This is a very divisive issue which probably explains why most of the votes are for Yes they should be banned or no they shouldn't be. I feel that they should not be fully banned but they should require a special license to own.

In the US, the number of fatalities from pit bulls is not really that great in absolute numbers, but pit bulls do kill more people in the US than all other breeds combined each and every year. I'd say that's pretty significant.

People ask whether it's the breed or the owner, and the fact is it's both. One of the big problems though is that there is a lot of false propaganda propagated by pit bull enthusiasts. This idea that a pit bull is a family dog no different than any family dog (ie Labrador or Beagle) is just false. The idea that if you give a pit bull a loving home then he is not a threat, is false. The idea that pit bulls were bred to be a family dog rather than for blood sports is false. The idea that pit bulls were historically used as nanny dogs is false. And of course, the idea that you should leave small children alone with pit bulls is false.

All this misinformation is resulting in families, who have no business owning a pit bull, purchasing or adopting them. This also results in hundreds of thousands of healthy pit bulls being euthanized every year in the US alone. There are owners that can take proper care of pit bulls, just as there are owners that can take proper care of Caucasian Shepherds but that doesn't mean that the average joe schmo should own them.

FWIW, I don't own pit bulls, have no desire to own pit bulls, but I have and do own other breeds which I also believe should require special licensing to own.

If the breed serves no non-violent purpose that another safer breed provides, why not ban breeding them outright? Who are we licensing them to and for what purpose?

I just don't see a reason to absolute ban them when you can put heavy restrictions on the breed ensuring they are hardly a problem and virtually never in the news. If pit bulls are banned, then they'll just come after another breed (or group of breeds) next.

I agree that pit bulls don't really have a working purpose but they are pretty amazing at some things like climbing walls and hanging on tires and sporting type stuff like that. They are also a pretty good "all-around" dog that can do many different things very well.

These dumbass dogs don't just kill, they bite, a lot. 7x more than the next breed. Breeds #2 and #3? Shih Tzus and Chihuahuas. LOL. Real hard to see a problem here.

https://nypost.com/2022/01/08/pit-bu...chomp-victims/

But OMG, a 5 pound Chihuahua bit me on the ankle one time and I seriously limped for like 3 minutes! If you ban pit bulls, you have to ban those Mexican terrors too!

The only stat that is truly reliable that I trust is the stat regarding human deaths from dog attacks in the US. You bring up dog bite stats, but pit bull nutters will bring up multiple studies that show the opposite. There truly are no definitive stats on dog bites, although maybe some municipalities like NYC are taking a step forward to bridge the data gap.

Regarding those particular NYC stats, they don't show which dog bites the most but rather which dog bites required medical attention (or were otherwise reported). I owned a Chihuahua for close to 15 years and his teeth were not even capable of piercing a person's skin (some Chihuahuas have sharper teeth but I have to imagine that most Chihuahua bites are not going to be reported).

I was also attacked by a Doberman when I was a young child, and never sought any medical treatment for that. As I posted in another thread, my dog and I recently had to intervene when a man's three loose dogs came after and attempted to attack a woman and a small toddler. I'm sure that would not show up in any statistics either.

There is a pit bull about three doors down from my house. I've got two golden retrievers and sometimes we leave our front gate open. The pit bull has gotten out a few times and made his way over to our house. He never barks and honestly seems as if he'd never bite a soul. Just casually comes over as if he wants to hang out with my dogs or play.(He's seen me play ball with one of my goldens outside in the drive way area, etc)

I've also seen one of these dogs get out of a house in another area when I was taking my two dogs for a walk and it attacked my one dog before it's owner quickly called it back. My dog wasn't hurt it just sort of snapped at it's back before quickly retreating when it's owner shouted it to come back. Atleast in that instance it responded to it's owner.

Anyway, I'm in the opinion that's it's probably mostly irresponsible owners that cause the crazy ones and cannot control their dogs and/or purposely turn their dogs into a weapon with the way they raise them and this breed probably attracts those type of idiots over other breeds. As mentioned in this thread it's probably best to monitor who is allowed to own this type of breed and/or just ban breeding them outright. Mostly to prevent stupid people from owning this type of breed though. I'm sure overall that there are plenty more well behaved and controlled owned pit bulls compared to the ones that go nuts but seems fair in this instance that the bad apples break up the party for everyone. Really no need when there are plenty of other less potentially dangerous breeds that people can own as their pets.

