Another near-fatal dog mauling of a child was in the news this week and — surprise, surprise — the animals involved were pit bulls.
This is sure to set off yet another round of the arguments we hear these days every time these attacks occur. And because these attacks occur so regularly, it’s a debate to which we are all too accustomed.
On one side are pit bull owners and breeders, who believe their dogs are loyal companions with hearts of gold who are misunderstood by the general public. The dogs are never at fault; blame belongs with the owners who didn’t properly secure their pets. As an aside, they note that pit bulls aren’t the only dogs that bite people on occasion.
Then there is the other side, which can’t help but notice that maulings like that of 7-year-old Harmony Dawdy last week consistently involve pit bulls. And that pit bulls seem to be involved in so many troublesome events that involve dogs — especially where illegal dog fighting is involved.
Put us firmly in “the other side.”
We’re not deaf to the argument that pit bulls are instinctively loyal to their owners, to whom they can give years of loving companionship without any inappropriate aggression.
But we’re also neither stupid nor delusional. And you have to be so to deny that this type of dog — often impossible to precisely identify because of mixed breeding — carries with it an inherent and inordinate danger to anyone who crosses its path when unleashed.
And, again, pit bulls (or mixed breeds with some pit bull lineage) seem to find ways to be unleashed, uncaged and unsupervised on a regular basis, too often with catastrophic results.
Sure, we can blame the irresponsible owners for not doing things responsible owners do. They left a door open and the dog broke through a screen. They didn’t neuter a male to curb his aggression. They didn’t have their dog properly penned, and it dug out. They didn’t notice the hole in the fence.
What consolation is that to Harmony Dawdy, whose kidneys nearly shut down after her attack by a pair of pit bulls in the 1200 block of West Jefferson Street; whose ability to walk again is in question because her left leg was so severely damaged; whose ear had to be reattached and who will spend a significant part of her summer vacation in the St. John’s Hospital pediatric intensive care unit? All because she wanted to pet two dogs that had escaped their kennel.
Argue all you want about how this is really the owner’s fault for not keeping a 24-hour surveillance of the dogs’ kennel to make sure its security had not been breached. We’re just not buying it anymore.
If the gene that makes pit bulls prone to outbursts like this were a food ingredient, the FDA would have banned it decades ago. Pull that gene out of the pool and we’d still have dog attacks, but they’d be less severe and would happen far less often.
But that’s impossible at this point, just as attempts to outlaw pit bulls have proven futile. The “pit bull” demarcation itself is hardly scientific. We all know what they look like, but good luck establishing the lineage of virtually any stray “pit bull.”
Yes, responsible ownership can prevent these attacks. An even better means of prevention is to not bring these dogs into your community. Pit bull owners don’t like to hear it, but they must be aware that their beloved companions can, in any unsupervised moment, become potentially deadly menaces to unwitting strangers.
(State Journal Register - June 18, 2011)
This is sure to set off yet another round of the arguments we hear these days every time these attacks occur. And because these attacks occur so regularly, it’s a debate to which we are all too accustomed.
On one side are pit bull owners and breeders, who believe their dogs are loyal companions with hearts of gold who are misunderstood by the general public. The dogs are never at fault; blame belongs with the owners who didn’t properly secure their pets. As an aside, they note that pit bulls aren’t the only dogs that bite people on occasion.
Then there is the other side, which can’t help but notice that maulings like that of 7-year-old Harmony Dawdy last week consistently involve pit bulls. And that pit bulls seem to be involved in so many troublesome events that involve dogs — especially where illegal dog fighting is involved.
Put us firmly in “the other side.”
We’re not deaf to the argument that pit bulls are instinctively loyal to their owners, to whom they can give years of loving companionship without any inappropriate aggression.
But we’re also neither stupid nor delusional. And you have to be so to deny that this type of dog — often impossible to precisely identify because of mixed breeding — carries with it an inherent and inordinate danger to anyone who crosses its path when unleashed.
And, again, pit bulls (or mixed breeds with some pit bull lineage) seem to find ways to be unleashed, uncaged and unsupervised on a regular basis, too often with catastrophic results.
Sure, we can blame the irresponsible owners for not doing things responsible owners do. They left a door open and the dog broke through a screen. They didn’t neuter a male to curb his aggression. They didn’t have their dog properly penned, and it dug out. They didn’t notice the hole in the fence.
What consolation is that to Harmony Dawdy, whose kidneys nearly shut down after her attack by a pair of pit bulls in the 1200 block of West Jefferson Street; whose ability to walk again is in question because her left leg was so severely damaged; whose ear had to be reattached and who will spend a significant part of her summer vacation in the St. John’s Hospital pediatric intensive care unit? All because she wanted to pet two dogs that had escaped their kennel.
Argue all you want about how this is really the owner’s fault for not keeping a 24-hour surveillance of the dogs’ kennel to make sure its security had not been breached. We’re just not buying it anymore.
If the gene that makes pit bulls prone to outbursts like this were a food ingredient, the FDA would have banned it decades ago. Pull that gene out of the pool and we’d still have dog attacks, but they’d be less severe and would happen far less often.
But that’s impossible at this point, just as attempts to outlaw pit bulls have proven futile. The “pit bull” demarcation itself is hardly scientific. We all know what they look like, but good luck establishing the lineage of virtually any stray “pit bull.”
Yes, responsible ownership can prevent these attacks. An even better means of prevention is to not bring these dogs into your community. Pit bull owners don’t like to hear it, but they must be aware that their beloved companions can, in any unsupervised moment, become potentially deadly menaces to unwitting strangers.
(State Journal Register - June 18, 2011)
