Letters to the Editor
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Perfect couch dog, y'all ...
Can we talk about their coats for a minute? So, so smooooth and shiny. A wonder that Vick didn't use them as upholstery, but, maybe he did -- that, and so much more. I don't want to know.
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Why breed bans won't work
On page ten of this thread an Anonymous posted this link:
http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html
If you go to the link you will see photos of a number of canines with the challenge that you should try to find the pit. I got him in three tries, but not without first picking a couple of other bully breeds.
Here is the problem. Many other of those dogs shown are also currently used for fighting and there are many more that are not shown. Many many countries have dog fighting whether it is legal or illegal. We will probably never be able to stop dog fighting in the U.S. First of all, the true big stakes fights are well hidden. A reporter in New Mexico (where dog fighting is quite common) was never able to see an actual dog fight when he went undercover looking for one. But we all know that they exist because we see the fallout from them in the form or dangerous, abused, and abandoned dogs.
There were at least eleven breeds at that site that I remember reading about as being used by people who fight dogs. While most of these subhumans are very fond of the American Pit Bull, they are perfectly willing to cross their fighting dogs with whatever other breeds are "game." Foreign breeds are imported all the time. Dog fighting will continue and dangerous dogs will be bred whether or not pits are banned.
I am pretty much in agreement with the person who said that many of these dogs have no business in a city. What cities need to do is legislate rules for proper dog behavior and responsible ownership. Sometimes it makes sense to require the neutering of certain breeds.
Despite all the problems that we have with dogs living among humans, I am convinced that they are a more positive influence than not. As someone who has a bit of (admittedly sketchy) knowledge about animals for theraputic and service animal uses, I feel that dogs do us far more good than they do harm. For seriously depressed people, their companionship can literally be a lifesaver.
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Hey Agent Smith! You agree with me!
That was me that said to get them the hell out of the city. Pwnt! Anyway, what you write about dogs being a good thing is *obvious* and has nothing to do with pit bulls. If someone could wave the some magical peace rays over the world and eliminate pitbulls, there would still be plenty of other dogs for us.
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re: get them out of the city
My neighbor whose throat was ripped out by her next-door-neighbor's pit bull lived in the country, on a dairy farm in the middle of several hundred acres of land.
Please don't send all the pit bulls to the country. We don't want them here either.
Someone posted that there hasn't been a fatal pit bull attack by a single dog in 20 years. I can't argue that point because I haven't looked at the statistics. But in Memphis, earlier this year, a man had his arm ripped off by a pit bull while waiting at a bus stop. His life was saved by two passing strangers who beat the dog with a crowbar. An attack doesn't have to be fatal to be horrifying. I know of two local attacks that left the victims crippled. I've never heard of anyone being crippled by another breed of dog. I think if someone's arm was ripped off at a bus stop by a Golden Retriever, the news would have mentioned it.
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The real pit bull problem
My brother has a pit bull. Well trained, cuddly, obedient.
My sister has two of them. Also good dogs.
My sister also does pit bull rehab. She volunteers at a couple of shelters, helping socialize the inmates. She has also taken a few home, under a foster care program. Some of these have gone on to good homes.
The thing is, the rehab groups can't save them all. The shelters are PACKED with pit bulls that were abandoned, found stray, or impounded.
I visited one county shelter. Two thirds of the dogs there were pit bulls, and they were miserable creatures. Some barked and snarled at everything; others were cringing fearful messes. One poor girl had scars on her face and chewed-off stubs for ears. It was obvious that these animals were going nowhere but the table where they are put down.
I think this breed has a disproportionate attraction to assholes who don't know how to train or take care of dogs. They get them as a fashion statement or a ego prosthetic, and end up ditching them.
I really think we need to license dog OWNERS. The fee should be cheap, but you'd need to take a class and pass a test. Charge owners a hundred bucks a year for having a dogs with intact nads. Charge them a thousand bucks for owning dogs without a license.
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I have to agree with the author
Every breed has the potential for dangerous dogs. It's not the breed that's the problem, it's the unethical and irresponsible breeders who intentionally breed aggression into their lines that are the problem.
It's not the breed, it's the breeding.
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It happens all the time, but the Dogocracy is suppressing the information
You think of people you haven't heard from in a while and you just assume, well that's how human relationships end up. You lose track of people, and soon they have drifted away.
What has really happened is the Golden Retrievers are killing them, and then having sex with their cold dead bodies, and finally eating them.
But the Dogocracy of Alpo and Iams has paid off the WSJ, the NYTimes, and Puppy Times -- the Magazine of Happy Dog Owners.
Golden Retrievers, America's Secret Menace.
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Shaggy, hairy, licky, pseudo-friendly, waggy, panting, sheddy, Golden Retrievers....
They form cells and are working to subvert and eat Americans.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they bite you, then they have sex with you, and then they eat you -- Mahatma Gandhi.