Pit Bull Dog Attacks Still Rampant in Different Parts of the Country
I came across this blog posted by Dogsbite.org that talks about two dog attack victims – both adults -- in Texas who got their eye ripped out in separate pit bull dog bite attacks. The first incident apparently occurred in Houston on February 22, 2009 when a man named Junior lost an eye after two pit bulls broke out of a kennel and attacked him in the front yard of his neighbor’s home. It was so gruesome that Junior’s eye was popping out of its socket! Neighbors also said the dog chewed out a part of his face.
A similar incident happened in Dallas where two people were seriously injured after two pit bulls that had gotten out of their yard, attacked them. The victims – Helen Fuller and Clarence Webber – were hospitalized. Helen Fuller is expected to lose an eye and her brother says that he knows her life “is going to be changed from this point.” She also suffered severe facial injuries. In the Dallas dog attack case, the pit bulls were picked up by animal control for roaming in the neighborhood, but were later returned to their owner.
This is aggravating because this is not the first time in Texas or here in California that pit bulls have broken out of restraint and gone off their owner’s property to violently attack a human being. According to Dogsbite.org, the combination of pit bulls, rottweilers and wolf hybrids are responsible for:
- 77 percent of attacks that cause bodily harm
- 73 percent of dog attacks on children
- 83 percent of attacks on adults
- 70 percent of attacks that result in fatalities
- 77 percent that result in maiming
And here is one more interesting fact about pit bulls: These dogs attack adults nearly as often as they attack children, a characteristic not found in any other breed. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), between the years 1979 and 1998 at least 25 breeds of dogs were involved in 238 human dog bite related fatalities. Pit bulls and rottweilers were involved in more than half of these fatalities – about 60 percent.
A number of these dog attacks occur partly because dog owners are not responsible. But they also occur because these are dogs with the tendency to attack. Numbers do not lie. We need sound legislation in our cities, stringent requirements for owners who choose to keep these breeds of dogs and a definite requirement for them to carry liability insurance so that the dog bite victim is not hit again by having to pay huge medical bills to get appropriate treatment.
Comments
Pit bulls were not bred to be aggressive towards humans; on the contrary they were specifically bred away from it. In the 1800s, English breeders killed any pit bull showing signs of the trait.
Today, if a pit bull attacks a human it's usually because either (1) it has been tortured and trained for fighting purposes. Human- and animal-aggression can be taught/learned, or (2) it has been kept as solitary, backyard guard dog. When kept outside, without socialization, mental or physical activity, any dog will become bored, frustrated and aggressive. All dogs are pack animals, genetically predetermined to live in groups, to live, eat, hunt, sleep and play in a familial setting. A study conducted by Karen Delise, founder of the National Canine Research Council, found that dogs on chains were responsible for 25 percent of fatal dog attacks between 1965 and 2001. An additional 17 percent involved dogs roaming off of their property, some of which had broken off of chains.
Pit bulls have held more working titles than any other breed, including jobs in search and rescue, therapy for senior citizens and law enforcement. They continue to do so today. Some say, that after hundreds of years of being heralded as protectors of children, public service dogs and presidential pets, the pit bull’s negative connotation spawned from a sensationalistic Sports Illustrated cover in 1987. Google it.
And numbers do lie. Although a pit bull bite or attack does more damage, there are no rules or regultaions set in place that require every individual who gets bitten to report it. Large-breed dog bites are more likely to be reported than small-breed bites, so statistics on the matter are skewed.
Posted by: Kelly | March 11, 2009 9:02 AM
Hello. I agree with the person above me to some extent, inapprpriate training is one of the reasons why pitbulls are so volatile and threatening to everyone around them, but, nothing can be done about that, so the dogs have to be kept away from people, because they are going to continue to attack them, they are a major problem.
Posted by: Nicholas | March 17, 2009 10:23 PM
I agree with Kelly, I also agree with John Bisnar who posted about the insurance. The problem with having any dogs as pets is that people in general are not held accountable for the actions of thier dogs. I own a pit bull, and he has been trained to be passive, not agressive and he has never, ever had any incidents with humans. He has had a few fights with other dogs, but they were not serious and not one dog has died from it. Not to mention dog fights between dogs are inevitable in nature. I would never give up my pit bull and statistics do lie! There are more small dog bites in the U.S. then large breed, it is just unfortunate that the large breeds can do more physical damage much of the time. Please educate yourself before making statements about any breed.
Posted by: pms | March 30, 2009 5:38 PM
These dogs kill children. Think of this, before you consider getting one of these potentially vicious dogs.
Do you really want face a million-dollar lawsuit from a neighbor whose child was mauled or killed?
All these breeds are not worth even one single child being nipped on the behind.
Posted by: LoneRager | February 21, 2010 11:45 AM
Honestly, this statistics are misleading. American staffordshire terriers, staffordshire bull terriers, american pitbull terriers, american bulldogs, and sometimes even boxers are considered Pitbulls! These 5 breeds are all responsible for the number of bites that are related to pitbulls, FIVE breeds of dog... not one. So are these stats really that significant when 5 breeds of dog and any mixes of them represent one "breed type"? Then to add rottweilers and all the different types of wolf hybrids there could be? How ridiculous does that sound.
Posted by: LOL | March 29, 2010 4:02 AM
Maybe you should have titled this article, "Bad Pit Bull Owners Still Rampant in Different Parts of the Country".
Your article perfectly illustrates the biggest problem with reportage on pit bulls: It's always the dog that gets 100% of the blame. No one ever gives the whole story. And most people don't bother to read between the lines.
Take the Dallas attack: Dallas, like so many other cities, has a problem with pit bull fighting. There is NO WAY the Dallas Animal Control would have returned the pits to their owner without there being extenuating circumstances. The liability issue, alone, for AC, is too great.
So what REALLY happened? Why were the dogs returned and not destroyed? Anbody bother to get DAC's version of the event?
Apparently not.
As for using dogsbite.org as a reference data source: Laughable. A more biased source is impossible to find. Although the site is called "DOGS" bite the site is focused SOLELY on pit bulls and pit-mixes. How objective is that as an information source?
Next time you write about dog bites, maybe you should focus on responsible ownership issues, instead of maligning a particular breed and using a biased source as your only reference material.
Posted by: Vanessa | August 9, 2010 10:32 AM