Pitbull 'haters'?

Question

Please become educated about the breed...stop being prejudice against an animal who can't stick up for themselves.
watch this video and tell me if it doesn't change your mind about the wonderful breed of pitbulls. my question is.....what is the main reason for you disliking pitbulls? is it because of the media? just remember....they will do anything for a story that will intrigue you.

please watch this video:
http://gprime.net/flash.php/thepitbullproblem**

Answer 1

If you see an aggressive dog of any breed, chances are very slim that it was mistreated into being vicious. Chances are also slim that it was trained to be. What is likely is that, for whatever reason, the attitude was there due to genetics, and the nurturing of the animal by the owners either encouraged that behavior or failed to inhibit it.

Dogs are dogs, not sharks, so pouring raw blood over their head does nothing but create a wet dog. If you beat and abuse a dog, you will make him shy, not mean. If you feed him gunpowder, you will make him sick, not vicious. I have seen many, many maneaters, but I have NEVER seen one that was beaten into viciousness. Funny thing is, that just like many of you, I used to say the same thing, all without any evidence of it. It is just a mantra that gets repeated without merit.

I can assure you that if a dog lacks the propensity to bite a human being, there is very little any human can do to instill that propensity.

No dog comes out of the womb mean and vicious. Dogs may be physically fully grown at 1 1/2 or 2 years old, like a 16 year old kid may be fully grown, but upstairs, they are still juveniles, and haven't fully grown into their temperments yet. Dogs are considered fully adult, mentally as well as physically, at about 3 years old.

I have owned and loved pit bulls since 1992. Pit bulls do NOT have a "track record." I have done extensive research on this, and I have offered to debate the "APBT experts" as to whether, statistically, pit bulls are more likely than other breeds to attack or bite, especially their own family, and nobody has EVER accepted my challenge.

I offer the same challenge here.

I had one dog in all of that time that was a true threat to people, although she was a big sweetheart to me. Her mother was a sweetheart. Her father was too. She had 7 brothers and sisters that all matured to be friendly, balanced, trusting animals. She was the only one in the litter to have an attitude with strangers, and she was spoiled, pampered, loved, and raised in the house by the people who bought her from me. Starting at about a year of age, she steadily became more wary of strangers until she was two and went on to become a full fledged maneater to anyone she didn't know. The people who bought her from me decided she was too much for them. I bought her back from them. Then, I had her put to sleep.

THAT is what EVERY responsible dog owner should do with EVERY dog they have that would be a threat to people if it got loose.

My own brother was attacked and nearly killed by a dog that he had petted, played with, and taken care of for years. The dog was owned by a neighbor. It wasn't a pit bull. It was a German Shepherd.

My cousin, when he was 7 years old, was watching TV while the family's lab mix was playing fetch with a tennis ball nearby. His sister threw the tennis ball, and the dog, which they had raised from a puppy, prompty jumped on top of my cousin and almost ripped his entire scalp off.

Clearly, unstable temperments do not belong to pit bulls alone.

People often say that pits are unstable due to their use for fighting. This is understandable, but wrong. Pit bulls have existed as a distinct breed for well over 500 years, making them one of the few truly ancient breeds still in existance. Buster Brown's dog was a pit bull, as was Petey, the dog on The Little Rascals. In fact, Petey's sire was owned by Earl Tudor, a dogfighter, and that dog was a famous stud, assuming Petey's pedigree is accurate. Theodore Roosevelt kept a pit bull in the White House during his presidency. During the Great Potato Famine, hundreds of thousands of Irishmen immigrated to the US with their dogs, and during this time, pit fights were a family event. No dogfighter wants a dog that will turn on him, the other dog's handler, the referee, or jump over the 2 1/2 foot tall pit wall and maim or kill a spectator. No dogfighter would want to have to treat a dog for its injuries that might attack him out of fear, pain, or savagery. A lot of famous fighting dogs depicted in Richard Stratton's books on the APBT were pauinfully shy with people, and only came out of that shyness when there was another dog in front of them. They weren't bred to be aggressive with people. On the contrary, most maneaters were considered to be "currs" and were put down, not kept.

