ATG wrote:
I'm not convinced.
Sorry 'bout that.
It would be better for soceity if these animals were put down.
It would not. I plan to prove this point. Here is some "positive press":
wiki wrote:
Although negative information about pit bulls is widespread and highly publicized, there are also many positive stories. Some work in hospitals and care facilities as certified therapy dogs, many are well-loved family pets, and some have even saved people's lives. There are many incidences of pit bulls being productively employed by U.S. Customs , as police K9s and as tracking K9s in various Search and Rescue organizations .
Often pit bulls have been reported to "adopt" other species of animals (such as kittens or squirrels), earning the breed the nickname "nanny dog".
A rescued pit bull called Popsicle is a United States Customs dog, and is famous for sniffing out one of the biggest cocaine busts in history.
In February, 2006, New Yorker magazine writer Malcolm Gladwell published an article surveying the research on pit bulls which concluded that legal attempts to ban the breed were both crude and unnecessary.
In February 2007 a pit bull named "Chief" rescued his family of humans from a spitting cobra by dashing in front of the attacking snake and taking the deadly bite himself. Chief subdued the snake but died of the venom 30 minutes later.
In April 2007, columnist John Canzano of The Oregonian newspaper wrote a favorable piece on Hollywood, the pit bull that formerly belonged to NBA player Qyntel Woods. What happened to Qyntel's pit bull? Hollywood, renamed Stella, was adopted by a loving owner and reformed from a fighting dog to a lap dog.
Other Facts
* The US Military chose an image of a pit bull to represent America on WWI war posters
* The pit bull is the only dog to have ever appeared on the cover of Life Magazine three times.
Famous people with Pit Bulls
* Actress Jessica Alba has a pit bull named Bowie
* Actress Jessica Biel has a pit bull named Tina
* Actors Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson have a pit bull named Penny Lane
* Radio host Ira Glass has a pit bull
* Daddy is a "pack member" of Cesar Millan's Dog Psychology Center. Hip hop artist Redman (rapper), Daddy’s original owner gave the four-month-old puppy to Cesar.
* Author Andrew Vachss, who has written numerous books and short stories featuring dogs of banned breeds, had a pit bull named Honey
* TV cook Rachael Ray has two pit bulls
* Comedian Jon Stewart has pit bulls.
* Actor Michael J. Fox owns a pit bull named Burnaby
* Rapper Big Boi from hip-hop duo Outkast is a registered pit bull breeder
* West Coast Chopper owner Jesse G. James owns three pit bulls; he named his 50's style burger stand after "Cisco"
* Actress Alicia Silverstone has a rescued pit bull
* Jin Joo Lee (Korean Singer) has two pitbulls
* Good Charlotte twin's Joel and Benji Madden own a Blue Pit Bull, named Easy.
* Football superstar Michael Vick owns several pit bulls in his Smithfield, Va. kennel.
Working Pit Bulls in the News
* Bandog Dread was an American Pit Bull who won multiple titles in conformation, competition obedience, Schutzhund, weightpull and herding, making him the most titled dog of any breed ever.
* Dakota is a rescue pit bull who searched for the remains of the astronauts who lost their lives in explosion of the space shuttle Columbia.
* Neville is a pit bull originally from Ontario. When the provincial pit bull ban went into effect he was rescued to Washington state, where he is now a police dog.
* Popsicle, named after police found him in a freezer during a drug raid, is now famous for sniffing out drugs for the DEA.
Pit Bulls in the Arts
* Pete the Pup ("Petey") from The Little Rascals series of films
* Tige from Buster Brown shoe advertisements
* Jennifer Lopez has a pit bull in her "I'm Glad" Video
* Veronica Mars, the title character in the CW television show, has a pit bull named Backup.
* A Staffordshire Bull Terrier plays the scene-stealing dog in the film Snatch.
* Arnold, the Pit Bull from Tiny Toon Adventures
Also a test conducted by the American Temperament Testing Society, pitbulls achieved a passing rate of 83.9%. Compared with other dogs, they found that there was no correlation between a pitbulls temperament and attack. Other popular breeds such as the Beagle (who passed with a 78.2%) and the Golden Retriever (83.2%) also showed that there was no correlation with breed and temperament.
Or perhaps you should moezy on over to the
Pits and Kids site to see how well mannered and loving the vast majority of pitbulls are.
Or if you are STILL not convinced, ponder this:
Lousiana SPCA wrote:
Pit bull attack stats may surprise you
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Last week, I received a phone call from someone wanting to know the truth behind pit bull statistics. And, on June 12, in a letter to the editor, a reader wrote about his fear of pit bulls. He said, "These dogs have killed more than 100 individuals in the past five years. If an automobile had a defect that killed 100 people, there would be a public outcry."
After you start looking a little deeper, the numbers tell a different tale. According to "Fatal Dog Attacks, the Stories Behind the Statistics," by Karen Delise there were 431 deaths because of dog attacks in the years from 1965 to 2001. Children 12 younger were the victims in 79 percent of the fatal attacks.
In 37 years, 342 children were killed by dogs, an average of about nine children a year. Shockingly, approximately three children are killed each day, or 1,100 per year, by their parents. Delise notes that "A child in the United States is over 100 times more likely to be killed by his or her parent or caretaker than by a dog."
Even more surprising is that approximately 50 infants die each year from broken baby cribs, and 250 newborns die at the hands of their parents or guardians. In comparison, two infants, on average, die a year from dog attacks.
Pit bull and pit mixes account for 21 percent of all human fatalities, while mixed breed dogs account for 16 percent and other nonspecified breeds, 15 percent. Delise's study demonstrates that the breed of dog should not be the sole factor by which an attack is judged. Other factors include inherited and learned behaviors, genetics, breeding, temperament, surgical sterilization, environmental stresses, owner responsibility, victim behavior, size and age, timing, and the physical condition and the size of dog.
Of the 28 dogs responsible for a fatal attack between 2000 and 2001, 26 were males and two were females. Of the 26 males, 21 were sexually intact; the reproductive status of the remaining five male dogs could not be determined. The male dog that killed the 12-year-old boy in San Francisco on June 3 was protecting his female dog in heat.
An owner's understanding of dogs, supervision of dogs and children, sterilization and chaining as a primary means of confinement all can play roles in attacks. Whether dogs were obtained for protection, guarding, fighting, are newly acquired or not properly introduced to newborns are among other issues.
In the end, many factors contribute to dog attacks. A popular slogan seems to capture the sentiment perfectly, "Judge the Deed Not the Breed."
Going off of the statistics, if you child is above the age of 6 he/she is more likely to be killed in an Airplane crash and if they are above the age of 10, more likely to be struck by lightning. Considering that the Pit Bull Terrior is one of the most common breeds in the U.S., that means the numbers for populations could be in the hundreds of thousands, yet there have only been 431 deaths since 1965 due to dog attacks and only 15% of that is attributed to the pitbull breed.
The facts speak for themselves. Mean look+Bad press=Bad Rep and nothing more. Parents kill their children more than dogs. Malfunctioning cribs have killed more than dogs. When you compare that to all the dog attacks and only 15% are Pit mixes, then your conclusion of genocide against an innocent breed falls apart.
<-- You'd have that put down?
