A Pit Bull and a random “large breed” dog? The reason why I ask is that I read a question a guy posted about his dog got mauled by a Pit Bull on Christmas day. If you didnt see the question,I’ll copy and paste it here:
“Let’s say,for instance,a PITBULL jumped a 5 foot fence,grabbed your dog,by the neck,and dragged him twenty yards and wouldn’t let go. Well,this all happened to me today,ON CHRISTMAS. I was outside,letting my rat terrier use the restroom,when all of a sudden,the neighbors pitbull jumped their fence and attacked my dog. We had to get the law involved and took our dog to the emergency vet clinic. After checking out dog out,it was in best interest that we put him to sleep because he had a large gash on his neck and lost alot of blood,a damaged rib,punctured lung,and an enlarged heart. Poor thing was defenseless. The kicker is,this isn’t our first rodeo with their dog jumping the fence. He has done this about 7 times now,but luckily our dogs were in their cages,but this time,one wasnt,and he paid the price. I wanted the dog taken away,but the K-9 deputy was taking up for the pitbull,saying it wasn’t the dog’s fault. The neighbors said that their dog never bit anyone and wasnt aggressive. I told them to go take a look inside the burial box and tell me that an assertive dog didnt do that to my dog. The deputy also said that any dog can turn on you,even a chihuahua. I told him,with all do respect,let a chihuahua punch you on the leg,and let a pit bull punch you in the same spot,and SEE the difference.I told him that if a chihuahua jumped the fence and attacked my dog,it would still be alive right now. He didnt have to much to say after that. He did write the owner a citation,and the owner is responsible for the dogs medical bills,but is there anything else I can do. We live in Louisiana. Pitbulls are not banned here,but most home owner insurances wont cover you with that breed of dog.Also,there is no leash law in our city. If they dont get rid of the dog,what can I do?”
Now,he received about twenty or more answers to his question and over half of the responses were blaming him. The guy who lost his dog. They mentioned that it was probably his dog’s fault, being to close to the fence, his dog provoked it,etc,etc.
Now,I took the same question,changed “Pit Bull” to “Large multiply dog” and received twenty-four answers,and twenty-four answers blamed the neighbor with the “Large multiply dog”. In my question,I never once specified the multiply of dog. Do Pit Bull owners get a “free pass” or something that I’m not aware of?
Btw,I AM NOT gearing this question toward the BREED of dog. It’s just odd that it’s ok for a Pit Bull owner to not be at fault for what happened.
i think whose to blame is always a case by case scenario. this time the “pit bull or large breed dog” owner got off the hook, next time you read something like this, it will probably be different.
LMAO…boy are you opening a can of worms here.
Pit bull owners tend to get WAY too defensive, and then their message gets lost. Being a pittie advocate myself and having worked with these dogs and fostered them in my home, I have no problem showing both sides of the coin.
The owner of the pit bull would be considered at fault. It’s well known that, as terriers, pits can and do exhibit varying levels of animal-aggression and prey drive. It’s not uncommon of ANY terrier to chase and kill smaller animals or show aggression to other dogs (terriers were, after all, bred to kill vermin). THAT is why a fence needs to be high enough that the dog cannot scale it if a prey object walks by….and that goes for ALL dogs of ALL breeds. Do not leave them outside untethered and unattended. That’s asking for disaster.
A dog owner is responsible of any and all damage done by their dog….whether pit bull or chihuahua.
Yep, welcome to the sad world of media “Devil dogs”. I suppose its because owners of labradors and other common breeds see themselves as “large breed” owners, and we cant be insulting the noble, wonderful labrador, now can we *rolls eyes*. That and the fact that few people can actually distinguish a pit bull from many other breeds, any muscly dog with a broad head becomes a pitbull…someone once told my friend her boxer was a pit bull, for gods sake. For anyone who thinks they can always spot the difference, try this little game…
http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html
And then have a good think about your snap judgements about certain breeds of dog.
don’t really know what happened but any dog that jumps a fence and attacks a dog to me is vicious.
yes a large dog will inflect more damage than a small one. i don’t understand why the dog got a free pass in killing another. there has to more to the story.
