i know many great, caring pit bull owners. out of them, maybe a third have had their dog be involved in some horrible incident with a friend, child or neighboring pet. i've also known many chihuahua and blue heeler and hound dog owners who were shitty and mean or who trained their dogs to be mean and bite people. out of them, not one has been in a serious incident with anybody that i am aware of. trannymagic, you managed to combine all of the excuses and cover ups for the breed that i outlined in the OP in one paragraph. kudos for that.
i've also known many of the breed that i loved, and were kind and gentle. hell i used to own one myself.
that isn't the point, though. people get bitten by dogs all the time. they get a couple small punctures, maybe a few stitches, and go on their way. if it is a pit, though, expect severe lacerations and possible maiming for the same encounter. it isn't their temper or personality that is the problem. it is the end result of their rare aggression. it has nothing to do with how they are treated or raised.
once, in 1996, a Pomeranian killed a baby girl. once. ever. i have personally been bitten by them like 5 times. i have never been bitten by a pit bull, and am around them far more often; many of the times they have abusive or aggression encouraging owners. blaming their temper or bad owners is retarded. it is an inherent problem with the breed. many dogs are more aggressive and bite more frequently than pit bulls. they don't have the same terrible results, though. pits need to be eliminated from domestication because they are dangerous, period. if you have a small terrier or a Labrador as a family pet and your 5 year old niece unwittingly grabs it by the ear while it is eating, it gets a chomp on the hand, maybe a few stitches, and a lesson learned. if the same pet of the same demeanor happens to be a pit bull, she dies.
i know that the dog that came to my yard is most likely a very friendly dog. i also know that he probably approached my dog on the porch to play or just communicate and my dog tried to be dominant and defend his territory because...well...it is his house. that is his job, and he does it well. it happens with other dogs in the area all the time. they come over, bark, growl, sometimes throw down, and tomorrow they are friends again. that is normal dog behavior. that doesn't change the end result here, though. the whole system of domestication gets thrown out when pit bulls are brought into the mix.
here are some fun facts:
every 21 days since 2003, an american has been killed by a pit bull. attacks by pits on other pets are not documented and usually not even reported, but i'd bet the number for them is more like...50 every day or more.
here is a map of fatal maulings of people by these "pets" in texas alone for the past century...
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...8192749593590792990.00046d2e24f771e82421e&z=7
every single year since they have began tracking, they have killed more people than all other domesticated animals, combined.
in 2008 alone, there were 373 REPORTED instances of police officers or civilians shooting a pit bull to stop an attack on another person in the united states. of those incidents, six of the victims were still killed by the animals.
from 2006-2008, 19 dog breeds were listed as the killers in 88 human deaths in the US. of those, 59% were pit bulls. the next highest was rottweilers at 14%.
i could go on all day, but i'll skip straight to my favorite fun fact of the evening: i will kill the holy shit out of any of these animals that i see on my property without batting an eye for the rest of my life.
also, it should be noted that pit bulls are centuries old. you don't need to specify "american pit bull terrier". you can say "american bull dog" or "american pit bull terrier" or "american staffordshire terrier" or "staffordshire bull terrier". they are all the same fucking dog; the pit bull, bred in england, to kill things. it simply has so many different names because of a century long history of advocacy against them and violent attacks on people, as a means to circumvent ban laws and to increase adoption rates because the dumpsters behind every vet office in america are already full of the motherfuckers, and we are out of chinese restaurants to empty them.
please, do continue to ignore history, statistics, police reports, newspapers and fucking reality, and blame "bad owners" instead of the breed.
it would be less dangerous to people if we started allowing black bears as pets.
sorry for the rant, but i've been seeing red for two days straight now.
fuck pit bulls. fuck the mean ones and fuck the nice ones. fuck every single god damn one of them. even milky.
