12.22.2013

My Theory on why Pitbull advocates are ‘Nutters’


"Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way - that is not easy." – Aristotle


A few years ago, I experienced a serious pitbull attack that led to countless personal losses, I found myself outraged at the system that had enabled such attacks to occur in the first place. I mean isn’t Government supposed to protect innocent people from such unnecessary brutal and violent assaults? It didn’t take long for me to discover why, I soon learned there was an aggressive and outraged pitbull advocacy movement that had influenced Government and prevented reasonable protective legislation from being implemented. So I turned to social media to interact with these people, only to realize that they felt they were the aggrieved party, even though they had suffered no permanent physical injury, as I had, they had not lost the ability to walk or care for themselves for a substantial amount of time, as I had, they had suffered no large financial losses, as I had, they had never faced years of legal wrangling to seek compensation for their losses, as I had and they had not lost their business as I had. The only loss it appears they had incurred is that people hurt their feelings because they were critical of the breed of dog they had chosen as a companion animal. And yet their outrage was as if someone had murdered their entire family. This disproportionate over reaction struck me as incredibly bizarre and until now I hadn’t been able to understand it sufficiently.

Up until a few years ago, I knew little about fighting breeds of dog until I was seriously injured after I was confronted by two angry pitbulls, leaving me unable to walk for 6 months, a severed Achilles tendon, a permanently maimed left leg, a badly mauled left leg and arm, a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) and serious skin infections and at the time forcing me to close my business and eventually lose my life savings. It was this event that initiated my investigation into the issue and how and why such attacks were still occurring in modern civilized communities. It didn’t take long to discover there was a maniacally obsessed group of people who literally worshipped pitbulls. I visited pro pitbull webpages that had posted graphical memes that had replaced Jesus on the cross with a pitbull with statements such as “He died for others sins’. They were literally insinuating the pitbull was the son of god and was being unfairly persecuted. Needless to say, such revelations were shocking. I mean, aren’t all dogs wonderful, what is it about the pitbull that had elevated itself to such divine status in the eyes of such people? It didn’t make sense to me that a breed of dog that regularly maimed, mauled and killed innocent people and animals and was bred for the specific purpose of efficiently killing other dogs could be compared to what many religious people claim to be the son of god, a symbolic perfect human being who had never sinned in his life, let alone violently mauled an infant to death.

Only recently did it occur to me, the pitbull is more than a dog for such people, for them, the pitbull is a SYMBOL. A symbol is an object that represents an idea, visual image, belief or an action. For those whose lives have been forever negatively impacted by pitbull attack, the pitbull represents senseless violence, unimaginable pain and suffering, a lack of freedom and an ongoing threat to everyone’s safety and security. But for those who worship the breed, the pitbull is a symbol of injustice and unfair persecution, unfairly despised because it is misunderstood.

Now I feel I need to go off on a tangent here to further explain my theory. I have always had an interest in psychology, and why people behave in certain ways, and recently I have been exploring the issue of child rearing and its later impact on adult behavior. I recently read some of Alice Miller’s writings on what she terms ‘poisonous pedagogy’, referring to destructive child rearing practices and its relationship to the later development of tyrants and serial killers and the like. To simplify the theory somewhat, she espouses that children exposed to very harsh and punitive upbringings are forced to repress, deny or justify such humiliating experiences until they can be safely expressed at a later date. She explores the childhoods of many prominent Nazis who almost always had incredibly punitive and harsh upbringings to highlight her theories. The infantile rage felt during such harsh child rearing is pushed to the unconscious and often times expressed much later on as an adult through dysfunctional and/or anti-social behavior. One of the ways this can manifest is through what Psychology terms ‘Repetition compulsion’, the unconscious drive to replay negative past events in the here and now in the hope that they can achieve a different outcome and therefore resolve the initial issue. For example, a young girl who witnesses her alcoholic father beat her submissive Mother may grow up to be submissive herself and marry an abusive alcoholic and make every attempt to affect a different outcome.

Now back to why I think Pitbull advocates are ‘Nutters’, for some people, the pitbull is symbolic of their unacknowledged childhood hurts and any real or perceived unfair oppression they had to endure long ago. They come to view the pitbull in the same light they do their wounded inner child, as an innocent victim, unfairly persecuted and deprived of the love every child craves and needs. In effect, the pitbull is a physical manifestation of their past childhood wounds long since buried deep in their psyche and any aggression shown by the pitbull is more than justified due to the unfair and unacknowledged suffering it has long had to endure. In effect, the pitbull is THEM, it embodies everything the owner believes they are: misunderstood, unfairly persecuted, unloved or unlovable and justifiably angry and aggressive.

