Are Pit Bulls More Likely to Attack ?

Factual Questions
1

A friend and I were talking about dogs the other day and he mentioned that he was looking into getting a Pit Bull as a family dog (he has a 5 year old and a 3 year old) . I told him that it seemed to me that these dogs were unpredictable and were always popping up in the news with respect to being involved in horrific attacks on people, especially children. He told me this was all hysterical hyperbole and that Pit Bulls were no more dangerous statistically than any other breed their size.

I find this hard to swallow given the reputation they seem to have developed (in the mass media) for serious out of the blue maulings in addition to the scene I saw 20 years ago, back in college, of a pit bull stalking and then tearing into a little sheltie that was minding it’s own business. I know it’s not unheard of for dogs to attack each other but it seemed this thing was trying to kill (not warn off) the smaller dog and it happened with so fast with little if any warning that he was going to attach.

What’s the real deal on these dogs? Are they sweethearts or psycho killers… or both?

2

I thought I remembered seeing this talked about before. Try this thread maybe some of the posts there will provide you with information, cites or insights to help you out.

Abby

3

Pits, like dobies, dalmations or even poodles for that matter,are spirited dogs.

They are born spastic.

These dogs were bred to have this temperment.

They are not a breed a first time dog owner should try.

Some pits are bred for pure meaness

So here’s a hint. When you buy a dog, look at the parents. Look at the breeder.

Ask these questions.

Does the breeder holster a pistol before trying to show you a pup?

This could indicate that the breeder is frightened of the pups mother.

Does the seller insist you forget where you got the dog?

This is another indicator you may be buying a dog of questionable stock.

4

Damn it, I just posted a legnthy response & then lost my connection just as I hit post.

APBTs (like most terrier breeds) tend to be dog-agressive & have a high prey drive. They are very intelligent & willful which can make them hard to train. Like many breeds they must be well-socialised & trained from the get go. Any good breeder will make sure they have human touch & interaction from the day they afre born. Buying one from a newspaper ad is asking for trouble. Getting an adult with a known history of being a stable family dog from a shelter is also a good idea. If they are not raised around children & other pets, like many breeds they can be fearful/agressive.
They are a breed often used & bred for illegal fighting, or owned for the wrong reasons & not well brought up. Couple this with a high drive, very strong dog & this is why they are often featured in awful news stories killing children. They are not a dog for a first time dog-owner, unless one is prepared to work quite hard to learn. Raised right, they can be awesome family pets. Males should be neutered early.

I have done dog foster/rescue for years. I’ve had four pits. Two were sweet and wonderful (one m, one f.) Each went to a home with children. One was a very hyper & soemwhat dumb puppy who went to a young couple who wanted a hiking companion. One was an intact male who had been used for fighting. He was very dominant, very smart & affectionate, & quite aggressive. He went to a home with no children & knowlegable owners…in fact the vet tech at my vets took him. Other than him, the other three were fine with my cats & sweet with the neighbor kids.

I’ve owned Rottweilers since 1986, another breed that has its share of controversy. It is true there are certain breeds that need more responsible upbringing & training to be good citizens. They can be utterly awesome family dogs. My current one is being trained as a therapy dog. There are rarely “bad” dogs, just bad owners.

Your friend should be prepared to get one for the right reasons, buy from a good source, & do lots of training & socialising (definitely go to puppy classes, etc.) Also be aware that many municipalities have breed bans & many insurance companies will not insure homes with pits, Rotties, etc.

Actually I read somewhere that Dalmations, which surged in popularity after the movie, were responsible for more bites than Rotties & pits combined…I don’t have a cite, though. Dals can be very schitzy dogs, though they cannot do the damage that a pitbull or Rottweiler can.

5

As the esteemed AbbySthrnAccent pointed out, this went around a few months back. However, my response to that statement up there about how there are no bad dogs, just bad trainers is SO vitriolic, that I just think I’ll share it again here. :slight_smile:

Oh, gee, which attack shall I relate first? No, not some dry cite, or third hand story. Which dog attack that I HAVE SUFFERED? Hmm…so many. Let’s see now. Oh, I know this is a jim-DANDY one. No bad dogs, only bad owners? Would you wager a guess that a police dog is a highly trained and stable dog? Oh, you would? Goodie.

