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David's No Bull Blog
Tuesday, May 02 2006 - 06:25 AM
Concerning Pit Bulls
I know some of you guys have probably posted blogs about pit bulls, and this bill before LA County legislation, but I found a bulletin on MySpace that just boggled my mind, so I decided to write a blog on there, and so I thought about posting it here.
There’s a bulletin going around MySpace showing how ‘nice’ and ‘friendly’ pit bulls are, in protest of the bill before LA County legislation.
FIRST OFF….I just wanna say that whoever originally posted this is OBVIOUSLY a pit bull supporter, but they’re also COMPLETELY MISINFORMED. They thought the bill was, first of all, in front of STATE legislation, but it’s not…it’s for the county of LA. Secondly, the person thought it was to EUTHANIZE pit bulls. That is also untrue. The bill started out to spay/neuter all pit bulls in the county of LA. But our WUSSY-ASS congress decided to wimp out and give all dogs equal rights…(ridiculous) so it turned into a bill to spay/neuter ALL dogs unless under special circumstances stated in the bill, such as if you’re a breeder or such. Right, cause Chihuahuas are SO deadly. pfft….
So when I saw this bulletin, I flipped. I work on a NewsTalk radio station, in LA county, so I KNOW what’s going on. I replied to my friend, who reposted this bulletin, with this…..
I agree with the bill. And it’s not to euthanize pit bulls. It’s to spay and neuter them. And it’s not just for pit bulls, but for ALL dogs unless specially specified by the bill. ALSO…this bill is NOT for the state, but for the county of LA. This will make the dogs calmer. Pit bulls have a chemical in their brain that lies dormant, usually. But then sometimes, the majority of the time, it can spark and it literally drives the dog insane, and it starts attacking people. Wouldn’t you want to do your part to prevent that? It’s not all about the owners. That’s a bunch of crock.
Some pit bulls live happy, great lives. Their owners love them and treat them well. And they STILL attack someone for no reason. It’s an insanity gene…inherent in ALL PIT BULLS. They are BAD dogs. Rotts are the same way. One news story I had the misfortune of hearing went like this:
A little girl, like an infant, was being babysat by her mom’s sister. She took the girl over to her neighbor’s house…where lived a pit bull. A nice, female pit bull, friendly and loving. Sometime during the visit, the dog attacked the baby for NO REASON and mauled her face…removing her ear. After the dog was destroyed, an autopsy found the baby’s ear in the dog’s stomach.
Doctor’s were unable to reattach it. She will live her life out without an ear, scarred and disfigured because of a “nice, friendly” dog whose never had any previous history of violence. NO. Pit Bulls are DANGEROUS.
DO! NOT! BELIEVE! THAT! BULLETIN!
There are SO MANY CASES of the “nice friendly neighborhood” pit bull just ATTACKING innocent people.
An old woman in Quartz Hill LOST HER ARM to a pit bull in her front yard by the “nice” pit bull who JUMPED OVER THE FENCE to attack her. A very bloody scene that was.
In Lancaster, a pit bull got to a baby, about 7-8 months old, was attacked. Tossed around like a BEACH BALL by the FAMILY pit bull who would “never hurt anything.” That baby died.
In Lake LA, a boy lost a couple fingers to an attacking pit bull, belonging to their cousin. Again…“would never hurt anyone.”
Leona Valley, a family walking down the street…a pit bull jumped over a 5 FOOT FENCE so it could attack the little girl. A neighbor saw, came out and shot the dog, saving the family.
In Acton, a lady was riding her horse down the road in a rural area when a pit bull attacked the horse, BRINGING IT DOWN. The horse had to be destroyed because of the extensive damage done by the dog. A teenager saw what was happening and shot the dog, killing it.
IN EVERY SINGLE CASE…THE OWNER OF THE DOG SAID THAT THE DOG WAS NICE AND FRIENDLY AND WOULD NEVER HURT ANYONE!!!
Well these people were hurt. Some killed. By a dog who went insane because of a chemical imbalance in the brain.
So why not pass the bill to have all pit bulls (and other dogs) spayed or neutered? I think it would be a great idea. ASK YOURSELF…what’s more important…the genitalia of a dog or the life of a baby who is at the mercy of a vicious animal?
concerned says...
It’s not just PIT BULLS and ROTS……….any “animal” can be dangerous. I have seen Shepards, Collies, large dogs, small dogs and even cats attack for no reason. We have to remember that as “domesticated” as they are they are still animals and they still have instincts. Hell, there are many “humans” who are more animal like then animals……….why don’t we spay/neuter them!!!!!!!! We let our own species reproduce in certain instances where we would be better off eliminating them in the first place!!!!!!!
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unconcerned says...