Now where do the pitbull attack victims fit into this picture? It isn’t unusual for those who have been negatively impacted by a pitbull attacking either them, their loved ones or their pets to feel aggrieved and outraged, as often time such attacks cause a disproportionate amount of damage in comparison to incidents involving non fighting breeds of dog. Over recent years, pitbull related fatalities have become inevitable and occur every few weeks and those attacks that don’t kill, often cause serious and permanent injuries and countless other losses. To feel outraged after such an experience is a normal and healthy response to such an injustice. The victims, previously unaware of the level of threat such dogs present soon realize that some type of legislative protection is needed. Out of a healthy concern for both themselves and others some victims choose to speak out either in the media, in public or via the Internet. They soon learn that for quite some time many others have also been trying rather unsuccessfully to achieve the desired protection and stand up to a hostile and aggressive pitbull lobby group.

It is at this point the attack victims and the pitbull supporter’s clash, with the former usually experiencing shock at the hostility and abuse they receive when they initially express their disappointment at being attacked by pitbull/s and their desire to seek future protection to prevent such an incident occurring again. Many victims never overcome this shock and learn they were thoroughly unprepared for the well-rehearsed onslaught of those who have been deterring such dissenters from expressing their desire for legislative protection for many years prior to the recently created victim entering the fray. At this juncture, many victims simply give up, as the thought of experiencing even more suffering on top of the pitbull attack is too overwhelming. The initial pitbull attack experience was overwhelming enough and the thought of any more unnecessary suffering after that quickly dissuades them from pursuing any further attempts at speaking out.

Some victims do overcome this initial onslaught and develop the resolve to continue speaking out with the goal being that society puts in place appropriate protective mechanisms to ensure the safety of innocent people from other peoples poor choices of companion animals. And this is where the Pitbull advocates focus their unconscious fury; you only need visit any online pitbull news stories to see the pitbull advocates aggressively insulting and taunting anyone who dares disagree with them. It is not unusual for pitbull attack victims who speak out to receive regular messages of hate, abuse and even threats from those who promote pitbulls.

Such advocates try to dissuade the outspoken victims from blaming the breed of dog and suggest that irresponsible ownership is the reason as to why there is a disproportionate amount of pitbull attacks causing serious injury and death. But this argument makes little to no sense to victims, as it wasn’t the dog owner that violently and unpredictably attacked them, it was their pitbull. And frequently the owner was just as surprised as the victim at the sudden assault and often times there is little evidence to suggest the owner had been irresponsible with their dog, no more so than the owner of any other breed of dog. It also doesn’t explain why pitbulls also kill their owners more than other breeds of dog do; surely no sane human being would run the risk of neglecting or training their pitbull in such a manner that exposed them to the chance of a fatal mauling by their own dog. And if irresponsible ownership is the cause of dog bite related fatalities, why do we not see similar statistics associated with the many other varied breeds that irresponsible people own. Surely it isn’t just pitbulls that attract irresponsible owners. And if it is just pitbulls that attract a disproportionate amount of irresponsible owners, why is that? Why do they choose the pitbull specifically?

In all honesty, such arguments mean little to the victims who seek legislative protection, they don’t really care why such incidents occur, much like rape victims don’t care too much about the unfortunate childhood of the perpetrator of the crime. The family and friends can praise the perpetrator all they like; it’s unlikely to matter to the rape victim. At the very least, the victim of such a crime that society has already legislated against can at least feel that their experience and its negative consequences are recognized and acknowledged by the society they live in. This cannot change what has happened to them, but at least the majority of society will understand and offer the appropriate support after such a traumatic experience. Pitbull attack victims have no such luxury, they are often left to pay all the costs associated with recovery from such a serious attack, only to learn their society didn’t care enough to provide reasonable legislative protection in the first place and then they eventually run head on into an aggressive and abusive pitbull lobby determined to promote their selfish desires ahead of the safety and security concerns of other citizens. Pitbull attack victims feel their communities have let them down and worse yet, refuse to acknowledge it. There are few places such a victim can go to seek the consoling so sorely needed for healing to occur. Appropriate dangerous dog legislation would go a long way to minimizing such serious attacks in the first place but also provide the already countless victims the much needed societal understanding they so desperately need.

