PITBULL ban is happening today

[Invictus]

What the temperament testing society says is irrelevant. The fact is, people and animals are being viciously mauled to the point of dismemberment, disfigurement, and death. More often than not, the attack is unprovoked. Maybe the "uneducated" people are the ones who are blatantly ignoring this FACT just because they own pitbulls and have never been personally attacked.

[Matt_K]

In 1997 alone, 97 people were killed by White Tailed Deer in the US... (some of the knowledge I picked up at Little Rays this weekend) Should we ban them too????

[HeatherRose]

Distant memories terrorize me to this day of a childhood mishap when I was almost trampled, stomped on AND eaten alive by the herd of evil, ferocious, rabid deer at Marine Land. BAN THE DEER.

[Tim and Julie B]

Nothing that is studied, and documented, can be deemed "irrelevant". This whole "dismemberment" thing has been taken far out of context. Like I said before, I have seen a 5 year old torn to peices by shepherds. She died on scene. No one wanted to ban shepherds after. The dog was put down, the owners were fined. Yes, it was very sad. A lot of people were angry, but not once did anyone want to blame an entire breed. The thing is, you can ban a breed, but another will take it's place int he blame game. ANY dog can and will attack. If we are going to ban "pits" then every other dog should be banned too.

My point in posting prior to this was to try and get some good information out there. Yes, I like staffordshire terriers, I own two, but my beliefs are not a reflection of what dog I choose to keep. I would have thought that some of you would know me well enough to know that I am not judgemental. I am not biased either. What I believe is that mass condemnation of a single breed is wrong. You can't just sweep something under the carpet in the hopes that it will go away. If people chose this path with everything in life, where would that leave humanity. There will be something next, and something thereafter, you can count on it. Everything has a starting point, and if we allow this kind of thought process to continue, it'll only be a matter of years before all our actions(whether personal or material) are under some sort of guideline.

There is no such thing as a breed of dog that won't bite.
Supervised dogs in public places rarely bite strangers. The general public has little rational or statistical reason to fear someone lawfully walking his or her dog down a public street.

No breed of dog has more than 0.1% of its members involved in serious biting incidents...meaning...99.9% of all dogs, regardless of breed, never attack anyone. No reasonable person can suggest restricting 99.9% of ANY group based on the actions of such a tiny minority.

Ken (not to single you out, just to reply to your opinion above)

What the temperament testing society says is irrelevant. The fact is, people and animals are being viciously mauled to the point of dismemberment, disfigurement, and death. More often than not, the attack is unprovoked. Maybe the "uneducated" people are the ones who are blatantly ignoring this FACT just because they own pitbulls and have never been personally attacked.

.....but,

The term 'pit bull' generally refers to a group of dog breeds.
We have NOT yet confirmed an UNPROVOKED dog-related fatality in Canada that has been officially attributed to a "pit bull'.

Anyways, like I said, please visit www.goodpooch.com and read everything before jumping the gun. I have read all the good and bad stuff posted here (on ssnakess) and every scrap of info I could find elsewhere. I just don't see how anyone can agree that a complete ban is the answer. Maybe it's the lazy, thoughtless way our cheap politicians work, but it's not a solution. There will be ways around this, people are far to resourceful for this to ever really work.

Julie

[Tim and Julie B]

Matt, Heather, yes, please ban the deer..........such nightmares........such complete terror..........

Can we ban cars while we're at it? I've lost 9 friends to mva's. Wait, the drunk drivers were probably the real threat, let's ban them. Wait, can't do that, it'd be like preventing bad dog owner's from having dogs. Nope, can't be done, it'makes too much sense to ever work!

Julie

[Tim and Julie B]

Breed Bans

No reputable agencies support breed bans.
Dog bites are not an issue of 'public safety'.
Breed determination is subjective. A dog's breed can not be proven, even through DNA. Therefore, the determination of breed is the subjective opinion of the observer.
There is no course of study for breed differentiation.
Few individuals are expert enough to determine breed. For instance, a veterinary license only certifies the individual is expert at diagnosing and treating illness, and performing surgery. Unless veterinarians acquire extensive experience outside their practices, their license alone does not certify them as especially knowledgeable in canine behaviour, training, genetics, or breed differentiation.
Breed bans assume every member of a breed poses an identical risk, and completely negates the overwhelming influence of the owner's training.
Breed bans assume individuals are guilty, with no opportunity to prove their innocence.
Breed generalizations are equivalent to national generalizations: They rarely hold true at an individual level.
Studies show that breed bans do not reduce the number or severity of dog bites.
The dog breeds and mixes that bite most often in Canada have not been banned or restricted anywhere.
Serious dog bites continue to occur in cities that have banned specific breeds. The dogs involved are simply not one of the banned breeds.

So the "bites" go on eh? Gee, go figure, since all dogs can bite you!

The Canadian Kennel Club:

· The Canadian Kennel Club supports dangerous and vicious dog legislation in order to provide the most appropriate protection for the general public and the innocent dog owner. We are opposed to breed-specific legislation in any form, anywhere in this country or internationally. It is both short-sighted and unacceptable, anywhere.

The Canada Safety Council:

· The Canada Safety Council does not recommend breed bans.

Canadian Veterinary Medical Association:

· The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) supports dangerous dog legislation provided that it does not refer to specific breeds.

The Centers for Disease Control:

· Breed-specific approaches to the control of dog bites do not address the issue that many breeds are involved in the problem and that most of the factors contributing to dog bites are related to the level of responsibility exercised by dog owners.

