Pit Bull Lovers Unite (against South Pittsburg)

I thought people had evolved enough to understand that groups of people or groups of dogs in this case, should not be judged as a whole. If that were the case we need to back up 40 years and return to the 1960's and take a look at what happened then with blacks in the south. Or if we decide to group dogs or people together without looking at the big picture one could say that all hispanics are drug smugglers, which of course is not true. Or we could say that all white people living below the mason dixon line are white trash rednecks, which again is not true. So why say all pitbulls are bad just because they are pitbulls. Sounds like the lazy and uninformed are at it again.

Education- I think this is the key to fixing this problem, and the reason why we have such an issue with this breed. I myself used to be wary of pitbulls. I have had dogs of all breeds in my life since the age of two, yet never a pitbull. "They are vicious", "Their jaws lock". These are the misconceptions I had been given by my family, who were very active in the animal community. We spent many hours volunteering at the Animal shelter both when we lived in Memphis, and Smithville where we live now. I coordinated with the local stores to donate their damaged bags of dog food, and helped with fostering. It wasn't until my (then husband) brought home a 6week old puppy named Lexi that my eyes were opened and my opinion of this breed changed forever. I was pregnant at the time, and furious my husband had brought home such a "violent" breed, but being the animal lover that I was I decided to stop being ignorant judging a breed I honestly knew nothing about, and give this dog a chance. I was amazed by her intellegince and her innate eagerness to please. I started doing my research on the breed and found that this is a common characteristic of the breed. They, IN THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT, are extremely people friendly, and should never be bought with the intent of being a guard dog, because they will probably just lick the intruder to death. They do sometimes have a tendency to have animal aggression, particularly with the same sex. But this too varies with the individual dog. They also have a high prey drive meaning they like to chase small furry things. Yet again that doesnt mean that you won't see a Pit living in perfect harmony with a chihuahua. Lexi proved to be a model pet, brilliant with everyone, but that was because she had responsible owners. From a puppy she was taught who was the boss, was WELL SOCIALIZED with people and animals of all ages and sizes, and taken out into the world on a regular basis to experience life and new things. She was never left for hours or days on a chain or to run loose, free to her own devices. She was treated like a pet, who also was a member of the family. She had a bed as well as a crate that were hers and were respected as hers. She was taught to respect my daughter and her things, just as my daughter was taught to respect Lexi and her things. While I trusted Lexi completely, my daughter was never left alone with her, or any dog for that matter. This is just being a responsible parent and pet owner. Lexi never let us down. She changed my life and opened my eyes to a wonderful breed. Lexi has now passed on, but our life is filled with another joyous girl Loki, along with two of her puppies. We got Loki from a breeder who no longer wanted her while she was still pregnant. Loki is a completley different dog from Lexi. She does NOT like cats or small animals, she will not run up to you tail wagging on the first date. She is a different dog. Some of these things are genetically special to her, while some of it was caused from her life before she came into ours. Loki was just a few weeks shy of her second birthday when she came into my life, so she already had a jumpstart on life. She cowered in fear anytime the central unit kicked on and broke off the leash and ran away four days after I had gotten her when a truck backfired. We found her shaking and tangled in a briar patch in the neighbors backyard. She had to be coaxed off the chaise lounge to go out to potty for the first two weeks she was home and refused to go into the kitchen to eat one day, all because I had set a carpet cleaner close to the kitchen door. You see Loki had not been socialized with much of anything or anyone. Her rehabilitation was a slow one, yet she was always a lover to me and my daughter. In time she overcame her fear of men, and no longer hides when the broom or the vacuum come out. She still doesn't like cats or thunderstorms, but that's where there is a difference between born traits and learned traits. She needed to be shown not to fear all the other things. She along with her two boys Ty and Rai, are the light of our lives, and treated the way a pet should be. They are actually taken care of. Loki had eight puppies and it took me ten months to find the six we rehomed suitable homes. That's right, because this is where the REAL problem is-the owners. Her puppies did not go to anyone that would not provide vet and character references, a home visit, and a spay/neuter contract. I had many people call and say "yes er you got any blue pups" or, "can I pay the $75 adoption fee in payments?". These people did not get a puppy. Did it end up costing me ALOT of money to take care of these puppies for so long in the proper way? Absolutley!!! Was it worth it to make sure that such a "tainted" breed found responsible deserving homes? ABSOLUTELY. This is where we need to look. Let's punish the people that fight these dogs, or leave them chained up with no access to water, or use them as "bait dogs" for their prized fighters. How about some accountability for the ones causing these issues-the neglegent pet owners! Not the responsible pit owners, that are in love with their pet, just as so many love Golden Retrievers and Poodles. People need to learn the proper reasoon to treat and own an animal of ANY breed not just pits. If this could happen, there would be no need for BSL.

As far as I am concerned it is 100% the owner's responsibility to train any dog. If you are inexperienced with this particular breed, DO NOT GET ONE. That is the first mistake of ANY dog owner--of ANY BREED. Dogs are NOT for everyone. I become extremely irritated when I hear irrational comments and stereotypes about Pits. No one speaks of Pomeranians that maul to death infants...or wolf hybrids who attack by-standers....or Akitas and Chow Chows that are notorious for tearing apart children as well as adults. Every year over 2,000 kids are killed by their own parents but only 3 a year are killed by Pit Bulls.