Now back to the original topic, why I think Pitbull advocates are Nutters. In my years of advocating online via the use of social media I have often wondered what pitbull advocates gained from sending me hate mail, littered with insults, abuse and veiled threats. I mean it’s not like my humble facebook page called ‘pitbull attack’ threatens to change any politicians minds anytime soon, after two years of diligent and thoughtful work on the page, it is yet to see a thousand likes. Yet, it isn’t uncommon for a pitbull on death row after a serious attack to have a facebook page started to save the dog from euthanasia to attract tens of thousands of likes in just a few days. So what is it pitbull attack victims represent to pitbull advocates?

Well it goes back to what I was saying earlier, about how the pitbull becomes a symbol for the wounded inner child of the owner. Now as I also alluded to earlier, those who were unfairly treated as children find ways to repeat such incidents later in life in the hope of mastering the trauma and creating a different outcome. The pitbull comes to represent all the unresolved hostilities the once wounded child experienced but had long since pushed to the back of their conscious awareness. Any attack or criticism of the pitbull is seen as personal attack on the once innocent, unfairly treated child. I mean who wouldn’t be upset at adults unfairly criticizing and attacking an innocent child who had already endured untold suffering and oppression by the parents they loved and depended upon? That would be outrageous! Except everyone else knows the pitbull isn’t an innocent child that was long ago mistreated and left with unresolved and unconscious torment. This fact escapes the pitbull owner, who isn’t consciously aware of how they are using the pitbull as a psychological prop to repeat past traumas in the hope of securing a better outcome and hopefully resolution to the pain and suffering that remains outside of their conscious awareness..

The victims of pitbull attacks, who are in essence the driving force behind seeking legislative protection from pitbulls come to represent to the pitbull advocate the oppressive and authoritative force that long ago treated them poorly and didn’t take the time to understand them and as a result withheld the love they so desperately craved and needed. The goal of the pitbull advocate and their ‘’Repetition compulsion’ is to get the oppressive force to come around to their way of thinking, to finally understand their point of view and only then can love and respect flow between the two. If this is achieved, the initial trauma has been repeated, mastered and in the mind of the afflicted, overcome.

But is this really all that is needed to overcome their childhood oppression and humiliation? Even if pitbull advocates are successful in their attempts to convert those they believe represent their childhood oppressors, such pseudo victories don’t really heal the initial wound. Because the initial hurt, shame and rage experienced as a child has been repressed, denied or justified and later displaced without the initial causes for such feelings of hurt and humiliation ever rising to conscious awareness. The initial oppressors, the parents or caregivers have been absolved and the resulting adult rage has been displaced onto a pseudo parent figure, in this case the pitbull attack victims who dare speak out. It isn’t any wonder then that such people that have let the idealized parents/caregivers of the hook by idealizing the parents and displacing their negative feelings elsewhere, in this case pitbull attack victims who speak out. They then go on to do the same with the pitbull breed, absolving the idealized pitbull and displacing the blame elsewhere, in this case ‘Irresponsible owners’ or any number of justified culprits.

So what is the answer for both the pitbull attack victims and those that promote them? Well, the theory goes that those who don’t find a way to bring past unresolved transgressions into conscious awareness are doomed to displace unconscious negative feelings onto others, at best only creating relationship difficulties or self-destructive behaviors and at worst, severely harming or killing other people. Only when someone comes to realize the deep pool of pain and suffering buried in past unresolved hurts and humiliations can someone then rightly experience the resentment and the sorrow such incidents caused. They can then eventually grieve and move towards healing thereby reducing the future chances of participating in similar destructive behaviors and further traumatizing other people needlessly, in other words, breaking the cycle.

My advice to fellow victims of pitbull attacks, whether they be the direct victims of a serious attack, or they are the relations of a loved one that has been attacked and seriously injured or killed, and even those who have lost beloved pets to pitbull attack is that you are justified in despising and hating those that are responsible for what are obviously preventable attacks. And who is responsible? We can rightfully blame those who own and promote the breed and actively prevent society’s reasonable attempts to prevent such serious attacks occurring with appropriate legislation. Once the cause for your suffering has been identified, and the true feelings of how you feel expressed, you can then move onto a grieving process that will hopefully produce some level of acceptance. In the long process of healing, from hatred to acceptance, it is probably best to avoid those who promote pitbulls and ignore their abuse and hostility and see it for what it is, a manifestation of their own past hurts and sufferings that have nothing to do with you. If you have the strength, advocate for legislative protection, it is good for your self-esteem and shows you value yourself and others and that you have a healthy sense of self preservation.