· Tethered dogs are more likely to bite than untethered dogs.

JAVMA (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association):

· Because of difficulties inherent in determining a dog’s breed with certainty, enforcement of breed-specific ordinances raises constitutional and practical issues.

· Many practical alternatives to breed-specific ordinances exist and hold promise for prevention of dog bites.

The American Kennel Club:

· The American Kennel Club strongly opposes any legislation that determines a dog to be "dangerous" based on specific breeds or phenotypic classes of dogs.

GoodPooch.com:

· GoodPooch.com is against any restrictions of dog ownership based on a dog’s size, gender, reproductive status, breed, or phenotype.

Julie

[chailatte]

RFB- I read the JJ Sacks et al report you referred to, and I stand corrected. Actual dog bite fatalities are only about half of what I said. And I agree with the report's conclusion: that breed-specific legislation is not the best choice due to constitutional and practical considerations. The practical considerations( difficulty in determining breed) are highlighted by the report's use of 'pit bull-type dog' as a category of purebred. They did not attempt to break this down into American Staffordshire, Staffordshire, American Pit Bull, and Bull Terrier because they had to rely on the breed identification given in police and hospital reports without any verification of the dog's registration. If someone said they were bitten by a pit bull, it went down as pit bull. No one made a list of breeds that would be classed as pit bull then checked pedigrees to see if the dogs were actually registered as one of those breeds. And I forgot to mention the fatalities from dachsunds, yorkies, and pomeranians. I don't support banning the 27 breeds listed as causing fatalities, I support putting down biting dogs and prosecuting the owners.

[Shad0w]

Man,

You people are digging your own hole...

The recent posts keep highlighting case after case of children being killed by dogs... (not just pits)

And these dogs are called PETS.... so dont confuse them with wild deer.. LOL

I dont know about you, but I value ANY kids life far above anyone's right to keep a dog...

Keep highlighting that and Im sure the time will come where all large breeds will be banned from residential areas.



BTW.. how many of you good PIT owners are willing to destroy your dog at the first hint of agression shown to a human? (like they used to)

[BAZ]

"In 1997 alone, 97 people were killed by White Tailed Deer in the US". I work at Little Rays and I have heard this statistic being used by the zoo keepers when they compare the number of deaths caused by alligators to the number of deaths caused by deer. I never use this example as I think it is misleading. First of all aliigators are only found in Florida (not including the pets). Deep however has a much wider range. People killed by an alligator are usually the cause of an aggressive attack... usually by a female defending her nest or young. Most of the deaths by the deer are accidents of people running into them on the road.

[HeatherRose]

And these dogs are called PETS.... so dont confuse them with wild deer.. LOL

The deer I mentioned were meant for interaction and snuggles with the public, and small children. But this is getting silly

[Cookie]

Sorry folks.... Bad breed!!!! and besides the point many get a pitbull because of the reputation instead of the dog itself!!!! I have had pitbulls and have not raised them to fight etc..... but i will tell you they ALL went after other dogs to hurt not play!!! And as i said i did'nt train them to they just DID!!! No remorse on pitbulls here and you can't change my mind. I think this bans is good simply because i see more and more minors walking these dogs through the neighborhood proudly onlt simply because aparently pittbull fights is in among the young these days and some have never owned an animal in there life and decided the PITT was the way to go... for centuries you play with something not in a responsible way eventualy someone will take it off you for your well being and in this case i am not frowning!!!! So ontario your not being picked on your simply not being given the chance to let another "attack" never happen again and sorry but thems the breaks.... So if your not happy with that decision take it up with cityhall not your fellow friends from ssnakess as this is a reptile form after all is'nt it?!!!

[Invictus]

For any organization to say "We have NOT yet confirmed an UNPROVOKED dog-related fatality in Canada that has been officially attributed to a "pit bull'." is the most misleading statement presented yet. For starters, just because one biased organization is yet to confirm it doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Secondly, this mileads people into thinking pit bulls are not a bad breed. Just last year in Calgary a kid was mauled so badly by a pit bull on his HEAD AND FACE, that he will be permanently disfigured. Maybe 'fatalities' aren't the worst of what's happening with this breed - the fact that people have to live with these permanent reminders of how vicious pit bulls can be is perhaps far worse!

[concept3]

I read one post on here that made sence to me. How can any of you guys support this ban when our reptiles will probably be the next to go. I hear people whine because we live In alberta and cant own the 5 largest constrictors. Other than the type of animal in question these bans are the exact same. Lots of people on here complain about reptile bans because average people are uneducated about reptiles. The average (non herp owning) person sees the people on the news that get kiled by their venomous snake or hurt by their large constrictors and lable all reptiles that way. Well you people who want pitbulls to be banned are the same as these uneducated people that think reptiles are monstors.
what is it gonna take for you guys (the pro ban people) to pull your head out of your ***? Them to impose a reptile ban?

[spidergecko]

Originally posted by Shad0w
BTW.. how many of you good PIT owners are willing to destroy your dog at the first hint of agression shown to a human? (like they used to)

I would love to hear the answer to this.

[BAZ]

"How can any of you guys support this ban when our reptiles will probably be the next to go".

Simple. Our reptiles are not mauling and killing our neighbours and their children. Vicious dogs are.

And lets not kid ourselves. So many people buy pitbulls just because of the reputation these dogs have in the first place. Ive lost count of how many thug wannabees Ive seen out there walking their pitbulls. Put something in a rap video and the kids will buy it. This includes dogs.