However, in all of those many years in which pit bulls have existed, and were doing all of the things that pit bulls are know to do, from bull-baiting to dog fighting, pit bulls didn't get a bad reputation until the '60s or '70s. The only thing that changed during that time period is that they suddenly exploded in popularity.

If you study the histories of German Shepherds, Dobermans, Rottweilers, and Chows, you will see the same pattern.

Anytime a large, powerful breed becomes suddenly popular among irresponsible dog owners, you will see problems.

Beleive it or not, most pit bulls are ridiculously friendly with people. I have two dogs right now that would allow a six year old child to steal them off my yard in the middle of the night. If they were in the house alone, and someone tried to break in, they would bark at them, and then bring them their tennis ball to throw. However, there are few people with the nerve to test that theory. But that's exactly how I want my pits to be. I've got a gun to protect my house. My dogs are my babies. I don't care if they won't protect the house when I'm not in it.

However, in those years when pit bulls exploded in popularity, people thought that a genuine fighting dog would be a great guard dog. then, they got them home and found them to be submissive and friendly towards people. Some were even painfully shy. Then, some unscrupulous breeders catered to those people by breeding the more people-aggressive pit bulls together. Then, Joe Blow comes along looking for an extension of his penis, and buys a big mean dog that he doesn't really have a clue how to raise, train, or properly contain. The dog gets loose, and proceeds to throttle the neighbor's dog, or the neighbor.

The point is, when you see a pit bull that is struggling against his chain or trying to chew his way through a kennel to get at a human that only wants to pet him, you are not seeing the average representative of the breed. You are seeing an abhoration that shouldn't be doing anything but feeding worms.

Same thing goes with any other dog, of any other breed, that is an unprovoked threat towards humans. The worst that would happen if any of my two dogs ever got loose, is that he might get into a fight with the neighbor's dog. Even then, only my male would do that. He has never been properly trained or socialized (I got him from a rescue when he was already four years old). My female has been trained and socialized since I got her as a puppy. I don't fight dogs, so she will never learn that it is acceptable to act like an imbecile towards other dogs.

If either of them ever so much as growl at a human being, especially a child, without a darn good reason, they will have signed their own death warrant.

If every dog owner had that attitude, there would be no maimings or deaths by dog attacks.

Have you ever seen what a Cocker Spaniel can do to an infant? I have.

APBT's aren't for everybody. They tend to hate other dogs unless they have been properly trained and socialized from a young age. With proper training and socialization, most will remain managable, if not totally trustworthy around other dogs, but there are those few that simply won't no matter how much or how well you train them. They are highly intelligent, affectionate, and eager to do anything that pleases the lucky person that owns them. I'd say the biggest deterrent to owning one is the ignorance one has to deal with when one's neighbors find out you have one, unless they have owned one too. That, and local laws that try to ban them. But they aren't for those who like to have a lot of dogs running around together. Especially if those other dogs are also pit bulls.

EDIT:
And to Kate M, my challenge is open to you, as well. You say that in your area, pit bulls are the number one culprit, I call BS. Back up your stats or send your misinformation to some other goons. You will continue to think BSL is a great idea, until whatever breed you like is added to the list.
My money says you can't back up what you said.
Put up or shut up.

