Job Discussion Forums

[dixie]

Street dogs and rescue dogs are certainly the way to go. Both my lovely ladies are from the street. However, even coming from the streets, a dog should be an indoor animal (I realize that there are reasons/exceptions, but dogs need constant attention and companionship;hence being a pack animal ) Just need to get that out . . . especially considering the strong attitude towards roof/yard dogs.

[No Moss]

[Samantha]

The Gov't of Ontario, Canada agrees with your assessment of Pitbulls and took a bold step in outlawing them a couple of years ago.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/63564/pit_bulls_and_a_bad_law_in_ontario.html

[No Moss]

Oh, I think you can always find people who will defend their dogs, even after they have hurt a human being. There are several problems with your thesis, though. First of all, pit bulls--those are dogs who were bred to be put into a pit with a bear to fight to the death--are large, muscular dogs with especially strong jaw muscles. Their instinctual behavior is to grab hold and not let go, come hell or high water.

Second of all, pit bulls have a strong warding instinct. This is not unusual in dogs. But that means that they will protect their territory, and pit bullls can and will do that with bite as well as bark.

Thirdly, as the article mentioned, some people keep pit bulls, especially uncut males, as symbols of power. These dogs are not family pets and haven't been socialized to be around children. They are, literally, dangerous weapons.

Finally, the breed is unpredictable because it has been so overbred. It's overbred because it's so popular. I'll leave you to figure out why it's so popular.

Whatever the statistics are for dog bites, pit bulls and Rottweilers are responsible for 2/3 of the fatalities related to dog bites. Here are a few other stats for you. 77% of dog bite injuries involve the face, especially the nose area. The most likely victim is a child under 10, and that group accounts for almost all of the deaths and serious injuries. For children under 4, the most likely attacker is the family pet. Dog bites to a child's face represent 1% of all emergency room visits in the US.

When you compare the pit bull's involvment in killings (abolute numbers) and compare it to those of more popular breeds like beagles, poodles, collies, cocker spaniels, golden retrievers, and even German shepherds, the comparisons are frightening.

Pit bulls are banned in the Netherlands, and must be neutered, leashed, and (in public) muzzled in the UK and New Zealand. Pit bulls are banned in numerous cities in the US, including Denver, Colorado.

To put it in absolute numbers, in the US, pit bulls and Rottweilers have killed one child a week for the last 25 years.

[No Moss]

By the way, here's the incident that caused the law to be passed (from The New Yorker, October, 2006):

One afternoon last February, Guy Clairoux picked up his two-and-a half-year-old son, Jayden, from day care and walked him back to their house in the west end of Ottawa, Ontario. They were almost home. Jayden was straggling behind, and, as his father�s back was turned, a pit bull jumped over a back-yard fence and lunged at Jayden. �The dog had his head in its mouth and started to do this shake,� Clairoux�s wife, JoAnn Hartley, said later. As she watched in horror, two more pit bulls jumped over the fence, joining in the assault. She and Clairoux came running, and he punched the first of the dogs in the head, until it dropped Jayden, and then he threw the boy toward his mother. Hartley fell on her son, protecting him with her body. �JoAnn!� Clairoux cried out, as all three dogs descended on his wife. �Cover your neck, cover your neck.� A neighbor, sitting by her window, screamed for help. Her partner and a friend, Mario Gauthier, ran outside. A neighborhood boy grabbed his hockey stick and threw it to Gauthier. He began hitting one of the dogs over the head, until the stick broke. �They wouldn�t stop,� Gauthier said. �As soon as you�d stop, they�d attack again. I�ve never seen a dog go so crazy. They were like Tasmanian devils.� The police came. The dogs were pulled away, and the Clairouxes and one of the rescuers were taken to the hospital. Five days later, the Ontario legislature banned the ownership of pit bulls. �Just as we wouldn�t let a great white shark in a swimming pool,� the province�s attorney general, Michael Bryant, had said, �maybe we shouldn�t have these animals on the civilized streets.�

Pit bulls, descendants of the bulldogs used in the nineteenth century for bull baiting and dogfighting, have been bred for �gameness,� and thus a lowered inhibition to aggression. Most dogs fight as a last resort, when staring and growling fail. A pit bull is willing to fight with little or no provocation. Pit bulls seem to have a high tolerance for pain, making it possible for them to fight to the point of exhaustion. Whereas guard dogs like German shepherds usually attempt to restrain those they perceive to be threats by biting and holding, pit bulls try to inflict the maximum amount of damage on an opponent. They bite, hold, shake, and tear. They don�t growl or assume an aggressive facial expression as warning. They just attack. �They are often insensitive to behaviors that usually stop aggression,� one scientific review of the breed states. �For example, dogs not bred for fighting usually display defeat in combat by rolling over and exposing a light underside. On several occasions, pit bulls have been reported to disembowel dogs offering this signal of submission.� In epidemiological studies of dog bites, the pit bull is overrepresented among dogs known to have seriously injured or killed human beings, and, as a result, pit bulls have been banned or restricted in several Western European countries, China, and numerous cities and municipalities across North America. Pit bulls are dangerous.

[MELEE]

So why are you guys are the internet on the weekend anyways. Get out! Enjoy life! Heck go ice-skating...


I also have one rescued dog and one that was given to me by my neighbors. People are always asking me what breed my street dog is--she's beautiful, super buff with penetrating golden eyes. They are also always asking me for one of her pups--sorry she's been sterilized, but take any dog off the street, feed it, bathe it, love it and it will be beautiful too.


Dixie, as a country girl I have to say--yes dogs are pack animals, but no that doesn't mean it's cruel not to have them in your house. I know plenty of outside dogs that spend a lot of time with their human pack. It's not necessary to have them sleeping on your bed for their lives to be happy. Isolated on the roof 90% the time is not the way to treat a dog, but there's a lot between that and a dog that only goes outside with it's owner.

[notamiss]

Everyone has heard of chocolate being bad for dogs, but it's only a few days ago that I first heard of grapes and raisins being toxic! We used to sometimes toss grapes to the dog to watch her catch them... we won't be doing that any more. Apparently they can eat a few without harm, but too many grapes or raisins can cause kidney failure. See http://www.google.com/search?q=dogs+grapes+raisins: it's no urban legend.

[notamiss]