The breed should not matter – it should go strictly by the actual occurrence and details of the matter.
Unfortunately, pit bulls get so much bad press that many people will defend them, even if the dog should be destroyed.
Any dog that jumps a fence and attacks another dog is wrong, and the owners should be held responsible for the dog’s actions.
The deputy is half right–ANY breed of dog can attack.
But the owners of the Pit Bull are to blame here. Their dog *is* dog-aggressive (not uncommon for the breed—they were bred to be this way). It can be maintained, but clearly the owners are not doing that. If their dog can jump the fence, they shouldn’t have their dog outside unsupervised.
Period. It would be the same way if they had an uncontrolled large breed of ANY breed.
I think it is the other way around actually- Pit bulls have a bad reputation and people are always cautious around Pit bulls, and they have the steroetype of being aggressive, and willing to attack and kill anything. Part of this is because of them being used for dog fighting, people think that they are bred for this and are just mean, another reason could be bad breeding (Yes, chihuahuas and any other dogs can be agressive if the breeder doesn’t do a good job) , and another reason could be how the owner handels his dog. Any dog who has proper socialization as a puppy will most likely be a good dog. Pit Bulls in my opinion are one of the sweetest breed of dog, but thats just me.
However, in cases like this, no I don’t think this dog should have got a “free pass” as you say, the dog should have been reported as vicious and dangerous, and animal control should have handeled it from there. Most likely the dog would have been put to sleep, especially of it is dog agressive, which I agree with if it was.
Emotions overrule logic, always have always will.
Regardless of the breed of dog, if it jumped the fence into your yard, the dog that jumped the fences owner is responsible, and should be held liable for any attacks made by said dog. Breed makes no difference, Pit Bull, Shepard, Collie, Lab or anything else.
Well there are a couple things that bother me w/this guys “question”.
but also w/the neighbors.
1. Why was this dogs heart enlarged after a single dog attack? that sounds more like some other sickness, like heartworms maybe.
2. Cages? he keeps his dogs in cages in the backyard? “He has done this about 7 times now,but luckily our dogs were in their cages…”
3. The fence is owned by BOTH neighbors, therefore maintaining it falls to both of them. they should be just as concerned for keeping other dogs OUT as they are for keeping their dogs IN.
4. 7 times! are we serious? 7 oppourtunities to do damage and nothing was done on either neighbors end? i find that insane. which leads me to #5
5. the guy knew the dog was a notorious escape artist but still brought his dog out into his yard w/out checking to see if the “pit bull” was out. hmmm..interesting.
6. the pit owner knew that their dog had jumped the fence but never did anything about it, and who knows if this guy ever reported them other than this attack for their dog being on his property.
7. the pit owner WAS cited and has to pay medical bills, if this was a first time offense, this IS the usual result, no matter the breed.
8. No leash law…disaster waiting to happen already and i myself have lived in such an area, we took precautions to avoid such a thing from happening and were successful for 5 yrs, even though there were many a stray dog (or just wandering neighborhood dog), yet none entered my property.
i think in all honesty most of the blame lies w/the owner of the “pit bull” dog due to the fact that the dog had proved himself MANY times over that he was an escape artist and the owner did nothing to prevent it!
but i think a bit of the blame lies also w/the rat terrier owner, who did NOT try to secure his side of the fence even knowing full well that this other “possibly dangerous” dog could access his yard w/his much smaller dogs in it.
how sad. i would have this same conclusion whether it was a pit bull, a poodle or hell a dachshund! breed is secondary to the issue here.
and no i dont think “pit bull” owners get a free pass. i think the services did what the law allowed. don’t like the laws…petition your county/city.