I've no experience with Dalmations but I've heard some people say they're prone to bite unexpectedly.
Me... I'm a cat person. With katz I don't have to worry about my backyard becoming a minefield, if you get my meaning.
Posted on 07/20/2005 3:56:48 PM PDT by Redcitizen
DENVER - A few weeks ago, two police cars and two animal control vehicles pulled up at the home of Stef'ny Steffan looking for her beloved 4-year-old pit bull, Xena. Seven officers hauled the animal off to the city shelter, putting her on death row. Xena became an outlaw after Denver won a court fight and reinstated one of the toughest pit-bull bans in the nation.
Since May, more than 380 dogs have been impounded and at least 260 destroyed — an average of more than three a day.
Dog owners are in a panic. Some are using an underground railroad of sorts, sending their pets to live elsewhere or hiding them from authorities. City officials would not estimate how many people might be violating the ordinance.
Some owners, like Steffan, have won a reprieve for their pets with help from a rescue group. The group got Xena released by signing an affidavit stating that the animal would never return to Denver. The group took the dog to Mariah's Promise in Divide, an animal sanctuary that has accepted more than three dozen pit bulls from Denver.
For Steffan and her partner, Gina Black, leaving Xena 60 miles from home was a lousy option but the only one they had.
"It's safer than animal control. Safer than keeping her underground — at least she'll be able to play now," Steffan said. "But she'll miss us. We're her pack."
Denver is one of three major metropolitan areas, along with Miami and Cincinnati, to ban pit bulls, according to Glen Bui, vice president of the American Canine Foundation.
Pit bull typically describes three kinds of dogs — the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. But Denver's ban applies to any dog that looks like a pit bull. The animal's actual behavior does not matter.
City Councilman Charlie Brown said that in his judgment, "pit bulls are trained to attack. They're bred to do that."
Critics of the ban use words like "annihilation" and "genocide," and the city shelter has received e-mails likening animal control officers to Nazis.
"Breed bans are just a knee-jerk reaction to something that happened in the community," Bui said.
Denver banned pit bulls in 1989 after dogs mauled a minister and killed a boy in separate attacks. The Legislature passed a law in 2004 that prohibited breed-specific bans, but the city sued and a judge ruled in April the law was an unconstitutional violation of local control.
Critics of the ordinance say that a blanket ban on an entire breed is misguided that the law should instead target irresponsible owners and all dangerous dogs.
"If anyone says one dog is more likely to kill — unless there's a study out there that I haven't seen — that's not based on scientific data," said Julie Gilchrist, a doctor at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who researches dog bites.
The CDC, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Humane Society of the United States examined 20 years of dog-bite data and concluded that pit bulls and Rottweilers caused the most deaths.
But the researchers also noted that fatal attacks represent a small proportion of dog-bite injuries and that the number of bites per breed simply seems to rise with their popularity.
At the city shelter, pit bulls are cordoned off from other dogs in what has become death row. Nearly 100 pit bulls have been released to live outside the county. A nonresident must guarantee the dog will never return to Denver.
Sonya Dias, who is moving out of Denver because of the ban, said she was a little intimidated by her pit bull when she first saw him. But "when I said, `Hey little doggie,' his whole body just started wagging." Gryffindor is staying at Mariah's Promise until Dias sells her home.
"He's been dangerous to a couple of pairs of shoes and some mini-blinds," Dias said. "But otherwise he's a jewel."
These dogs don't require training. Centuries of breeding for aggression has led to their behavior. It is in their genes like herding instinct in Border collies, hunting in pointers, retrievers, etc. Training merely enhances inbred behaviorial characteristics.
i wonder how many kids killed by pits were done by pits not properly supervised? I'll bet a great deal.
Do you have proof of that?
No you don't do you? How would you know what percentage of Pits are employed as fighters by their owners? just guessing?
All you folks have is the fact that pit bulls are preferred by dog fighters...
Why?
Because they fight other dogs best....them and Catahoula fighting dogs (not the hounds)
that does not make them the most dangerous to humans
I would much rather be bitten by a 60 pound 20 inch tall Pit than by a full grown male Mastiff or Rottie....
Further, Pits are not the only dogs bred for fighting in the old days...they are simply the best at fighting other dogs
That does not mean that every Pit is born ready to pounce on folks...that is just nuts.
Granted, they are tougher than your average Yorkie but so are a slew of other breeds....most in the working class actually and more than a few terriers too.
