Saturday, Oct. 27 is National Pit Bull Awareness Day, where groups of pit bull lovers and fans around the country have vowed to come together to celebrate and support the breed.
A group of Tucsonans will be celebrating the day with an invitation-only screening of Guilty ‘Til Proven Innocent, an Ohio-based documentary film focusing on the creation of breed-restrictive laws targeting pit bulls and similar dog breeds. That will be taking place at the Loft Cinema, starting at 10 a.m. For an invitation to the screening, which I have been told by organizers was put in place to preserve the film’s ability to be screened as a debut at film festivals, send inquiries to GTPIfilm@gmail.com.
Alternately, Lincoln Park, 4325 S. Pantano Road, is set to host the Walk for Victims of Pit Bulls and Other Dangerous Dogs, which is set to begin at noon and end at 7 p.m. that evening. The walk is dedicated to raising awareness and support for victims of attacks by pit bulls and “other violent breeds.”
This is from walkforvictimsofpitbulls.blogspot.com (Warning: The site features graphic images of people and children who were attacked by dogs):
Please come and join us, and show your support by walking for the VICTIMS of pit bull and other dangerous dog attacks. Most often when these dogs attack, maul or kill children, adults or family pets, the support seems to be misplaced onto the attacking dog/s to be euthanized, rather than where it should be…on the VICTIM. It is time that the voice of the VICTIMS and their families be heard to promote public awareness and help reduce the number of these attacks.
Caps Lock abuse aside, this event is notable if only for the fact that the site for the walk has made it explicitly clear that dogs are absolutely unwelcome at the event. Also from walkforvictimsofpitbulls.blogspot.com:
Please leave your dogs at home while joining us to walk for victims. This is most importantly for the safety of the walkers and for the safety of your dogs.
DOGS ARE NOT ALLOWED AT THE WALK
Tucson Police Officers WILL BE present at the Walk to ensure safety, and Animal Control will be called to escort any unruly visitors off the property and confiscate any unruly Pit Bulls or Other Dangerous Dogs.
We have rented ramadas in the park and reserve the RIGHT to refuse entrance to unruly visitors and DOGS within our “Exclusive Area.”
It doesn’t appear that there will be much conflict between the two groups, but it’s interesting to note (and likely no accident) that both events will be occurring on the same day.
This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2012.
Funny thing; Labs are responsible for the most human bite/maulings every year, but still pit bulls get singled out. The breed is not the problem the owners are the problem.
I agree that it is not the dog’s fault, but the faults of the breeders and pit owners who continue to breed the best dog for attacking, fighting and not stopping: the pit bull.
Re: Labs The #1 most common label given to pits, when their true heritage needs to be disguised (in pounds or when the dog attacks), is “lab mix.”
I’ll believe that breed has no bearing on behavior when sheepdog trials are won by beagles and not border collies, when bassets outrun greyhounds, and when the expert dogfighters choose any dog other than pit bulls.
Forget the pit monger propaganda. Pits are the best at attacking without trying to avoid a confrontation first and without warning, attacking without reason (off territory, not guarding a resource), not stopping even if the victim submits,, yelps, says uncle. Normal dog behavior is to stop attacking when the other is down but normal dog behavior “ruins a good dog fight”, so pits were selectively bred to not be normal dogs.
Pitbulls were originally care takers. Like in little rascals. My chihuahua would bite you before my pit would. Our house got burglarized and our pit didn’t even attack then. She hid. Blame the owner not the dog.
I’m all for pit bull awareness.
Liveleak.com has a great video “2 pitbulls attack smaller dog”. Good, gamebred pits, doing what they were created to do. They “succeed” in ripping the victim’s leg from his body. Good dogs!
Youtube.com has “father saves son, 5, from dog attack” (see how happy and sweet the pit bull is moments after nearly killing the child… still bloody too) Pits can be sweet and snuggly immediately before and after mauling.
“pit bull vs cavalo” shows a great “game bred” pit bull who is definately “dead game”
“CCTV pitbull kills its owner” shows a pit bull and owner taking a walk. The human thinks it is acceptable for him to pick up some objects he dropped, but that makes the pit think it is then acceptable for him to maul the human.
“Bulls eye hang time” all four paws off the ground, still tugging more. Tugging is the instinct. The object of the tugging can vary: a knotted rope, another dog, a child in a passing stroller, an elderly man standing still at his mailbox.
“Pitbull attack Curitiba Brazil”. See how happy the dog is, Happily wagging his tail. Endorphins are released as he is mauling, so he truly does feel good.
“Dogfight break up” At a training seminar for pit rescuers, two dogs simply being good pits. Latched onto each other’s faces, neither will let go. Since no one has a break stick to pry open the dogs’ mouths, the technique to stick a thumb up the dog’s rectum is used, with slow results. Why keep making dogs that need breaksticks? (google breakstick)
“Pit bull attacking poor little dog on the street”. Again, a happy pit tugging and shaking an “opponent”.
“Pitbull pack kill each other” Again, 4 of the 5 pits are having a great day. Not the one who is being killed, but the others are HAPPY dogs.