No one speaks of Helen Keller, Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt, and Michael J. Fox all own[ed] Pit Bulls....not to mention the countless police forces that used them to aid in rescue-search missions, etc. I believe there needs to be harsher legislation for those who participate in dog fighting and other vicious activities....maybe this breed would not be so horrendous if we tied a tighter leash law around the owners and let these dogs be dogs. And for those of us that KNOW how to handle this breed, do not tell me who can or can not be a member of my family.

google for "pitbull kills" Not all pitbulls are bad. Nor are guns, but you have to have a background check, and keep control of them at all times. If anybody thinks that you can control any living creature at all times (even when your not around and extra-exciting factors occur) you are wrong. (Nice as I can put it)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=on&q=%22pitbull+kills%22

I owned a pit bull until 2 months ago. The dog slept in my bed, followed me everywhere, was and is a sweetheart as far as I am concerned, however, he became unpredictible attacking and killing cats and most recently biting a kid who was carrying a stick. He became ignorant of commands he once knew and seemd to begin setting his own set of rules. I am sorry, but I truly don't understand the nature of the breed or for that matter the mentality of the majority of their owners. It is amazing how quickly a dog can become fixated on something and not relent. Pit bulls surely seem to have that talent instinctively. The other issue which seems to be apparent, at least in this area of NE Alabama Southwest TN, is that people simply let their dogs run loose. Everywhere! No discresionary time frame. Dogs are without up to date vaccinations or dog tags/collars of any kind. Or the opposite occurs, they are tied up on short chains in back or side yards 24-7, in dirt without shelter and many times without food and water, which borders on cruelty. I don't understand why there aren't fines for people who don't vaccinate, leash, or care for their animals responsibly and humanely. If you are going to have a dog, pit bull or otherwise, love and care for it, FEED IT, be responsible about it and know and remember that they are dogs, animals, with their own set of instincts and primal traits. Remember too that there are laws to protect innocents from human stupidity when it comes to our beloved pets. Problem is, its only a matter of time before something horrendous happens when animal owners act irresponsibly with their pets. Ah yes, then there's those amazing backyard pit bull breeders... Banning may not be the answer, but accountability certainly is. Try to get homeowners insurance with a pit bull, costs quite a bit if you can get it and if you have a pit bull it is required to even get a policy written. And what about mandatory licenses and vaccinations? Why no enforcement there? Why not a registry of pit bull owners? Why not a registry of pet owners in general? And really, how many people would a town have to employ to get the situation under control? Wouldn't take that many tax dollars and if the problem is so significant that they are banning a breed...Good grief, create some revenue and protect humans and animals in the process. I resent the fact that there are already laws in place that people simply ignore. I resent it even more that there is no accountability by pet owners to do the right thing in properly caring for their pets and protecting their families and neighbors while doing so. And it really ticks me off when city and town governments ignore laws already put in place when they have a moral, legal and ethical obligation to uphold them.

Obviously, you can't discriminate against a minority without violating the constitution, assuming you live in a constitutional democracy. That's a given.

Enter the well orchestrated propaganda campaign against 'pit bulls' and 'dangerous dogs' which has been designed to make dog owners into second-class citizens. The handmaidens in the media, like the political hacks, have become 'useful idiots' for an agenda geared towards the banning and eventual elimination of pet dogs. The imaginary breed, the 'pit bull', is the poster kid for that campaign.

There is absolutely no scientific evidence to support the popular notion that 'pit bulls' are responsible for more bites and attacks than other types.

The CDC studies, usually quoted by those who haven't researched the subject, are not scientific studies. They are flawed. The info came from news reports - no offense, but not the best source for accurate information about dogs, dog breeds, dog attacks, etc. Even the authors of the CDC reviews of a news database done in conjunction with HSUS (red flag there) have publicly stated that the studies were not meant to be used the way they have been by the media. They've gone so far as to state they wish they had not published them.

Example: Under 'purebred' dogs, they list 'pit bull' - this is not a breed of dog but a slang term for over 20 purebreds and an unknown number of randomly bred, unrelated mongrels. These dogs could not possibly all exhibit the same characteristics. They do this with 'husky' as well.

Example: In many cases, there were no death certificates available - this is stated right in the study.

Example: Breed identification by the public is a major confounder, as stated by the authors in the study. This is why they did not attach much credibility to the breed ID portion of the articles. Think about your neighbour. How many pure breeds can she/he accurately identify? Nobody, anywhere, can accurately identify a mixed breed dog - it's just a guessing game.

Example: The most widely touted study ended in 1998 - almost ten years ago. Even if the numbers were accurate and even if the catch all 'pit bull' type category could have been broken down accurately into actual purebred dogs, the work is still almost a decade out of date. While 'pit bull' types purportedly topped the stats for eleven of the past hundred years or so, they did not top them before the study period (conveniently including the same eleven years) and they haven't topped them since.

Example: Focusing on fatalities leads to specious reasoning. Dog bite-related fatalities are so statistically rare that they cannot be used to predict any kind of trend. Your chance of being killed by a dog is roughly 1 : 16,000,000. Compared with other causes of death by misadventure, that makes dogs one of the safest things around.

Example: You'll sometimes hear people say that 'pit bulls' and 'rottweilers' were responsible for 67% of fatalities blah blah blah. What you don't hear is that this refers to a one-year period when the total number of fatalities in the US was 27 and 67% of that was 16. Like every other dog owner, I'd like the number to be zero but unfortunately the numbers will likely remain stable, as they have for decades, unless some major educational and enforcement initiatives are undertaken.

I could go on but you get the idea. Anybody who quotes the CDC papers, found through Google, isn't even close to being informed on the subject.

I do not own a bull and terrier type and never have although I'm familiar with many people who fancy them. I just know a bit about dogs and value my civil rights. I'm an out of towner, from Ontario, Canada, who hopes your town council snaps out of it and looks at proven, effective ways to control incompetent and criminal dog owners.

A neighbors pitbull attacked my livesotck. The dog was still bloody from the attack when the police arrived and wrote the report. The owner begged me not proceed with the legal actions as it was a family pet. Their children loved the dog and it normally stayed in the house. Apparently they only let it out to attack the neighborhood animals. Pitbull owners really believe it is ok to keep these animals around their kids even with a police report in their hand. They were going to pay the fines and borrow money to feed their kids. I did drop the charges as I was sure they would only replace it with a new dog. An additional point, most major homeowner insurance carriers will not allow these breeds. It can void your coverage. Spread to ban to include Rottweilers.

