*Rant on dangerous pets and their owners*

[Marc v4.0]

Originally Posted by Karesh

I...do I laugh here?

Might as well. I had a huge write-up about pedigrees and mental instability/crazed aggression being unwanted in a proper breed of PBT, but then I noticed I said that twice already and it was still going on like I hadn't said a single word to the effect, so there must be some really funny joke here I do not quite get.

[Fifthfiend]

Dog racist.

I mean, is that what you want to be, Kerensky?

A dog racist?

Cause that's what you're bein'!

[Magus]

While it may be true that a "properly" bred and trained pitbull is no more aggressive than any other breed of dog, Joe Schmo off the street isn't going to take the time to do it. If you are good at training dogs or spend the money to do so, then perhaps you are okay with taking chances. If you are Joe Schmo off the street, leash the thing or put it in a fence if you don't want to take a chance. That is all I can say about the whole ordeal. It doesn't matter if a properly trained one is perfectly fine if no one bothers to do it, which most of the owners of said dogs do not.

My neighbors had a pitbull. It was very aggressive. They did not beat the thing, nor did they do anything special for it. They treated it like all prior dogs. Unfortunately, that is not good enough for a pitbull.

Basically, if you want to buy a pitbull, do some research on its pedigree and make sure it is properly trained. If you don't want to do that, don't buy a pitbull. That's all there is to it. I don't think this is an unreasonable opinion to have about the things.

EDIT: I mean heck it was a female pitbull besides. I can only imagine how aggressive a male is, especially one that has not been neutered.

[Kerensky287]

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

Dog racist.

I mean, is that what you want to be, Kerensky?

A dog racist?

Cause that's what you're bein'!

I guess I'm just sick of all them pitbull gangs struttin' around my street, with their loud music and their gang signs and their bandanas and their freestyle rap.


...

But when you have a species that is specifically bred to have certain behaviors in its gene sequence, then I think it's okay to assume that once in a while that sequence is going to show up in the breed. It's not racism, or if it is, it's justified.

[Marc v4.0]

Originally Posted by Magus

While it may be true that a "properly" bred and trained pitbull is no more aggressive than any other breed of dog, Joe Schmo off the street isn't going to take the time to do it. If you are good at training dogs or spend the money to do so, then perhaps you are okay with taking chances. If you are Joe Schmo off the street, leash the thing or put it in a fence if you don't want to take a chance. That is all I can say about the whole ordeal. It doesn't matter if a properly trained one is perfectly fine if no one bothers to do it, which most of the owners of said dogs do not.

My neighbors had a pitbull. It was very aggressive. They did not beat the thing, nor did they do anything special for it. They treated it like all prior dogs. Unfortunately, that is not good enough for a pitbull.

Basically, if you want to buy a pitbull, do some research on its pedigree and make sure it is properly trained. If you don't want to do that, don't buy a pitbull. That's all there is to it. I don't think this is an unreasonable opinion to have about the things.

EDIT: I mean heck it was a female pitbull besides. I can only imagine how aggressive a male is, especially one that has not been neutered.

You do all the talking for me from now on, ok?

I had a talk with Kerensky on Minecraft and I think we both agreed that this was a pretty damn silly thing to go on about, as well as actually getting our points to each other in a way that the other could, at least, understand.

[Toastburner B]

I was going to go off on this, as it is a personal soapbox of mine, but I'll spare everyone and just address a few things:

Originally Posted by Magus

Basically, if you want to buy a pitbull, do some research on its pedigree and make sure it is properly trained. If you don't want to do that, don't buy a pitbull. That's all there is to it. I don't think this is an unreasonable opinion to have about the things.

Really, you could (and should!) say the same thing about any breed of dog. A lot of dog related problems would be solved if people would research what breeds would fit their lifestyle instead of going to the pet store/shelter and going off of what dog is "cute".

Originally Posted by Magus

EDIT: I mean heck it was a female pitbull besides. I can only imagine how aggressive a male is, especially one that has not been neutered.

That's what kills me about these studies. Everyone uses to them to demonize a few breeds, while totally missing the stat that shows that the majority of biters are intact males. I could go off on a rant about irresponsible owners on this, but that's been well covered in this thread, I think. Just spay/neuter your animals, folks, it helps do more than control the pet population.

The only thing I have left is my own anecdotal experiences: I've never had a problem with pit bulls. Of course, I've only been bitten once in my life (a chow chow, but I was pretty young and did a lot of provoke him, so I blame me, not him). I've made it no secret that I started taking classes to become a vet tech. Between time volunteering at a shelter, and working with animals on campus (which are from a different shelter), I haven't run into a single pit bull that wasn't a nice dog. Amazingly anecdotal, I know, but that's my experience with them. I'd rather try to get a temperature from a pit bull than any small breed dog (or cat) any day of the week.

[Magus]

Also another thing about dogs' "territory": to a dog, a fence is a very arbitrary thing, as are square plots of land. My parents could never understand why their dog would bark at people walking along the road adjacent to our yard, since they were "not in the dog's territory". I basically had to point out to them that at best a dog's territory is circular (if not irregular as shit, however the hell dog's minds work) and isn't going to conform to the property lines they have in their heads which are quite arbitrary. To a dog their territory would be "wherever they can get to and pee on a tree without running into another dog".

That's why you have to have a fence or something else that prevents the dog from leaving the yard. They're animals. They aren't going to be like "Oh, shit, I'm over here in the woods across the road, this isn't my owner's property, better skedaddle".

[Archbio]

I guess I'm just sick of all them pitbull gangs struttin' around my street, with their loud music and their gang signs and their bandanas and their freestyle rap.

Don't forget their flashy cars.

[Bobbey]

If you're a first time pet/dog owner, don't get a pitbull, especially if you haven't even taken the time to research that particular breed before buying one, or any other dog for that matter. A pitbull needs to be owned by an experienced (and strong) dog owner who will know how to proprely train the dog and are familiar with the breed or have trained similarly agressive dogs like the Rottweiler or the Doberman (by the way, the Rottweiler has the biggest bite out of all dog breeds, even bigger than pittbulls, which is due to the size of their heads compared to their bodies, so they can apply more pounds of force with their skulls). The local SPCA here in Montreal is chock full of pitbulls, mostly because people bought them on a "hunch" or thought they were cute and wanted one right away. Since many parts of the city banned pitbulls altogether a few years ago, many just end up in the pound after the city intereferes with the owners and they have no choice to bring them to the SPCA, where the dogs get killed off after a few weeks since no one can take them in. Yes, the dog is naturally agressive, some are more than others though. It's just a shame that since people don't do their research before buying one here, that many of them just end up dying before they even reach 1 year old.

[Magus]

To get us away from pitbulls, can we all agree that buying baby alligators is a really bad idea unless you are a zoo?