Do you think all Pit-Bulls are bad?

"Pitbulls & Parolees" is a tremendous show! (I'm a bit biased, though). It completely changed my view of Pitbulls for the better.

 

Anyone who read the posts thus far and is still voting yes:

1. Pit bulls are often misidentified. There are relatively few "true" pits, and mixes are often called pits for convenience.

2. This topic is very, very important because of breed bans. In Denver, for example, police can confiscate and destroy your dog if the officer decides that it looks like a pit. It is up to the officer's discretion, it is subjective, it applies to people from out of state who are just driving through, and it is especially bad because police are rarely breed experts and breed cannot be determined 100% without actual testing. Pit bull owners don't care what you think about them, they care if you are part of the reason why their dogs are banned and killed capriciously.

3. Pits are sought out by people who want a gun more than a dog, but can't carry one around. They treat the dogs in a way that leads to violent behavior. This is due largely to the number of sources who portray pit bulls as violent, and to individuals who perpetuate this portrayal.

4. Profiling pit bulls as "good" or "bad" is a gross oversimplification. The issue is so complicated that people can (and do) devote years of research to understanding the topic. I'm not referring to the genetic research, but social and political research. This debate has become an anthropological issue, not a genetic one. One of the greatest skills I learned when earning my degree in cultural anthropology was how to evaluate informational articles for bias. Never place trust in an article's claims if it does not clearly state its research methods (ex: how the breeds of the dogs in the study were determined). If more than one breed is being lumped into the category of pit bull, which seems to be the case (especially in news stories), then there is a plethora of misinformation on the topic.

5. Profiling a breed of dog based on your own personal experience of just one or two bad encounters is beyond ignorant. Would you pay any attention to a scientific study that based its statistics off of just one dog attack? With that logic, you could claim that any dog breed is the most violent breed.

6. In a country with a deep root of racism, prejudice, hate, fear, and finger pointing, it should be obvious that there are hoards of people who profile and discriminate against more than just other people based on appearance. People always want simple solutions to problems, and profiling a group as "bad" is about as simple of a solution as you can get. If you looked up news stories from the past 150 years in the US, you would find a staggering proportion of articles that, together, show strong evidence for particular social, ethnic, and cultural groups as being predisposed to violent or criminal activity, or that are inherently "bad". This carried over into many "informational" and "scientific" articles, and it was widely believed because people did not question their validity. It is never a question of whether or not a news source is biased, it is a question of how biased it is, and how methodically the presented information was collected. Need I make this analogy more clear?

 

You are ignoring the impact of a specific element of society being attracted to the breed and their twisted and sick "training" of the breed to be more aggressive.

Oversimplified, more bad owners of the media targeted breeds.
Today it's the pit.
20 years ago it was the Rot.
40 years ago it was the Dobie.
50 years ago it was the Shepard.

 

After reading through this entire thread, this one statement puts it into a human perspective; WE CREATE THESE STEREOTYPES....

My wife and I have "inherited " 2 pit mixes due to human mistakes; the 1st was an 18 month male that would love instead of hate UNLESS the lead female;aka my wife was threatened....biggest baby with my infant granddaughter ;she could do anything to him and he enjoyed it BUT give her father a chance to even think about raising his voice or be aggressive towards my wife and WOW...
We LOST this one when he got aggressive with a woman that "lost it in front of the house" and he confronted her,no damage to her but literally tore her bag off her arm ( it was his 2nd strike and we had to put him down )

2nd was a MUTT I got as a rescue;boys found 4 of them in a loader bucket,tails brutally chopped and basically left for gator bait ..
This one was raised with our Britt and Lab as a 3rd dog and thrived in the family atmosphere.....Again ,loyal to a "fault" as he became my mother-in-laws best friend after her husband died, Buddy filled a void like only a dog could......

He was great for 2 years until Mom passed away while walking with him,never left her side until PD coaxed him away BUT that changed him inside..almost like he now missed her and had no way to react...We tried to "keep him" but that void consumed him and we ended up giving him to friends that trained him for hogs ; he died a hero protecting a prized bitch and taking the boar with him...Loyal till his death..

ANY animal given the right home life can be a trusted pet BUT as in all situations ANYTHING can become mean or distrustful...

My finish to this, We have had NOTHING BUT Rescue dogs since my wife and I were in high school ( long time ago whippa-snappas ) and neither of us has ever been bit or harmed by any of our dogs..

 

I would like to see some supporting evidence of this. Not only is it a bit ridiculous sounding, I do not see how they can enforce a ban on dogs when someone is driving through Denver from one location to another.

 

That woul be the day they try to take my dog and kill it! If I had a "banned" dog and was simply driving through. That would be rare for them to catch it anyway. Police would have a low chance of noticing it unless it was out free causing trouble.

 

Yep

 

Oh as ridiculous as it sounds, it is very much 100% true.

The law infamously went into action July 31st 1989....a date many Pitbull/AmStaff people vividly know, including myself. It behooves you to do a bit of research on it.....and I must warn you some of the massacres you'll read about in Denver with pitbulls will disgust you to the high heavens.


According to Denver ordinanceread what I put in all caps)

It [is] unlawful for any person to own, possess, keep, exercise control over, maintain, harbor, TRANSPORT, or sell within the city any pit bull.

A "pit bull" ... is defined as any dog that is an American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or any dog displaying the majority of physical traits of any one (1) or more of the above breeds, or any dog exhibiting those distinguishing characteristics which substantially conform to the standards established by the American Kennel Club or United Kennel Club for any of the above breeds. The A.K.C. and U.K.C. standards for the above breeds are on file in the office of the clerk and recorder, ex officio clerk of the City and County of Denver, at City Clerk Filing No. 89457.

The law allows owners of pit bulls living in Denver in July 1989 to keep them provided the owner:

-Registers the dog with the city and allowed the city to tattoo it with the registration number

-Is at least 21 years old

-Has $100,000 US in liability insurance

-Keeps the dog confined

-Does not sell or otherwise transfer the dog to anyone except someone in the owner's immediate family.

-Posts a sign of specified dimensions and lettering ("PIT BULL DOG") at every possible entrance to the property where the dog is kept.


So yes, even DRIVING through Denver you will be cited if found to be even transporting said breed. Pretty damn ridiculous right?

 

Substitute "Assault Weapon" for "Pit Bull" and you've got California.

 

Yup.

 

Reminded me of this pic I saw. So true!

 

Yep. I even remember movies in the 90s like people taking a walk in the city at night and there would be a rott in the alley eating out of a garbage can then when it saw the person, it would growl and bark then chase them. Media media media.

 

I was raised with pure bred Dobermans from birth. Never known one of them to be "mean".

Ditto with Sheps.
...and Rotties.
...and Pits/Staffies, etc.

I've been bitten by more spazzball fucktard Shih-Tzus than I care to remember.



What gets me is that most apartments/condos have size restrictions on dogs. Stupid. It's the small, yappy ones that piss people off...not the large, mellow hounds.

People...I fucking hate them. *grumble*

 

X2 it's the small ones that bark at stupid stuff more than bigger dogs do! And I also have been snapped at by them more than big dogs! But I also have been bit bad by a GSD and had to get 8 stichtes in my leg.

 

Yeah you can tell he got you head pretty bad! He took some of your hair line...

 

His hair line, look at his face! man Chris I'm sorry that dog messed your face up so bad

 

Wasnt talking about the scar, and your hand doesnt count