I wrote this story a few years ago when I heard Jeff Styles make a moronic comment about pit bulls on talk radio. This seems like an appropriate place to repost it... A few weeks ago, I heard Jeff Styles of Talk Radio say something on the air that really bothered me. He was talking about dogs, and said something to the effect that all pit bulls should be killed, and that he would do it himself. I've heard sentiments expressed like this so often, and might have agreed with them at one point in my life. I would like to tell you how one of these dogs affected my life, so that Jeff and maybe others can learn from my experience. Five years ago, I was walking through the parking lot of Sam's Club, when I saw an awful looking dog, head down, cowed and broken. People skirted him, walking wide circles around him as I watched from a safe distance. As I examined him more closely, I realized that he was a pit-bull. He was about knee high, white all over, with one big brindle patch on his haunches. His head was as wide as my thigh. When I saw him, and his behavior, I was instantly curious and touched by the way he was acting. I had heard all of the stories about pits. I’ve always heard it said that they are savage monsters who maul and kill without warning. It’s said that they are inherently bad and that they are mean no matter what. It was obvious to me, even though I had just met this dog that he wasn't looking for someone to bite, but for someone to love and for help. Not everyone is a "dog" person, but I’ve owned dogs my whole life. I've lived with a grumpy jack russell terrier for 11 years. I walk with him miles every week. When I first saw this pit bull, I was shocked at his condition. The most obvious problem he had was malnourishment. His ribs stood out like steps. His spine was curved in a long “s” shape and he walked sideways because of it. The ridge of his spine stood high over his back, with each individual bone standing, easily discerned from the next. I looked at him as he searched that parking lot for human kindness and it did something to me that I've never completely recovered from. It started a chain of events in my life, which would bring great change and great joy into my life. I knew at that very moment that I was either going to have to help him, or have him put down. There was no way I could walk away from him, and know that this wonderful animal, who had so effortlessly reached out and touched me, a total stranger, would continue to live in such suffering. I went to my truck, and retrieved a piece of rope. I then went and sat on a curb near the side of the building. When he saw me, he came directly to me, and sat right beside me, as if we had come to the park to sit and talk. This is the part that was hard to explain and it sounds silly to say it out loud. It seemed, though, that he knew immediately that I was interested in helping him, and it seemed as if it’s what he had been looking for. I was afraid. His appearance was intimidating to say the least. I decided that I would first lay the rope around the back of his neck and see if it made him angry. If it did, I would have to think of some other way to help him. That gesture had an immediate and obvious effect on him. He sagged toward me, leaning on my right side, and seemed to deflate. The effect of the rope around his neck would have been comical if he weren’t in such bad shape. He seemed relieved. There was nothing I could do. I tied the rope around his neck, and led him to my truck. My little Isuzu truck was very low to the ground, but he was too weak to jump into the back of it. I had to pick him up. I knew that I couldn't put this strange animal in my little two seat truck cab for the ride home, so my girlfriend drove, and I rode in the back with my new friend. My girlfriend was trying to remember how to drive a manual as the dog and I held on in the back, trying not to get whiplash. As we drove, I had a chance to look him over. He was a wreck. He had only one front tooth, which was broken in half. The rest had been ground down to nubs. He appeared to have a large growth or infection under his skin, around his neck. It looked as if someone had inserted at 10 inch long piece of garden hose under the skin of his neck. It occurred to me that he had spent a lot of time on a chain that was too tight, and that it had cut into his skin. His right front foot was fractured. An 8- inch long gash had healed just under his right armpit on his chest. It had healed with no stitches, so it was a large lump of fused flesh. His head was covered with hundreds of tooth marks, as were his back and flanks. One of his nipples had been ripped completely off, and had healed back as a flap of skin hanging down. He had literally been chewed all over. His right ear was a stump, the rest chewed almost completely off. He was covered with other scars, big and small. His malnourishment was severe. There was no bone in his body that you couldn't trace on paper. Despite all of this, this dog never, ever, in any way, shape, form or fashion, showed me the slightest hint of anger or violence, then or ever. From that day forward, this dog, gave me love. He gave me more love than any other dog ever has. There was a subtle intelligence in this animal and it was as if he realized that I had rescued him. I sensed gratitude in him that I never expected to sense in an animal. From that day forward he was my boon companion. Our first task was to get him to the vet. The vet ended up costing us $2,200. We named him Jonah. For those of you who know your Bible, Jonah was swallowed by a whale, and lived through it. The pit bull reminded of Jonah because the artifacts of a past life, a past suffering I could only guess at, were etched into his skin and shined from his eyes. Jonah was big for a pit bull. Emaciated, he tipped the scales at 49 pounds. Later on, he would bulk up to a healthy 64 pounds. That day at the vet, when we took him in, Dr. Federico just shook his head. They ran tests, poked and prodded. Dr. Federico, in his matter of fact way, felt him all over, and quickly grew to like him, as I had. Jonah took all of this, with that same look of gratitude. He never snarled, he never bit, he never showed anything but love to anyone at any time. The diagnosis was severe. Heartworms, Infection, emaciation and starvation were our battle. He had hip and joint deterioration due to poor nutrition. He had all of these things, and he had them bad. The cost would be high, and we were given the option to put him down, but I just couldn't do it. We decided to fight. You could sense that he wanted to live, and we wanted him to. The doctor gave him a shot of something to kill the heartworms. There was a good chance that he would die during this treatment. Jonah had had the worms for years. The adults live in the heart, and when they die, the release from the wall of the arteries and travel downstream until they reach an area too narrow for them to pass, where they create a blockage in the arteries of the lungs. When this happens, lung tissue begins to die from blood starvation. They gave him the medicine, and we waited. The next night, Jonah almost died. He could barely breathe. I lay beside him on his bed on the floor, holding his head as he gasped for air for hours. Finally, at 11pm on a Friday night, I couldn't take it anymore, and I took him to the emergency vet. They gave him a shot of steroids, and after a while he was ok again. We had one other scare, and one other trip to the emergency vet before he was finally cured of the heartworms, and through all this, he endured. Most of the other problems, the infection, the cracked paw, got better over time. A round of antibiotics seemed to really help. Within 6 months, he was like a completely different dog and I loved him more than ever. I would walk with him, often. I live in North Chattanooga, and back then it was risky to walk late at night. With Jonah, I walked with relish, late into the night and early in the morning. There used to be a crack-head who lived on my street. He was a giant man with a bottle of booze always in one hand, half naked. He would break into empty houses and have "parties" with his girlfriends. I was on speaking terms with him and gave him a wide berth. One night, Jonah and I went out walking. We came down the hill at the bottom of my street and were bathed in darkness. There’s a spot down there where the lights are far apart, and it’s very dark. Ahead of us, my neighbor was walking with a strange, jittery man I had never seen before. The jittery man, looked back at us, and did a double take. He said something to my neighbor, and they had a brief struggle. It seemed the jittery man was saying something and my neighbor was saying no. The man turned back toward us and began to march up the hill. He walked in an aggressive manner. The set of his shoulders and the way he moved made me feel that this man was about to rob me. We continued walking, and the man stomped toward us, I took comfort from the feel of the leash in my hand. I held Jonah close by my knee. The man approached to within 50 feet of us and suddenly saw Jonah. His back stiffened, he straightened up and stopped dead in his tracks. We continued walking toward him and then Jonah picked up his scent. I knew Jonah had been watching him. He was like that, he watched, and missed nothing. Miscreant number two, ahead of us, abruptly did an about face on a dime and walk/ran back down the hill. Jonah and I walked many, many miles together, at all times of the day and night. Jonah's appearance, once he was no longer sick and suffering, reminded me of the old world war II Sherman tank. His head was bigger around than my thigh. I liked to call it his alligator head. His chest rippled with muscles and he walked with a panther like grace that can only be understood when it is seen. Jonah was with me for 5 years. After he healed, Jonah was as strong as a mule. He could pull a car up a hill, if he had the right kind of harness. Jonah was great with people and children, but had little tolerance for other male dogs. Pits are bred as hunting and fighting dogs. They are bred to fight other animals, not people. I believe that he had been fought. His scars spoke volumes. Jonah would usually be tolerant of other dogs, but they would always approach, snarling and barking and he would only ignore it for so long. I think his appearance intimidated them. They would go after him but there always seemed to be an air of desperation in. It always seemed like they were barking at him because they were afraid of him. His bark reverberated down the spine in a primal way. It had a chopped, meaty sound that commanded respect. Once we walked downtown to the coffee house and Carl and his dog Cowboy were across from us. I needed to use the phone and a guy offered to hold Jonah’s leash for me. I told him to be careful. He swore to me that he used to raise Rottweilers, and that he "knew how to handle dogs." I let him take the leash, and he wrapped it around his arm. Cowboy must have looked at Jonah funny because before I knew it, Jonah had snatched the 220 pound, Rottweiler wrangler out of his chair and dragged him under a bench and across the sidewalk, trying to get to Cowboy. Jonah was great with people, but boy dogs were anathema to him. Jonah pulled that man like a paper cutout. I had to use a special collar with him, called a "pinch" collar. It's a collar that looks cruel, with metal spikes on the inside, but it's the only way I could keep him from choking himself on the leash. It's also the only way I could walk him on a reel leash and keep him from dragging me around. He was forced to live in a tiny part of the front of my house. My other dog, Rocky, who I've had for 