Replies

"Yes, a 5 year-old girl is brutally mauled, so let’s bring out pictures of hippos. Haha, hilarious!"

You are free to conduct your little experiment in "consciousness raising" (sounds terribly liberal, doesn't it?) with Pit Bulls, but at the same time, you must remember some facts.

First, Hippos are extremely dangerous. In Africa, they account for more attacks on humans than all other animals combined! (Including that hyena you keep posting.)

Second, while maulings are bad, Hippo attacks are worse, in that they are almost always fatal.

Third, you must remember where you are doing this. FreeRepublic is a conservative site. In this, there is no compromise. The efforts at Breed Specific Legislation are a wedge issue used by the nanny state socialists to incrementally abridge our freedoms.

No one is saying that what happened to that little girl is not horrible, and out hearts and prayers go out to her and her family. The effort to eradicate a breed based on these incidents, however, is the same thing as trying to limit the Right To Keep and Bear Arms just because there are some who use guns irresponsibly, or for nefarious purposes. This girl was attacked, and you want to kill all the dogs that didn't do it.

You want to talk about measures for assuring responsible pet ownership? You want to talk about severe penalties for owners whose animals commit these attacks? You want to see stiff penalties for irresponsible parents who do not properly supervise their children's safety? You want to put the puppy mills that produce these ill-bred critters out of business? You might be quite surprised at how many on the "Hippo List" would be on your side.

When you limit your focus to a "Final Solution" for a whole breed of dog, however, you'll get this in response:

(St. Augustine of Hippo)

I am against breed bans and have always been against them because they're counter to conservative principle. I'm against them also because it would be a slippery slope. Pit bulls today, Jack Russell terriers tomorrow. Dogs are a gift from God, even pit bulls.

The fact still remains, however, that with today's thoroughly feminized, emotionalized approach to pets, pit bulls pose a serious problem and denying it is the most likely way to bring about breed bans. When/if breed bans happen, pit bull defenders will be as much to blame as anyone. The first step to solving a problem is admitting that it exists. Pit bull lovers waste all their energy on denying the problem and exert next to nothing on recognizing the problem and trying to do something to solve it.

Here's the deal. There aren't Hippo Rescue places all over the United States encouraging regular people to adopt them into neighborhoods where innocent neighbors are as much at risk as the adopters.

Hippos don't kill little old ladies minding their own business weeding flowerbeds in their own yards. Hippos aren't owned by immature kids in gang neighborhoods who don't know their own limitations but instead want to impress their peers with their powerful pets.

I LOVE chihuahua rescues. If you adopt a chihuahua and are a lousy "pet parent" and can't control the dog, at MOST you'll be a minor pain in the butt to friends, neighbors, and relatives.

I HATE pit bull rescues and think the clowns that operate them should be held financially accountable for any injuries on people from a dog adopted through their rescues. If you adopt a pit bull and are a lousy doggy "mommy" or doggy "daddy," you pose a potentially lethal danger not just to yourself and those who live in your house, but to all your neighbors.

The liberal mindest that "if you just give these dogs a chance, if you just treat them nicely, they'll be good!" dominates in the pit bull defender mindset. It's as if they think that it's "doggy racism" to acknowledge that a poorly-trained pit bull is whole helluva lot more dangerous than a poorly trained basset hound.

I don't know what the answer is, and I really, really HATE the whole idea of breed banning. I DO know that emotional people think "dogs are people, too." They're wrong -- people are people; dogs are dogs. Treat them with dignity and respect -- expecting a dog bred to hold a serious post, to have a serious job of being a warrior protector, to lower itself to being a mere pet, the family's "little buddy" insults that dog's dignity. Its as wrong -- I would even say immoral -- as expecting an Australian cow dog to be a pet in a city apartment. It is cruel to the animal and disrespects its dignity. IN THE CASE OF THE PIT BULL, IT CAN ALSO BE DEADLY DANGEROUS.

The hippo response on pit bull threads is one more confirmation of the fact that pit bull "lovers" are too wrapped up in a kind of feminized "pet parent" emotion to be logical in facing up to, let alone coming up with a viable solution to, the pit bull problem.

You outta see my yorkie(Harley) go into his “Combat Crouch”

when I take him out to pee,,,

The pits next door throw themselves against the fence to

try to kill him and me,,,

He puts himself between me and the danger,,,

I keep my Hero on a very short leash in case one of them

breaks the chain and gets over my wire,,,

I don't wanna bust his lil’ear drums if I have to shoot

that .44 over his head...

Thank you for some sanity here.

You want to talk about measures for assuring responsible pet ownership? You want to talk about severe penalties for owners whose animals commit these attacks? You want to see stiff penalties for irresponsible parents who do not properly supervise their children's safety? You want to put the puppy mills that produce these ill-bred critters out of business? You might be quite surprised at how many on the "Hippo List" would be on your side.

Yes, exactly. It all comes down to responsible pet ownership and responsible parenting, not the government telling us what breed we can or can't own.