What makes pit bulls so dangerous

Read the article. This was not an anomaly: in recent years the vast majority of canine homicides have been inflicted by pit bulls. The question we must ask ourselves is whether the risk of this being repeated is worth taking.

When any other dog has a bad day, somebody can get hurt; when a pit bull has a bad day, somebody can get killed. See the year summary of pit bull attacks and maimings, a graphic created by dogsbite. If pit bulls are not to be banned altogether, the breed certainly must be restricted as to who may own it, where it may live, and how it is to be confined and restrained whether on public or private property.

New York City cops had to shoot 83 dogs to death in , most of them pit bulls guarding drug stashes. Burkhart showed me a few such sentinels in the center's dangerous-dog ward. Lunging against their metal cages, these pit bulls were the most ferocious animals I'd ever seen: pure animal fury. Intimidated, I kept as far from the cages as I could. Dog-fighting rings also fill the CACC with abused animals. The rings, moving clandestinely throughout the state, stage battles between pit bulls, sometimes to the death, as cheering spectators wager on the outcome.

The dogs the CACC receives from the raids will often be missing ears or will bear deep scars from their battles. Manhattan Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe isn't surprised at the savagery: "We regularly find dead pit bulls in the parks; on one occasion, we found eight pit-bull carcasses dumped in Riverside Park.

They'd been killed fighting other dogs. It's an unsavory crowd that participates, whether as trainer or spectator, in the blood sport, says ASPCA humane-law-enforcement officer George Watford. Finally, the CACC gets pit bulls owned by teenagers and gang members—"young punks," Watford calls them—who raise the dogs to intimidate.

The teens, sporting military fatigues and shaved heads, ignored her and went on with their barbarous fun.

Typically, these teens lose interest in their brutalized—and usually unneutered—dogs and let them loose, swamping the city with stray pit bulls. W hat should New York City do about its dangerous dogs?

One possibility: ban the pit bull, as England has done. Unfortunately, thanks to the state law nixing breed- specific legislation, such a ban would entail a difficult battle for state permission. And if the city bans the pit bull, what's to stop thugs from shifting to other breeds that can be made into weapons, such as the Canary dog or the Dogo Argentino?

Outlawing them all would be an extremely divisive policy. What about the city's idea of forcing pit-bull owners to buy pricey insurance policies? It makes little sense. Given that a paltry 10 percent of the city's dogs have licenses, only the law-abiding minority of pit-bull owners—not the louts who terrorize park-goers—are likely to comply with the new requirement, assuming it can get past the state objection to breed- specific laws.

Moreover, those who wanted to comply would have a hard time finding an insurer. Though homeowners' policies generally cover dogs, few insurance firms will issue one to someone with a dangerous animal.

Much sounder are the city's proposals to eliminate "provocation" as a defense for a dangerous dog's behavior and to pare away legal protections for dangerous dogs. As Cornell's Katherine Houpt underscores, "If a dog has bitten someone, we should consider it dangerous until proven otherwise. Who cares if a child has poked it with a pencil?

The city's best course would be to require the owners of all dogs weighing more than 40 pounds to keep them muzzled in public, as Germany does with potentially aggressive breeds. A muzzle law is not unduly harsh to the dogs.

As for its impact on owners: sure, it might diminish the thrill a tough gets as he parades his pit bull down a crowded sidewalk and nervous pedestrians give him a wide berth. And that would be all to the good. As Mayor Giuliani and Police Commissioner William Bratton discovered when they prosecuted nuisance crimes like public urination or public drinking and helped restore civic order, Gotham can do a lot of good simply by enforcing laws already on the books, as Parks Commissioner Stern is doing with the leash law.

New York makes little effort, for example, to ensure that its dogs are licensed, though the law requires it. The Canadian city of Calgary, which had a problem with dangerous dogs in the eighties, halved aggressive incidents through strict licensing enforcement: it let officials keep computerized records of complaints against individual dogs and impound them or require them to wear a muzzle if they posed a clear threat to the public. Eighty percent of Calgary's , dogs now have licenses; 90 percent of New York's 1 million dogs don't.

The city should step up licensing enforcement. These measures would strike a prudent balance between the enjoyments of pet owners and the city's responsibility to protect its citizens and keep its public spaces from going to the dogs. Send a question or comment using the form below. This message may be routed through support staff.

Please consider supporting us by donating! You must be logged in to post a comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. That is enough to make me wary — and as we all know if you are wary, then an animal will know it, and that can cause them to react in a threatening way to you.

I just avoid them, would not have one, try never to get near them, and am never surprised to hear of a biting incident. Not all Pitbulls are the same when looking at a Pitbull you need to look at their owner too. So before judging someone you need to look at everything. American Pit Bull Terriers. Neither are Tosa dogs. Let me know when you find a single credible source that backs that up. Pit bull is a grouping of dogs that is very commonly misused. Get thousands of vegan, allergy-friendly recipes in the palm of your hands today!

The short version is: The dogs were really popular during WWI and the Depression, when there was this nostalgic feeling around the average blue collar working Joe. They were seen as all-American: no fuss, no frills, everyday dogs. In the s, with the consumer boom after WWII, there was a huge push toward kennel club breeds and the pit bull fell by the wayside.

But in the s, there was this well-intentioned move by the humane movement to stamp out what was left of illegal dog fighting. In order to do that, they partnered with the media to put dog fighting on the front page of every newspaper in America. In doing so, they encouraged wild speculations about these dogs that were not based in science or historical fact—things like they have 5, pounds of jaw pressure.

And the more terrified everyone became, the more people who probably should not have had these dogs, wanted them. I grew up in the s, and I was always terrified of them. My own pit bull is called Nola. She is seven and is extremely affectionate, wonderful, and smart. I have met everything from the most scary and unstable pit bull to the most bombproof and mellow. Mickey the pit bull nearly killed a child but ended up in a cushy, air-conditioned cell while the boy could not find funds for medical surgery.

That was one of the things that troubled me. It was a major media spectacle. Kevin Vicente was severely bitten. He was temporarily blinded in one eye and his jaw was broken. Everyone thought the dog would be euthanized. Thank goodness, after the attention the case received, the Vicente family has had more donations. This is a child who really suffered, his family suffered, and that deserves an incredible amount of compassion. But once a dog becomes a symbol like that, people can act in ways that are not rational.

It seems to be shoot first, ask questions later. There have been police who shot and killed dogs at the wrong house or killed dogs who were just going about their business. It mostly comes from fear. Obviously, the police have a very difficult job. But the trigger-happy mentality is pretty bad.