El Chistoso

Answer 2

I think pit bulls can be wonderful pets too. However, just like any other breeds of dogs, there have been some horrible occurences of attack behaviour. The problem is that they are a very effective and deadly dog. They have hugh jaw capabilities - lockjaw. Once they latch on - it's very hard to get them to let go. I have a jack russell with that problem - he will sometimes attack larger dogs than himself (totally stupid animal). Thing is he has lockjaw capability as well and just won't let go - we have to literally choke him to make him let go. I'm happy to say we haven't had a reoccurence - he's not allowed to go loose anywhere where there are other dogs. He's a pussycat with other children and positively submissive towards babies and very young ones. God forbid he ever gets a hold of a cat...Anyway, excuse my tangent. My point is the American Staffordshire Terrier and "Pitbull" breeds, are good dogs - the bad ones usually have bad owners. However, dogs are pack animals, and that instinct seems to be strong in that breed. One starts - the other follows and pretty soon there is a frenzy of terror for the victim. Did you see the news about the poodle which was torn into two pieces by two pitbulls? I don't know, but, I never heard of two shepherds, two collies, doing that? Dobermans? Rottweilers? Anyone know the statistics on those dogs?

In closing, we once had a couple who had a small two year old girl, and two pomeranians and one staffordshire terrier - his name was Samson. He was the most gentle dog. He got along with our Jacks, our shepherd had one fight, and Samson didn't kill him (Duke held his own with quick reflexes) and that was the end of that. Samson loved his human family. Loved to hang onto the end of a rope tied to a high tree, and swing around it. He did it so often, that his teeth were actually wearing down!

The debate continues...fact is they are effective killing machines. Those jaws are deadly and no matter how good a owner can be - things happen which may be out of their control. They may be no more dangerous than any other breed, but, if they loose it, the results are usually more serious than with any other type of dog breed attack.

Answer 3

I dont hate pitbulls, but..
I have been attacked twice by different ones.
Dogs are mistreated. EVERY BREED is mistreated, but none of them have the track record like a pitbull. There is a reason for that. So much work has been done by terrible people to breed fighting traits into them, that it will take time and GOOD BREEDERS to weed out the bad ones through evolution.
I hate to say it but for "pitbull haters" an education probably isnt going to be what will change their minds, because education is based off of whats documented, and as far as documentation, pitbulls arent looking too good as a whole.
I am not working for the media, but last time I got attacked by one (which supposedly had never done anything mean before) it cost me 4000 dollars in medical bills. All I ws doing before it happened was walking. It isnt because of the media that most people dont like them, it is because most people know somebody who has had a similar experience.
I prey that one day the backyard breeders who are keeping the bad traits in such a beautiful dog are the ones who have to get punished. Not the dogs.
I dont usualy have a weak stomache but that video did SICKEN ME. The people that mistreat those dogs often times breed them. Most of them are killed, the others (that arent used for fighting) make it into circulation with families. They are not bred to be family dogs.
They also find stay dogs who cant put up a fight to train their dogs. It is SICKENING! I am still weary of pitbulls, but think the people who do that should be treated the same as rapists and murderers.

Answer 4

I wish they would get to the real root of the problem. It's all this ghetto glamorization. People see mean pitbulls on TV and in videos and they think it's a great idea to make your pitbull mean, or to make them fight. I think making people obtain a license to own one mandatory. They would take a test and have to come in with the dog every year to renew it. If a pitbull owner does not have this license then they get fined and the dog gets taken away. It won't solve the problem, but might cut down on it a little.

Answer 5

Preface: I have an American Bulldog/Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix.

I can understand that people who have had negative experiences with pit bulls are afraid of them. The same thing would probably happen if they had a bad experience with a Golden Retriever. For some people, that experience makes them afraid of dogs in general; for others, it's breed-specific.

Where I have a problem is the people who dislike pit bulls for no apparent reason, and rather than educate themselves, choose to perpetuate the sterotype and spread falsities.

A perfect example of this is mommie-3. She posted on here that her negative experience with a "pit bull" is limited to the close encounter near the car. First of all, I would LOVE to know how she knew it was a pit bull. Was he wearing a big bandana that proclaimed him to be one? Research will show that there are an abundance of breeds that closely resemble a pit bull, but in fact, share no more of their genetic make-up than any other breed. I urge mommie-3 (and everyone) to go to understand-a-bull.com and take the pit bull quiz. See how many attempts it takes you to find the true APBT. Also check out the link to the media misidentifications. It is shocking how often the media misidentifies an attacking dog as a pit bull.