If you allow the Pitbull advocates to shut you down, forcing you to repress, minimize or deny your true feelings of hurt, anger and rage about the injustice you have suffered, you run the risk of pushing such feelings into your unconscious and at a later date displacing your unconscious hurt feelings onto inappropriate targets. Just as pitbull advocates are currently doing. The difference being, the pitbull attack victim is expressing normal healthy emotions typical for anyone who experiences a serious injustice and directs their outrage at those who are collectively responsible. Whereas pitbull advocates outrage and anger is displaced, and the cause of such hostility is from injustices experienced long ago in childhood and long since pushed out of conscious awareness. No amount of raging and temper tantrums directed at pitbull attack victims will help them resolve their underlying issues until the rage is directed at those responsible for treating them poorly in the first place, in this instance, their parents or caregivers.

Pitbull advocates can argue all they like they aren’t responsible for these regular and now inevitable serious pitbull attacks, but it is only because of their determined efforts that society has yet to implement suitable legislation that at the very least could minimize these unnecessary attacks and possibly even eliminate them altogether. Just as driving while intoxicated is a behavior that increases the risk of innocent people being seriously harmed and killed and can’t be blamed on only those drunk drivers that do harm or kill others, but on anybody who participates in such reckless behavior. Society has labeled any such people who indulge in driving while intoxicated as ‘bloody idiots’, and rightly so. If certain behaviors, such as drunk driving or owning a fighting breed of dog exposes innocent people to unwanted and unacceptable levels of actuarial risk for the sole benefit of the person behaving in such a manner, then anyone who behaves in this way is complicit in any and all suffering caused by the collective of individuals acting in such a manner.

As for the pitbull advocates themselves, what would my advice be to them? I would suggest they seek psychiatric help to uncover what led them to use pitbulls as a physical manifestation of their unconscious childhood wounds that continue to remain unresolved. By treating the pitbull attack victims who are unwilling participants in the pitbull political drama as substitutes for the caregivers who long ago hurt you is futile. It is only likely to draw towards you more hatred and abuse and moving you further away from your goal of being loved and understood. I highly doubt this advice would ever be taken by pitbull advocates, but at the very least you should be willing to remain open to the idea that maybe you are drawn to pitbulls for more reasons other than the fact it is a dog. If it truly is dogs you love, a pitbull ban wouldn’t matter to you, because even if pitbulls were grandfathered out, there will always be a desperate mutt at the pound to rescue, such is the unfortunate nature of the pet industry.

There are many reasons people don’t look to childhood hurts inflicted on them by their parents or caregivers as being responsible for current dysfunctional behavior, some of these are religious and others cultural. It is easier to idealize one’s own parents and childhood than to risk losing the love and support of the only parents you have. Also to do so would cause a great deal of pain and suffering that many people aren’t prepared to bear. The alternative is though; to repeat the same old abusive patterns again and again, often on those who are too vulnerable to be able to do anything about it. As the old saying goes ‘Hurt people, hurt people”. The only way to overcome the hurt is to acknowledge it’s origins, express the long repressed emotions associated with the negative experience, eventually grieve the loss, heal the hurt and move to a point of acceptance. But this process can never start if the individual can’t even recognise the origins of their pain and suffering.

It is readily apparent to anyone who even moderately investigates the issue that the only way to repair the well-deserved reputation of the pitbull breed is to prevent the underlying causes that led to the reputation in the first place. Those causes are the all too frequent attacks that lead to serious injury and death on unsuspecting citizens. No amount of propaganda or good will stories can help the breed’s reputation now. Only evidence that the serious pitbull attacks have been drastically reduced or better yet, eliminated will repair the breeds damaged reputation and even this may not be enough. These types of results cannot come about under the current paradigm, and worse yet, the current efforts of pitbull advocates has only increased the frequency of these attacks and also increased the rate at which pitbulls are routinely destroyed. In effect, their advocacy has been bad for civilized communities and those concerned for its citizens welfare, it has been utterly detrimental for the pit bull breed itself, with more pitbulls destroyed each year than ever before, estimated at nearly a million a year, and it obviously isn’t helping those who have used the pitbull as a means to heal their wounded inner child.

In conclusion I think pitbull advocates are ‘Nutters’ aka ‘Crazy’ because they remain unaware that through their advocacy and promotion of pitbulls many innocent people and animals (including pitbulls) suffer unimaginably as a result. This can only lead me to conclude that the reason they persist with such efforts isn’t to do with the well-being of the pitbull breed itself, as their efforts have undeniably harmed the breed. There is obviously some other underlying cause leading them to continue to advocate for and promote pitbulls in the relentless manner they do. I hope this essay has shed some light on why I think it is certain people are drawn to own a breed of dog that is a physical manifestation of an antisocial attitude, and why it is difficult to convince those that promote or own pitbulls to consider a more suitable breed of dog as a companion animal.

