PB Horror..follow up....interesting twist!

[djc3674]

Well...seems as though the NY Daily News messed up the story. It wasn't the Pit Bull after all. The Boxer (Pepper) was the one that attacked the child!!!!!

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-dog0208,0,3250345.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines


NY DailyNews corrects itself...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/162435p-142436c.html

[themangler]

still sad to hear but i still blame the deed.

[meow_mix450]

ya...same here

Meow

[Grant vg]

well. well. well... so the story unfolds...


So how easily it was for them to mix up the breed who ripped this girl up?
pretty darn easy for such a serious situation.... But then again, in most cases it is just assumed to be the pit bull, because little old Pookie and Bootsie could never hurt a little child.....gag

[Grant vg]

and the problem really lies within the fact that most people CANT correctly identify a american pit bull terrier. Any dog whos big, scary and on a chain leash gets thrown into this category.
Ive seen Tons of people ask whether that german sheperd or that rotti are pitbulls....etc..

And in the news, they never say that dog that mauled that kid was 1/4 lab, 1/4 ABPT, and 1/2 rotti. Its alwasy the same story.... "it was part pit bull"

And when they dont know the breed at all...its always "part pit bull"
Im glad to see they corrected themselves...but im sure this "correction" wasn't on the front page or made nearly the impact as the first article did.

[djc3674]

nope ....the correction didn't make the front cover. I found it on a diff news site...then went back to original site and searched around for it. They really should check their facts before printing an article....thats how rumors start!!

BTW...I agree that Pits are categorized and blamed because of there reputation for aggression. I have known full breed pits that were great, loving animals. But, on the flip side, they do have the tendancy to turn on their owner or family members.
However, this can happen with any canine, but when a pit turns on someone it usually results in devastating injuries because of their power, which almost always gets media attention. In their defense though, these attacks happen most of the time because of irresponsible owners or because of neglect.
NO animal can be trusted 100%, but I believe that a pure bread pit, raised around kids in a proper home w/ proper training and made to feel like part of the family will not turn and attack.

[Syco]

I'm glad they got this corrected, but I wish it had been on the front page so that the correction would get as much attention as the original article.
Grant- I agree, there are so many attacts where dogs are identified as APBTs when in fact they have very little or no Pit in them at all. When they are identified as such in the paperwork then they are added to all the "Pit Bull statistics".
Our local humane society has so many dogs listed as Pit Bull mixes, when in fact they look to me to be more boxer, lab, ect... truth is, any large breed dog that they can't identify and looks even remotely like a Pit is labled as one. I think if one isn't for sure of a dogs breeding, they should be labled as "mixed breed" and left at that.

[sapphire_moon]

it's still the owners fault. Never leave a child in a dangerous situation.

[m1k3_88]

I totally agree with Grant, i have a 9 1/2 month old boxer, and people are allways Cautious around him until they ask if he is a pit bull, then once i tell them he is pure boxer, they ease up and will play with him. Ive seen some bad pitbulls, and ive seen some great pit bulls, its all on how the owner is with the dog.

[djc3674]

IMO Boxers look totally different (head wise). Also, boxers are taller. Unless its a pit/boxer mix...I think Pits have a distinct look to them and I personally would not confuse the two.

[Grant vg]

its kind of ironic how some of the ppl on this site think that a ban or licensing should be put in order for pitbulls, when its this same ignorance that puts our hobby at risk..... and these same ppl defend keeping snakes because they keep them, but can so easily side with most of the population against pit bulls, because they dont own them.....

The people on these reptile internet sites only make up a MINORITY of the amount of people who actually KEEP reptiles... I wouldn't be surprised if more then 50% of reptile owners keep there animals in 1/2 a$$ condition and husbandry.
And i would imagine that the precentage is higher then 50% for "Good APBT owners" regardless of whether the dogs have the potential to kill, very rarely do you see a pit bull thats insane and always ready to snap....you only see unpredictable dogs like that after years of abuse and neglect...


So which deserves more of a ban or licensing in your mind?

[gonesnakee]

Only been bit by maybe one Pitbull "mutt" (PB X Mastiff X Rotty, nice mix for a "Junkyard Dog"), but have been bit a hundred times by Poodles, Small Terriers &/or various small breed "mutts" with no Pitbull or anything considered dangerous bred into them. I guess what I'm saying is I'm more scared of Poodles than Pitbulls LOL. More likely to be attacked by one anyhow. Mark
P.S. I'm also sad to say that the PB X mentioned was put down in the end. It was bred & brought up to be "F"ing mean & when it turned out that way it could not be controlled/contained. I don't blame the dog, I blame the master. Other animals from the same litter turned out just fine. Mind you they had "owners" not "idiots"

[Wish fire]

People are to quick to point the finger.

[Lisa]

small dogs should be banned... when i delivered papers those were the ones to watch for. our old dog lexx had to eat one when it attacked him and katey late one night. Lexx just smacked the thing down and let him know who's boss, but it was the little dog doing the attacking. he was off leash and his owners had just let him out and lexx was on a leash (he just stood his ground the whole time).

The worst are the chihuahuas, my friend had 3 and when i visited all they did was try to bite my knees (they had to jump 3 times their height to do that). I wanted to feed them to my cat.

[themangler]

You are obviously a ****in moron, and like most Pit owners, barely more able to communicate than your disfuntional dogs.
(this is what (WRX)pm'd me i guess this is his true feelings about us pit owners and wrx any time!!!!!

