Posted on 01/06/2009 4:50:31 PM PST by devane617
And where I live the law is you must keep your pet on your property on a leash. And yes, other wise it will meet an untimely end!!
I love dogs but almost all are risky. My history of dog attacks:
1. I was nearly killed by a German Shepard while delivering news papers when I was 12. Rember when kids had paper routes? I open the screen door like always, dropped the paper on the mat and turned to leave. The shepard came out of nowhere, burst through the closing door, jumped on my back and clamped his jaws around my neck. Luckily the owners came running out instantly to help me. I was ok, just a few scrapes. My parents didn’t sue.
2. Black Lab in the local neighborhood rushed out of it’s yard and bit my hamstring as I was skateboarding. Drew some blood, but I was able to kick him and get away. Again, no lawsuit.
3. At my buddies house petting his dog (a cocker spaniel) just like I’d pet him a dozen times before. This time he decides to bite me, took my middle finger nail clean off. Painful, but again no lawsuit.
4. rhodesian ridge back attacked my dog in a public park (my dog was on a leash, his wasn’t). I broke up the fight and got bit on the forearm. I kicked his dog as hard as I could and the owner was pissed. I said you or the dog come near me again and I’ll attack you both...
I have a greater swiss mountain dog, she’s about 85 pounds. A great, loving family companion. I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old. If my dog ever showed the slightest sign of aggression to them I’d shoot her myself.
Let's drag the discussion back on point, as you suggest before you segue into personal attacks (yawn).
The story suggests the existence of a larger problem than one incident. The thread discussion has considered the nature of the larger problem and what, if anything can be done about it. Killing all pit bulls, or killing all loose dogs, is a draconian measure that will destroy a lot of harmless pets and will also gain whoever imposes it a great deal of unpopularity among the owners of those pets.
Vigilant prosecution over dogs neglected and chained 24/7 in the back yard might be a good start. And neighborhood disapproval and public nuisance complaints over known aggressive dogs is another possibility.
The major problem with these sensible measures is that the neighborhoods where multiple, intact large dogs are kept chained and unsocialized in back yards do not contain very many people who believe in doing anything to improve their lot or clean up their neighborhoods. Not just dogs, but crime, neglected children, squalor, and all the rest of it.
It all comes back to the people involved -- until we do something about the culture that underlies this sort of incident, the problems will continue.
For the love of God, if you can’t type coherently, please don’t agree with me.
and their irresponsible owners.
AMEN!
Great big, loveable goofs. But they sure could do a lot of damage if they put their minds to it. The big male likes to romp and play with my tiny (43 pound) but bumptious and rowdy Chocolate Lab. He once accidentally got her entire head inside his mouth -- she gave a little "yipe!" and froze . . . you could almost see the look on his face, "Whoops! Sorry!" and they kept right on playing.
The thing is, though, that her dogs and mine are meticulously trained and under control at all times, even off leash. They are too valuable to leave chained outside or just wandering around getting into trouble, although they sometimes find trouble -- as when my younger Black Lab figured out how to "pop" the latch on the back yard gate. I found her sitting on the front porch, wagging her tail at her own cleverness.
It's the untrained dogs that are allowed to wander around loose that cause most of the trouble. But, as you say, any dog on any given day can cause problems, vide my example of a lady who was bitten pretty severely by her own Golden.
You mean your post was even more grammatically mangled than it appeared? Wow.
We human have been both loving and loony towards our canine friends.
For some of us dogs are substitute children, hunters, working companions and protectors.
Over the centuries we have over-bred, inbred, neutered, ignored, coddled, confined, euthanised the inconvenient and subdued them.
Perhaps we should behave more like them and they less like us.
Four years ago, I adopted a bichon from a shelter. He had spent the first two years of his life in a cage in his owners' garage. The pads on his feet were burned from the urine on the floor of his cage when he was turned in, and his coat was in terrible shape and had to be shaved. How's that for lack of socialization?
From the very moment I got him, he has been the most cheerful and loving dog imaginable. When I got him home, I carried his dog carrier from my car into my backyard (fully fenced) and let him out for the first time, and he ran glorious, happy circles. He gets along wonderfuly with my four-year-old granddaughter and my cat. If a dog can have a generous heart, he certainly has one.
Bichons are well-known for their loving and friendly dispositions. My Max was neglected shamefully and left in isolation, probably suffering from cold in the winter, and without basic physical care for his coat and hygiene in his cage, for the first two years of his life, and how has he responded? With love, only. Breeds (on average) just differ. They really do.
Then go.
Your efforts to present facts and carry on a rational discussion is greatly appreciated.
If we love dogs, we should do our best to find a solution (complete or partial) to this problem. "Do nothing" is not an answer; neither is "Kill 'em all." Both in effect do nothing (because the second is practically non-achievable) and leave us right where we are.
“Some of you people on here are just ignorant.”
” Some of you people?” Are you not one of us people?
There is plenty of disagreement on FreeRepublic, that what makes for interesting discussions. IMO.
Your comment is worthwhile and interesting but .... whatever..., hopefully you’ll stay long enough to realize that not everyone will agree with you and when they don’t, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are ignorant.
Count yourself as a Freeper or not. It is your choice. But I would not recommend joing up and immediately posting how us people are ignorant.
Things to think about:
1. If you ban the breed you create an underground demand and will increase criminal activity.
2. if you wipe it off the face of the earth, if that's even possible, it will be replaced with another breed as the choice for thugs.
3. These people had 3 of them, one was pregnant. Not the typical ‘ family pet ‘ structure. They had a pack and created a bad situation through their probable bad treatment of these animals.
4. Have you ever noticed the locations of where these attacks take place and the type of culture the people show that this issue continues to happen around? It's always the same.
When I start seeing attacks happen in areas where the people living there are not immersed in a culture based on ‘thuggery’, for lack of a better term, legislation against a breed may make sense.
A dog only has it's instincts and only learns what it is taught. When these animals, and I'm not talking about the dogs, teach these dogs that they get rewarded for ripping other animals their size apart, what do you expect to happen.
Here is all you need to know about the mentality of this girls parents. they named her Cheyenne when her last name was Peppers.
I agree, this story is tragic. Pit bulls are not to blame. There are aspects of this story not even written in this article. Does anyone know why the parents are not the ones that called 911, or why authorities had to BEAT on the front door to even alert the parents as to what happened? In my opinion it is not just the dogs that were neglected but also the kids. Who to begin with lets a 5 year old play outside ALONE without at least checking when they start screaming. These “Parents” are a disgrace not only to pit bull owners but also to parents everywhere. This story needs to stop being about the dogs and turn to the parents that could have prevented all of this. While tragic it sounds to me like the little girl would have had to endure a childhood of abuse!!! LOCK THE PARENTS UP!!!
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