To any reasonable human being, it would be considered crazy behavior to abuse and harass victims of serious pitbull attacks who advocate for sensible legislative protection from fighting breeds of dog. These victims have suffered serious and permanent injuries, some have lost limbs and appendages, others have lost precious children and loved ones, these are people that have experienced unimaginable and unspeakable horrors, and to attack and harass such people all because they react normally to having to experience such injustice, for me this is pushing the boundaries of even ‘Crazy’. To act more outraged than these victims because these people have hurt your feelings and criticized your obsessive need to own a pitbull is ‘crazy’. To be unwilling to choose any of hundreds of far more suitable breeds of dog as a companion animal is ‘crazy’. To claim to care about the breed and yet advocate in such a way that only harms the breed is ‘crazy’. To use an animal as a psychological prop is ‘crazy’. To want to own a breed of dog that has killed more people than all other breeds of dog combined is ‘crazy’. To want to own a breed of dog that kills someone every few weeks is ‘crazy’. To ignore, deny and minimize these regular serious attacks and fatalities is ‘crazy’. To try and use propaganda to cover up the fact pitbulls regularly maim, maul and kill innocent people is ’CRAZY’. And that’s my theory as to why pitbull advocates are ‘Nutters’.

Disclaimer: As the author of this article, I claim no expertise in either animal behavior or psychology. I am simply a victim who has chosen to have a voice. My goal is to develop an understanding of how it came to be that in modern day civilized society I could be seriously injured by fighting breeds of dog. A scenario, that prior to the attack, never occurred to me to be a possibility with the understanding I had at the time regarding the meaning of domestication in companion animals. I had always mistakenly assumed that domestication was the process of making animals safe to live together with humans, eliminating the fears that would normally accompany humans living in close proximity with wild animals. I believe developing an increased awareness of why such incidents happen, is for me, a path to healing.

There appears to be an aggressive minority defending the pitbull breed as a companion animal based on a claim of concern for animal welfare. This claim has never made sense to me. As humans slaughter 150 billion animals a year because they taste good. The majority of people seem content to destroy so many animals for what appears to be a reasonably trivial reason, animals that can claim to be truly innocent. Not only that, the pet industry destroys countless innocent animals because they are viewed as a commodity, therefore they are overbred, creating an excess that are simply destroyed. Many of these animals would be far more suited as companion animals in civilized communities as opposed to fighting breeds of dog such as pitbulls.

Considering this, I don’t believe animal welfare is the reason pitbulls attract such vociferous support, as there are countless opportunities for those wanting to protect animals rather than promoting fighting breeds of dog, dogs that have only created considerable discord in every society they have been allowed to be kept as a companion animal. This essay was my attempt to understand why I, as an outspoken victim of pitbull attack receive regular abuse and harassment, and why those who promote the breed do so in such an aggressive and excessively defensive manner. I believe there are several different types of people drawn to pitbulls, this essay was the exploration of only one of those types. For me, this type is particularly offensive, because not only are they complicit in supporting an unsuitable breed of dog for society leading to serious injuries and fatalities, they do it in good conscience, in such a way that they believe they are holy and righteous and everyone else who opposes them is evil and wicked.



30 comments:

Morgan Spicer said...

I am sorry you suffered. I am sorry you were attacked.

Now, can't you realize that just because ONE pit bull type dog did that, that not all of them are capable of such violence? Its just plain logic... I have a Shiba-inu, did you hear about the 2 shibas who killed an infant a month ago? I guess I need to euthanize my shiba now based on your logic.

I am more sorry that you waste your time brooding and being so damn unproductive in this world. Why don't you write about Sochi and how they are killing all their stray dogs? Why don't you write about ways to be a better pit bull owner? Why don't you post about free-spay and neuter clinics all over the country? Try some positivity because pit bull type dogs aren't going any where because they are a fantastic 'breed' and are loved by millions and the number of people who love them grows every day... so why don't you try to educate people about how to make this world better for everyone-- including pit bull type dogs who do not have a violent bone in their body... Seriously though, don't you think the world could use a little less hate?

scurrilous amateur blogger said...

i think the world could use a lot less blood shed.

Unknown said...

"Morgan Spicer"-
You left that comment just so we'd get an example of real live nutter talk to go along with Max' article didn't you?

How kind.

Anonymous said...

