[cwgwowcom]

A little background info before I start my question. It's a bit...."holey" as I'm getting the info from his Facebook status updates but he hasn't released all the info of what actually happened. A friend of mine who lives in PA, owns a super sweet sheltie. Took sheltie to the vet. Apparently, while at the vet, Sheltie gets attacked by a pit bull and a rottweiler. Friend of mine says "the dogs were unsupervised" but hasn't released any information of whether the attack happened in the waiting room, or in the back room of the vet's office. He posted some photos of Sheltie and they are pretty gruesome, but he's alive and being kept at the animal hospital for several days to be observed.

But, aside from that...awful story, everyone OF COURSE is jumping on the "pit bulls are evil" train (nevermind there was a rottweiler there as well, each and every person commenting on his statuses isnt acknowledging the rottie one bit). "WHY do people own these stupid dogs? It's only a matter of time before one of those dogs bites a person instead of an animal! I don't understand how someone could be okay with owning unpredictable, vicious dogs! They are aggressive to people and animals!" etc etc, you know the drill. I of course, post a comment and jump to the breed's defense, saying these dogs can be ANIMAL aggressive by nature, but are not people aggressive and it's quite unfair to lump both aggressions into the same category when they are completely different. What happened to the poor Sheltie is super unfortunate and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but I blame the owners for being so ignorant and allowing dog-aggressive dogs to be around other dogs without any idea of what to do or how to control them. I also suggested these people posting about the "nasty pit bulls" to do their research before they start spewing all sorts of media-fed lies about the breed and get their facts straight (Mind you, most of these poeple posting on PA Friend's status are all in law school, so you'd feel like they were at least SOMEWHAT intelligent enough to do some research but I guess not).

Anyways, to get to the point of the post, someone comments and says "Well, if pit bulls are not human aggressive by nature, WHY do you see so many attacks in the newspaper or news?"

So my question is, how should I answer?
Why do some pit bulls attack people? Is it posted in the media so often because of....dog fighting?
I just want to be able to answer, sounding very... "right on" with my answer and intelligent.

[VowJoyday]

Have a look at the Pit Bull Placebo http://nationalcanineresearchcouncil...l_download.pdf
and this thread: http://www.pitbull-chat.com/showthre...-the-Headlines

[cestsennY]

rguerra - thanks for posting the pit bull placebo... i never heard of it before.

[Ekzamenov]

Really,how many of those ''pit bull attacks'' in the media are ACTUAL pit bulls? The media LOVES a juicy story and can mis-identify breeds either deliberatly or unintentionally.How many people can ID a ''pit bull''(APBT) just by looking at them,with 100% accuracy? The truth is,they can't.No one can.

Why does ANY dog attack? Like any dog breed,some dogs are simply unstable,be it learned or genetic.Some dogs lack proper socialisation,others are scared,in pain or abused.So many factors play into ''why'' a dog attacks someone that the breed makes up a very minor part of it.Anything with teeth can bite.

I am sorry about the sheltie getting injured.My concern would NOT be about the pit bull OR the rottweiler,but WHY these dogs were able to get ahold of and damage the sheltie in a vet's office.Someone screwed up in the handling of the dogs.Period.He who screwed up would be the responsible party,not the dogs and/or the breeds involved.

To be honest,I would EDUCATE those who are posting the negative sterotypes about pit bulls and rottweilers.That would be MY personal course of action.I would not direct it to any individual party but take what is spoken in the posts and post facts up related to the posters comments.Make sure you use reliable sources,and link back to PBC for those who might actually WANT to learn.All you can do is try to educate people,and I'm sure not everyone will want to hear it.Don't respond to personal blowbacks and just put the facts out there.If one person learns something,you did a good job!

[VowJoyday]

You're welcome. It has some valuable information and some historical facts I wasn't aware about. Comes in handy when having a debate about pit bull attacks.

Dang! I still can't get the 'quote' thingy to work with this new pbc look.

[cwgwowcom]

Story just became more clear. Apparently the vet hospital doubles as a boarding facility/doggie daycare. Sheltie was outside "playing" with a group of dogs which included this rottweiler and pit bull, and they were unsupervised. The two dogs attacked the sheltie for at least 2-3 minutes before someone finally noticed it. How terrible.

Yet ANOTHER reason to NOT bring your dog to a doggie daycare or dogpark or anywhere that allows them to be loose together in a giant group of strange dogs. The photos of what happened to this poor dog are horrific, poor guy looks like he got stabbed with a pencil all over his body, he has so many puncture wounds its insane.

but yes, the links listed above were a good read. Thanks for that!!

[Peretool]

I'd be calling a lawyer and suing whoever left the dogs loose together w no supervision. Not to be money grubbing, but to teach the facility a lesson in responsibility.

[icerrelmCam]

rguerra- Yes, this book is PACKED with great info and statistics for the people who refuse to believe what you say without numbers... I got it for Christmas a few years ago, very helpful.

[Zvssxstw]

If that happened to my dog at a boarding facility, I'd be talking to a lawyer and making somebody pay big. Absolutely no excuse whatsoever for that.

Boy, I hate ignorant and irresponsible people.