Pit bull fatally mauls 3-month-old baby in Texas

[JASMAK]

We had a beagle...nipped the kids alll the time and they were terrified. We gave him to MIL.

Fatal dog attacks by breed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_States


Lab retriever attack
https://www.opposingviews.com/i/soc...lls-dismembers-2-month-old-boy-south-carolina

 

[steph.]

Some breeds are definately more predisposed to being aggressive. Of course their up bringing has a huge impact on how they turn out, and any dog can be dangerous, but some breeds like the pit-bull are more likely to attack imo.

I also have been chased by 2x pit-bulls. I was taking my little poodle for a walk, when i saw them charging towards me. I grabbed my dog and ran, managed to close the gate of my house just as they caught up with me. The same dogs charged at my neighbour's baby while it was in the pram. The dad lifted the baby out and the dogs started jumping up trying to grab it. The same dogs then killed another dog in the area.

 

[special_kala]

Scary how much dogs attacks have increased!

 

[RoseKitten]

But how come you never hear about golden retrievers attacking and killing people? I mean, I'm sure there's a story or two out there, but there's probably 100 pit bull stories to every golden retriever story.

Because goldens are cute. It genuinely is that simple. Every so often the media changes which dogs are on the "to hate" list, and that is the breed you will hear the most stories about.

I was attacked by a pit bull when I was 11. It jumped on me, grabbed and ripped and tore at my sleeve (thankfully I was wearing a huuuge puffy winter coat). The owner was luckily right there and able to pull the dog off. I was covered in bruises on my arm and I am so glad they put that dog down and I remember wishing it would rot in hell. I was charged by loose pit bulls on 2 separate occasions this last year WHILE I was pregnant. Luckily the owner was able to corral them back up on one occasion and the second occasion I was able to scare it off by screaming and hollering (and probably crying) at it. I start tearing up just thinking about the potential damage they could have done.

I've never been charged at by a golden retriever. Or a pug. Or a lab. Or a beagle.

I've seen quite a variety of dog attacks, actually. I'm sorry to hear about your experience with pit bulls, but it is bad ownership on the handlers part. Some breeds take more training, or non-standard training, in order to be safe. Pits can be very territorial, and without proper training and control, they can be very dangerous. They're more susceptible to lashing out when not treated properly.

Any dog can be dangerous, and I've been aggressively attacked (as has most of the family, actually) by my grandfathers female Pomeranian. Nobody reports it, nobody cares, and everybody just thinks it's "so cute" when she does it because she weighs about 3lbs.

Larger dogs will cause more damage than smaller dogs. Similarly, hard mouth dogs (rotts, pitts, etc) are more likely to cause damage than soft mouth dogs (labs, retrievers, etc). A hard mouth dog can, however, be prevented from getting a real hard mouth, by simply not allowing those muscles to develop any strength, and it makes their bites more on tier with that of soft mouthed dogs. Most people don't know/don't care.

Interesting read, although I know it won't change the personal experience you have. Aside from the rott we had to put down for attacking a goat, the most aggressive dog I ever had was 20 lbs. When we realized her problems, we had to give her back to the shelter because she was fostered. We told them of her aggression, her biting, and her dangers, and the rolled their eyes at us, told us that we "must" be abusing her, and that we were disgusting individuals. Some dogs are more dangerous than others, but not solely because of their breed. But more frequently, the owners are bad. I felt like I had failed the neurotic dog, because I wanted to fix her behavior, and couldn't.

https://indigorescue.org/?page_id=83

 

[faun]

I have been bitten by three dogs and have scars still the first was a collie i walked past the end of a drive and it rushed out and bit me on the calf quite nastily, second was my aunties chocolate lab it was a lovely dog we had all played with it for years and then it just snapped and my little sister and then me when i tried to pull it off her, thirdly was by an afghan hound that i used to dog walk for a neighbour i went to let it off the lead to play in the field and it chomped my wrist. So in my opinion it doesn't matter what breed a dog is any can bite its just how bad it is obviously with a pittbull type dog they have very big mouths and teeth and they rip and tear its not just a clean bite like a lot of breeds. My parents have a staffy after having labs for years and he is just the best dog but i wouldn't leave the kids alone with him, i wouldn't leave the kids alone with my dog either a springer spaniel. Its just common sense never leave children unattended with dogs of any breed.