I was attacked by a Philadelphia Police officer’s dog. My crime? Being 5, and walking down the sidewalk. The dog was not leashed, and had to run about 20-25 feet JUST to get to the sidewalk. ( See, sorry cupcake, but I didn’t provoke/harass/threaten the territory of/yell at/frighten the dog ). I only got away because I ran up onto the front hood, then onto the ROOF of my friend’s parents car. The dog kept trying, but slid off each time.

Tough to prove? Not really. The paint job was trashed where it was frantically trying to get to me to attack me, and there were bits of paint IN it’s claws. But noooooo,only bad humans, no bad dogs. And, his Mom witnessed the whole thing, and then had to wait until the Police showed up. Who caught the dog. And, informed my parents that unless they wished to be charged with a crime, they would let the matter drop. Ahhh, Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia. Those were the days.

Then there was the time I was actually bitten BY a Pit Bull. But, I think you get my drift.

There are dangerous dogs, and lest we all get too Smurfy-Lovey-Dovey here and lose our minds, these are ANIMALS. Yep, animals. Not family members. Not humans. They are unpredictable animals. You want to leave your small children around a pit bull that averages 1500 POUNDS of crush force per square inch in it’s jaws? Go for it.

Me, I teach my kids to respect humans because they are humans, and to fear animals because they are animals. Yes, it is hard to imagine a killer dachshound. However, they have teeth too. The O.P. referenced Pit Bulls.

I’d be delighted to see parents whose children are mauled, and partially eaten by the family pet prosecuted for murder, not homicide. But, that’s just IMHO.

Want cites? Knock yourself out.

Here’s one

And this tasty bite

Kids are fair game too!

Interesting Facts

Here’s every parent’s nightmare, courtesy of a dog that is never bad, just ‘had a bad owner’

An Attorney Who Knows A Thing Or Two…

Get the drift? Get a cat. But for heaven’s sake, stop trying to paint the victim as the criminal. It’s really very sick, and narrowminded. There may be bad owners, but there are UNQUESTIONABLY dangerous and killer dogs. Just live with the plain fact.

Cartooniverse

6

Actually, my statement was there are rarely bad dogs, & usually bad owners, and I will stand by that statement. I include in “bad owners” those that are uneducated about dog breeds & do not consider their own responsibility in choosing a dog. I own a dog who I acquired as an abused adult rescue almost 10 years ago. She is extremely fear aggressive, and subsequently she is never ever put in a situation where there are children, or an environment which will make her fearful. She has never bitten anyone because I am aware of the risks. (she is a GSDx & my Rotties have all been stable & gentle. My latest one is currently being trained as a therapy dog & visits rest homes & hospitals with me.) That’s why I reiterated that the responsibility lies with the owner who must educate & manage the dog.)

I don’t for a minute think that dogs should be anthromorphised. An aggressive dog is most often reacting to stress by being aggressive because it is fearful; not mean & macho. My first Rottie probably saved my life once, not because he was “mean” but because he had good judgement in a bad situation, as I had taught him.

A police dog who chases a child & is not recalled by the handler is an obvious liability & I have a hard time believing that would happen. I have a friend who has Schutzhund trained Rotties & Bouviers. I would trust his dogs around children before I would trust the average cocker spaniel.

7

I forgot to say this: I read each cite that Cartooniverse listed. It still does not convince me that the dogs are to blame, only that a huge majority of dog-owners have no idea how to raise a dog & many have the wrong motivations for getting a dog. Just like children…how many poorly raised kids end up committing crimes? (Answer: Many of them.)

As I said in my initial post: There are certain breeds that should not be owned by ignorant people. APBTs, Rottweilers, Chows, Dalmations & standard Schnauzers are among those breeds. Most dog owners are fairly ignorant. Many of those choose a pit or Rott because they want a mean and fearful dog. This is a real shame. People who don’t have the cojones & the smarts to control their dogs’ natural instincts probably should not have children, let alone animals. I can list for you right now a dozen people I know who own & raise working Rottweilers. I would put any one of the many Rotts I know in a preschool play yard & not worry, mine included.