There is a wealth of info out there...you should read up.
Banning Pits because thugs like them is precisely the logic that gave us the 1968 Gun Control Act after wave after wave of urban riots.
Not a logic that most conservatives should employ.
Holding owners responsible and leash laws are of course fine but banning how a dog looks is just dumb...and very Big Brother.
I agree with you there completely as well...the reason I made my first assertion was to demonstrate that this is a matter of human culpability and negligence.
That's cool.
I'm not advising that folks who have had lapdogs all their life go out and buy a Pit...or a Rottie ...or Dobie ...or Dogo Agentino or Presa Canario..etc
By that logic then all militarist dogs henceforth should be banned.
That knocks out a couple of dozen breeds.
Bred for centuries to be aggressive and all.
This type of nanny state freeperdom is not good.
Even before pits became popular with the thug/drug dealer set, they were killing people.
in the years 83-84, 10 people. 84-84 9. 87-88 was 12.
Hell, in 81-82 they killed 5 out of the 20.
Oh, I forgot to mention that is NOT INCLUDING CROSSBREED with pit--meaning that the numbers are even higher.
Sorry, fellas, even when pits weren't as popular with thugs and criminals, this is a breed(or crossbreed) kills at a far greater percentage than others. "bites" aren't as important as fatalities and severity.
Examining the statistics, Mastiffs don't even appear on the 79-96 CDC study. Not saying they couldn't deal out a great deal of damage, but they don't seem to, statistically.
GOOD ANSWER!!!
Human culpability and negligence plays a small role. If my lab escapes there will be a lot of licked faces and chased squirrels. If my buddys pit escapes there will be a dead child. Its the genetics and selective breeding that plays a larger role!
The most horrifying example of the lack of breed predictability is the October 2000 death of a 6-week-old baby, which was killed by her family's Pomeranian dog. The average weight of a Pomeranian is about 4 pounds, and they are not thought of as a dangerous breed. Note, however, that they were bred to be watchdogs! The baby's uncle left the infant and the dog on a bed while the uncle prepared her bottle in the kitchen. Upon his return, the dog was mauling the baby, who died shortly afterwards.
I think that's something that's not being understood.
The other dogs that are responsible for fatalities, I wonder how many of them occurred in that owner's home vs. the escaping dog.
All of this leads me to believe, though, that new laws regarding handling of dogs(esp ones over a certain weight) and manslaughter/assault charges filed for those who will sign a paper assuming this risk.
Oh christ, I don't think anyone on this thread is enamored of jack boots stamping into people's homes.
I'm not for this ban either, but it would be intellectually dishonest to pretend that pit bulls are no different than cocker spaniels.
Oh christ, I don't think anyone on this thread is enamored of jack boots stamping into people's homes.
I'm not for this ban either, but it would be intellectually dishonest to pretend that pit bulls are no different than cocker spaniels.
I agree with you on bans.... for the practical reason that they are not clearly definable.
I'm not for banning them... and I don't warn against them for what they look like, I warn against them for what they were bred to DO. True there are exceptions... I once had a lab that didn't like water.... but the exceptions aren't the rule. Aggression and the strength and tenacity to fight to the death aren't something I want in a pet dog, and I don't think most families want a dog that is very likely to attack and kill at least other dogs, potentially and frequently enough, their own and other children. They aren't for the average joe. Really, of all the great dog breeds out there, I don't think they are the best choice for anybody but the punks that fight them.
That's just my opinion, of course.... but it's an informed one.
I remember that case.
It's why I don't get why people just think of dogs as family members but then don't remember that dogs are not RATIONAL HUMAN BEINGS and children are not to be trusted around dogs.
Once again (please try to pay attention...)
If my Yugo spins out of control and I hit another similarly sized and powered vehicle there will be some scratches and broken plastic on the other persons car.
If my buddy's Navigator spins out of control and hits another vehicle there will be a dead child....
I'm sorry people, you can not disassociate risks and hazards from freedoms. It has always been thus, and will always be thus. I'd change it if I could for ya'll, but it just ain't gonna happen.
maybe all these folks live in areas infested with thuggas and wildassed pits
the ones I see are pets.
i know they have dogfights out in the boonies here in Tenn and that it usually is between white pot growers or meth cooks versus black crack dealers...so I hear
but, that is hardly the dog's fault that gutter folk like them
nor is it the fault of good dog owners like me
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