Pit mongers and pit breeders are responsible for these situations. Pit mongers accept dog suffering and death, because they only care about themselves and their ability to breed and own the dog of their choice.
Right, which is why properly trained pit bulls (true pit bulls and not what the media and public misidentify as pit bulls) scored second only to the golden in temperment testing, only 1% behind ‘America’s favorite dog.’ The traits you all assign to pit bulls is common with ALL terriers – tenacity, shaking instead of clamping, etc. A properly socialized and trained APBT is not human aggressive, though like any terrier, they do have a strong prey drive. So do plott hounds, Jack Russells, Black and Tans, etc. It comes down to education. People treat a dog like a family member, treating it like a child when it isn’t, it’s an animal and it needs proper training and leadership. This goes for all breeds of dogs. A well train dog with a clear understanding of who is in charge is a happy dog. Our APBT has been attacked while walking by 2 labs, a rottie, a shelty and a golden. Each time he has defered fighting while the other dog got aggressive. Each time the other dog’s owner told them to stop but they didn’t. The only time our dog responded back was with the golden who dragged him by the throat. He at that point broke free of the golden and body slammed him (no teeth, no biting) across the sidewalk back to his owner and then walked back to me. This is proper training. THIS is showing leadership to your dog. Fighting to the death is unnatural and against evolution. No normal, healthy, WELL BALANCED dog wants to fight.
I must add monger to my title I thought I was a nutter. My vicious pit bull is a certified service dog, alert me when I’m going to have a seizure, and has given me independence, and yes even saved my life. I’m sorry for anyone ever bit by ANY dog ( I wanted to use CAPS too). All dogs bite, all pit-bull bites get media hype. Golden retrievers have killed children before does anyone know when that walk is scheduled? Ok enough sarcasm. Truth is us nutter-mongers that selfishly want to own the dog of our choice don’t support vicious dogs of any breed. Irresponsible breeding for aggression is not acceptable by most nutter-mongers. In fact all the nutter-mongers I know including myself rescue out of inappropriate situations, spay and neuter and help pay for others to do the same, provide affordable training, educate on dog safety. We are dog professionals, attorneys, medical professionals, teachers, and much more. So call me what you want if this is the nutter-monger group I carry that title with pride. It is sad that there is so much hate for a dog when most that hate haven’t come within 50 feet of a pit bull. Should everyone go out and adopt a pit bull today? No they aren’t the dog for everyone just like a Great Dane isn’t the dog for everyone. I hope this walk makes them feel better. They say its not to single out a breed or promote laws I guess National Pit Bull Awareness day was the only day any venue was available. I will spend my day with my fellow nutter-mongers focusing on positive approaches to continue to advocate for responsible dog ownership.
I’m not sure of the exact statistics over a 10-year period, but last year 31 people died of dog bite-related injuries from dogs of 22 different breeds. If this is typical, approximately 300 people died of dog bite-related injuries over the past 10 years. What were the breeds of the other dogs? Were there any common circumstances in these tragic situations that might point to common denominators that are more of a factor that breed in dog aggression?
The CDC and the American Veterinary Medical Association think so. They did a 20-year study on dog aggression by breed, and they concluded in a report published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association that there is no link between breed and dog aggression. They pointed out that in all these situations, regardless of breed, the the same factors (such as failure to spay/neuter, failure to supervise children around dogs, and failure to properly socialize dogs especially in situations of fighting and breeding) were common regardless of breed, and focusing on these factors is more effective in preventing further dog bite-related fatalities than focusing breed.
Here’s the conclusion, “Data in this report indicate that the number of dogs of a given breed associated with fatal human attacks varies over time, further suggesting that such data should not be used to support the inherent “dangerousness” of any particular breed.
More than 25 breeds have been involved in fatal human attacks over the 20-year
period summarized in this report.”
Everyone wishes to lower incidents of dog aggression, but intelligent people rely on the expertise of studies and reports conducted by veterinarians and the U.S. federal government in order to do so.
Focusing on cherry-picked instances focusing on a specific breed only cause hysteria and misinformation, and this accomplishes absolutely NOTHING to prevent further incidents of dog aggression, and future victims of dog aggression.
Additionally, although the UKC registers American Pit Bull Terriers, and the AKC registers American Staffordshire Terriers and Staffordshire Bull Terriers, this very small demographic of registered dogs are not included in any dog aggression statistics. The “pit bulls” that are involved in aggression incidents reported in the media are pretty much exclusively mixed breed dogs that have been visually identified as a “pit bull” or “pit mix”. DNA studies have proven that mixed breed dogs identified as “pit bull” or “pit mix” share little-to-no breed DNA or common ancestry.
Most dogs identified as “pit bull” or “pit mix” are anything from bulldog/mastiff, or boxer/lab, or boston terrier/husky. Less than 50% have DNA from any “staffordshire type” dogs. Most “pit bulls” are comprised of mixes of up to 20 different breeds of dogs, with very little, and often NO, common breed DNA between one “pit bull” and another.
