■ 06 August 2009 | 2:34 PM
Grrrrrr. Pit bulls.
Well, whaddya know. Another pit bull attack in Virginia.
Another well-behaved family pet dead because it caught the eye of a marauding pit bull.
Is anyone out there surprised?
Eventually, these aggressive, unpredictable animals will be outlawed. It's just a question of how many unprovoked attacks the public will have to suffer until politicians come to their senses and enact a breed ban.
Oddly enough, this mauling took place in Spotsylvania County. That's where 82-year-old Dorothy Sullivan and her little dog Buttons lived when they were savaged to death by pit bulls in March of 2005.
Accounts of Ms. Sullivan's death were so horrific that even members of the General Assembly took notice. Instead of doing something decisive, though, Richmond pols approved a toothless Dangerous Dog Act, with a "first bite free"provision.
And the carnage continues.
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Ignorance
Your ignorance is shown by your comment of wanting a breed ban on pit bulls. What we actually need is more responsible owners. You cannot just "do away with" a living creature because it does not suit your liking. Pit's and Rotties while I'm on the subject are beautiful breeds of dogs. Stupid is as stupid does and a dog will act as it has been brought up to behave. I ask you, in the instances of these attacks - where were the owners!?? Were these dogs properly leashed?! And why in soooo many cases are young childeren and other animal wondering near these dogs? If I own a dog (of any breed, not just a Pit) and it is properly trained, leashed, and on my own property I should not have any encounter with another person or animal that leads to an attack. As well as you should never go up to a dog you don't know or allow your childeren or animal to approach an unknown animal - you get what you ask for in such an instance.
Death toll is so low- leave off of the Pit Bull!
Obviously the death toll is not high enough to warrant any action. Only a measly 3 or 400 deaths? Should be no concern at all. Heck, maybe we should wait until the death toll reaches at least 1000 before we have to listen to all the squawking. So a few kids will die in the next couple of years, no big deal. I suppose we will hear the number of mauling too. Mauling smaling, what's a few faces torn to shreds. Hey! did ya hear about the Chihuahua that bit a guy on the hand the other day, the guy said it even drew blood. How come we don't hear about more Cocker Spaniel bites. Just because they don't crush bones, does not mean they should not get credit where credit is due. The way We Pit lovers see it, if a Rottweiler is allowed to kill than so should our beloved Pit Bull. Think of all the kids in the United states, and maybe only 50 or so are killed? Give me a break. They would not have been mauled to death if there was not a good reason.Please do not blame the dog. My Pit "Cuddles" is so sweet, he would not kill and child that did not act in a threatening manner. Parents need to train their kids how to act properly around a Pit Bull and maybe there would not be a need to go trashin
Pit Bulls Rule
You are so right Pit Bulls are people too!! To add to your morbid list maybe we could use Pit Bulls to control the older population as part of the put grandma to death policy Sara Palin thinks is in the Health plan. Sara Palin would probably prefer wolves. I believe you are right that to Pit Bull owners a few human deaths doesn't mean much. This very sick and sad.
Dose of your own medicine?
My beloved child would never pull a pit bull's ears. Why should I have to be in the room supervising my offspring when there's a perfectly capable creature in there? I use a pit bull as a babysitter all the time! My angel darling lamb face son would never get in a dog's face, never! Pit bulls must die, because they MUST be reasoning malicious creatures who intentionally kill and maim the young. Those pit bulls, they're all conspirators, I bet they're trying to kill US by killing the weakest ones first.
Parents need to learn how to SUPERVISE their children, no matter what animal is or isn't around.
Statistics = 64% deaths from Pits & Rotts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_Bull
Clifton Report (2008)
Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People News,[16] has compiled from press reports a log of dog attack deaths and severe bites in the United States and Canada from September 1982 through January 1, 2008.
