Willis
English 10
Credit 4
Pit Bulls – Dangerous and Vicious? Every year, more than 2,000 children in the U.S. are killed by their parents or guardians either through abuse or neglect. A child is more than 800 times more likely to be killed by their adult caretaker than by a Pit Bull (The Real Pit Bull, 2010). Pit Bulls are always portrayed as mean, dangerous, aggressive, vicious, etc. but the dog’s behavior towards people all depends on the owner and how it’s trained. On July 16, 2014 in Syracuse, New York a child and an older man were attacked by a Pit Bull and taken to the hospital. Elizabeth Whitehead, mother of the dog’s owner, was taking care of Chaos, the Pit Bull, while her son was in jail. Elizabeth had told Larry, her ex-husband, to take Chaos outside when two boys walked by and started screaming and kicking at the dog. Then Chaos began to get aggressive and bit Larry in the arm knocking him into a nearby car. Chaos did not let go of Larry’s arm until Elizabeth threw water at Chaos and jumped on top of him to get him to let go of Larry’s arm. Elizabeth told the two kids to hide behind a car. At some point, one of the boys was bitten. Throughout the whole incident, Chaos was on a leash and remained on the leash when animal control removed him. Chaos was never taken off the leash. Neighbors reported that the dog was not on a leash and ran down the street and chased one of them. Elizabeth reported that whatever the neighbors reported wasn’t true because she did put Chaos on a leash. The two who were wounded were transferred to a nearby hospital by ambulance (Pucci, 2014). This little boy and older man were attacked because of the fact that the little boys provoked the dog, screaming at Chaos as well as kicking him. This Pit Bull was only trying to defend itself and does not deserve to be punished. Unfortunately, its reasons like this that make Pit Bulls seem mean, aggressive or vicious. This Pit Bull, Chaos, was provoked. There are many