This is sick, this is disgusting, this needs to STOP

[EmbraceCalamity]

Originally Posted by BarelyBreathing

You think a Pit Bull is scarier than an untrained unsocialized Border Collie? You obviously haven't met many. Untrained Borders are super nippy and intense dogs. When a Border Collie doesn't have a job, they will MAKE it their job to make your life a living hell. A Border Collie without work is a very distructive animal. An untrained Pit is a normal dog. In fact, to have an aggressive Pit Bull you have to TRAIN it to be mean.

I owned a pit bull who became a victim of people's prejudices and an unfortunate situation. At the time, we owned two dogs - a Basset, Buster, and the pit bull, Nala. Buster has always been...off. He's very nice sometimes, but other times he's vicious and will try to kill other animals, including dogs and cats. The key is if they're afraid of him, which I know sounds weird, but it's true. They're the only animals he'll try to kill. I've seen him play with neighbor's dogs, and I've seen him try to throw himself through the car window to try to attack others. I don't know if a dog can be a sociopath, but he makes me wonder.

Anyway, we got Nala, and she was the sweetest, friendliest, most wonderful dog. She loved everyone and everything she met, and all she ever wanted to do was play and give kisses and cuddle. I'd always wanted a pittie, and when I met her, I knew she was 'the one.' Unfortunately, though, she was very untrained. Her mother had been abandoned while pregnant in a house, and had given birth and then died. Nala and her brother were forced to eat her corpse to survive, while her father was chained up outside (also a very nice dog, but not as sweet, so I chose Nala instead). Still, after some training, she listened pretty well. At the time, we'd always let our dogs run loose (as everyone here does, and no one had complained). When she was alone, she was an angel. But Buster never listened to anything, so when they were together, she was almost as bad as him. One day, they went over to the neighbor's place and attacked the neighbor's puppy. I found them and broke it up, and Nala was very clearly in the 'play bow,' while Buster was very clearly being vicious. She had no idea why I was yelling at them, but Buster knew. I dragged them back to the house, and took the puppy to the vet. We apologised to the neighbors, covered the vet bill (the puppy had only a few scratches but was otherwise fine), and promised it would never happen again. Unfortunately, my dad's a jackass. He continued to let them run loose. I would often see them loose outside through the window, and I'd come down and tell him that we couldn't do that anymore and bring them inside. Still, he'd keep doing it. He'd try to tell me he only did it when he was out there with them (which was a lie, but even if it wasn't, they didn't listen when they were together, so it didn't matter). We fought about it several times a day every day for a week. Then a week later, they got over there again and killed the neighbor's other dog. I'll let you guess who got blamed and we had to get rid of, despite Buster having been proven to be vicious. Unfortunately, we still have him, and he's still vicious. I've wanted rid of him since then, but no, Nala is the one who had to go. It was obviously her fault because she was a Pit bull. She was too rough when she played, even with me. She was still a puppy (about a year and a half), and even with me, I'd sometimes end up with bruises. But she never meant any harm. She just thought she was a little lapdog when she wasn't. It might sound like I'm making excuses for her, but I know both of these dogs very well, and I know what he's like and I know what she's not like. If she hadn't been a pit, Buster (or both of them) would have been blamed, as he should have been, and we'd have had to have gotten rid of him. But she was unlucky enough to be a pit, so it was all her fault.



She went to a shelter and ended up being the favourite of everyone there, even getting painted by a volunteer and eventually adopted to a nice family with kids. But, to this day, I still hate my father.

I recall one neighbor saying that, now that she had the "taste of blood," she would become uncontrollably vicious. As if she was a bloody werewolf.

Originally Posted by StudentoReptile

As far as "pitbulls" (a somewhat debatable term itself since the actual breed is Staffordshire terriers, and actually look a little different than what most people think pitbulls look like)

Pit bulls refers to three breeds - the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, the American Pit Bull Terrier, and the American Staffordshire Terrier. They all look a little bit different (Staffy Bull Terriers are stockiest, American Staffies are medium, and American Pits are more slender), but they're all covered under the term "pit bull."

~Maggot

[Lankyrob]

Staffies are NOT classed as "pit bulls" in the Uk.

[StudentoReptile]

That is true, M. But we get people saying there is a 'pitbull" running loose in such-in-such neighborhood, and it may end being an American bulldog mix, boxer or even a lab mix. They see a shorthaired stocky large dog with non-droopy ears and automatically think pit.

[StudentoReptile]

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

Staffies are NOT classed as "pit bulls" in the Uk.

That was my understanding. "pit bull" is strictly a U.S. label, and in my opinion, somewhat derogatory of the breed.

[Lankyrob]

I admit i havent read all this thread - apologies for this.