11 years and who was born in my closet, would not allow Jonah to be a part our regular life. On the few occasions, when I let Jonah into Rockys part of the house, Jonah would ignore him, for a while. He would be happy to be at the "big peoples table." He would stumble, dance and jump around gleefully, always ending up on my bed. Rocky would immediately lose his mind. He would attack Jonah, biting at him, snarling. Once Rocky ended up with a broken jaw. He went after Jonah, and Jonah closed Rockys little mouth in his big one and one bite was all it took. Jonah would always ignore him for a little while. Usually it took about 5 minutes, and then the fight would start. So for five years, Jonah lived in half of my house, and Rocky lived in the other half. I can't explain to you how complicated this made my life, but I just couldn't bring myself to let go of Jonah, or to have him put to sleep. His zest for life now that he was healthy was wonderful to behold. There was something joyous about the way he greeted people and things around him. He seemed grateful for each day. Jonah had so many wonderful and funny character traits. He was terrified of lightning. Any time the thunder rolled, I would go into the other room and find him in the bottom of the utility storage cabinet, with cans of wd-40 and paint knocked over and fallen on his head. He would push aside car wash buckets, paint-brushes and anything else that was in his way to burrow down into a dark space to get away from the noise and the flashes. Sometimes I would go sit beside him on the floor and hold his big alligator head in my lap when he was scared. He would shiver and shake. Over the years, Jonah and I really got to know each other. Jonah was so tolerant of me. He loved to play. I would push him on the chest to get him worked up, and he would run at me, jump up in the air, and hit me hard with the side of his body. It was like a broadside tackle, and when he did it, it would knock you off your feet. When he really got going, he would run frantic circles around the tiny front yard, tearing large chunks of turf up from the ground. When he would get tired because of his worm damaged heart and lungs, he would run up to me and stop on a dime, leaning down on those giant front paws, butt sticking up in the air, tongue lolling, eyes rolling and daring me to do it again. He would jump up at me and play bite, always going for the underside of my arms. He would pinch me a little sometimes with his 1/2 tooth, but even with that he managed to tear holes in two of my shirts. He loved to play. He took scolding very hard. Any time he did something I didn’t like, I would scold him verbally and give him a slap on the butt. He took this so hard. His face would melt, his eyes would squeeze shut and he would cow down to the floor. He would turn his head and look up at me, trying to gauge the depth of my anger. For months after he came to live with me, he didn’t bark. It was a long time before I heard his voice. For months, he would also cower in fear any time he saw me carrying something, be it a broom or a wrench in my hand. Often, I would go into his little space to say goodnight to him, and sit on the floor beside his blanket. He would lay his head in my lap and we would sit there in the silence and the darkness. Sometimes, I would grab him his big head and his bony rear end, scoop him up and roll him over so that he lay face up on my lap. He hated this position, but he tolerated my doing it. He would lay in my lap looking put upon and uncomfortable, as I cradled him like an infant. His big orange brown eyes would be inches from mine and he would take one big paw and place it up against my chin, trying to keep my face away from his. I liked to kiss him on the face. I would sometimes kiss him right on the lips, just to bug him, and he absolutely hated it. It bothered him so much. I would play games where I would try to get my face close to his, and the way he would avoid it was comical. He would always keep that stiff arm up against my chin, to ensure that I didn't try to kiss him on the face. He always stared at me from those eyes, which had seen so much suffering and they never changed. They were always full of tolerance and love for me. My tiny yard was never enough for him. He wasn’t fixed, and occasionally the urge to roam would overwhelm him. He would go to work on my fence like the expert escape artist he was. There were two doors in his part of my house. Once I locked him in the laundry room to keep him separate for a night. I can't remember the reason, but he was so upset by it that he ripped a hole in the door with his gums. Remember, he only had one tooth in the front. That door still has a sheet of plywood on it. When he decided he needed to get out of the fence, he could do it. It took me a while to figure out how he did it, but once I did, I was amazed. Jonah would run his side along the fence, pushing, feeling for a weak spot. When he found the appropriate spot in the fence, he would use his one tooth, to pry a piece of chain link out like a thread from a sweater. He would then grasp that metal ribbon in his pink gums and work it back and forth, back and forth until eventually it would snap. He would then take his soft, black, wet nose, and jam it as hard as he could into the wiry hole made by the broken piece of chain link. He continued to push his face into this hole, working his head back and forth, as the hole grew larger and larger. Once the hole was big enough for him to get his entire snout in, he knew that he had won. He worked, eyes squeezed shut, pushing with his back feet, as hard as he could, until finally, bleeding and torn, he would jam his entire alligator head out of that tiny hole. Next, one foot would come through, then another. He would push until he crammed his entire 60 pound body through a hole in a fence that was barely 6 inches across. The first time he did this, I found him missing from the front yard but I had no idea how he had gotten out. He escaped from my yard a total of 4 times. The longest he was ever gone was 45 minutes, but it always terrified me. I had grown so attached to this animal, that the thought of him back in the world, where he was mistreated made me want to pull out my hair. The animal shelter doesn’t adopt out old pit’s. They just kill them. The first time he escaped, I examined the fence before setting out after him, and I saw nothing wrong with it. I thought that he must have climbed over, which he was certainly capable of. So, I put him back in the fence, and watched from the window to see where he was climbing over. As I watched from my perch, I saw him go back to the same hole he had gotten out of the first time. I was amazed to see him bow down, and slip out like a snake exiting its skin. I was shocked that this animal could make it out through that hole. Later on, as I examined the hole, I realized that it was perfectly round. It's edges were tight, and it had the look of a drawstring bag. It took me 20 minutes with pliers and wire cutters to pull the fence back together and wire it closed. Jonah and I spent some really good years together. He taught me something about animals that I'm trying to share with you now, but which is something you can really only learn from experience. If there are any of you out there who think that pit bulls are bad, I'm here to tell you that they aren't. People are bad, and they sometimes shape animals in their own image. Pit’s ban be mean, and vicious and all of those things, but they aren’t born that way. That behavior is almost always the result of training. Twice people approached me on the street and asked me if they could breed their female pit with Jonah, and I would smile a toothy, angry grin and say no. I could just picture this person throwing the puppy he raised into the ring to fight to the death, while he placed bets from the sideline. I would thank God at that moment for my self control, because I would wish in my heart that I could beat him within an inch of his life before he caused an animal like Jonah one moment of suffering. This sounds extreme, I know, but I came by it honestly. After Jonah and I found each other, I began to do a lot of research on Pits and the way some people treat them. The pictures I've seen will make you sick and if you love animals, they will make you burn with rage. I think that people who fight pits should be treated just like they treat their animals. If you've ever seen a dog strangled to death with baling wire for losing a fight, after being beaten, starved and abused for years, you might know how I feel. The old saying is true. You can't judge a book by its cover. I would’ve never guessed that Jonah would have the effect on me that he did. While I'm sure that I did a lot to help him, in a really important way, he did more for me than I ever did for him. He helped me. He showed me a depth of compassion, gratitude and love that I thought impossible in an animal. It wasn't something I can really express to you. It's not something you can hear. It's something that you have to feel to understand. Have you ever met a person who always seemed to have a dark cloud hanging over their head? Jonah was the exact opposite of that. He always seemed to be walking around in a little bubble of sunny weather, where the wind was always cool and the flowers were always in bloom. Just being around him made people happy. He was like a big, goofy kid. I had him put to sleep, Jan. 23rd, 2004. One final effect of the malnourishment he had suffered was arthritis. All of the cartilage had disappeared from his hip joints. It was bone against bone, and the pain he suffered was terrible. Finally, he began to succumb to paralysis. It came on him quickly, and I had seen it coming, but when it finally did, I wasn't prepared for it. One day I looked outside and saw him walking on the knuckles of his back feet, impervious to the fact that his feet weren’t flat on the ground. I knew then that his time was done. I wasn't going to watch him suffer through long final days, so I gave myself a few hours to say goodbye and then loaded him into the truck for one final ride to Dr. Federicos. When we arrived at the Dr's, I walked over to the drug store and bought a giant magic marker and some note cards. I coated his paw with black ink and made a paw-print that sits framed over my desk as I write this. I gently lifted Jonah out of the truck, and we walked inside as I saw him wince from the pain in his back. It took me a few minutes to make Dr. Federico understand how I wanted to do it, and he never really did until I showed him. He put a catheter into a vein in Jonahs front leg and taped it tight. I sat cross-legged on the floor. I pulled Jonah, flipping him upside down into my lap and held him tight in my arms. His alligator head lay in the crook of my right arm, and I pulled his nose to mine one final time. I wept. I howled. I held him in a vice grip in my right arm and stared into his eyes, while Dr. Federico gave him first the shot that drugged him, then the one that stopped his heart. His eyes never strayed from mine and mine never moved from his. I stared into his eyes as his life slipped away and long after he was gone. That night I laid him out on a blanket in my front yard where he had lived. I kissed him a final time on the cheek and a friend and I dug a hole in the dark night, under the glare of a halogen work light. I let Rocky out into the front yard, and he sniffed at and growled at the dead form in jealousy. Even dead, Jonah intimidated Rocky. That day I became an amputee. I lost a limb and I can still feel the phantom pains of it when I flex the muscles that were the overwhelming love that grew in me for this pit, this dog.

