Pitbull Research Paper

Pit bulls: Vicious or Harmless
An evaluation on dog bites and the euthanizing of pit bulls.

When I was looking on the computer for a nice-looking breed of dog to have for a pet, I immediately fell in love with the American Pit Bull Terrier. They are absolutely adorable. I went to pick up two puppies that same day. When I got there, I was a little hesitant to enter the house. There was about huge blue pit-bull who weighed about a hundred and twenty pounds staring right at me. They assured me that it was fine to come in and as soon as I did, the big blue ox jumped right up on my chest and started to lick me. That is when I knew I had to have one. They are intimidating to people who don't know much about them, but are loyal to their owners. I bought two of them and loved them to death. They were the perfect pets. They make excellent guard dogs and know who is supposed to be on your property and who is not. I think that the
euthanization of pit bulls is wrong. If you are going to euthanize a pit bull for biting someone then you should have to euthanize a poodle if they bite someone. It is proven fact that mixed breed dogs are more likely to bite than pure bred dogs and of all pure bred dogs, German Shepherds and Chows are the most likely to be involved in a dog bite.
Any dog, treated harshly or trained to attack, may bite a person. Any dog can be turned into a dangerous dog. The owner most often is responsible; not the breed, and not the dog. An irresponsible owner or dog handler might create a situation that places another person in danger by a dog, without the dog itself being dangerous, for example: leaving an infant alone with a dog. It is all in how you raise the dog to act and react to people. You could make a Labrador retriever bite and attack someone if that is what you wanted. It is not the breed of the dog that makes them aggressive or more prone to bite, it is the owner. Any individual dog may be a good, loving pet, even though its breed is considered to be likely to bite. A responsible owner can win the love and respect of a dog, no matter what its breed. One cannot look at an individual dog, recognize its breed, and then state whether or not it is going to
attack. Glen Bui, Vice President of the American Canine Foundation, using statistics on the American Pit Bull Terrier from the AKC, A.D.B.A. and UKC and for the other breeds, AKC/UK statistics, found that of the 240,000 Chows registered, twelve have been involved in dog bites which is .705%. Of the 800,000 German Shepherds registered, sixty-seven have been involved in dog bite which is .008375%. As for Pit Bulls, of the 5,000,000 registered, 60 have been involved in dog bites which is only .0012%. In 1995 of 22 dog bite fatalities, 9 were pit bull types; in 1996, of 35 fatalities, 3 were pit bull types; in 1997, of 30 fatalities, 6 were pit bull types; in 1998, of 15 fatalities, 5 were pit bull types; in 1999, of 42 fatalities, 8 were pit bull types. Some of these pit bull types were roaming in packs, some were unsocialized, and in some a child was left unattended. A study in the U.K. found that, German shepherds bit 24% of the time, 18.2% of the bites were from mongrels, and "dangerous breeds" (pit bull terriers, Rottweilers, and Dobermans accounted for 6% of all the dog bites. This study also showed that typical family breeds, such as Labradors, collies, Jack Russell terriers, and cocker spaniels, were biting at higher rates than the "dangerous dogs". The American Pit Bull Registry states that: "The odds of being struck by lightning are 1 in 600,000 in the USA. Comparatively speaking you are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than you are to be killed by a dog of any breed. When you further break down the odds of being attacked and killed by a Pit Bull the odds are approximately 1 in 145,000,000." In my personal opinion, people who have never owned a pit bull make up about eighty percent of those who have a negative view of pit bulls. If people would just give them a chance and see what they are really like, it would change their mind. I know that pit bulls can be aggressive and intimidating, but not all of them are. I really loved the two pit bulls that we had. I was absolutely devastated when I came home from school one day to find that someone had come into our yard and stole them right out of their kennel. That just goes to show that they were not mean and vicious. If a complete stranger can go in their kennel and let them out, then obviously they were nice friendly dogs. I just wish that someday people would not label dogs as they do people. You can not look at a person and tell whether you will approve of them or not just like you cant look at a dog or even hear the name of the breed and know that they are mean. If there is someone out there who can hear the name of a person and automatically know if they are a bad person or not, then more power to them. It is just really upsetting that so many wonderful animals are being euthanized everyday because someone provoked them to bike or was antagonizing them. I think that in specific cases, some dogs so need to be euthanized. If the attack was unprovoked and unjustified, then they deserve to be put down.