Do you know how pits are trained for fighting? Owners answer ads for free puppies & kittens & small dogs. These pets are thrown to the dogs to build aggression & enhance & encourage the prey drive. That is why I suggested not to buy an APBT from a newspaper ad.

8

It’s SO interesting. This topic obviously elicits such a strong response on both sides. Carina42, I’ll have you know that when I told the same story the last time out, I was called something so crude that I cannot write it here in this Board, I’d have to transfer to the Pit. However, the word liar was in the insult that time. You’ve chosen to be more subtle. Thanks.

It’s a pity that while victims of attacks by dogs have NO trouble believing that it happened, and can happen again, you and other seeming- SEEMINGLY- prejudiced dog lovers refuse to believe what you are told regarding attacks.

I can handle the fact that you called me a liar here. It doesn’t really matter. I know what I lived. I know what the consequences would have been if my parents attempted to pursue it with the Philadelphia Police Department. The dog was let loose on the front lawn to just sit there. Untethered.

So, you are welcome to keep right on calling victims liars if it makes you feel a lot better about the fact that you’ve clearly placed the well-being and future procreations of attack dogs ahead of human lives. Who knows? Perhaps you really feel that I was blatantly challenging that dog by having the gall to walk down a public commonly shared sidewalk.

I am so very sorry I cannot cite the incident, but I actually have tried to find a record of my parent’s initial call, and there is none. I guess you’ll just have to keep on thinking I’m a liar here, since I can’t provide you with chapter and verse to prove otherwise.

Of course, you do realize don’t you, that when one of your children is mauled and loses their right eye, right earlobe cartilage, lower orbital socket, three teeth and the portion of their mandible closest to the maxilliary joint, nobody here wants to hear you come and whine about it, m’kay? You call me a liar? Cool. Keep it to yourself when it’s your family that’s destroyed by a pit bull, or as you seem to see it, America’s Fun Loving Scampy Pet Of The Year.

:mad:

9

I’m sorry Cartooniverse…I worded that statement poorly & honestly did not mean to infer you were lying. I meant it more as “I can’t believe a police department would have a dog that would do that,”

or “I can’t believe that a so-called trained dog belonging to a municipality would do that & there not be an ensuing hue & cry, the animal properly euthanized & there be a huge lawsuit.” (There should have been!) Not that you were a liar. I apologise for my ambiguous wording there. My little brother still carries the scars of being mauled by a dog on his head when he was two (in a playground by a large mutt, I was there) so I know the trauma of seeing a child attacked by a dog.

But nowhere* have I indicated that APBTs are fun-loving happy go lucky pets…just to set the record straight. They, like several breeds & mixes, can be more of a liability unless bred & raised correctly. I emphasized that quite strongly, as did I acknowlege that there are “bad” dogs. I just think that is rare & it is usually the owner or breeder at fault for either not understanding that their animal is a liability & either euthanizing or isolating it, or it being poorly trained. And, I still stand by that.

10

Police dogs bite innocent people, including children, all the time but it doesn’t get much press. Every once in a while an attack gets a one paragraph mention but more often cities quietly settle liability cases. Sometimes it gets so high that you get a longer article like this one http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/april99/dogs4pp.htm which contains this tidbit:

11

I more than accept your apology. Obviously you’ve seen this first-hand.

Three years ago this past Memorial Day, I responded to an ambulance call for a 3 year old girl, bitten in the face by a family dog. I get there, to see that it’s the daughter of very close friends. Her nose was half gone, and the bite punctures were deep and all over her face. It was two bites, rapidly. She kept her eyes luckily, but the scarring is extensive.

And, I’ve no idea if you will believe this, but irony is a weird thing. At about 8:20 e.s.t. tonight- TWO HOURS after I posted that last bit, my pager hit and the call was for a 5 year old girl. Bitten in the face by a dog. :frowning: THIS one was a stray apparently, but had animal shelter tags, and thank god- rabies tags that were 2001 dated. AND, it was caught by the State Police. And there I sat, doing my E.M.T. thing in the back of the ambulance, cajoling her and talking soothingly, wrapping bandages around the deep lacerations. <sigh> damnation.

Depressing timing, I’d say.

No, you did not say they were happy and easy. I apologize there, I was angry and was being sarcastic in MIS-quoting you. Sorry.