[djc3674]

sounds to me that this dude (wrx) has deeper issues, (perhaps from his childhood) than the mere fact that he just doesn't like pit bulls.
For someone his age...wouldn't you think he would be more mature about this??? pfffft..some people :rolleyes:

[DiamondDave]

some people cannott be plactaed no matter what is said and it is pointless to try. S/He seems to have more issues than just this or perhaps he/she was bitten by one before?
Sweeping generalizations about certain breeds withstand regardless of how many "Nice" examples of that breed are shown.
It is irresponsible reporting IMO, but sensational stories sell papers.

I too have seen wonderfully sweet Pits, and I have also seen quite aggressive ones although they aren't the norm. Personally I don't trust any dog 100%, even my own two. While I don't believe that they would ever intentionally hurt me bad things DO happen. And as several people stated here I would NEVER leave my children unattended with large, possibly aggressive dogs.

Better safe than sorry.

Oh, and I hope those children aren't forever traumatized by this. Being as young as they are I hope they can get past it at some point and be able to enjoy the company of a dog.

[djc3674]

Oh, and I hope those children aren't forever traumatized by this. Being as young as they are I hope they can get past it at some point and be able to enjoy the company of a dog.

I hear ya on that...unfortunately...when our pug was just a pup. My friend bought his son over...I had our dog in the kitchen but my 5 yr old open the gate..without my knowledge..and before you know it..he went over to my friends son ..and was just playin..but got him with a claw in the cheek...he wasn't bad at all..just scared he crap out of his kid...now he is terrified when he comes over...I have to put the dog downstairs...hopefully one day as he gets older he will get past it...my dog was just playin and didnt mean harm..but unfortunately..the kid is now scared. My dog is exciteable and a bit protective..but once people get through the door and he gets to meet them...he totally calms down and is fine..I just wish this didn't happen..cause usually he is great with kids.

[DiamondDave]

That's a shame. Even accidents can have lasting effects.

That also brings up a good point (although it did not happen in the above example), the dog or the owner for that matter is not always solely responsible for some of these incidents.
Many times children can cause these kinds of attacks, not that they intend too of course! by that I mean that maybe the kids pull too hard on their (dog's) ears, tail etc. I realize that you would hope that your dog would be oblivious of these types of things, but maybe not always. I just watch 'em like a hawk when kids are around. I don't want to be responsible for something like that.

[Cruciform]

I'm torn on the whole pit bull issue.

There are many, many more attacks each year by other breeds, as people say. How that applies percentage wise to each breed I don't know. Each Christmas parents by their children dalmations after seeing the disney movies. The general temperament of dalmations is not suitable for being left with small children, and this shows in emergency rooms every where.

The problem with pit bull vs. poodle attacks as well, is that while poodles can be snappy, vicious little things the number of attacks that result in serious injury are few. You can give one a solid kick if you really need to defend yourself and it won't come back. When a pit bull attacks, that's a whole different ball game. You have an animal capable of pulling 2 to 3 thousand pounds of weight, and a jaw strength of 1800 pounds per square inch. This is similar to the bite of a hyena, which can crack large bones in its jaws easily. Coupled with the persistance of the PB when attacking, injuries tend to be extreme compared to attacks by other animals.

I've seen responsible owners, and I've seen idiots. One such idiot was giving his PB beer one afternoon when we came home, and had to walk through the backyard to get to our rear apartment. His dog is not properly socialized, and is easily startled. This fright quickly turns to aggression. He is not a "bad" or "vicious" dog, but he was left running loose and went after my girlfriend because as tenants we're invading his territory when we get home. She received permanent injuries, not from the dog itself, but from evading him.
I have no doubt that at some point in the future this dog will seriously hurt someone because his owner has not taken the time to socialize him or treat him as anything more than a ***** extension, and lets him run loose in a yard with an open gate.

Banning animals isn't the answer, but how do we ban the owners?

[Cruciform]

Hey Dave,

Sometimes it's not even a physical trigger that manifests a dog attack. In another forum there was mention of body language when dealing with varanids, in order to keep them calm.

Children are in a bad position when it comes to body language and dogs.

They are at just the right height to maintain eye contact, which some dogs will take as a sign of aggression.

They have no concept of "personal space". When feeding or resting a dog may choose to be solitary. The child can plunk themselves down within arm's length, and ignore the dog, but still trigger a growl or a snap.

Some children have extreme reactions when startled. If something they do agitates the animal, they may become startled by the animals reaction and exacerbate things by flailing their arms and shrieking.

And, of course, their flesh is less protected. A bite from a dog that wouldn't do much more than drive off another dog, can leave a kid with a some pretty nasty wounds. There's no layer of fur, and we don't have the equivalent of things like the scruff of the neck for a dog to grab.

So then we end up with people blaming the dogs, and others blaming the kids, and it's really not the fault of either.

Good to hear you're one of the attentive owners :)

[DiamondDave]

You're 100% correct, I did not really mean to blame the kids I was simply stating that it's not just bad owners or bad dogs somtimes accidents happen. The reason I watch so closely is that I would not be able to live with the knowledge that I may have been able to keep something like that from happening. I also want to protect my dogs, they are my responsibility as well and having to put them down would be horrible.

I don't think these kinds of things are ever going to stop. People will always own dogs, good or bad (the people and the dogs) and tragic things happen far too often.

[Cruciform]

Sorry, didn't mean to give the impression you were blaming them :) Was just adding to what you said :)