Pit Bulls and kids!!! If you own either, please read.

They are the same dogs according AKC (which now calls them American Staffordshire Terriers) and Pitbull Rescue Central. People call them different names because they don’t want them associated with the name “Pitbull”. In the UK they call them Nanny Dogs, in the US they call them Guard Dogs.

correctamundo, for a human its a frendly intimate gesture, In doggie its a challange. why do you think friendly doggies start at the rear to say hi?

a few years back one of my neighbors about lost an arm to a pitbull.
same scenario.suddenly turned on him.
i heard a bunch of commotion and by the time i got out there this guy had a sheet wound around his mangled arm.told me to go get my .44.
he shot it and left it for authorities to test for rabies.came back negative.
over $100k in medical expenses and he still does not have good use of that arm.

Sorry to hear that, hope Sam can come to grip with the scars and be a better person for it.

My late son was bitten by my brother’s Blue Heeler when he was 4 1/2 yrs old. The dog put 42 stitches in my angelic childs face. The rip at his eye started a mere 1/8” from his tear ducts, the 1” slash in the corner of his mouth that literally cut clean through permantently changed his smile. Another situation where the child was playing with a dog he’d known his whole life and the dog suddenly snapped then ran. I was about 12’ away, astonished at the pool of blood that immediately showed on the driveway in the moonlight. The cut under his eye was in a “V” shape with the apex at his eye and the open V into his cheek. This wound was so gaping and traumatic that I didn’t even know about the slice to his mouth until the nurses took him away from my chest at the hospital.

This was a turning point in his life and probably crucial to his attitudes later in life. Ultimately, this boy killed a 14 yr old girl when he himself was 17 and then committed suicide in jail. I can see where the attitudes he developed from the dog bite as a small child got him to that point.

My own first born has been gone 12 years, he’d be 30 if he were still with us. All I can say is nurture and protect, but be careful not to overdo the nurtue part of that. The development stage of a child will/can reflect excessive nurturing and warp a child, too much of a good thing and all that.

Hoping the pit bull in question was introduced to a copper jacketed lead diet… I came so very close to introducing my brother to this diet along with his crazy dog that he refused to build a fence for. He liked to say “dogs in the country are supposed to run free…”

Colleen Lynn is someone with an ax to grind. She is not an expert and the claims on her webpage are not in agreement with the views of any major professional dog breeder, animal, veterinary or health organization. She has also been shown to misrepresent or outright fabricate data on her site.

I am not a pitbull expert but I have studied the evolution and domestication of dogs. One of the first things humans did was breed out the unpredictable and aggressive traits out of dogs in order that they could be safely kept around children and people in general. The intentional breeding of aggression into a dog breed like what has been done with certain breeds was done to obtain a dog for a certain task, these breeds were designed to be fighting dogs for sport or guard dogs or whatever but they were never breed to be family pets and left unsupervised around children.

When I hear of a pit bull attacking a child, I’m saddened but not surprised. It’s the only breed of dog that I have seen go after and attack children as if they were prey. My nephew was chased repeatedly as a child by a pitbull that often got off its chain in the neighborhood. That same dog bit several kids and often chased children. It didn’t seem to show aggressive behavior towards adults but something about children set it off into predator mode. Very scary.

Long story short, my brother took matters into his own hands after attempts at having the authorities control the dog and owner failed. He didn’t like having a dangerous animal terrorizing his kids and other children in the area. He shot it and was prosecuted for it. He didn’t try to hide what he did and he waited for the police after he did it to tell them why. This was in California and they charged him with a felony. I’m not condoning his actions because shooting someone’s dog is one of the lowest things a person can do in my book. I love dogs but I love dogs for what they are meant to be, loyal, gentle, pets and friends. When a dog becomes a predator and starts attacking children, I’m not sure I can view it as I view other dogs. Still, probably not his place to shoot someone’s dog but he felt it was danger to his small son and probably didn’t want to risk what was inevitably going to happen to someone.

He told me he had no doubt that, that particular dog was going to seriously injure or kill someone. There were lots of other dogs in his neighborhood but only that one acted that way. There were even other pit bulls in the area that were very docile and gentle. It just seems like pit bulls are gentle and sweet right up to that point where they aren’t.

With all the other breeds of dogs out there, I don’t know why people insist on that particular one to keep as a pet. I know they can be great pets and are most of the time but there is something bred into them that shouldn’t be there. All dogs can be dangerous, they are animals after all but we as humans have spent thousands of years trying to breed dogs to be our friends and trusted companions, why undo all that just to have a dog that makes you look like a gangster or badass or whatever the idea is behind them?

The sad thing is, when I would go walking my Springer Spainel or Britany Spainel, I would always tense up when I passed a pit bull. I always also had my hand in my pocket on my S&W snub nose revolver just in case. I have had a pit bull owner threaten that his dog would eat my dog. I told him, if that happens, his dog dies first then he goes to jail.