Cartooniverse

12

Hey, Cartooniverse, Sory to hear you’ve had such bad luck with dogs. I’ve been wondering why you dislike them so much, now I know.
astro, I would suggest that your neighbor not get an APBT as a first pet for his family. Kids that age can be rough on a small pup, and unless he’s raised a Pit Bull before, the kids will wrestle with the pup and one of them will get nipped. This will set a precedent for the dog, and having gotten away with a nip, it will really bite later on. And the dog will get put down.
I regret having wrestled with my APBT when he was a puppy, because now he is “mouthy”, meaning that he likes to grab my shirt cuff with his mouth when he’s in a rambunctious mood.
Note that although I love my dog dearly, I would not leave him unattended with small children as he likes to pin them down and lick their faces. He does that to our 3 cats too.

13

Just to get back to a few facts and figures: the original post asked for statistics. A dispassionate reading of the statistics undeniably shows that these dogs are one of the most likely breeds to attack humans or other animals.

I can’t give you US figures but here in Australia, some of our States do keep statistics. In 2000, New South Wales (our most populace State) Local Governments registered 185 reported attacks by dogs on people or animals. 41% of those attacks were caused by cross-breed dogs. Next in line were bull terriers and alsatians, both accounting for 13% of attacks. Rottweilers were fourth place getters with 11%. 5th with 7% were a range of cattle dog breeds unique to Australia. Somewhat surprisingly, 6th (3%) was maltese terriers.

Of the cross-breeds that accounted for 41% of attacks the most common type of cross breed was (you guessed it) bull terrier.

Obviously a lot of dog attacks go unreported so these figures are not exhaustive.

One fact that is exhaustive however is that of the 7 fatal dog attacks in Australia in recent years, 4 were by bull terriers.

Link to the above figures available at http://www.dlg.nsw.gov.au/rpt00-d.pdf

14

Thank you for bringing this to the table, Motog, and welcome to the Straight Dope !!!

15

Again from personal experience: I’ve been attacked twice on my bicycle, once by a generic mutt - and once by three very insane looking bit bulls. Didn’t panic, just pedalled like mad for a coupla minutes.
Only animal to actually knock me off my bike - one rather hysterical goose :eek:

16

I don’t believe that the breed of the dog determines wether it is more likely to attack or not.
Its just that more dogs such as Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, and Dobermans are more likely to be raised for the purpose of attacking/hunting. They have been stereotyped by the media.
I know some pretty horrible little yappy dogs that would love to rip your leg off if they where actually bigger than a outsized rat.

ezxxx

17

Cartooniverse, lordy, with all that you have to see in your job, I don’t blame you for having strong feelings about dogs & small children! The son of an acquiantance of mine was attacked when he was two by the neighbor’s Rottweiler…apparrently under his hair he has some fairly extensive scarring. The dog was quite properly euthanized.

A word about small children & dogs of any breed: Children move quicker & act more differently & unpredictably than adults, which can set off a prey reaction with many dogs. Additionally children are more likely to be at eye level with a dog…many dogs see direct eye contact as a threat & will bite; unfortunately the head or face of a child. :frowning:

There are definitely certain breeds that are more likely to do this.(I am amending my initial post, after some thought; because the great thing about this forum is one can learn.)) Unless one is really familiar & experienced with dogs, I would say a Golden, yellow Lab or any of the hunting/retrieving breeds would be much better family dogs. I would have no problem raising a Rottweiler with small children, or a Pit that I raised as a pup or adopted with a known history, because I think I’m quite experienced with dogs.

My last Rottie & my current one were introduced to & around friends & neighbor’s children from the start. At 6 months old, Cooper (Rottzilla; over 70lbs already) will sit, drop, down, shake, etc if told to by a three year old. He is very gentle with kids. My last Rott was a neighborhood kid magnet & kids would often come over & ask if Bosco could come out to play. It was cute…but I never ever let him play unattended with them; I was always there. Not only was he trained, but the kids were, too. No chasing games, no tug of war, but they would play fetch & he would pull them up & down the street on a wagon.

Ned, surprising figures about police dog bites! I’m really curious why that doesn’t get more press.

Maltese terriers are one of the nastiest little dogs on the planet.