I just needed to say something else. I see where a couple of you said pit bulls are dangerous. How about GERMAN SHEPHERDS, ROTTWALLERS, DOBERMANS, GREAT DANE, BULL MASTIF. Is the only word you know how to say is pit bull. The other large dogs I have names has done just as much damage in society as pit bulls, for that fact so have small dogs. See again people just want to pick on pits. A dog is what you make it. All of these dogs are precious until you teach them otherwise. Instead of picking on animals how about worring about our world we live in & get the garbage off the street & get some laws changed so people cant go out & commit a crime & get a smack on the wrist. Thats right if a person does a crime then the punishment should be firm & be for a long time. So leave dogs alone & worry about the crimes going on every second of the day,& yes if a dog big or small does a bad thing then they should be punished also just as a human. Dont punish a dog that has done nothing just because his first name is pit & his last name is bull. Do you do that to humans? No but a person can go out & commit many horrible crimes & get a way with it. That cost us taxpayers lots of money.

I am so sick of bad talk of pit bulls. A dog is what the owner makes it, big or small. I have 2 bulldogs & they are amazing. I know 7 people that have been bitten or attacked by a dog, & guess what they were either chichuiwahas, pomeraneans, or some small type of dog like that. So how about banning those dogs? People who go around jumping to conclusions in my oppinion have the brain of a 12 year old. Actually a 12 year old would be smarter, but you know what I mean. I had a couple of friends tell me something one time, and actually they are good sources considering they get to the bottom of the case. All we hear about is a dog attacked someone, & we hear about the story for about 3 days. Then it is over. Well if people with these brilliant ideas of banning dogs would listen for more than 2 seconds then they would hear the whole story. Since the case has to be investigated & that takes time, about 6 months after the incident is when we find out why? I was told by people who actually did the investigating that the following reasons were why dogs attacked. 1. Certain people who were doing illegal things might have dogs for fighting, They were not born that way, THEY WERE TAUGHT. 2. Also the more dogs you could breed the more money you could make. (inseste). If people were inbreed they would turn crazy one day......... 3. Dogs were given drugs, raw meat, & such. All these things are things that can be controlled. It just happnens to big dogs instead of little dogs & thats not fair. So the big dogs get a bad rap. People are just ignorent so they put down something they REALLY know nothing about. There is book out about pit bulls you can get it at any book store. It says studys show a pit bull is one of the best family dogs a person can have. It has the references for these studies right in the book. So people who know nothing about dogs but cant seem to keep their ignorant mouth shut, SHUT UP DO THE RESEARCH FOR ABOUT A YEAR & THEN COME BACK & CARRY ON AN INTELLIGENT CONVERSATION. THANK YOU.