Furthermore, mommie-3 goes on to say that rather than educate herself and her children about pit bulls, she now avoids them. That is fine (albeit ignornant). However, to instruct her children to now avoid the breed based on nothing perpetuates a dangerous stereotype.

Just wanted to add another perspective. I'm big on personal responsibility, and I have NO respect for those who choose ignorance over education.

PS. Pit bulls DO NOT HAVE LOCKING JAWS!!! PLEASE, please do your research before you post ignorantly on here. Do not perpetuate myths!!

NO medical evidence exists that contests that pit bulls (or any of the breeds under that umbrella) have any physical element that makes their jaws different from those of any other breed. They DO NOT have a higher PSI, or lockjaw, or any other nonsense physical formation of the jaw.

The tendency for a pit bull to grab ahold of an object and not let go is NOT physical; it's genetic. Pit bulls were bred for a trait called "gameness" and it refers to the dog's tenacity in the face of adverse situations. The dog will hold on to its prey (or another dog they are fighting, as they were bred to do) and not let go until called off by their handler. It is a highly effective fighting method, but most definetly NOT due to physical elements.

Answer 6

Unfortunately many people make pitbulls aggressive, and since people know about their "bad rep" they more commonly use pitbulls instead of other breeds that are much more aggressive.

When I was little I wanted a pit bull from the pound. My mom said they were dangerous so we couldn't have one. She doesn't hate them but she doesn't know what the dog had been through before and how it would react to us.

Answer 7

Im sorry but my sis in law works in an emergency room and the no .1 dog bite or injury is a pit bull . pits go after people and dogs and they do not stop untill that dog is dead or that person is severly injured . I for one am glad to see the cities finally putting a ban on them and someone coming to their senses . for those of you who own pits and say they are the sweetest things . I hope you never have to face the fact that one day that sweet thing will tear the face off of your toddler. I lost my finger to a pit and I never mistreated that dog . I got him as a pup and he was a playfull sweet thing then and all of a sudden one day he turned on me and took my finger and my dad took him outside and called the pound to pick him up he was never abused so for those of you saying it is because of abuse oh no sorry that argument does not fly . I dont trust those dogs they are unpredictable . I think we as a society should let the breed die out .

Answer 8

Heather, I just wanted to say Thank you ! I am also a Pit Bull lover and think that it is great that you are helping to educate people about the breed.

Answer 9

I got a pitbull about two years ago from the pound, you could tell just by looking at him that he was in dog fights. There was very little hope for him to ever find a family or so we were told by the man that ran the pound. Knowing all that my husband and I still decided to take him home. It was the best decision we ever made. You would never be able to tell that he was ever fought by his attitude and personality, he his the most loving most protective dog I've ever owned. We have a one year old little girl now and I'll tell you with confidence that my wonderful pitbull would die for my family if it ever came to that. Hes also great with other small dogs we just got a puppy about three weeks ago and i would be lying if i said he wasn't jealous for the first week but now he plays with that puppy like shes hes own. My point is there isn't any such thing as a bad dog just bad owners.

Answer 10

I have five American Pit bulls, and they have allergies so somtimes they break out in hives all over their body which sometimes burst and cover their faces in small scabs. My largest one is around 80lbs and very "mean looking". But she is the most loving animal to everyone she comes in contact who greets her nicely.

It angers me sooo much when I take them to the vet for their allergy treatments and I get stares from other people and they assume I fight my dogs because they have these scabs. I hate that so much.

Answer 11

I didn't dislike pitbulls until one (who I knew for a year that was "nice" & "friendly,") suddenly turned on me & wanted to rip my head off ever since. What did I do? Went over to pet her, as always. Fortunately she was chained & I'm a FAST runner.
Sorry, I will NEVER trust this breed.