So you're saying that I can't even climb a wall or a tree to try to get away when a pit bull attacks me? Fantastic.

Pits generally don't bark before they attack. They will attack without warning. This is one thing that makes them particularly dangerous. While other dogs may attack out of fear, or because they are territorial, or protective, pit bulls often do it out of sport (ie attacking is their job, its what they like to do).

That's amazing because when a dog, pit bull or otherwise, is in fight mode they tend not to listen to anyone. Pit bulls are the most tenacious dogs and will fight until they are dead. You could spend 10+ minutes trying to separate a pit bull from another dog.

Do you know how many idiots own Labradors? Labs are one of the most wide spread abused dogs out there and yet you'll rarely hear about Labradors killing children or elderly people. Pit bulls are cut from a different cloth. They have terrier DNA and terriers are bred to kill (ie killing things is their job).

Pits don't need to be trained to fight. They are bred for it. A pit bull is supposed to be dog aggressive naturally. It sounds like your experience with 2 poorly bred pits has skewed your perception of pit bulls.

Of course, ymmv because "pit bull" isn't a single breed but rather a group of breeds including many mutts whose true behavior can not be anticipated because it's not clear where the dog inherited its genetics. A true fighting dog would be a well-bred pure American Pit Bull Terrier. On the flip side I've seen a lot of American Bullies (a pit bull variant, not to be confused with American Bulldog) that are mostly for show (ie can look like a tough pit bull) but functionally couldn't kill a rat.

I do agree that the responsibility of the pit bull lies with the owner. There are a lot of bad dog owners across all breeds, but a pit bull requires a level of commitment above and beyond that of a normal dog. Under no circumstance should a pit bull be allowed to get out of a fenced yard. Under no circumstance should a pit bull be left alone with small children. Under no circumstance should a pit bull not receive its daily exercise. etc etc etc If you make a mistake like this with a beagle or a border collie or a saint bernard the consequences are far less than if you do so with a pit bull.

I don’t even think most humans should be allowed to breed

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...ks-four-people

Another golden retriever attack. Oh wait.

Lancaster is the meth capital of California. So you knew it was going to be a pit, which you pretty much knew anyway.

The comment stream on the FB post is full of rational analysis as one might expect:

https://www.facebook.com/latimes/pos...60312367628010

"apparent dog attack"

They don't even know if an attack actually happened - everyone is so quick to jump to pitbull conclusions! Probably tried to save everyone with its kisses.

Seriously though f pitbulls

According to the article below, two men were fighting each other at a homeless encampment and one of the men had a pit bull which attacked the other guy. That guy is the one that ended up dying although authorities don't believe it was the bite that killed him (so I would speculate that maybe the dog attack caused him to have a heart attack). That would explain how a pit would be able to kill a 43 year old man while at least 3 other men were trying to fight the pit off.

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2022...-in-lancaster/

Ah. And also WWIII just started so this seems less important now.

BTW, I just searched "lancaster pit bull attack" to find info on this attack and of course all sorts of other messed up stories came up such as Woman Eaten To Death By Roommate's 3 Dogs

New military campaign. Ship all the pit bulls to Russia and let them run wild.

The Russian military uses dogs that would eat a pit bull for breakfast.





I don't think pit bulls would survive the harsh Russian weather but if they were allowed to run wild they would most certainly attack livestock, which means they would probably have to fight Alabai. I own one of these. Definitely a big favorite 1v1 against a pitbull. God speed American Pit Bull Terriers in the fight to stop Russian tyranny.

No one should be allowed to own a dog of any breed who is stronger than the owner.

Get it through your pitbull-thick skulls guyz, no one owns a dog.

Legally, they certainly do. Your point is...?

Yahoo headline today: Baby girl killed by dog her family had bought one week earlier

I click the link to see if I will be surprised. I was not (typed this before even clicking it!)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/baby-girl...073713257.html

Very sad.

Fookin scallies.

The previous owner knew....