 

[Andypanda6570]

In New York if a dog bits even once and they know about it, the dog will be put down. In Florida it is illegal to own a Pitt but some do have them and if they get caught there is a fine and the dog is humanely euthanized. I am sorry but I feel if ANY dog bites a person or child they should be put down and not re-homed. I would not ever chance that, you don't know what that dog will be around once out of your care . Especially a Pitt or a Rotti, those dogs can do serious damage to a human and worse to a child. JMO

 

[RoseKitten]

In New York if a dog bits even once and they know about it, the dog will be put down. In Florida it is illegal to own a Pitt but some do have them and if they get caught there is a fine and the dog is humanely euthanized. I am sorry but I feel if ANY dog bites a person or child they should be put down and not re-homed. I would not ever chance that, you don't know what that dog will be around once out of your care . Especially a Pitt or a Rotti, those dogs can do serious damage to a human and worse to a child. JMO

Just thought I'd chime in on the FL thing, since we live here. lol The legality varies by county, but FL as a whole doesn't have any dog breed bans. What it is, is that homeowners policies won't cover some breeds, and some won't even let you insure with them if you have a "dangerous" breed, which makes it very hard to own them unless you get a separate umbrella policy to cover that dog specifically. I'm a huge pitt lover, so I've looked into it quite a bit.

 

[Andypanda6570]

In New York if a dog bits even once and they know about it, the dog will be put down. In Florida it is illegal to own a Pitt but some do have them and if they get caught there is a fine and the dog is humanely euthanized. I am sorry but I feel if ANY dog bites a person or child they should be put down and not re-homed. I would not ever chance that, you don't know what that dog will be around once out of your care . Especially a Pitt or a Rotti, those dogs can do serious damage to a human and worse to a child. JMO

Just thought I'd chime in on the FL thing, since we live here. lol The legality varies by county, but FL as a whole doesn't have any dog breed bans. What it is, is that homeowners policies won't cover some breeds, and some won't even let you insure with them if you have a "dangerous" breed, which makes it very hard to own them unless you get a separate umbrella policy to cover that dog specifically. I'm a huge pitt lover, so I've looked into it quite a bit.

Where my dad lives in Boca Raton it is illegal to own a Pitt. I did think it was illegal in ALL of Florida, thanks for the info..

 

[Liesje]

I don't understand why people must always blame either the dog or the owner. Some believe it's the owner, some believe it's the breed. Normally those people have owned two dogs or been to a dog park, yet have all sorts of opinions and condemnations for one or the other.
Humans are allowed to have different personalities, why aren't dogs? If people focused less on "predicting" outcomes and more on assessing each individual situation, there would likely be less accidents.
As to why pitbulls are always in the news? There are more of them. If you have 700 red cars and 5 blue cars, which are going to be in more accidents?

 

[alaskagrown]

I remember when I was pregnant there was a story on the news in February about a family who was in the room with their baby who was laying on the bed. Their pit bull bolted into the room, ran past the parents, and savagely mauled the baby to death in front of their eyes. So I'm not sure how safe they are to be around babies even while attended.

 

[RoseKitten]

I remember when I was pregnant there was a story on the news in February about a family who was in the room with their baby who was laying on the bed. Their pit bull bolted into the room, ran past the parents, and savagely mauled the baby to death in front of their eyes. So I'm not sure how safe they are to be around babies even while attended.

This is 100% true of *any* animal. Period.

 

[JASMAK]

I don't understand why people must always blame either the dog or the owner. Some believe it's the owner, some believe it's the breed. Normally those people have owned two dogs or been to a dog park, yet have all sorts of opinions and condemnations for one or the other.
Humans are allowed to have different personalities, why aren't dogs? If people focused less on "predicting" outcomes and more on assessing each individual situation, there would likely be less accidents.
As to why pitbulls are always in the news? There are more of them. If you have 700 red cars and 5 blue cars, which are going to be in more accidents?

In my city, the #1 dog type was Lab or lab combo. There was very few pitbulls. I work for my city, so I looked the info up to see.

 

[alaskagrown]

I don't understand why people must always blame either the dog or the owner. Some believe it's the owner, some believe it's the breed. Normally those people have owned two dogs or been to a dog park, yet have all sorts of opinions and condemnations for one or the other.
Humans are allowed to have different personalities, why aren't dogs? If people focused less on "predicting" outcomes and more on assessing each individual situation, there would likely be less accidents.
As to why pitbulls are always in the news? There are more of them. If you have 700 red cars and 5 blue cars, which are going to be in more accidents?

In my city, the #1 dog type was Lab or lab combo. There was very few pitbulls. I work for my city, so I looked the info up to see.

Same with my city. Labs and lab/husky are the top breeds here.

 

[patch2006uk]

I'm not the biggest dog lover, but even if smaller dogs are statistically more 'aggressive' than some of the bigger dogs with worse reputations, I'd still rather be bitten by a chihuahua.

 

[RoseKitten]

I'm not the biggest dog lover, but even if smaller dogs are statistically more 'aggressive' than some of the bigger dogs with worse reputations, I'd still rather be bitten by a chihuahua.

