Breed-specific legislation is, if I may say, a load of bull cookies. The quote in the article is quite correct, that it is the OWNER, not the BREED, that is the main determining factor of aggression. It is SO true with little dogs that are treated as Mummy’s living stuffed animal. It’s just sad. They’re often badly-bred, ill-tempered, and not treated like DOGS.
I’ve seen “pit bulls” that are really just giant, drooling marshmallows. For every one of those, I’ve seen a whole handful of “toy” breed dogs that are frankly dangerous, but their behavior is tolerated because they’re small and, for some godforsaken reason, considered cute.
And not every breed that is reputed to be good-natured will adhere to that reputation. My dad’s Flat-Coated Retriever is sweet as sugar with people, but very aggressive towards other dogs, with the exception of our Beagle, Sadie. I’ve met a few retrievers with aggression problems due to bad breeding and lack of decisive communication from their people.
Pit Bulls DO get bad rap, instead of owning a Pit Bull a felony make it a possible felony to own a dangerous Pit Bull, if your dog is bad tempered or aggressive you should be held responsible AND if you have an aggressive animal you had better have control AND insurance against damage the animal can cause. But some reason needs to be exercised, I love Chow Chows but unlike a Pit they will lock their jaws and can unlock them even in heat of rage, unlike pit bulls which until unconscious will keep them locked, been there seen it. Saw a 75 lb Pit take a full contact Louisville Slugger to the head twice, bad thing was she was protecting her master from a bully not hurting innocent person. Then saw her partner pet a 35 lb Beagle take the arm of bat holder and break it. Guy got 10 yrs for human assault and 5 for animal cruelty! Most Pits are big stupid babies.
Breed-specific legislation is, if I may say, a load of bull cookies. The quote in the article is quite correct, that it is the OWNER, not the BREED, that is the main determining factor of aggression. It is SO true with little dogs that are treated as Mummy’s living stuffed animal. It’s just sad. They’re often badly-bred, ill-tempered, and not treated like DOGS.
I’ve seen “pit bulls” that are really just giant, drooling marshmallows. For every one of those, I’ve seen a whole handful of “toy” breed dogs that are frankly dangerous, but their behavior is tolerated because they’re small and, for some godforsaken reason, considered cute.
And not every breed that is reputed to be good-natured will adhere to that reputation. My dad’s Flat-Coated Retriever is sweet as sugar with people, but very aggressive towards other dogs, with the exception of our Beagle, Sadie. I’ve met a few retrievers with aggression problems due to bad breeding and lack of decisive communication from their people.
Pit Bulls DO get bad rap, instead of owning a Pit Bull a felony make it a possible felony to own a dangerous Pit Bull, if your dog is bad tempered or aggressive you should be held responsible AND if you have an aggressive animal you had better have control AND insurance against damage the animal can cause. But some reason needs to be exercised, I love Chow Chows but unlike a Pit they will lock their jaws and can unlock them even in heat of rage, unlike pit bulls which until unconscious will keep them locked, been there seen it. Saw a 75 lb Pit take a full contact Louisville Slugger to the head twice, bad thing was she was protecting her master from a bully not hurting innocent person. Then saw her partner pet a 35 lb Beagle take the arm of bat holder and break it. Guy got 10 yrs for human assault and 5 for animal cruelty! Most Pits are big stupid babies.