Pit Bulls: Born to Be Wild?--Part II

[Marty]

Savannah, GA -- Pit bulls may be some of the toughest dogs around, but does that always mean they're mean? Everybody has an opinion. When they're aggressive or vicious, is it genetic? Or is it the way owners train them?

Plenty of people have lined up on both sides. A push earlier this year in Georgia to ban the dogs set emotions even higher, but to talk with victims of pit bulls, even they don't agree on how to handle them.

Carrie Holt doesn't have to look at pictures to remember her horrific ordeal. Last June, living in Augusta, she was attacked by a pit bull.

"The pit bull started pulling me down," she recalled. "I hit the ground and he went after my head. So I had 29 stitches total inside my head, basically fixing the lining of my skull."

That ordeal leaves her in favor of restrictions on what she calls a naturally aggressive breed. "People say it's how they're raised, but I've never seen a genuinely nice pit bull," she told us.

Last week, we met Akasha, Stephanie Webb's pit bull. Webb admits the dog's name--from an Anne Rice novel--is a jab at pit bull's bad reputation. "Everybody damns pit bulls and as a baby, she was the queen dog, she got named Akasha because she's Queen of the Damned."

For this story, we played with Akasha in front of the camera. After Carrie Holt's interview, we showed her the footage. "I seriously can't believe it," she said. "I would be scared to death to have a pit bull in my face."

Understandable given her experience.

Ron Lee remodels rental units for a living. Three weeks ago, his six-year-old son Brandon was with him on one job. "When he got around the back, the dog came out at him, attacked him, jumped on him," Lee recalled.

He's talking about Romeo, a pit bull in custody at Effingham County Animal Control. The father says the attack left puncture wounds on Brandon's leg and stomach.

But Lee doesn't support an outright pit bull ban. "I've been around plenty of dogs and some of them, you back off quick," he said. "It doesn't matter pit bulls or what. They could be poodles or anything."

While Lee says dogs are products of their environment, not breed, Holt would feel safer if pit bulls were just a memory. "I've never had good experiences," she said. "I've had them growl at me and I've had them lunge at me. This was just icing on the cake."

Supporters of the dogs say attacks by other breeds are often lumped in as pit bulls, and before pit bulls were the topic, it was Rottweilers, and before that Dobermans.

In the last few weeks we've reported the attack on Brandon Lee and a heroic pit bull which smelled an electrical fire and saved its family. So the absolutes may be hard to find, but the emotions on both sides are there.

Reported by: Dal Cannady, dcannady@wtoc.com

[miakoda]

it seems pit bull attack victims are held up on a pedastal.....what the hell about the rest of us?? I wouldn't call my 28 some stitches & permant scars on my arm & hand compliments of the "family friendly never ever ever aggressive" labrador breed somehting to shrug off. What about victims' families whose family members have been killed by pomeranians, jack russels, labs, golden retrievers, huskies, pointers & the unmentionable number of those who have victims of dog attacks by every breed out there? DO WE NOT MATTER MR. GOVERNMENT? Did we not feel pain? The owners of the lab that bit me were able to keep their dog and quarantine him at HOME (he wasn't current on vacc.) all b/c he was a LAB! It took that same dog mauling the owner's sons' friend, who was 5, before they were forced to euthanize him. That 5 year suffered a much worse fate than me as the 110lb lab went for his head & neck in the attack & required 3, not 1, but 3 people to pull the dog off the kid. But nooooooo, only "pit bulls" attack.................................:mad:

[Bluepit50]

Forget the city and state legal system, the U.S. Government needs to wake up and take care of this issue of breed banning as it is unconstitutional. It will teach everyone that discrimination is o.k. in a country that is normally strict against racism. You can't say that a pet is dangerous and illegal in New York but o.k. in Atlanta, if something was dangerous than it would'nt change by moving to a different city, what idiots!!!

To the girl who was attacked, sorry for your experience but what you stated and how you feel about pits is already proven not true and a very ignorant way to think. Let me ask you, a girl who was raped but a hispanic would be incorrect to say that Hispanics are dangerous, someone beat and robbed by a black would be stupid to say that blacks are dangerous and should be banned from the country, someone abused by a white person would be stupid to hold it against the race from one idiot. A breed of dog is like a race of people believe it are not. Breeds of dogs and races of people both carry certain physical traits, charactoristics, history, different ways of being raised, different statistics, being more prone to certain health problems than others, ect. but we still treat all with the same respect and freedoms as it is the right thing and each individual will have a different personality and will make different choices just like each dog. Anyone who is for breed banning in my opinion is a racist person whether they will admit it our not because they base a whole race on just a few bad individuals. That's the way they think, so there is no difference in how they think about people, they are just to afraid to admit it. Dogs are a easy way to let their racists minds run their mouths, just a cover up! where all you people at, I never see you come and join converstions here? We all respectfully join in you guy's sites, I know you all are secretly reading our posts here so speak up!!! Lets hear some of your ignorant thoughts and racists views please, I need to show you how your thinking is just like Hitler. Speak up PETA, you too, all of you people, speak up, this is America and you people are messing up our country and taking our freedoms away, we have enough problems.

The girl attacked said she never seen any nice pitbulls, ive never seen any mean ones. Get your facts straight girl, I don't feel bad for people like you. When I was 5 I was taken to the hospital for Spinal Meningitis and became paralized then went into a coma. Everyday I had spinal taps and was basically dead. I still have scars on my back and am 100% healthy going to the gym. I don't cry, I get up and succeed. We all have been hurt, I was abused by 4 different people in my life as a kid, I can tell you stories worse than your dog attack. At 12 my dad broke 4 of my fingers, beat me against the wall, and stabbed me with a broom stick after it was broke over my hand. My step dad choked me, put me outside in boxers during the winter for an hour at 5 degree wheather. I am the oldest of 7 kids and he would hurt my brothers and sisters so I would try and protect them as a kid and he would beat my ass and almost kill me each time, and many more things. I can go on all day but guess what, I don't hold my life against everyone and I grew up to be a very nice, caring person, always helping others. I'm even close to those who hurt me, I forgave and forgot, they apolagized, and grown up everyone is friends now and I go see my family all the time. For my sacrifice my brothers and sisters were never touched again for the last 8 years. Too many problems in the world, learn your facts and then help the world, until then noone feels bad for you and stay at home with your mouth shut. This is much more than just pitbulls being banned, it's about stupid people opening their mouth without knowing what they speak of, do the world a favor and shut up, or come right here and talk, we can help you recover from your stupidity.