But my opinion is that there are probably only one per cent of all dogs ever bred that are dangerous. Nearly every single dog attack i have readd about has been dogs left alone with a child (who knows what the child did to the dog before it "attacked") or dogs that have had no training/socialising that are scared and defensive - the owners fault not the dogs.

Personally i would rather see the Owners put down and the dogs rehomed

[EmbraceCalamity]

Originally Posted by StudentoReptile

That is true, M. But we get people saying there is a 'pitbull" running loose in such-in-such neighborhood, and it may end being an American bulldog mix, boxer or even a lab mix. They see a shorthaired stocky large dog with non-droopy ears and automatically think pit.

I know. That was the point of me posting this:
Pet Pitbull - Find the Pit Bull

And then I said that's where most of the breed attack statistics come from. Very few people can positively ID a pit. I'm familiar enough with dog breeds to pick out the Dogo Argentino, which is a pretty obscure breed, but I still couldn't pick out the pit on my first try.

Originally Posted by StudentoReptile

That was my understanding. "pit bull" is strictly a U.S. label, and in my opinion, somewhat derogatory of the breed.

You said that the "actual term" is a Staffordshire, but Lanky just said Staffies aren't classified as pits.

~Maggot

[BarelyBreathing]

I've seen Animal Control try to take away somebody's obviously pure bred German Shorthair Pointer, claiming it was a pit.

[StudentoReptile]

I'm not going to argue petty semantics for the hell of it since we're talking two different countries here. I've had a stressful enough morning as it is. My main point was that if I go up to one of these rednecks we deal with every other week, and tell them someone complained about their Staffordshire Terrier, I'm going to get a dumbfounded (and likely toothless) look in response. Most of these people don't know what kind of dog they have, and the few that do are the ones we really don't have problems with.

[StudentoReptile]

Originally Posted by BarelyBreathing

I've seen Animal Control try to take away somebody's obviously pure bred German Shorthair Pointer, claiming it was a pit.

And that's going to be akin to the whole pet store debate: are they all bad? No; some pet store employees are idiots, some aren't.

[EmbraceCalamity]

Originally Posted by StudentoReptile

I'm not going to argue petty semantics for the hell of it since we're talking two different countries here. I've had a stressful enough morning as it is. My main point was that if I go up to one of these rednecks we deal with every other week, and tell them someone complained about their Staffordshire Terrier, I'm going to get a dumbfounded (and likely toothless) look in response. Most of these people don't know what kind of dog they have, and the few that do are the ones we really don't have problems with.

I'm not trying to "argue petty semantics for the hell of it." Calm yourself. I'm just trying to understand, as obviously the term means something different here. And you originally said that the "actual term" for a pit is the Staffordshire, but then Lanky went to say that Staffies aren't considered pits in the UK, so I was trying to clarify.

~Maggot

[BarelyBreathing]

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

I admit i havent read all this thread - apologies for this.

But my opinion is that there are probably only one per cent of all dogs ever bred that are dangerous. Nearly every single dog attack i have readd about has been dogs left alone with a child (who knows what the child did to the dog before it "attacked") or dogs that have had no training/socialising that are scared and defensive - the owners fault not the dogs.

Personally i would rather see the Owners put down and the dogs rehomed

I completely agree with you. Pit Bulls have a reputation for being aggressive because they were TRAINED to be aggressive, by PEOPLE. Pit Bulls are not naturally aggressive dogs. It's ALWAYS human fault/error when a domesticated animal bites a person. I wish more people understood that.

[StudentoReptile]

I understand...

[StudentoReptile]

Originally Posted by BarelyBreathing

It's ALWAYS human fault/error when a domesticated animal bites a person. I wish more people understood that.

It's always human fault/error when ANY animal bites a person. IMHO, when you get right down to it, there is no such thing as an "unprovoked" animal bite/attack.

[BarelyBreathing]

Originally Posted by StudentoReptile

And that's going to be akin to the whole pet store debate: are they all bad? No; some pet store employees are idiots, some aren't.

No, no, no, you took that the wrong way. I was agreeing with the point that rarely people know how to identify a pit and giving an example of such.

[EmbraceCalamity]

Originally Posted by BarelyBreathing

I completely agree with you. Pit Bulls have a reputation for being aggressive because they were TRAINED to be aggressive, by PEOPLE. Pit Bulls are not naturally aggressive dogs. It's ALWAYS human fault/error when a domesticated animal bites a person. I wish more people understood that.

Interestingly, though most people don't know it, the fighters were bred to be people-friendly. The ones who weren't extremely tolerant of the abuse they suffered at the hands of people were culled, so they were actually bred in the fighting area to be extremely people friendly. I'm more likely to feel secure around a pittie than many other breeds of dogs.

~Maggot