a squarish muzzle.

 

Pit bulls were bred to be aggressive, and they are more likely to be owned by aggressive/irresponsible owners. Drug dealers favor them for guarding their houses.

 

huh?


First off, pit bull is NOT a breed. It's a placeholder that is used to place several breeds.

We have a mix breed which we rescued and some would call her a pit bull.

She's a powerful dog given the lineage of Bulldog which are small and powerful. The dog is one of the gentlest dogs I've ever had and I've had lots of dogs.