Resident wants all pit bulls, Rottweilers classified as dangerous animals

[DryCreek]

http://www.sun-herald.com/Newsstory.cfm?pubdate=041607&story=tp2ch6.htm&folder=NewsArchive2

This is the first time I've seen that someone has contacted the CDC to get their view on the way their statistics are used. Awesome!




In the letter, Hempel cites national statistics of dog bites, highlighting the percentage of fatal and maiming attacks caused by pit bulls or Rottweilers. He argues more than two-thirds of these attacks are by dogs that have no history of such aggression.

"This fact clearly illustrates the need to identify the dangers these animals present before the attack occurs, rather than after an attack as we do now," Hempel said in the letter.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are more than 4.5 million dog bites each year, with about 12 resulting in death.

However, calculating dog bite statistics from each breed is near impossible, since no central reporting agency exists, a CDC official said. "There is currently no accurate way to identify the number of dogs of a particular breed, and consequently no measure to determine which breeds are more likely to attack," said Gail Hayes, senior press officer with the CDC's Injury Center, in an e-mail.


Also nice to read......




"For people to say all pit bulls are bad is a fallacy," said Carol Vealy-Ellis, a Lehigh Acres resident and owner of a pit bull. "I think the dogs need to be judged on their own temperament -- not as a whole."

During a recent interview, Lt. Brian Jones of Charlotte County Animal Control said the agency doesn't have any statistics showing a trend of pit bull aggression to justify discrimination of the breed. Since 2001, Animal Control has euthanized two pit bulls. "We kind of call them like we see them," Jones said, referring to the potential danger of a specific breed.

[Cody]

Sorry guys, you'd better get a cup of coffee now. This is a long one.

I wish people would get to know these dogs. In my experience with Pitt Bulls they are loyal, loving, family dogs. I have never had one or met one that didn't love children. All dogs are unpredictable and we would be ignorant to think otherwise. I have known a few Labs that I didn't want to go near, nevermind having them around kids. When there is a dog attack does anyone look at the situation as to why the dog did it? For that matter, do we ever hear about the attacks concerning Goldens, Labs, etc.? They do happen. This is a pretty touchy subject for me because I had two dogs, Rottweiler x Pitt Bull. We think they were crossed with Pitt Bull, they really looked it. I had them put down on friday. They never bit or attacked anybody but from the day my husband and I brought them home the neighbours were up in arms. They used to taunt the dogs. Throw rocks at them & yell at them. Simply, they treated them like trash. To be honest with you I am surprised the dogs didn't go after them. Years before one of our neighbours tried the same thing with our other dog who was a Pitt x but the rest of the neighbours stood up and told him to get a grip. All those good neighbours have now moved away, replaced with people from the city moving out to the country. I'm sorry to all you "city people", I'm not trying to put you all in the same group so I appoligize now if I have offended anyone. That certainly is not my intention.
I was more afraid of what my neighbours would do to my dogs then what my dogs would do to them. It got to be that if my dogs didn't know and trust you, they didn't like you. What a shame! I feel I could have done things differently so that never happened. But what could I have done. I tried to socialize them as much as I could but that is very hard when as soon as people see you have a Pitt or other "like" breed they pull away and get angry with you. They are trying to ban them in my area and have in other cities close by. I put my dogs through lots of training programs too but I couldn't change who they were. I will always feel I failed them in some way and that kills me.
If we walked our dogs we did it at night so they would not be seen. We kept the curtains closed in our house so the neighbours could not see them through the windows and my doors were always locked. If we went off the property with the dogs we had to take pictures of proof since the neighbours would make false aligations that the dogs were "stalking" them. I was afraid to leave the property since I didn't know what the neighbours would do next. We could have put the dogs in an outdoor kennel but then they would be sitting ducks. We figured the neighbours would either throw in poison meat or maybe shoot them. We almost needed to have a 24 hour video on our dogs just to prove that they were not doing anything wrong. That is no way for a dog to live. We loved our dogs more than we loved ourselves and that is why we put them to rest. They are running free now.
They are truly happy dogs, doing what dogs do.
Although I know we did the right thing for them, I have never felt so ashaimed and alone.

