You mean the reporters they send are not dog experts, trained in the correct identification of ALL breeds and equipped with DNA tests?

You do surprise me(not)

It is not different to those reports which say "And Smokeybear was seen trudging down the road"....

when they want to slant a story a particular way.

I may read this with surprise and though I had merely been "walking"

We have to remember that what makes its way into newsprint is not necessarily fact, as of course facts do not make for exciting reading................

So many beautiful messages in this video



I have to agree, I rarely believe anything I read in the papers and take it with a pinch of salt...after all they're there tell us stories. And they tend to cause more harm than good" Out of control dog kills someone" or "Snake got loose and was out for blood and hunted"

I know the last reply was over a month ago but i would like to put my opinion across.

I think that the way society is at the moment that banning the breed is nesecery. Not because the breed in its self is particulary more dangerous than other breeds but because of the build of the breed. I read an interesting article one that said because of the fighting history in the breed the pit bull wont always automatically start fights but they wont back down from a fight that is presented to them. I believe that this is true and as some dog owners are completely oblivious to the behaviour of their dogs and just let them run will nilly up to other dogs and start fights then banning the breed is needed. If in the future owners such as this ceast to exsist then allow the breed to be kept but as this is unlikly to happen its safer all round if things stay the way they are.

Saying this though i also believe that every dog has the potential to cause damage to other dogs and people and that no dog should be left alone with a child, trusted or not.

If that's the case, then we need to ban a lot of other dog breeds too.

Then we might as well ban all dogs of all breeds. I've had dogs of many breeds just run up willy nilly to me and my dog and start fights. So far she's been attacked by a GSD, a Shiba Inu, an English Springer Spaniel, two Chihuahuas and most recently a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. Should we ban all of those breeds too? (Please note that she has not had one pit bull attack her; in fact we've run a handful of loose pits and they all wanted to play).

So then if all dogs have this potential, why ban ones of just ONE breed? There's no logic there.

If pitbulls were bred and sold to responsible owners then i agree there wouldnt be a problem. The fact is there are too many people out there that would buy the breed as a status symbol and affectivly the dog will suffer for it.

Like i stated but didnt elaborate on my main concern of the breed is the build of the breed. If a Chihuahua was to attack my dog it would cause alot less damage than if a pitbull was to attack.

The logic on baning just one is based on the statistics, how many people have reported a pitbull attack to those that have reported a Chihuahua attack for example.

If the dog is brought up correctly then things are different. I am basing this on experiance i have had with the breed. There is a newspaper article on the web some where that i will find for and quote, where my grandad and his Chihuahua were attacked by a pitbull. It was confirmed a pitbull by the police after they caught it. It was running off lead and went for my grandads dog. My grandad picked up his dog and tried to walk away, the dog then proceded to attack him and his dog. With my grandad being elderly he was in hospital for 2 weeks and had to have skin graffs to try and heal the wounds. His dog was also injured and had to have stiches in his stomache. The owner of the dog was a young lad, he managed to get the dog off and put him on the lead and walked away. When stopped by people who tried to help my grandad he ordered the dog to attack these people who also had to go to hospital. No if that had been a Chihuahua then the damage would have been alot less.

as for my last statement i will retract that and retype it as: all dogs that are not brought up and socialised properly have the ability to cause damage.

Im sorry that your dog has been attacked before but i dont think its fair to judge a Chihuahua against a pitbull when the amount of damage that can be caused is so different.

Then judge them against dogs who are their size or larger. Dogs who have also been seen as status symbols:

German Shepherd Dogs
Dobermans
Rottweilers
Mastiffs of various kinds
American Bulldogs


Dogs who are as big as pit bulls or larger:

Siberian Huskies
Alaskan Malamutes
Great Pyranees
Labrador retrievers
Golden retrievers


The list could go on and on and on and on...do we ban all large dogs because they have the POTENTIAL for causing great harm? Do we ban all dogs who people might use as a "status dog"? Where do we place the cut off between dogs we're ok with and dogs we're not ok with? Why would anyone want a ban in place that does nothing more than punish good people by taking their dogs and killing them (people who are criminals tend not to care about such laws)?

I noticed you only mentioned the Chihuahua attacking my dog. But she's been attacked by larger ones too, including a very large GSD. My brother was attacked by a Lab when he was young.

I'm just saying that pinpointing breed is ridiculous, especially when thinking it's ok to ban "status dog" breeds because there is ALWAYS something else that can be used as a status dog breed. I also have issues with people calling for bans based on one incident with one dog. How does that ONE incident outweigh all the other wonderful dogs of that breed who have never attacked anyone? You say if it had been a Chihuahua the damage would have been a lot less. True. But not so if the dog had been a Lab or a GSD.

I just picked 1 breed out of the list you gave is all. I agree that the one incident doesnt out weigh the pros of other dogs and will admit that i do know some one who has 2 pitbulls and they are nice dogs. I met the dogs before knowing what breed they were and i dont avoid them now because i know thier teperment. You are right that the damage a larger dog like a lab or a GSD could do is alot but i have never personally known a dog of said breeds to attack as they are well brought up.

This is the reason why i joined this forum, to widen my knowledge of dogs and discuss pros and cons with other people. I am lucky enough to have never had my dogs attacked by another dog before.

If you dog hadnt been attacked by by the breeds you metioned but had been attacked by a pitbull would your views be different??

Your also right that just banning certain breeds is ridiculous but is there any other way to stop dangerous dogs from becoming out of control??

Would the licensing law that the goverment is considering (if it is policed enough) be enough to be able to unban the breed so that responsible people can once again show people the wonders of thier breed??

No. Please note that I do not advocate banning GSDs. Many of them I meet are absolutely lovely dogs. One was dog aggressive. I didn't even want HIM put down (and he wasn't). I meet many pit bulls and that's where I differ from most of the people on this forum. They're not banned here. And they are quite popular. I have yet to meet a pit or pit mix I didn't like. Every single one of them has been dog friendly (usually very playful) and human friendly (usually wanting to give big kisses). It seems like about every other dog I meet while out on walks is a pit or a pit mix of some sort.

Yes. Education. People need to stop chaining dogs, stop neglecting them, socialize them, feed them properly, stop abusing them into being mean. A dangerous dog is not of one breed. It's the unsocialized, abused, neglected, and often underfed dog. THOSE are the real danger.

The pitbulls that i know are very friendly, they dont even chase my cats. I do agree with you on the education front but that all being well there is still going to be people out there that will chain their dogs and neglect them. If every dog owner was as responsible and as caring as us here then the world would be a happy place but unfortunatly that is never going to happen.

I agree that people are still going to be irresponsible. So then why ban ONE breed (or one type, in this case)? Because here's the problem. BSL tends to punish those who are law-abiding citizens who DO take care of their dogs. They're the ones who are "caught" while taking their dog for a walk or to the vet. The ones who neglect them, keep them chained in a backyard or locked in the cellar aren't going to take their dogs to the vet or be seen walking them. Neglect and abuse WILL still happen, but that's no reason for banning a dog breed and punishing good people.

And here's the other thing. If all the pit bulls were gone from the world, do you think the abuse of dogs would stop? Do you think people would stop having status dogs? Or would they just move onto something else? And then do we ban THAT dog too? And then the next one and the one after that? Do we keep banning dogs until all we have left are Yorkies and other 5 pound dogs?