“Hell, there are many “humans” who are more animal like then animals……….why don’t we spay/neuter them…”
Ah agree. Spay ’n neuter them and their pets. Or thorazine like in the water supply, and kinder-gentler concentration camps. Aussteigen am Die Zug, bitteschoen.
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concerned says...
Was aiming more towards the murderes rapist and “gang” types, but hey what ever floats your boat!!!!
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cherritomato says...
many drug dealers use pit bulls to guard their kitchens, their stash, their money.
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concerned says...
Yes………..and many drug dealers use “guns” to guard thier kitchens, their stash, their money -
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concerned says...
It’s too bad pit bulls ,rots etc….have to associated with thhose types of people……….kinda of stereo typing and the dogs don’t even know it!!!!!
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wellthtsgud says...
I am a mail carrier and I can tell you… “All” dogs can bite. The inherent danger I have found in my face to face surprise meetings with pits and rotts is that I have noticed these breeds do not bark as most others do. Therefore there is no warning, you’ll see them if your lucky, before you ever hear them. All predators can be stimulated into agressive action by rapid movement. This is why many times a dog will not bark at me or even move until I reach up and put the mail in the box and slam the lid shut, at that point the dog will bark and run, etc. Thats true of most dog breeds and mutts. But A pit or rott seem to be on another level of predatory behavior. Its very scary even seeing a pit behind a fence. Fortunatley ive never been bit on the job, but Ive had some scares. For the life of me I cant fathom why some people have these dogs. I cant count the number of times someone has said to me “He dosent bite”. I hear it daily, Its a joke. Needless to say I back the bill to neuter/spay “all” dogs.
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David Hatfield says...
I’m glad to see that people on here have the maturity, as Granai said, to see the real problem here. I am forced to pity the people who don’t understand pit bulls, and always swear that they’d never hurt anyone.
And concerned is right, ALL dogs can bite. They’re animals, so to even say that “oh, my doberman” or “oh, my dachsund wouldn’t hurt anyone” is untrue. They’re animals and they all have the animal instinct. It’s in their NATURE.
Here, check this…
Lions only eat when they’re hungry. So if they’ve just had a very fulfilling meal, and you approach them on the Savanah, if they don’t feel you’re a threat, they’ll let you come up and pet them and all that.
Tigers on the other hand, will attack and eat…just because. Because you’re a fleshy mass.
Animals are animals and their instincts are ingrained into their DNA and you can’t be so frivolous to ignore that. Not when lives are at stake.
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cherritomato says...
so there was this frog at the edge of a lake and a rattlesnake wanted to cross the lake and asked the frog to give it a ride. the frog said, “but you’ll bite me.” the snake said, “no I won’t-you’re being kind and giving me a ride across.”So the frog took the snake on its back and in the middle of the lake, the snake bit the frog causing it to die. with its last breath, the frog said, “you promised you wouldn’t bite me, why did you?” the snake replied, “well, after all, I’m a snake.”
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concerned says...
cherritomato,
you were referring to politicians right???
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concerned says...
Well you tied them together very well…….^5
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gr8tday says...
A pitbull never asked me for money before eating my flesh…
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cherritomato says...
so politicians are more polite. pit bulls don’t lie to you or tell you this is for your own good-they just attack!very straight-forward I’d say and preferable to many politicians.
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concerned says...
At least you know ahead of time that that it will be a straight attack without having to be bull sh*ted first…….no pun intended (maybe)
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BSL_is_Prejiduce says...
This is the stupidest blog I have ever had the unfortunate chance of laying my eyes upon. Your ignorance is truly appalling. Congratulations on reaching a record low on the IQ scale of the pro-ban laws/anti-responsibility crowd.
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Hobalong says...
A Georgia-based group called the American Temperament Test Society has put twenty-five thousand dogs through a ten-part standardized drill designed to assess a dog’s stability, shyness, aggressiveness, and friendliness in the company of people. A handler takes a dog on a six-foot lead and judges its reaction to stimuli such as gunshots, an umbrella opening, and a weirdly dressed stranger approaching in a threatening way. Eighty-four per cent of the pit bulls that have been given the test have passed, which ranks pit bulls ahead of beagles, Airedales, bearded collies, and all but one variety of dachshund. “We have tested somewhere around a thousand pit-bull-type dogs,” Carl Herkstroeter, the president of the A.T.T.S., says. “I’ve tested half of them. And of the number I’ve tested I have disqualified one pit bull because of aggressive tendencies. They have done extremely well. They have a good temperament. They are very good with children.” It can even be argued that the same traits that make the pit bull so aggressive toward other dogs are what make it so nice to humans. “There are a lot of pit bulls these days who are licensed therapy dogs,” the writer Vicki Hearne points out. “Their stability and resoluteness make them excellent for work with people who might not like a more bouncy, flibbertigibbet sort of dog. When pit bulls set out to provide comfort, they are as resolute as they are when they fight, but what they are resolute about is being gentle. And, because they are fearless, they can be gentle with anybody.”