I’d have an axe to grind too, if I was brutally attacked by a Pitbull like she was. The Veterinarians I’ve talked to, including my Brother, seem to agree with her, and the dog bite statistics are indisputable as they are put out by law enforcement, not her.

Also, my friend is a city cop and has had to pepper spray and shoot several pit bulls in his duties. He is probably the biggest dog lover you will ever meet but that doesn’t mean he won’t shoot a pit bull that attacks someone. His girlfriend was attacked by a pit bull while doing her job which is animal care and control for the same city.

There is evidence that pit bulls are a particularly dangerous breed or at least can be under the wrong circumstances. They enough of a reputation that they are treated differently and will be shot if they appear threatening. That fact alone dissuades me from ever owning one. I don’t want my dog taken away and destroyed or shot. For that reason, I would never own one.

Speedsix, your brother should have never been the one that had to deal with that. Any dog that bites a child should be put down, period. You stated that this dog in particular had bitten several children and chased them regularly. Grounds for the police to take action after that first bite, why in the world did they not do this? I agree with your brother that something had to be done. If the dog is loose and on his property I fully support his shooting of the animal. My own Yellow Lab gets out all too often and while I seriously doubt he’d bite anyone I fear he’ll get shot being on someone else’s property. My ex-cop neighbor will do that, quickly, as he does not like dogs and especially on-the-loose dogs.

It’s always a shame when people are unable to get past their personal emotional responses to an event.

And the few I know are staunchly opposed to breed specific laws. Either of our anecdotal stories aren’t of much value.

That is verifiably untrue. Her numbers come from searching news reports she finds online. If you go to her ‘statistics’ page she states as much in the first line.

You are allowed to carry weapons there in the USA.
Shoot the fng dog before this happens again, and the owners walking such breeds of dogs without muzzle must be in jail.

Thanks all, Sam will be fine aside from a couple of small scars and I hope a dislike for Pit Bulls. The other boy that was bitten may not be so fortunate as he is missing golf ball size chunks. Sam just recounts scars affectionately when she tells the story of where they came from, but I do not think these will be viewed the same way. She is a very trusting child that just grew up a bit, I am glad I was with her.

Our family has always had dogs from Shepards to Newfs. We currently have a newf / flat coat retriever mix and we have found that newfs are just the most trustable dog out there. I think we will always have a newf or newf mix in our lives.

I will be working through channels to see that our little town does something about Pit Bulls, it is to bad as they are attractive dogs and what they do is not their fault, it is breeding and many times the owners that contribute to this problem.

Matt

Matt, the breed exists for a reason, as working dogs many of the traits exhibited are necessary for the job they were bred to do. The problem arises when a dog owner fails to take the breeds “portfolio” into account and gets the wrong breed for their purpose.

It was confirmed by our local police that I would not have been charged if I had shot it, due to the fact that it was restrained by a lead that was so long that it would have allowed further attacks. But, I was unarmed at home… may not happen again.

I was asked, more than once, why I carried at home. Very simple answer. Because that’s where everything I wish to protect resides…

Yup, and this has changed my outlook on the process! I will be from now on.

For the record I know it’s a complicated subject. Not all pit bulls are dangerous. Some are very sweet and docile. They can be so gentle and nice. It’s a combination of bad owners and certain traits of the breed. When you get a pit that has aggressive tendencies owned by a idiot, it a recipe for disaster.

I have been around dogs my whole life and there are certain breeds that just never seem aggressive. For example, I’ve never seen a Saint Benard be anything other than a big sweetheart. It’s a big powerful dog that could hurt people if it wanted to but they just don’t. I would trust a 200lb Saint Benard around a child more than 50lb pit bull. It’s breeding, temperament and owners. I’ve never seen a gangster walking a Saint Benard on a logging chain. Just saying. Lol.

Yup, the most danger our newfs pose is the possibility they will knock you over and lick you to death or drown you in newf slobber. I have personally never trusted tiny dogs, you know the bid dog syndrome and I have never trusted rots or wolf mixes. I have had some time around a couple of wolf mixes, they just always want to eat something and display way to much aggression.

Matt, are you going to press charges against the owners?

Is the dog not put down yet?

If not, then who can guarantee it won’t happen again (to other people/kids, etc)

Sorry to hear about the attack(s).
I grew up in an area where staffies, rotties and dobermans were used as status symbols and attack tools.
I am a dog lover, never owned any “dangerous breed” though I have played with them, looked after some. You can feel the sheer power in these compact muscular packages with sharp bits and know what they can do. Had a rottweiler bite me on the wrist once when I was wearing a 6mm leather cuff, went straight through to bruise & bleed. Would have been severe permanent damage had the stiff leather not been there.

It comes down to common sense, I soon learned that I would never own a dog that I could not kill with my bare hands and if I was to be in an environment with such dogs to be armed with an easily accessible fixed blade, knowing how to use it.
Playing with them is a dangerous gamble for a fully grown man, kids got no chance.

Never fully trust any dog (or owner)

I like jack russels :slight_smile: