Jerry Eichenberger wrote on 06/15/11 at 13:50:45:Personally, and I know this idea would never fly, I would require all pitts to be neutered to prevent perservation of the breed, and let the breed go extinct of its own accord.
I'm not cruel enough to demand that they be euthenized, but sterilization of all existing pitts would solve the problem in short order.
... and then, those people would get Rottweilers or Dobermans and do the same...
It's not the dog,.. it's the owner...
Helen Keller's handi-dog was an American Pit... the Little Rascals dog was a Pit... look at pics from 50 or 100 years ago... Same dog. The owners have changed,... and they will train a Rot, Doby, German Shepard, or any large capable dog to be the same...
Also,.. why does this bunch up yer' drawers so much?...
More children are killed by their own mothers than by any dog.
20,000 people a year are killed by guns...
29 by dogs.... the majority killed by Chows and Rottweilers...
The number 1 dog for serious maiming attacks is the German Shepard...
Quote:Clifton report (2009)
Mr. Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People News,[3] has compiled from press reports a log of dog attack deaths and severe bites in the United States and Canada from September 1982 through December 22, 2009. The study methodology counted attacks "by dogs of clearly identified breed type or ancestry, as designated by animal control officers or others with evident expertise, [that] have been kept as pets." Mr. Clifton acknowledges that the log "is by no means a complete list of fatal or otherwise serious dog attacks" since it excludes "dogs whose breed type may be uncertain, ...attacks by police dogs, guard dogs, and dogs trained specifically to fight..."[4]
The study found reports of 345 people killed by dogs over the 27-year period, of which "Chow Chow", or mixes thereof, were reportedly responsible for killing 159, or about 46 percent, of the people killed by dogs in the attacks identified in the study. The breed with the next-highest number of attributed fatalities was the Rottweiler and mixes thereof, with 70 fatalities or about 20 percent of the study-identified fatalities; in aggregate, Chow Chows, German shepards, and mixes thereof were involved in about 66% of the study-identified fatalities. In that same study, the number of serious maimings by a "pit bull terrier" was 778; the number of serious maimings by a Rottweiller was 244. The number of attributed fatalities to the German Shepherd dog was 1. The number of serious maimings by a German Shepherd was 5000.[4]
Mr. Clifton concluded that
"Temperament is not the issue, nor is it even relevant. What is relevant is actuarial risk. If almost any other dog has a bad moment, someone may get bitten, but will not be maimed for life or killed, and the actuarial risk is accordingly reasonable. If a german shepard has a bad moment, often someone is maimed or killed—and that has now created off-the-chart actuarial risk, for which the dogs as well as their victims are paying the price."