The truth is that the AST has been the root of more dog attacks than any other breed, without any question. It really doesn't matter if it's the owners, or the dogs, it is a problem. For some reason AST and rots seem to attract a certain type of owner that does not have the breeds best interest it heart... they are not raising "good canine citizens" Something needs to be done to curb the disproportional number of attacks. BSL always drags all the fruits out of the woodwork, we get the pix of the AST sleeping with the baby, we get the all-caps comments about how great of pets they are... yet none of them EVER comes up with a way to limit the number of attacks resulting from them. Last week there was a 2 year old child sodomized by one of these fine "pets". (Lockport union-sun&journal out of New York state has full story) If they are allowed at all, there needs to be insurance, and restraint requirements placed on their ownership. Nothing else has worked, and they are not the little lovable fur-balls everyone is making them out to be. bans DO work. Look at areas they have been tried in. It does curb attacks, and no one else is coming up with any other options! (although I would add rots to the list also.)

i am a former owner of pitbulls and i would not own any other breed they are some of the best pets you could own .it is all about how the dog is raised .yes there are some people out there that raise them to be mean ,but then you have people that treat them as if they were kids .all mine live inside the house .so i think every one needs to leave the pitbull alone and go after the people who treat these dogs wrong . it is not the breed it is the person.so if they want to band something then band these people from owning any animals.because it wouldn,t matter if it was a lab .they could be tought to be mean also .

PEOLPE ARE NOT EDUCATED ON THE BREED...THIS MAKES ME SO MAD...JUST BECAUSE YOU READ A BOOK OR TWO DOES NOT MEAN YOUR EDUCATED ON THE BREED! TRY ACTUALLY OWNING ONE...I OWN 3 AND LOVE THEM VERY MUCH...THEY ALSO ARE VERY WELL BEHAVED DOGS...I WORK WITH ALL TYPES OF BREEDS AND TRUST ME THERE ARE OTHER DOGS WHO ARE JUST AS AGGRESSIVE AS PITS...SINCE I'VE BEEN WORKING WITH DOGS I HAVE NOT CAME ACROSS ONE AGGRESSIVE PIT BULL...I'VE CAME ACROSS OTHER BREEDS WHO ARE AGGRESSIVE LIKE CHOWS, GERMAN SHEPARDS, AND EVEN SMALLER DOGS...ALSO THESE ATTACKS WE ALL HEAR ABOUT, WELL AREN'T ALWAYS PIT BULLS...MOST OF THE TIME THERE MIXED BREEDS!

