Marty
04-05-2007, 09:02 PM
Bowling Green,OH -- America is a dog country. Man's best friend has taken up residence in 43 million homes, and a study done by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association puts the number of dogs in America at 73 million.
That's one dog for every four people in the United States. Yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control's most recent data, there are only about 4.7 million dog bites every year. Assuming every dog bite comes from a different dog, that's still less than seven percent of dogs that end up biting someone. And of all these bites, only about a dozen die each year.
Keep in mind that all these statistics are from the most recent reports and studies, many of which are from the late 1990s. They are also only an analysis of the reported bites. This is important to keep in mind because when a pit bull, Rottweiler or German Shepherd bite you, you're most likely going to report it because it will probably require medical attention. Conversely, a bite from a Pekinese or a Shih Tzu will be relatively minor and are less likely to be reported.
For the fervor with which Ohio is persecuting pit bulls, you'd think the statistics would be a little higher. In their defense, pit bulls' bad rap have come from their overwhelming presence in the world of illegal dog fighting.
The problem is that the viciousness of fighting dogs has been extended to all dogs classified as American Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers.
But the real problem lies with the owners of these dogs. There are three types of pit bull owners: the type who have a genuine love for the breed, or just the particular dog and have the time and ability to care for and train the dog; the type who want a big, scary dog but are ignorant of the methods for training dogs; and the last type are those who own pit bulls for the purpose of raising a vicious "killer dog," most likely to be used in dog fights.
Think about it: The people most likely to be bad pet parents are those who are training the dogs to be guard dogs or fighting dogs. What kind of dog are they going to get? It's not going to be a Dalmatian. They want a winner, the biggest, strongest dog they can find. This means pit bulls.
It's these people whose dogs are to blame for the national bad rap of the American Pit Bull Terrier. It's these owners whose dogs end up in the news. Think of the last two bit dog attack stories from Toledo this year. The first was a case where a three month old, 20 pound pit bull puppy managed to chew the foot off a four-year-old with spinal bifida. Even Lucas County Dog Warden, Tom Skeldon, who has a reputation for being vehemently anti-pit bull, had to admit there's no way to even know how long the puppy had to chew in order to sever the foot.
This is not a vicious dog attack; it's a case of bad parenting, endangerment even, for leaving a teething puppy alone with a child who can't feel his legs.
I know what you news junkies are thinking: "But Amanda, what about the pit bull that mauled a woman and her cat on March 19?"
Oh, you mean the case of the woman who was dog-sitting a strange dog for a friend who had only had the dog for three days? Yeah, I seem to remember that one. The story was so sensationalized by the police and the local news station that I could actually feel my blood pressure rising.
This a classic case of that second kind of dog owner I told you about. The kind that doesn't know that dogs will chase and kill small animals (kittens, rats, birds etc.) unless trained not to and introduced to any small animals it might be sharing its living environment with. The woman even admitted that the kitten got past her and into the basement (where the dog was being kept) on accident when she went downstairs to clean up.
Like I said, it's bad pet owners who are causing the bad rap for pit bulls, not the actual temperament of the dogs.
The American Temperament Test Society is a nonprofit organization whose sole purpose is the testing of all dog breeds, including mixed breeds, for aggressiveness. As of December 2006, the ATTS has tested over 27,000 dogs. Of these, they've tested 542 American Pit Bull Terriers, 61 Staffordshire Bull Terriers and 521 American Staffordshire Terriers. Of these 1,124 animals, 84.4 percent of them passed the test.
At first glance, this may not seem like a significant enough percentage, until you consider that of all the breeds of dog which have had at least 100 animals tested, 35 breeds scored lower passing rates than pit bulls, including Border Collies (80 percent), Cocker Spaniels (81.7 percent), Doberman Pinschers (76.8 percent), Giant Schnauzers (74.6 percent) and Shetland Sheepdogs (67.3 percent). As a matter of fact, the overall passing rate for all 27,000 dogs is only 81.5 percent, three percent lower than that of pit bulls.
All dogs have the potential to be dangerous. The bigger the dog, the more dangerous they could be, but it all depends on training and ownership. Don't blame the breed for the faults of the owner. As author and dog trainer Brian Kilcommons said in a ABC news article: "We are looking at the wrong end of the leash."