Then which are the pit bulls that get into trouble? “The ones that the legislation is geared toward have aggressive tendencies that are either bred in by the breeder, trained in by the trainer, or reinforced in by the owner,” Herkstroeter says. A mean pit bull is a dog that has been turned mean, by selective breeding, by being cross-bred with a bigger, human-aggressive breed like German shepherds or Rottweilers, or by being conditioned in such a way that it begins to express hostility to human beings. A pit bull is dangerous to people, then, not to the extent that it expresses its essential pit bullness but to the extent that it deviates from it. A pit-bull ban is a generalization about a generalization about a trait that is not, in fact, general. That’s a category problem.
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Hobalong says...
Does the notion of a pit-bull menace rest on a stable or an unstable generalization? The best data we have on breed dangerousness are fatal dog bites, which serve as a useful indicator of just how much havoc certain kinds of dogs are causing. Between the late nineteen-seventies and the late nineteen-nineties, more than twenty-five breeds were involved in fatal attacks in the United States. Pit-bull breeds led the pack, but the variability from year to year is considerable. For instance, in the period from 1981 to 1982 fatalities were caused by five pit bulls, three mixed breeds, two St. Bernards, two German-shepherd mixes, a pure-bred German shepherd, a husky type, a Doberman, a Chow Chow, a Great Dane, a wolf-dog hybrid, a husky mix, and a pit-bull mix—but no Rottweilers. In 1995 and 1996, the list included ten Rottweilers, four pit bulls, two German shepherds, two huskies, two Chow Chows, two wolf-dog hybrids, two shepherd mixes, a Rottweiler mix, a mixed breed, a Chow Chow mix, and a Great Dane. The kinds of dogs that kill people change over time, because the popularity of certain breeds changes over time. The one thing that doesn’t change is the total number of the people killed by dogs. When we have more problems with pit bulls, it’s not necessarily a sign that pit bulls are more dangerous than other dogs. It could just be a sign that pit bulls have become more numerous.
“I’ve seen virtually every breed involved in fatalities, including Pomeranians and everything else, except a beagle or a basset hound,” Randall Lockwood, a senior vice-president of the A.S.P.C.A. and one of the country’s leading dogbite experts, told me. “And there’s always one or two deaths attributable to malamutes or huskies, although you never hear people clamoring for a ban on those breeds. When I first started looking at fatal dog attacks, they largely involved dogs like German shepherds and shepherd mixes and St. Bernards—which is probably why Stephen King chose to make Cujo a St. Bernard, not a pit bull. I haven’t seen a fatality involving a Doberman for decades, whereas in the nineteen-seventies they were quite common. If you wanted a mean dog, back then, you got a Doberman. I don’t think I even saw my first pit-bull case until the middle to late nineteen-eighties, and I didn’t start seeing Rottweilers until I’d already looked at a few hundred fatal dog attacks. Now those dogs make up the preponderance of fatalities. The point is that it changes over time. It’s a reflection of what the dog of choice is among people who want to own an aggressive dog.”
There is no shortage of more stable generalizations about dangerous dogs, though. A 1991 study in Denver, for example, compared a hundred and seventy-eight dogs with a history of biting people with a random sample of a hundred and seventy-eight dogs with no history of biting. The breeds were scattered: German shepherds, Akitas, and Chow Chows were among those most heavily represented. (There were no pit bulls among the biting dogs in the study, because Denver banned pit bulls in 1989.) But a number of other, more stable factors stand out. The biters were 6.2 times as likely to be male than female, and 2.6 times as likely to be intact than neutered. The Denver study also found that biters were 2.8 times as likely to be chained as unchained. “About twenty per cent of the dogs involved in fatalities were chained at the time, and had a history of long-term chaining,” Lockwood said. “Now, are they chained because they are aggressive or aggressive because they are chained? It’s a bit of both. These are animals that have not had an opportunity to become socialized to people. They don’t necessarily even know that children are small human beings. They tend to see them as prey.”
In many cases, vicious dogs are hungry or in need of medical attention. Often, the dogs had a history of aggressive incidents, and, overwhelmingly, dog-bite victims were children (particularly small boys) who were physically vulnerable to attack and may also have unwittingly done things to provoke the dog, like teasing it, or bothering it while it was eating. The strongest connection of all, though, is between the trait of dog viciousness and certain kinds of dog owners. In about a quarter of fatal dog-bite cases, the dog owners were previously involved in illegal fighting. The dogs that bite people are, in many cases, socially isolated because their owners are socially isolated, and they are vicious because they have owners who want a vicious dog. The junk-yard German shepherd—which looks as if it would rip your throat out—and the German-shepherd guide dog are the same breed. But they are not the same dog, because they have owners with different intentions.