I think it's sad when people adopt this attitude of It's my town and you have no say about what goes on here. Do you all have a different Constitution in Tennessee than the rest of the nation?? Start negating constitutional rights in Tennessee and that will start affecting all the rest of us where we live when BSL spreads. Negating the rights that our founding fathers fought a revolution for is everyone's business, no matter what town or state it happens in. I'm reminded of those in Mississippi who tried the our-town-our-rules ploy when Emmett Till was brutally lynched. Till was murdered due to prejudice born of ignorance, not unlike that shown towards "pit bulls." And no I'm not comparing a human to dogs, but it's no coincidence that the civil rights movement fought for the same rights that we fight for now when we fight against BSL: our 14th amendment rights to life, liberty, property, due process, and equal protection (aka civil rights). Those are rights Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. fought for. Breed ban proponents won't address the constitutional issues of breed bans because they can't. They use flawed statistics and emotionalism instead. The slang term "pit bull" can describe as many as 30 breeds of dog and their mixes and folks can't figure out why "pit bulls" appear to be responsible for a majority of bites???

Yet another "Gosh, they never attacked me before, what happened!" story...

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/8417902.html

Hey, I've read a lot of these comments, and just *really* quick, to help some folks out-- calling people who propose an alternative view to your view "ignorant and retarded" isn't how you win an argument. I'd suggest using the Rogerian, or common ground approach to defending pit bulls. Look at Dr. Martin King Jr's speeches-- they're an excellent example of the Rogerian argument.

Despite what the article states, there is very good statistical data that shows pit bulls are #1 when it comes to causing human fatalities.

I do not understand the knee-jerk reaction to the word "BSL"-- the people who oppose it are the same people who send out messages warning people not to buy from certain breeders!

Do you love pit bulls? Great! Do you love them enough to get homeowners insurance, a proper fence and a license to breed them? If not, you're not much of a pit bull lover.

And please, enough with the pictures of babies next to pit bulls! It proves nothing: Even Charles Manson bounced a baby in his lap at some point.

The dogs are absolutely dangerous. The owners that swamp mayors and newspapers with messages seem to enjoy playing the role of the "victim".

To everyone swamping South Pittsburg with emails and letters from out of town-- here's a thought: Let Sough Pittsburg decide what's best for South Pittsburg. They're the ones that have to live there.

Gosh almighty where do I start? First, you're getting out-of-town posters because BSL, or breed-specific legislation, is new to you folks in Tennessee. It is not a new concept to those of us who've been fighting this ineffective legislation for as many as several years to 30 years (and you bet there are folks out here who've been fighting bad legislation that long). We have adopted the attitude that if it happens to you where you are, then it is happening to us. But that kind of civic pride and the willingness to stand up for other people and their rights shouldn't be mocked. It should be lauded. Second, South Pittsburg did not "grandfather" in pre-existing "pit bull" owners as you say. True grandfathering would've been not applying any new strictures to pre-existing "pit bull" owners. In fact, the ordinance is in violation of the ex post facto clauses of the Constitution for that very reason. Third, and speaking of the Constitution, breed bans are a violation of the 14th amendment right to property, due process, and equal protection. Due process is violated when, as you noted, a definitive breed determination cannot be made because the heredity of the dog in question is unknown. This will happen any time a dog isn't registered. So unless every dog AC picks up off the street is registered with say the AKC, breed heredity can be legally questioned in court. As you also noted, breed bans are an equal protection violation because it cannot be scientifically proven that any one breed of dog is more dangerous than another. Equal protection means that some dog owners ("pit bull" owners) cannot be deprived of their dogs while other dog owners (all other dog owners) are not unless it can be proven that "pit bulls" are inherently dangerous, and again, that has not been proven. As such, there is no rational basis, like safety, for passing a breed ban since no one breed is more vicious than another. Fourth, there is no breed "pit bull" which is why statistics on "pit bulls" are so high. The slang term "pit bull" can and has referred to as many as 30 (that's THIRTY) breeds of dog and their mixes. Parse out actual breeds from the "pit bull" statistics and you have no one breed any more likely to be vicious than any other. The American Temperament Test Society can verify this since bully breeds (that is, American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, and Staffordshire Bull Terriers), which are commonly and erroneously referred to as "pit bulls" score comparably on their temperament tests with Golden Retrievers. (See for yourself at www.atts.org). Fifth, no one should deny the dog fighting heritage of bully breeds. It is what it is. What we can say is that through over 100 years of precision breeding, human-aggressive specimens were culled until what was left was a dog that was inherently loving of children (despite the media suggesting otherwise) and people. What commonly happens is that people confuse aggression dogs might show other dogs (which bully breeds were bred for) with aggression dogs might show humans (which bully breeds were NOT bred for). Do you have the occasional specimen that is aggressive towards humans? Certainly. But so too does every other breed of dog. And yes, small breeds have killed babies by the way. So yes, some medium- and large-breed specimens of any breed will be human-aggressive. And to all those who claim that "pit bulls" do more damage when they bite or that they have locking jaws (which is not true) I refer you to the first successful face transplant performed on a woman in France who literally had her face ripped off by a Labrador. The other problem is that whereas 100 years ago human-aggressive dogs would've been culled (which is a responsible thing for a breeder to do to insure safety) now breed rescues and/or shelters take questionable dogs and try to rehabilitate them. And for the record, you cannot rehabilitate inbred aggression. You can only eliminate it from the bloodline. The good news is inbreeding is less frequent than you might think. Poor training and socialization, however, which Cesar Millan (a.k.a. "the Dog Whisperer") has observed time and time again, is quite common. Perhaps if there is anything to be learned from breed bans it's that: 1) Some in the media are to blame for poor reporting. Journalists could just say "a dog of unknown breed" when describing dogs who attack, but instead they opt for the if-it-bleeds-it-leads headlines using the slang term "pit bull" because it gets their readers' attention. 2) Animal Control and law enforcement are not experts in breed determination. One need only look at Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care (BARC) and the myriad of mixed-breed Labradors that they call "pit bulls" to know that bite statistics for "pit bulls" -- if indeed one of the most popular breeds of dog, the Labrador and its mixes, are going to be called "pit bulls" -- are seriously flawed. By the way, bully breeds are also quite popular with their population size nationwide estimated in the several millions. The number of actual bites from bully breeds, if you parsed them out of the slang designation "pit bull," would be surprisingly low given their population size. But if I could leave you and your readers with anything it's this: Breed bans, which only pay lip-service to safety but which do not actually make the public safer, rob people of their constitutionally-protected right to their property. That's why people send you pictures of their dogs. They're begging you to have a heart, to show some compassion, and to not take good, responsible pet owners' dogs away. Breed bans never affected the irresponsible people who caused a breed ban to be proposed in the first place. Those irresponsible individuals who don't leash their dogs, license them, vaccinate them, and allow them to free-roam will continue to do so regardless of any law. If your community leaders really care about keeping people safe, then they will hire more Animal Control personnel to patrol for free-roaming dogs, to ticket those who don't put their dogs on a leash, and to educate the community about what it means to be a responsible dog owner. For all the media likes to talk about "pit bull" mauling and children or the elderly who are supposedly hurt by these dogs, why do city councils seldom ever appropriate more funding for Animal Control? How can a community enforce any ordinance pertaining to animals, least of all a breed ban, when most communities do not have adequate Animal Control personnel or funding? It leaves those in the community and those of us outside looking in to wonder if the community leaders really do care about safety.