And that's exactly why little dogs are allowed to bite as much as they please in most cases, because they're small and don't "hurt" as badly as the larger dogs. I guess so long as you don't have kids with small moving parts, you're probably fine with smaller dogs, but they aren't that much safer. My dad lost part of his finger to a pomm (previously mentioned, I believe) because the only way to remove the dog was to break it off of him, and he wasn't willing to do that. My cousin has a scar on her face from where the little turd went for her cheek. Keep in mind that this is a 3lb dog. Little dogs can, and will, do damage.

 

[robinator]

^^^wtf? Don't hurt as badly? That's ridiculous logic - little dogs have teeth that are just as sharp. And have a lot to prove, to make up for their size!

 

[staybeautiful]

Pit bulls are illegal in the UK, as are Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino and Fila Brasileiro (sp?). All dog breeds have a reason for why they were bred - in the case of the pit bull and the others that are illegal in the UK, they are animals that were originally bred, at least in part, for their aggressive tendencies, and quick research online showed that attacks by pit bulls are far more likely to be fatal than biting incidents involving other breeds (labs etc).
Temperament can be breed specific, no matter how well the dog is raised. This is why you'll tend to see the same types of dogs being used as working dogs - e.g. labradors are overwhelmingly used as Guide Dogs for the blind. However, it is also down to the owner. My SIL has two staffies, who are the most docile animals you'd ever meet and they have had no reservations about having them around 2yo niece, who is daft about them and the dogs are protective of her. SIL and her OH made sure the dogs always know who's boss, and of course they still get watched around her to make sure that she doesn't provoke them. On the other hand, we have to watch MIL's cocker spaniel, who is normally dead soft, around small children because for some reason she just doesn't like them once they get mobile - she doesn't like when children, as children will, want to pet her because they're too rough for her liking. This is despite her usual obedience and friendliness. My mum had to get rid of our Golden Retriever after my brother started to crawl/walk because of the same problem - it was very hard to get my brother to leave Ziggy alone, and Ziggy became massively wary of him - and she then had problems getting the dog to obey her as he used to.

Any animal needs to be watched around small children, no matter how well socialised you think they are, and any dog can go bad given the right/wrong mix of circumstances. I do think it's massively unfair when particular breeds are demonised because they'll be in vogue with halfwits and are raised by their owners in a way where they want them to be aggressive to strangers (Staffies are getting this quite a lot at the moment, Rottweilers got it 10 years ago). However, in the case of the pitt bull I do think it's a bit more down to nature than nurture.

 

[Liesje]

I work with my dogs in protection sports and I'd have to agree that I'd much rather be bitten by a chihuahua lol
I've been bitten once without a bite sleeve and thought the bones in my arm were going to break. Puncture wounds I can (and do!) take every day.
Small dogs' teeth are hardly even long enough to go through skin, one of my dogs' canines are 3cm long... One of the dogs in my club have titanium teeth because his canines were broken, so when it's the difference of being bitten by 4 titanium teeth long enough to go through my arm or get bit by a Venus flytrap, I'll take the chihuahua lol

 

[steph.]

I'm not the biggest dog lover, but even if smaller dogs are statistically more 'aggressive' than some of the bigger dogs with worse reputations, I'd still rather be bitten by a chihuahua.

And that's exactly why little dogs are allowed to bite as much as they please in most cases, because they're small and don't "hurt" as badly as the larger dogs. I guess so long as you don't have kids with small moving parts, you're probably fine with smaller dogs, but they aren't that much safer. My dad lost part of his finger to a pomm (previously mentioned, I believe) because the only way to remove the dog was to break it off of him, and he wasn't willing to do that. My cousin has a scar on her face from where the little turd went for her cheek. Keep in mind that this is a 3lb dog. Little dogs can, and will, do damage.

But the thing is if the dog was a pit bull instead of a 3lbs pom your dad might have lost his arm instead of a finger, and your cousin might have died

 

[RoseKitten]

I'm not the biggest dog lover, but even if smaller dogs are statistically more 'aggressive' than some of the bigger dogs with worse reputations, I'd still rather be bitten by a chihuahua.

And that's exactly why little dogs are allowed to bite as much as they please in most cases, because they're small and don't "hurt" as badly as the larger dogs. I guess so long as you don't have kids with small moving parts, you're probably fine with smaller dogs, but they aren't that much safer. My dad lost part of his finger to a pomm (previously mentioned, I believe) because the only way to remove the dog was to break it off of him, and he wasn't willing to do that. My cousin has a scar on her face from where the little turd went for her cheek. Keep in mind that this is a 3lb dog. Little dogs can, and will, do damage.

But the thing is if the dog was a pit bull instead of a 3lbs pom your dad might have lost his arm instead of a finger, and your cousin might have died

So, what exactly is your point? I've said that any dog can do damage, and any animal can do damage. That is my point. It's not even a matter of scale as far as I'm concerned. Had that pomm bit a baby, that baby would have been permanently deformed, and could have lost limbs.