#juan said:
Just in case any of you ban supporters missed Juan's post ...
Caracal, as usual, I agree with you. Bans don't work. Anything banned goes underground, animals underground are invariably put in abusive situations (example being wild caught parrots ... back in the day, as many died as survived). A ban just creates problems, and this time we're not talking about something inanimate. These are living creatures we are condemning to this kind of misuse. A bottle of hootch during the prohibition or a handgun doesn't suffer at least.
Tracy ... would love to know about your "15 pound terrier". :lol: Sounds like my girl. She's a Jack Russell, and they are VERY similar in temperment to pitbulls. Difference being, they're a hell of a lot smaller, look so cute and harmless and are more likely to get away with misbehaving than their larger cousins, pitbulls.
Mine is the first dog I've ever owned who actually got away with biting me. Normally that's just plain unacceptable ... but I realized it was MY handling of her that caused the problem, not the dog's fault. If you're not alpha 100% of the time with them, there can be big trouble. We adjusted by simply not allowing alpha dog behaviour in her, and the problem was solved. She's still allowed to grumble under her breath, but no aggression is tolerated.
On the other hand, my sister had a pitbull (Salvador Doggy) who was the most gentle, loving, big goofy bundle of joy I've ever encountered. He was raised from puppyhood to NEVER put a tooth to skin ... when you played with him the first thing he did was run for his big rope so he could chew it instead of ever biting, even in play. They used to rough house with 75 pounds of pure muscle and never once did he make a mistake. And no, Jay ... no grow op. They were both clean and sober.
People are so knee-jerk about the breed! My sister's neighbours were terrified of Sal ... my neighbours always comment about how "cute" my terrier is. In fact, they could rely on Sal far more than they could on my girl to never bite.
Anecdotal rather than statistical, but I've heard lots of stories like mine.
All dogs can bite, and will do so given the right circumstance. All dog owners are responsible for their dogs. I love my girl beyond words, but if she ever bit anyone without reason, it would be her last bite. As responsible owners, it's up to us to protect people from our dogs ... and up to us to protect our dogs from the stupid people who have no idea how to approach a dog. Lots of em out there. Any stranger that picked up my girl would be risking a bite. So I make sure it doesn't happen.
I've chosen a breed I need to be vigilant with ... just like a pitbull. Perhaps more so, since people don't understand terriers at all. Terriers think they ARE pitbulls and behave like they weigh 75 pounds. They are fearless and aggressive. In general.
Granted a JR isn't likely to kill someone where a pitbull does have the ability to do so, but they are not the only dog with that capability. The whole thing is just one more example of people trying to deal with a symptom not the problem. The problem is dog owners, not dog breeds.
And really, looking at the statistics, we'd be much better off worrying about being hit by a drunk driver than we would be worrying about being attacked by a pitbull. We live in a society where we focus all our free floating fears on one subject then go batshit over it. Human nature, but I don't think pitbulls should be picking up the tab on our therapy.