I'm only 17, almost 18 year's of age.I live in Dalton,GA.I love animals with a great passion, and it hurts to see a dog being critized just by it's breed. I believe the banning of the pit's is completly stupid.Its all about the way they are brought up!Human beings can be raised to be racist,a thief,and even a killer.Or they can be raised to be a respective well responsible individual.A pit can be raised as a loving dog, or an agressive fighter.The differance is, we can CHOOSE our path,dog's can't do that so easily.The people breeding and fighting the dog's are the one's the state should be after.Not the dog's themselves.It seem's to me,that banning the dog's is more simplier for the state.Which really make's me angry. Just like some people think that if one hispanic is illegal,and up to no good, they're all no good.Or if one southern man is a redneck, they're all redneck's.Go after the real problem, instead of the victim's."They are no victimless crime's, only crimeless victims." I have a pit english bulldog mix,and she is the biggest baby I have ever seen in any dog.She gives my 5 yr old nephew piggy back rides.She hasn't even growled at anyone or our other dog's.She was dropped off at my house at the age of about 7 week's.I raised her personally around my family here.She even allowed our Cat lick and clean her all the time.And she licked the cat clean as well. They are many breeds people can be afraid of:Dobermans,rotweilers,german shepards,even chow's.So its not the dog's fault for being scared and not knowing how to love.To love, it has to BE loved!Not abused and battered just to fight.Look people, if you are one who breeds to fight, go jump in the ring yourself,and fight another human being.That's more entertaining.Plus if your stupid enough to spend hundred's of dollar's on a dog to fight, you deserve to get the hell beat out of you.You deserve to be placed in that dog's position.To not be loved,to not know what true happiness is,to be cut and scarred up,to be scared to death by the site of a human or another dog. Can you really blame a dog for acting out in fear?Look up some homemade video's people have made of dog's being trained to fight.Look at how much THEY suffer, for human pleasure. its a shame really, and now your going to ban them for something they themselves have no control over??

I am another person who lives out of town and who doesn't own a pit bull. I am, however, very tired of seeing this hysterical and ineffective response to dangerous dogs.

Let's remember that no municipality has piles of money sitting around burning a hole in it's proverbial pocket. Enforcing a breed ban is absurdly costly - it involves additional animal control officers and kennel space as well as significant legal costs to the city as dog owners contest the legislation (take a look at the Tellings vs Toledo case, for one). Prince George, MD, estimated that their hard costs alone were over $600,000 and a task force determined that the ban did nothing to reduce dog bites.

So the community has to face the fact that a breed ban will necessitate hard choices - taking funding away from law enforcement or redirecting the efforts of an already overworked animal control department.

In Denver, a breed ban was instituted after there was one pit bull related fatality - I think it was in the 80's. Around the same time, there were fatalities in two other cities but they did not institute breed bans. Denver was the only one to have another dog attack fatality (non-pit bull) - perhaps because animal control was two busy knocking on doors and taking harmless dogs away from law abiding citizens to chase down any dangerous dog that hadn't been labeled a pit bull.

I don't know about the folks in South Pittsburgh, but hysteria isn't something I look for in my government officials.

I'm one of your out-of-towner interlopers interested in this issue. I'm not part of an organized group and I don't have a pit bull. I do have a Google alert set up to send me these types of stories.

One part of the discussion that isn't addressed is the racial and economic issues involved. The pit bull is most often owned by people who are poor, urban ethnic minorities who often do not have the money to take their dogs to puppy socialization and training classes.

Statistically they are more likely to live in rental housing, probably don't read the paper and don't vote. They are also more likely to surrender their pets to shelters or abandon them. These are the constituents that you expect to contact their city council member or write letters to the editor about the proposed pit bull ban?

Laws like this are only easy for politicians who get mileage out of appearing to save those pretty baby faces they like to kiss. In reality they should be voting to give more money to Animal Control so they can afford to enforce good dangerous dog laws. It's more expensive to send those same Animal Control officers to enforce illegal ownership of a banned breed than it is to have them follow up on neighborhood complaints of actual bad dog behavior.

Dog professionals typically love the breed. Ask a groomer or veterinarian whether they would rather handle a pitbull or the average cocker spaniel.

This isn't just a local issue. Everywhere politicians are hitting the campaign trail, looking for an easy target. Yet it's not easy. What about mixed breeds? What about dogs from the shelter that might look like a pit, but look more like a lab? What about the oops litter that the Lab owner down the street has, not knowing who the Puppy Daddy is? Boxer? or Pit? What to do with the puppies? What about visiting dog shows that will take their dollars elsewhere?

Ask how much money this will cost to enforce, and whether that money would be better spent enforcing current leash laws, and even providing free training and behavior classes for urban residents, so they can prevent aggression in dogs

When it seems too easy to be true, it usually is.