Pit bull kills 5-year-old girl.

Ellpus made the most sense. Selective breeding for agressiveness can be seen within a few months after the pups are born. Keeping a pit bull whose ancestry you know little about is like keeping a live hand grenade. Ib Eastport two years ago, some family bought a pit bull pup (sort of like the "in" dog just like English Bulldogs are now) They didnt understand the dogs linneage and were totally ignorant of this breeds character. The dog , when about 16 months old, mauled the daughter of the owner and had to be shot by the cops because the dog had its mouth wrapped around the girls thigh. The only reason the dog broke his gfrip was to attack the brave cop who shot the dog as he ws being attacked.

I own catahoulas, an agressive herding hound that is tenacious with animals, is very submissive with people. It was bred into them that way. I also have a border collie. Between the two dogs, they think out how they wish to herd the sheep. Its fascinating to watch problem solving at this level. The genetic characteristics bred into the animal will always be a default behavioral pattern. If ya want to own a pit bull, pay up yer insurance and dont have kids around, because you are a complete moron if you do.

BTW, some insurance companies will not write farm policies to farms that have Staffordshire Terriers or Pitbulls, Tosa Inus, Dogo Argentinos, Dogo Presarios, and a few other known vicious breeds.


Being bitten by dogs is an always open possibility due to how the dogs were socialized or whether they were beaten or harshly treated. However, where a pitbull is involved, these dogs were bred to rip apart an opponent and their minds are set to go off at any time.

Im sure the owner of the killer dog said "well she was aleways a good dog before". Such a dog shouldnt be someones experiment with "fad" dogs. If you dont know what youre doing never buy a live loaded weapon.

Louis likes to go frog hunting in the swamp.

Would be difficult: the local council had send a warning after several complains about the dog's behaviour a year before the girl was killed.

"Neighbours said the dog had a vicious reputation" is printed in a couple of papers.

so this dog had a rap sheet? damn.

I think most dogs who attack have had warning signs in the past that either the owners didn't see or didn't want to see.

Imagine humans being on a leash when in public. Having to obey orders all our lives. How many of us would snap one fine day.

Humans and dogs cannot be compared.

Brain function isn't quite the same.

Bella wrote:


That's true and the vet said that it seemed to him that some male somewhere at sometime had probably abused her. But it was also obvious that she was genetically programmed to protect. And it became obvious that she wasn't able to make judgements about when and where that would be reasonable and necessary and when and where it wasn't.

I do think that if she'd been younger when I'd got her and able to be trained differently it might have made a difference, but I can't say for sure.

I did keep her and I loved her, but I never felt totally comfortable that I knew she wouldn't hurt someone or another animal, so I had to be really, really careful. Especially when my kids friends would come over - if they were inside, I'd put her outside. If they were outside, I'd put her inside because I was afraid one of them might hit or tackle one of my kids just fooling around, and the dog would misunderstand and go for them. When a babysitter was there, I'd put her down in the basement- stuff like that.

With the other two dogs I've had who have been retriever mixes, I haven't had a moment's worry. They just don't have that aggression factor built in - so I don't have to worry about that aspect.

Bella - What do you say to the fact that specific dogs were bred for specific purposes?

A pointer....that's what it knows, to seek out, spot and freeze.

A retriever? Bred to to just that, to bring back prey, undamaged. I'm sure hunters here would attest to the value of a retriever with a soft mouth.

Dalmations are bred to run, run, run. Try to keep one locked up and they'll go crazy.

A pitt bull, any of the various breeds that carry that name therein, where bred for the purpose of fiercely attacking, biting and killing.

Of course any of the above dogs can bite, that's a dead issue.

However, it's common sense that an animal that has had certain attributes bred into it's DNA will attempt to fulfill what it considers its purpose in life.

If that border collie I mentioned before is not stimulated, it will try to herd you, or your kids, or if it can't do that, get in trouble.

In other words, it takes a VERY special type of owner to control their dog who is bred to be aggressive.
Every one can come up with an example of a collie that bit someone, or a stupid poodle, when they are generally very smart.

I don't believe there are that many special people around that can fully control and animal who has had agressiveness bred into them.

I find it very likely people don't know what kind of dog some breeds, like a pit bull looks like.
Someone from a generation that knowing the breed was that important, "it's just a dog"...to people whose cultures aren't into dogs "it's a big brown dog"


Sure, everyone could pick out a poodle if it's got the poodle cut, but if it's not got the signature hair style, I'll bet many would confuse it with something else.

I see dogs in the park all the time that I know are some kind of specific breed, but I really don't know what.

You are obviously aware of the many generations of selective crossbreeding that cause me to have these traits, shewolf.

Ours will just crouch fown and try to stare you into submission. I used to give my last border collie a beer and it would go to sleep. However, when I quit drinking stash came along and weve kept her clean and sober for all her life.
We do sit around and share our faults though.

heh, they are really cool dogs.

I don't have the energy, time or experience to own one, but I do admire them.

Am I the only one who feels there is a veiled threat to Gus hidden in this sentence?

I think Chihuahuas are the meanest dogs...except they can't do as much damage. Unfortunately Pits have gotten too bad a rap. They're a smart breed, and some idiots breed them to be mean. You could breed any dog to be mean.

My vet always said the only dog that had ever bitten him was a dachshund (he mentioned this because we had a bad little dachshund ).

Thats easy to say for a guy thats never been attacked by 500 vicious Chihuahuas at the same time.

Where did I read they aren't really dogs?

What you aren't focusing on is the main concern, which is the pit bull breed was made to fight. And as LE has said several times now, when they bite, they don't let go until they are dead.

Pit bulls and rotties ... those are the bite reports I see the most. This isn't a statistic I maintain, but I'd estimate 90% of bite reports in my county involve those two breeds, and mostly pits. As I mentioned on that thread osso linked to (we had a discussion there, you might recall), I've seen the nasty results of pit bull attacks. They are unpredictable beasts, and I'll be pleased when the breed is outlawed.

BTW, I belong to a Yahoo group that sends me emails of news stories concerning pit bulls. The freqency of pit bull maulings and killings is appalling. I've been considering starting a thread here at A2K and posting news articles concerning such attacks.



That is precisely what Denver did.

Well, that was the link I gave, Tico, re the previous long argument thread and the Denver ban. Lot of heavies weighed in there.