Max is right on! I'd like to see his Facebook and add to his "likes". Our voices will never be as loud as theirs (their pain causes a never ending shrieking) But we can add our calm, rational voices to the madness and have faith that over time, the truth is revealed. It always is.

Splash90 said...

Unfortunately that link to the full post seems to be broken. But what Max wrote brings this to mind: I didn't realize this until I was recently reading about the college shooting in Oregon, but the pit bull debate is very similar to the gun control debate. Statistics show that an increase in pit bull/gun ownership leads to an increase in fatalities, and vice versa.* For that reason, people have repeatedly called on government to enact protective legislation in both cases. But pit nutters' passion, and gun nutters' fear, is way out of proportion to the reality, and both groups of owners ignore the facts.

This site has plenty of pit bull statistics. Here is one site for guns: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/01/shooting-in-oregon-11-essential-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-america/

Splash90 said...

Thanks for posting the full article! I am skeptical of his theory because there's no way of knowing if "nutters" all had the same childhood issues so I think it's probably an oversimplification. But everything else he wrote is fantastic and pit bull advocates would do well to pay special attention to the last paragraph (the one before the disclaimer). It truly is crazy to do what they are doing.

Unknown said...

"Pit bull type dogs who do not have a violent bone in their body" - except that they do. The vast majority are dog aggressive. Maybe you don't consider dog aggression to be "violence" but the majority of dog owners do. It may be a minority of pits that are human aggressive but if you love animals you should care that the majority of those human loving pits would also love to tear apart someone else's pet.

tmarielbs56 said...

You should have heard my screams for help as I fought with the dog that attacked my grandson, as it ripped my face partially off, broke my hand, tore open my bicep, hand and forearm. It was a horrific night that 8 months and 6 surgeries later is ongoing. 7th surgery next month. My goal is a bottom lip and replacement of missing tissue. Docs say I will never pain free but we are going to try and control it without narcitics. Welcome to a mauling survivor's world. I get called horrendous names by advocates #wontbackdown!

Bible Reader 2010 said...

You are right - pits aren't going anywhere. That's why when I'm attacked while bicycling (pits are the only dogs to attack me so far), I paint the concrete with their brains using my legal and concealed .380 micro Desert Eagle. You pit bull apologists refuse to listen to reason, and I refuse to get killed or seriously injured. I would love laws that ban them or force owners to build fences, but blowing their brains out and leaving them to die twitching and whimpering in the road is the only solution I have.

scurrilous amateur blogger said...


this is the unfortunate reality that nutters have created. they have no one to blame but themselves.

Elaine said...

Horrible attacks, I was grabbed on the wrist by one once, luckily I was able to get away. I was attacked 9 years ago by a supposed gentle other breed. Broken teeth, torn lips, 6000 dollars in dental work, infection, etc. That dog should have been put down but it wasn't! The owners treat it like a baby, so it definitely isn't being mistreated! Same with the pitbull owners! We are living in a world where it seems dogs come before humans, many times. It's twisted and frightening!!! Any dog, can bite, maim or kill. Pit bulls have a potential for surprise attack, it's fact. It's cult like and scary and our voices are barely heard!

Lotophagist said...

I'm packing a bowie knife and I will cut the jaw muscles and kill any pitbull that attacks me or my pets. Pitbull apologists are SOCIOPATHS.
A family dog was mauled until the owner called him off. His long fur saved him.
I've had close calls with fighting breeds in the pastand these attacks are increasing.
BAN THE BREED.

scurrilous amateur blogger said...

i think most of them are sociopaths. i think there are some that are genuinely naive. in the end, the psychological make-up of the pit nutter really doesn't matter if your dog is mangled or dead and you loop that scene in your brain every day for the rest of your life.

Unknown said...

I totally agree its just plain stupid to own pit bull type dogs who are statistically proven to be way more dangerous than other breeds. Most dogs will nip or bite, pit bulls maul and kill.
I think the breed needs to die out. The majority of pit bull lovers are either mentally deranged or sadly ignorant.

Topazthecat said...

Im very sorry this happened to and all of the other innocent victims of Pit Bulls and they really should be illegal to own.



Can you please offer some helpful advice yesterday I Saw A Woman Walking With A Big Pitbull Without A Leash In My Apartment Courtyard





Can you or anyone else please off me help on what to do, I was walking home near my outside apartment building door when I met a neighbor for the second time who has a walker and a little dog that she says helps her.