The study found reports of 264 people killed by dogs over the 24-year period, of which "pit bull terrier" or mixes thereof were reportedly responsible for killing 137, or about 43 percent, of the 314 people killed by dogs in the attacks identified in the study. The breed with the next-highest number of attributed fatalities was the Rottweiler and mixes thereof, with 67 fatalities or about 21 percent of the study-identified fatalities; in aggregate, pit bulls, rottweilers, and mixes thereof were involved in about 64% of the study-identified fatalities."[17]
In the 2006 edition of his report, Mr. Clifton concluded
"Temperament is not the issue, nor is it even relevant. What is relevant is actuarial risk. If almost any other dog has a bad moment, someone may get bitten, but will not be maimed for life or killed, and the actuarial risk is accordingly reasonable. If a pit bull terrier...has a bad moment, often someone is
I say we ban kids
If all these children keep getting attacked by pit bulls, let's ban children. This earth is overpopulated anyway.
My God! Do you see what I am talking about?
This posters comment is scary "n other newspapers today......10-month-old Olivia Dezarn, was bitten by the family’s dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback / Lab mix named Hercules, as she was crawling around on the floor. It was the second time in 24 hours that the dog had bitten the child. The girl was airlifted to Seattle's Children's Hospital with life threatening injuries, a depressed skull fracture and is currently in pediatric intensive care.
I guess this is not Kerry worthy because it isn't a pit bull. Hmmmm. Lets ban all dogs! All can kill, maul, maim, etc.
Jesus! no matter what child dies they will defend the Monster!This is just plain sick!So this other monster killed a child so let off of the Pit Bull? This is just plain insanity! Where in God's earth do they come from? So this other Ridgeback mauled a child to death now lets all here it for the PIT BULL! Bravo for the Pitt! Not only do you kill children but here is some other monster ready to try and break your record!! Since he KILLED you are off the hook? Not one bit of sorrow for the child! But this sick perverted insanity of taking up for the Pit Bull whom has murdered children all over the map! May God help us all!
Re: JWB
FYI: You completely misinterpreted my comment. Let me attempt and clarify. What I'm saying is...to Kerry and most other newspapers if an attack is done by any other dog than a pit bull, no matter how serious the injuries, they don't "report" on it. Meaning, more attention is put on pit attacks. Other breeds do just as much damage but they are not put into news like pit bulls. Another story for you, an infant was killed by a pomerainian. Basically, if you do some research, you can see it's not just pit bulls that are being "monsters" as you worded. From your comment it seems as though you just want to ban everything! Nice open mind you have there Mr/Ms. Perfect. (insert sarcasim)
Dog Attacks child TWICE
In other newspapers today......10-month-old Olivia Dezarn, was bitten by the family’s dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback / Lab mix named Hercules, as she was crawling around on the floor. It was the second time in 24 hours that the dog had bitten the child. The girl was airlifted to Seattle's Children's Hospital with life threatening injuries, a depressed skull fracture and is currently in pediatric intensive care.
I guess this is not Kerry worthy because it isn't a pit bull. Hmmmm. Lets ban all dogs! All can kill, maul, maim, etc. Secondly, any race that has a higher murder rate, let's wipe them out too! Odds are against them so let's be pro-active and exterminate them before anyone else gets hurt.
Next...any food containing trans fat. Outlawed! You want real butter? Forget about it. It might kill you. C'mon people lets be accountable for ones own responsibilities!
poor research
I thought all of you Pit haters out there would like to read this head line
http://www.wbko.com/news/headlines/13946527.html
Just for the record, no child should be unsupervised with any dog breed. Also, pit bulls may be more aggressive toward other dogs, or run the risk of becoming more agressive. But a responsible owner takes the time to see the warning signs and take the appropriate action. Also, pit bulls are not normally agressive toward humans and in half of all of the fatal pit bull attack, the owners were males in their 20's that held violent records with the police and all of the dogs were unneutered males that were usually left in the yard or chained up with little or no exercise. The AMERICAN TEMPERMENT TEST SOCIETY records their finding that all dog breeds combined score about 77% while the pit bull scores 85.3%.