Pit Bulls Are Dangerous Animals

Just this past week it happened again--a pitbull attacked a child at a daycare center, and chewed her up so badly it will take many surgeries to repair damage that included broken facial bones and lacerations.

I don't know what's worse--owning a dog that was a known killer (it had killed a neighborhood dog just months earlier), or an owner that was stupid enough to have an animal like that in a daycare setting.

I know what some of you will say: "You just don't understand the breed", or "They weren't handled/trained well by their owner" or, "The dog had never showed any aggresiveness before."  Well, that's all well and good, but pitbulls account for the vast majority of dog-related deaths in the United States.

The website dogsbite.org give statistics that are frightening:  During the period between 2005 and 2013, pitbulls killed 176 American citizens, or about one person every 18.6 days.  The next most vicious breed were rottweilers, who in that same time period accounted for 33 deaths during the same period.  From January 2006 through December 2008, pitbulls  were responsible for 59 percent of all dog-related deaths--despite the fact that they account for only 6% of the dog population.

So, you think the problem is with some poor bloke wandering onto someone's property that owns a pitbull?  Well, there is that (though I have trouble understanding why anyone would care to keep a lethal weapon like that roaming a yard), but 18 percent of all dog attacks happen off the owner's property, and of those deadly attacks, pitbulls were responsible for more than four of five fatalities.

No thinking person would allow an aggressive, unstable person to walk around his front yard or in the street waving a loaded gun at neighbors, but somehow a "pet" with the same potential is given a pass.

I think that pitbull owners are either simple-minded or are living out a power trip.  I don't care that they are someone's pet who has "never been aggressive".  They are a menace to society, and they should be severely--severely--controlled or eliminated.  My position:  See a pitbull roaming free, call the cops.  See a pitbull attacking another animal or a human, shoot to kill.

After that comes the lawsuit.