No one has yet been able to explain to me how mixed breed dogs with a completely different ancestry can share some genetic trait to aggression. There is no “nature vs. nurture” argument in the VAST majority of dogs called “pit bull”, because they share NO COMMON BREED DNA.
Let’s see how this stacks against Ms. Carrigan’s progaganda. This study was at a children’s hospital. http://journals.lww.com/plasreconsurg/Abst…
More than 30 different offending breeds were documented in the medical records. The most common breeds included pit bull terriers (50.9 percent), Rottweilers (8.9 percent), and mixed breeds of the two aforementioned breeds (6 percent).
So 27 other breeds were left with 35% of these attacks. That’s a little over 1% per other breed compared to almost 51% for pits. Get the message.
http://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/Ab…
Conclusions: Attacks by pit bulls are associated with higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than are attacks by other breeds of dogs. Strict regulation of pit bulls may substantially reduce the US mortality rates related to dog bites.
BONNIE V. BEAVER, BS, DVM, MS, DACVB, Professor and Chief of Medicine, Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University
Executive Director, American College of Veterinary Behaviorists
By its origin, a pit bull is a fighting dog that takes very little stimulous to initiate aggression, and it will continue to fight regardless of what happens.
Pit bulldogs have been responsible for about 70 percent of the deaths of humans killed by dogs since 1979.
The AVMA warns veterinarians to be careful about supplying behavioural evaluations of dogs for insurance purposes.
“It’s risky for veterinarians,” said Dr. Beaver, explaining that there are many situations in which a dog may behave aggressively, and temperament tests can’t rule out the possibility of aggression. “You don’t have temperament tests that can identify all possibilities.”
KATHRYN HAWKINS, DVM
After seeing another dog die from a pit bull attack, I feel compelled to write. The opinion that pit bulls are “mean because of the way they are raised” is often not the case. A Both of the dogs I took care of that died were attacked unprovoked by pit bulls that were in families that raised them responsibly. Just as a retriever is bred to hunt birds — an instinct you can’t stop — many pit bulls have a genetic tendency to attack other animals. When they do, they are extremely powerful and don’t quit. I have never been bitten or growled at by a pit bull — they are very friendly. But when the instinct to attack another animal occurs, they cause serious damage, or death. They don’t bite people any more often than other breeds but when they do, it’s bad. The aggressiveness toward other animals and damage they do is not because of “the way they are raised” — it is usually due to a genetic instinct not in the control of the owner.
And I kinda am partial to this result of a form of BSL. Remember that California is an anti-bsl states except for mandatory spay/neuter of certain breeds. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010…
A whopping 45% drop in crime and the credit is given to regulating certain breeds aka pit bulls. Is this the solution to the crime problem?
Funny there are so many kids growing up looking like BOMBING victims and the war is in the backyards and on our streets where we rode our bikes and played kick ball without fear of any dogs.. even strays pose little threats which is why I guess our dog laws allowed for the One FREE bite rule.. because normal dogs pose little threats to humans. Plastic Surgeons are now becoming outspoken against pitbulls as the loss of muscle, tendons and tissue is so great they can’t fix the damage.. and unlike vets, they are not dependent on dog owners for their livelihood so they can speak freely on the much more serious carnage that they see.. Sad we live in such as a selfish society that puts a dog fad above human safety.. Cigarettes used to be cool too and then we learned they were for fools……..
They are not my statistics, Harve, they are the statistics published by the American Veterinary Medical Association, and the U.S. federal government.
That Annals of Surgery article has been debunked over and over and over again. There are statistics in that article that are blatantly wrong. The data was cherry-picked (they discarded well over 50% of the data collected). The following journal published dissenting data.
You can occasional bits and pieces of personal opinion that differ from studies and published academic papers (ones that have not been debunked and retracted). Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, but that certainly does not mean that this opinion has any validity.
The bottom line is that the moniker “pit bull” has come to mean such a large demographic of dog that, until the term is quantified, it is useless. DNA studies have shown that dogs labeled “pit bull” are mostly mixed breed with very little breed ancestry in common. Studies by the ASPCA have shown that the media will report dogs as “pit bulls” in covering news stories, even if the breed has not been identified. The media will not publish a story about dog aggression if they are unable to call the dog a “pit bull”.
These walk was a complete and utter failure. A small minority of people continue to push this hysterical silliness.
Candice Eaton writes: “Funny thing; Labs are responsible for the most human bite/maulings every year…”
Could you cite your source? I tried to verify your comment and found this:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/7/prweb…
Hello, Scott Swenson – when I Goggled “America’s Favorite Dog,” this list came up.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/popup?id=6700160
Do you have a link to the list you found?
Jaloney, care to comment on the investigation into your false posts, admitted lying and manipulation of the facts? FYI. . .you know all of the posts that you make asking people to “help” you alter photos and post fake replies are public, right? All someone has to do is actually investigate . . . . and oops, up pops the original photo and your post asking someone to help you make it look like the dog is getting ready to jump over the fence. Shame on you. You are a liar and apparently delusional.