Monday, July 15, 2013

Getting to know pit bulls, continued

This article appeared as a comment in a discussion of a news article and we felt it was worthy of bringing up again, since it addresses a number of points which the pit bull advocacy would rather you not think about. 

I was an upper middle-class pit bull owner just like you. My husband is a doctor and I am a stay-at-home soccer mom and we live in a lovely suburban neighbourhood. We got our dog as a puppy from a reputable breeder and put her through puppy classes and basic obedience. She was spayed and properly vaccinated, stayed indoors and was very loved. I used to defend the breed to everyone I met, just like you. I used to think I knew my dog inside and out, and I was sure she would never, ever hurt my child. 

Then my dog turned 3 and, literally overnight, her dog-aggression came out. She tried to attack the neighbour's poodle through the backyard fence (she had been in a fenced yard beside this same dog literally thousands of times with no show of aggression). When my 8 year old daughter tried to pull her away from the fence, our pit bull locked onto her forearm (she only got her forearm because my daughter threw it up to protect her face, she was going for the face) and it took 8 minutes for my husband to beat her off, he eventually wound up using the weed whacker, after a baseball bat broke over the dog's back without even being noticed by her. My daughter lost partial use of her right arm and she is still relearning all of the basic skills with her left. Her life will never be the same.

We have been accused of being at fault for not "being there to call off the dog". Well, we were there, we were sitting on patio chairs watching my daughter throw a ball for our pet, who she had spent three years playing with and which had never shown so much as a lip lift to anyone or anything up to that point. We couldn't, physically, call off the dog. We couldn't physically BEAT off the dog for over 5 minutes. After the dog was off my daughter, my husband was on the ground struggling with it to keep it from going at her again as I pulled her into the house. There was so much blood that I kept sliding on it and falling down. There are still blood stains on the patio almost 2 years later. All the dog wanted was to get back on my daughter and finish the job. The dog didn't make any noise while she was attacking and her tail was wagging faster and harder than it had ever wagged before. I believed then, and I believe now, that that dog was the happiest it had ever been when it was locked onto my daughter and trying to kill her.

Let me tell you, you have no idea - none - how completely different pit bulls are from normal pet dogs. When that dog was triggered she went from being a goofy pet and companion to being a cold-blooded predator in a millisecond. You cannot imagine what it is like knowing that your dog is trying to kill your child and knowing that it might just succeed because it is stronger than you are. There is nothing like it in the world. 

There was no news coverage of my dog's attack on my daughter. None. So much for the overhyped media aspect, huh?

You are insane to own a fighting dog when you have children. Absolutely insane. I wish we had been protected from our own stupidity by legislation. What is worse is that you are also, by your own admission of a picket fence the dog could easily escape over, putting other people's children at risk. Fighting dogs are not pets and we need laws in place to protect people from them.


Many thanks to Craven Desires for their efforts towards raising public awareness of the pit bull problem. The original comment, in context, was found here

4 comments:


  1. you can take a horse's ass to water but you cant make it drink pure cool craven water , when its already drank the nutter coolaid . i hear so many dedicated nutters who seemingly have no qualms about their childrens safety. they think the danger is on the outside when in reality it is the reverse.

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  2. I would like to cut and paste this on to each and every Human Baby Sacrifice photo I see posted after yet another report of an attack.

    Broken bats, weed wackers, two year old blood stains, and a child's life forever altered. I'm haunted by this account. What a nightmare.

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  3. There was a pit bull in my own neighborhood years ago. The dog was locked inside during day and evenings they walked it. One night, the mans shoe turned, and he fell down, yanking on the chain of dog's leash. That dog was on him in a heartbeat! He grabbed that mans throats and the woman was screaming! Several men tried to get it off him,but to no avail. After about an hour, the dog released him like he was coming up for air, and the man got up. The police showed up and had to shoot the dog! The man who was injured was thanking everybody, shaking and crying. It's just not worth the chance. Everyone in the neighborhood talked about it for weeks! That couple never did get another dog! So tragically sad for all parties.

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