>>I post often on other forums, & always say too much, smile...
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>>I have met only one pit bull & he was fabulous & got accidentally left in a room with a teensy kitten & didn't bother it at all. Loved all people, even strangers.
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>>In Atlanta, just past week, the advocates were able to suspend legislation banning pit bulls & instead diverted the focus to viscious dogs, by putting the emphasis where it belongs on the humans that are irresponsible dog owners.
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>>To me the pit bull is playing the role of the canary in the mines. People must wake up/educate/take responsibility to breed the best, to place pups with only the best people.
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>>I'd like to see those folks that are caught fighting their dogs, made to tell where they got them & so on down the line until the source is found. Its kind of like the drug problem. You can bust the 'users' but you won't stop the problem until you get to the real source.
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>>Sometimes I wish that all the purebred dog people would take their breeding down to a manageable level & start over, with documentation of who gets each puppy & if anyone breeds/fights it, the breeder gets some neg. consequence. Of course that would include puppy millers & since they make their money by NOT being at a 'manageable' level, their profits would be so small that they'd go out of business.
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>>well I can rant & I can dream...sigh
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Yes, we can all rant and dream, LOL. I think the pit bull type dogs are for experienced owners willing to train and manage their dogs diligently. If someone asks me if I think a pit bull would be a good dog for their family, I figure they don't really have the depth of dog experience to take on such a dog--or they wouldn't need to ask, you know? With the insurance complications and the strength of the dogs, they just do not need to be in inexperienced hands.
One reason pit bulls are so popular with people who have questionable motives such as pit-fighting their dogs and using them to guard drug caches and just execute general meanness in their communities is that the dogs can be fairly easy to handle, if you're not worried about people getting bitten.
If you do some research on the case of Bane and Hera, the Presa Canario mixes in San Francisco that killed a woman in her apartment hallway, this degree of violence is beyond most pit bulls. When someone dies from a pit bull attack, it's usually a child or frail senior citizen. Other people get bitten, but seldom killed.
So one concern that I have is if pit bull breeds are banned, what kinds of dogs will the criminals turn to? Blaming a breed for irresponsible human behavior is misguided. It assumes that a breed of dog is like a brand of refrigerator. Dogs are much more complicated than that.
We need enforcement of existing animal control laws. We need responsible parenting that doesn't put kids alone with dangerous dogs. And we need for people to understand enough about the differences among dogs to make responsible choices of dogs they are going to be able to control. Then we need them to do the necessary things (training and management, 24/7) to control those dogs. If your household's level of responsibility for a dog is Schipperke, don't get a Rottweiler!
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47