Send comments to Amanda Hoover at hoovama@bgsu.edu.
http://media.www.bgnews.com/media/storage/paper883/news/2007/04/05/Opinion/Owners.Not.Just.Dogs.Responsible.For.Dog.Bites-2825496.shtml
That's one dog for every four people in the United States. Yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control's most recent data, there are only about 4.7 million dog bites every year. Assuming every dog bite comes from a different dog, that's still less than seven percent of dogs that end up biting someone. And of all these bites, only about a dozen die each year.
Keep in mind that all these statistics are from the most recent reports and studies, many of which are from the late 1990s. They are also only an analysis of the reported bites. This is important to keep in mind because when a pit bull, Rottweiler or German Shepherd bite you, you're most likely going to report it because it will probably require medical attention. Conversely, a bite from a Pekinese or a Shih Tzu will be relatively minor and are less likely to be reported.
For the fervor with which Ohio is persecuting pit bulls, you'd think the statistics would be a little higher. In their defense, pit bulls' bad rap have come from their overwhelming presence in the world of illegal dog fighting.
The problem is that the viciousness of fighting dogs has been extended to all dogs classified as American Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers.
But the real problem lies with the owners of these dogs. There are three types of pit bull owners: the type who have a genuine love for the breed, or just the particular dog and have the time and ability to care for and train the dog; the type who want a big, scary dog but are ignorant of the methods for training dogs; and the last type are those who own pit bulls for the purpose of raising a vicious "killer dog," most likely to be used in dog fights.
Think about it: The people most likely to be bad pet parents are those who are training the dogs to be guard dogs or fighting dogs. What kind of dog are they going to get? It's not going to be a Dalmatian. They want a winner, the biggest, strongest dog they can find. This means pit bulls.
It's these people whose dogs are to blame for the national bad rap of the American Pit Bull Terrier. It's these owners whose dogs end up in the news. Think of the last two bit dog attack stories from Toledo this year. The first was a case where a three month old, 20 pound pit bull puppy managed to chew the foot off a four-year-old with spinal bifida. Even Lucas County Dog Warden, Tom Skeldon, who has a reputation for being vehemently anti-pit bull, had to admit there's no way to even know how long the puppy had to chew in order to sever the foot.
This is not a vicious dog attack; it's a case of bad parenting, endangerment even, for leaving a teething puppy alone with a child who can't feel his legs.
I know what you news junkies are thinking: "But Amanda, what about the pit bull that mauled a woman and her cat on March 19?"
Oh, you mean the case of the woman who was dog-sitting a strange dog for a friend who had only had the dog for three days? Yeah, I seem to remember that one. The story was so sensationalized by the police and the local news station that I could actually feel my blood pressure rising.
This a classic case of that second kind of dog owner I told you about. The kind that doesn't know that dogs will chase and kill small animals (kittens, rats, birds etc.) unless trained not to and introduced to any small animals it might be sharing its living environment with. The woman even admitted that the kitten got past her and into the basement (where the dog was being kept) on accident when she went downstairs to clean up.
Like I said, it's bad pet owners who are causing the bad rap for pit bulls, not the actual temperament of the dogs.
The American Temperament Test Society is a nonprofit organization whose sole purpose is the testing of all dog breeds, including mixed breeds, for aggressiveness. As of December 2006, the ATTS has tested over 27,000 dogs. Of these, they've tested 542 American Pit Bull Terriers, 61 Staffordshire Bull Terriers and 521 American Staffordshire Terriers. Of these 1,124 animals, 84.4 percent of them passed the test.
At first glance, this may not seem like a significant enough percentage, until you consider that of all the breeds of dog which have had at least 100 animals tested, 35 breeds scored lower passing rates than pit bulls, including Border Collies (80 percent), Cocker Spaniels (81.7 percent), Doberman Pinschers (76.8 percent), Giant Schnauzers (74.6 percent) and Shetland Sheepdogs (67.3 percent). As a matter of fact, the overall passing rate for all 27,000 dogs is only 81.5 percent, three percent lower than that of pit bulls.
All dogs have the potential to be dangerous. The bigger the dog, the more dangerous they could be, but it all depends on training and ownership. Don't blame the breed for the faults of the owner. As author and dog trainer Brian Kilcommons said in a ABC news article: "We are looking at the wrong end of the leash."
Send comments to Amanda Hoover at hoovama@bgsu.edu.
http://media.www.bgnews.com/media/storage/paper883/news/2007/04/05/Opinion/Owners.Not.Just.Dogs.Responsible.For.Dog.Bites-2825496.shtml