These laws are put in place for a reason and I do agree with some of them. However, where I live it seems it is much too easy for someone to have a dog deemed dangerous. If a dog looks at a person in an aggressive manner they can have it deemed dangerous. Of course they need to have more than one person agree with the aligation before that happens. But too many people think these breeds of dogs are killers so of course they are going to say they are dangerous. The fines for any violation are high and licensing is out of this world. It cost us $600/year to license our two dogs. They must also be microchiped. If you move, put your dog in the care of anyone else, or your dog dies you must immediatly notify animal control.
I feel the government needs to get animal control and the S.P.C.A. working together on this so the needs of the animal are not impacted so much. The S.P.C.A. is disbanding where I am from and that just can't happen. They work for the animals rights. Animal control works for the publics safety. Can't we all be safe if we work together? Confining dogs of any breed will frustrate them and eventually make them aggressive. Have you never heard the term "Feeling like a caged animal"?
My neighbours were wasting tax payers money with all their complaints. Why was there no recourse. I always felt there must be definative proof. Not one persons word against anothers. Animal control said they knew alot of these aligations were false but because there were so many there was nothing they could do.
We need to lobby to have these laws changed. I don't know how but for the memory of my two, Maximus & Cybil, I will not stop. I do not want other dogs to live like prisoners as mine did.

Please everybody, hug your dog for me. Introduce it to everyone you meet and if you see a dog, introduce yourself to it. If my neighbours had only gotten to know my dogs they would have seen the same love and affection that we did.

http://www.sun-herald.com/Newsstory.cfm?pubdate=041607&story=tp2ch6.htm&folder=NewsArchive2

This is the first time I've seen that someone has contacted the CDC to get their view on the way their statistics are used. Awesome!


Also nice to read......

[mydawgs]

I hate dog bite statistics. They are just not calulated correctly, then they are scewed to fit some politicians agenda. If you are going to publish a meaningful statistic, the parameters of the study must be published, and the findings must ne normalized to the parameters, otherwise they are meaningless.


For example, lets say we count all the dog bites in area A. In area a the dog population consists of 100 PBs and 20 Labs. The study indicates 4 PB bit, and two labs. So the percentage of the dog population represented by the PBs as normalized to their population is 4 bites/100 PBs or 4 percent. The percentage of the dog population represented by the labs normalized to their population is 2 bites/20 labs or 10 percent. What the media does is divide the bite statistic by the total assumed dog poulation....well hell if you live in area dominated by a specific breed, that breed is going to be represented the most by it's activity by the sheer fact that there are more.....I have not seen one bite study with all the data publisized, but any study that does not represent the demographics of the area is not worth looking at IMHO.

[ABK]

I don't know if this is true or not, but I once heard that if you factoring in demogrpahics, that pit bulls are actually responsible for about 2% of dog bites over all & the cocker was the #1 biter.

[laurajean]

You have my deepest sympathy Cody. Your story is very sad.
Where do you live anyway? I sure don't want to be anywhere near there. Sounds like your "neighbors" are crazy and need to get lives.

[ChiaPit]

I don't know if this is true or not, but I once heard that if you factoring in demogrpahics, that pit bulls are actually responsible for about 2% of dog bites over all & the cocker was the #1 biter.
I heard this too (or something similar)...and my opinion is its probably even much lower due to the fact that so many dogs are mislabeled...

[Attila]

good post ya'll. Just so happened I did drink a cup of coffee. Ironic I had just poured it before clicking on the thread.

[Cody]

I live in Langley, B.C. Canada. It sounds like most of you live in the U.S. I'm sure there are problems with the laws no matter where you live but hopefully we can change them to some degree.