“A fatal dog attack is not just a dog bite by a big or aggressive dog,” Lockwood went on. “It is usually a perfect storm of bad human-canine interactions—the wrong dog, the wrong background, the wrong history in the hands of the wrong person in the wrong environmental situation. I’ve been involved in many legal cases involving fatal dog attacks, and, certainly, it’s my impression that these are generally cases where everyone is to blame. You’ve got the unsupervised three-year-old child wandering in the neighborhood killed by a starved, abused dog owned by the dogfighting boyfriend of some woman who doesn’t know where her child is. It’s not old Shep sleeping by the fire who suddenly goes bonkers. Usually there are all kinds of other warning signs.”
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BadDog101 says...
LOOK!! Someone had something INTELLIGENT to say (Hobalong)!! That’s new in this blog.
Insanity gene?? Reeeeally?? lmao. And where, pray tell, did you pull this miraculous discovery from?? Nevermind answering, I already have a pretty good idea ;)
Give Hobalong’s article a read, try to process all the information correctly, then make some ridiculously assinine remark that I can pick apart and ridicule.
I’m greatly looking forward to unmasking the idiot that you are.
Good luck :)
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Hobalong says...
It kinda looks like you just may be the idiot, this man as been doing research for along time and I would be willing to bet he knows just a little more than you do. You’re probably one of those nut cases that think all Pit Bulls have a brain change with in them causing them to attack. Its not the dog in many cases its the owners that don’t have the brain.
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YC_HONEY02 says...
See the funny thing about his subject is that many people dont know anything about dogs and go by one mans research and what the media may say about a specific breed of dog. Like the insanity gene, its true that all dogs do carry a gene that can make them attack. But all dogs carry it not just pitt bulls. Its a shame that people have created such a hype over these dogs. All dogs have the capability to become milicious but its the owners who should be held responsible. Its truley has nothing to do with the dog and its nature. It is an animal and we cant blame an animal for acting like an animal. Dogs attack to show dominace not just for the pure wit of it. Understand that their are a million breeds of dogs that have attacked their owners and have attacked innocent bystanders. Has anyone really taken in the studies done on dogs and why they attack. Even Cockerspaniels are known to be overly aggressive now tell me why aren’t actions being taken on them. Also german shepards and Labrador retrievers have been known to attack their owners. I agree that standards should be set but not for the dogs for the owners we need to monitor dog owners. If you really wanna find the beast its 9 times out of 10 the owners who should be to blame for an attack. Please people go back and do somemore research on animals before you make an analysis that obviously has more general opinion than just facts.
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Hobalong says...
YC Honey02 I believe the research above states all of that from a man that has been around dogs and dog attacks for a very long time. You just repeated what he said.
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Hobalong says...
Every animal carries this gene even Humans if you want to go that far.
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meh says...
don’t you people watch the dog whisperer?
if you think you know so much about pits and other dogs, this guy will put you in your place.
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SJGranai says...
I haven’t spoken up on this issue because it is very personal to me.
I used to breed champion line red nose pits. They were top of the line dogs with papers to show for it.
It didn’t make them any less dangerous.
I love the breed. I would like to have another pit one day, but right now I don’t have the time to properly care for one. I have my lab/pointer mix and my lil mutt girl (we think she is part coyote) and I love them to death.
It has been my experience that pit bulls require constant supervision and attention. Left alone too much they develop a sense of independence instead of a “pack” mentality.
I agree with people having to spay/neuter they dogs no matter what the breed. I do agree that dangerous dogs need to be spayed/neutered right away.
While breeding pits, I did meet many people who fought the dogs. I do not agree with it. I didn’t sell to those who I knew either fought or had associations with those who fought dogs.
My personal pet was a dream. She could climb a tree faster than any cat. She could jump over my head. She would defend me and the “pack” with every ounce of her being.
But, I always knew that it all could turn in a flash. I was lucky. That is all.
As much as I love the breed, it is like giving loaded guns to children. If people aren’t able to fully understand the nature of the breed and what they are capable of, then they shouldn’t have them.
I will defend them in the right circles with the right people. Not everyone should have a pit. They are not a social status symbol. They are not “cool” to have.
Many people who have these dogs are lacking the things needed to control them.. self-control, alpha personality, maturity and discipline (self).
Most animals can tell who is in charge. When left alone to often, the animal is the head of its own pack and does not respond to leadership from anyone else.
I am not in a position in my life to be a responsible pitbull owner.
I can at least be mature enough to state that. I wish others would show as much maturity in their choices.
Sorry to see children having to pay the price for other people’s lack of maturity.
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