I'm extremely afraid of pit bulls. I've had 3 of my pet cats attacked and killed by them. My mother had to go to the ER after a pit bull mauled her leg, and she has some very deep scars. If you want a pit bull, fine, but keep it locked up where it can't have the opportunity to attack people and other animals.

This is not necessarily true. While I don't agree on banning specific breeds, I do acknowledge the fact that Pit Bulls, at least here in Austin, seem to cause the most problems as far as attacking cats/other dogs or children(I should say of the domesticated breeds, coyotes cause a great deal of problems as well-another reason to keep your cat or dog inside). I have to then try and put the cats and dogs back together-most of the time it is not a good outcome.

I have been bit by many animals but a Pit Bull, Rott, German Shep. can and will kill, a chihuahua/poodle/insert small to medium breed here will not. We had a pit in the clinic for almost a year-he came to us missing an ear and had obviously been in a severe fight. He was/is the sweetest dog BY HIMSELF. He would try to go after the clinic cats and I would not have trusted him with other dogs alone. He did find a home with no other animals and is doing well. I don't trust these dogs with other animals, though there are always exceptions.

Unfortunately, it is the good pet owner that will be hurt by these laws, the irresponsible ones won't care. More and more cities will start outlawing specific breeds.

Fortunately, we can choose whether we will go into the water if sharks are a threat. Postal workers cannot choose their work route and children cannot choose their neighborhood. If you want to get mad, take it out on the irresponsible owners. Again, I don't agree with this, I personally think people should have to get a license to own a pet-but how realistic is this? People suck.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I want to know how many people have had their boxers taken because they were mistaken for a pit.

Pits are aggressive dogs for sure but so are several other breeds. Pits have attacked in the past and they'll attack in the future but to ban dogs and put them to death simply because they "could" attack or because "other have attacked" is bullbeep.

Hell, people kill all the time, let's just start executing people since there could be a chance that someone might kill in the future (not a fair comparison I know, shut up before you start on it).

It's unfair to owners who are responsible and to the pets that are trained correctly. I owned several pits at times when I was in Wisconsin and I never had an issue with any of them. I had more control problems with a lab that my family had (which actually attacked someone and had to be put to sleep).

How many times do children provoke attacks? People want to pretend it never happens, but it does.

I'm not saying that pitbulls are harmless, but in both of these cases, the owners were MORONS. Especially in the last article.

I think the argument in this thread is not whether pits and pit mixes are docile or not, it's about why should we be punishing the responsible owners who do keep their dogs inside and socialized and such.

I am not a fan of pits and agree that their population is way out of control. I'm not advocating that we should SAVE THE PUPPIES and not protect our kids. But with ANY animal comes responsible ownership, and obviously a good chunk of pit owners can't control their dogs so they give up on them and let them roam the streets.

What city officials SHOULD be spending their money on is looking for these irresponsible owners rather than throwing up their arms and saying "let's take all of them and get rid of them."

ETA: The post below made me think of something. What about mandatory microchips? It's pretty cheap to get one anyway (maybe $25).

I have a dog license (as far as I know we only have them for dogs)-- I pay $8 per year to my county government (Summit County, Ohio) for it. If you do not have one and your dog gets loose and picked up by the dog warden you are fined (or anytime the dog warden is involved, and you do not have a license, you are fined). But it is also there as protection-- my dog does not have a tag with our name and address on it, so if she is lost and found by someone they can contact the Summit County Dog Warden and give them her tag number and then they can contact me.

The problem is that they are not enforced enough and I know many owners who do not have them. And they do not always fine-- because my boss did not have one for her dog and he bit someone and a police report had to be filed and a license was never mentioned.

But I guess it would be hard to keep track-- I mean they would have to do door to door investigations to find out!! :) I have my dog license and that is all that matters though!!

I'll just be quietly offended by the name of this thread.

You don't paint all of the people of a city with the same brush over a single issue.

Good point. It made me feel defensive, and I'm the last person in the world who would ever be in favor of an anti-pit bull law.

You know, DeltAlum, isn't it quite ironic that someone who created a thread complaining about the generalization about these dogs is making a huge generalization about an entire city?

Hey now... no need for your mighty logic here - after all what does logic have to do with rants :D

A large part of the problem in Detroit is that so many are training their dogs to fight and having illegal dog fights. Those dogs are bred and trained to be mean. They are having a hard time cracking down on those folks. I don't think a pit bull ban in Detroit is far away, if only to help them crack down on those people. It's not fair to the responsible owners, but I think they're at their wits' end.

(I think the "wolf" looking dog you're talking about is either an Alaskan Malamute or a Huskie. I have a malamute and she's the biggest baby in the world. She wouldn't hurt a flea ever.)

Dee

You are talking about city registration-one word for this-USELESS

I bet more than 70% of the dogs I see have not been registered. The dogs that are picked up by animal control-their o's are forced to register them with the city at this time or they are not allowed to claim them. Some people don't want to pay the fee b/c they can go out and get another dog from their friend that lives next door whose bitch just had a litter of pit bulls (or insert breed here) for free.

My profession has unfortunately made me hate the human race. We suck.

perhaps that was the point.........