I had told her that I have had bad experiences with dogs including chasing me barking without a leash.When I saw her today she wasn't with her dog and she said that she lets him off a leash sometimes, I told her the police said there is a 50$ fine for keeping dogs off of a leash.She had told me her dog was friendly when I met her the first time,and now she told me that if you want to pet her dog you have to ask her first because otherwise he'll bite.



She then tells me that there is white big pitbull that comes around here with no leash often at 7 or 8 pm, and she said the owner says it's friendly and it is,she saw someone pet it,and I said there are web sites like Dogbites.org,statistics from great youtube channels like I Hate Dogs,and K9 Aversion,news reports and the Center For Disease Control about common attacks including fatal by dogs not just, but especially pitbulls being the most dangerous.



Shortly after she told me about this loose big white pitbull which I had never seen before,it was loose coming near the courtyard of apartment with the woman owner walking away from it with a very little child!


I had posted on here months ago about my bad experiences with dogs off leash barking and chasing me,jumping on my thighs and that I was bitten at age 5 by my cousin's little terrier dog Heidi,and when I was 16 I was over my other cousin's house and they had just recently found a small white female dog who was growling at me from the other side of the room,and my cousin had to yell at the dog to stop it,and she said it was like she was ready to bite!









And about a creep guy who wasn't nice about the fact that I'm afraid of his German Shepherd on a leash thank God,which he often stands right out in front of the main apartment building with on the other side where I now saw this loose pitbull,and I recently saw him standing out the front door again with his dog 8.45 pm.So now I'm terrified to go out either side of my building but even more terrified of this loose pitbull.



In the spring of 2015 news reporters were outside my apartment complex and I asked them what they were doing here and they told me that a woman's pitbull who lived about a block or two away had attacked a woman's poodle who lives in my exact apartment building and the police were called.i could have been going in or out my buildings front door right then!




I'm actually afraid if I call police or animal control about this the owner who doesn't know and never met me,but maybe the other neighbors I was talking to about being afraid about this could tell her what I look like,and she could be irrational and nasty as we know and have experienced many dog owners being.



And as another neighbor said today,that in order for police to fine the owner they have to know where they live and be there when the dog is there.




Can anyone please offer some helpful advice,




Thank You



Topazthecat said...


I'm very sorry that this happened to you and all of the other victims of Pit Bull attacks and they really should be made illegal to own.




Can you or anyone else please offer some helpful advice last Monday I Saw A Woman Walking With A Big Pitbull Without A Leash In My Apartment Courtyard





Can any you or anyone else please off me help on what to do, I was walking home near my outside apartment building door when I met a neighbor for the second time who has a walker and a little dog that she says helps her.



I had told her that I have had bad experiences with dogs including chasing me barking without a leash.When I saw her today she wasn't with her dog and she said that she lets him off a leash sometimes, I told her the police said there is a 50$ fine for keeping dogs off of a leash.She had told me her dog was friendly when I met her the first time,and now she told me that if you want to pet her dog you have to ask her first because otherwise he'll bite.



She then tells me that there is white big pitbull that comes around here with no leash often at 7 or 8 pm, and she said the owner says it's friendly and it is,she saw someone pet it,and I said there are web sites like Dogbites.org,statistics from great youtube channels like I Hate Dogs,and K9 Aversion,news reports and the Center For Disease Control about common attacks including fatal by dogs not just, but especially pitbulls being the most dangerous.





Shortly after she told me about this loose big white pitbull which I had never seen before,it was loose coming near the courtyard of apartment with the woman owner walking away from it with a very little child!



I had posted on here months ago about my bad experiences with dogs off leash barking and chasing me,jumping on my thighs and that I was bitten at age 5 by my cousin's little terrier dog Heidi,and when I was 16 I was over my other cousin's house and they had just recently found a small white female dog who was growling at me from the other side of the room,and my cousin had to yell at the dog to stop it,and she said it was like she was ready to bite!




And about a creep guy who wasn't nice about the fact that I'm afraid of his German Shepherd on a leash thank God,which he often stands right out in front of the main apartment building with on the other side where I now saw this loose pitbull,and I recently saw him standing out the front door again with his dog 8.45 pm.So now I'm terrified to go out either side of my building but even more terrified of this loose pitbull.




In the spring of 2015 news reporters were outside my apartment complex and I asked them what they were doing here and they told me that a woman's pitbull who lived about a block or two away had attacked a woman's poodle who lives in my exact apartment building and the police were called.i could have been going in or outside my building door at that exact moment!





I'm actually afraid if I call police or animal control about this the owner who doesn't know and never met me,but maybe the other neighbors I was talking to about being afraid about this could tell her what I look like,and she could be irrational and nasty as we know and have experienced many dog owners being.



And as another neighbor said today,that in order for police to fine the owner they have to know where they live and be there when the dog is there.




Can anyone please offer some helpful advice,



Thank You



Topazthecat said...


I spoke with the community relations officer at my local police district about the owner walking with her big white pitbull off of a leash and how it comes on my apartment courtyard grounds,how terrified I am to walk outside,and the high statistics by the Center For Disease Control on dog attacks including fatally,and especially by pitbulls.






He actually said that this is with all dogs too and that it's mostly how the owner's raise them,and that he has friends with the sweetest pitbulls.His attitude is the epitome of this problem.




I said that's not true,veterinarians have even admitted that dogs are naturally aggressive and are all potentially dangerous,and I said even more with Pitbulls who have been genetically bred to be violent killing dogs and that a man just recently was killed after he had a seizure by his white pitbull he had owned for ten years that had never bitten and attacked anyone before.




I told him to look up,and I had emailed him this information a few months ago before this loose pitbull situation Wikipedia's long important article,Fatal Dog Attacks In The United States and they have decades of actual newspaper reports and most were family dogs that had been nice for years and had never bitten and attacked anyone before and the owners and neighbors were really shocked.I told him they really need to enforce the dog leash laws more strongly.




I said dogs are unpredictable and he said I'm right they are,but he actually said that if I see this or any dog off of a leash to just walk away and walk across the street,I said I can't always walk away you don't always see it until it's too late,and dogs without leashes run up to people,and they even run across streets and get hit by cars and have caused car accidents and injured people,he said you're right.





I told him that it was a black woman walking with this big white pitbull off of a leash,and I said I didn't tell you she was black to be racist,if she was white I would have told you that.




He said I know you told me so we can identify her with this dog and I said the neighbor who had seen this dog loose first told me she's often seen it around 7 or 8 pm,and I saw it with other neighbors around 1.45 pm so he said that he would ell officers to patrol the street and if they see her with this off leash dog they will give her a ticket and tell her she needs to put the dog on a leash.



I also called Animal Control and the guy who didn't even act concerned said they have to know where she lives and let her know she needs to put her dog on a leash,but how am I supposed to know where she lives? She might live in one of the houses near by and she had a two year old child with her.


Thank You

Topazthecat said...

I called him back but he left for the day,but I might call him tomorrow because I forgot to tell him again what I told him when I spoke with him about two months ago before this recent situation,when he said to me today that I should run away if I see a dog off of a leash,that in December there was a big dog that might have been a pitbull off of a leash on the owner's lawn and I had to run out into a highway to get away from it and I almost got hit by cars, I was terrified of going out further in the street and getting hit by a car,but I was also terrified of this big dog running towards me,the owner finally ran over to this dog and yelled stop it,and pulled it inside.





Topazthecat said...

Here is the most recent case of a pitbull,which is a white one too,who had been owned by the owner for 10 years,and never had bitten anyone,killed his 52 year old owner when he had a seizure!



There are other fatal victims of their pitbulls including from seizures on this site as well as owners and other people including children and elderly people bitten and or killed by many other common family dogs.





https://blog.dogsbite.org/2019/07/dog-kills-owner-uniontown-seizure-homer-utterback.html




2019 Dog Bite Fatality: Pit Bull Kills Owner in Uniontown: 'He Has a Hole in His Head and His Neck' DogsBite Blog
Homer Utterback, 52, died after his own dog brutally attacked him in Uniontown. Dog Kills Owner Uniontown, PA - A man is dead after his own dog brutally attacked him. Police identified the man as 52-year old Homer Utterback.







This is a filmed interview with an adult daughter of 69 year old Jerry Yates who was attacked and killed by two loose pitbulls in 2010.



https://blog.dogsbite.org/2010/10/video-calaveras-enterprise-examines-pit.html





Video Calaveras Enterprise Examines Pit Bull Victim's Last Steps DogsBite Blog



Mountain Ranch, CA - Jerry Yates, 69, was mauled to death by two pit bulls owned by Sheryl Sellers August 22.Sellers has since pleaded not guilty to the felony of knowingly having a mischievous animal, letting it be at large or keeping it without ordinary care, resulting in the death a person. Calaveras Enterprise 1 journalist and video author Joel Metzer, talks to Jami Southard as she ...



blog.dogsbite.org









Topazthecat said...


​Why Dogs Bite People


by Dog bite law attorney Kenneth M.Phillips



https://dogbitelaw.com/why-dogs-bite-people/why-dogs-bite-people



Why Dogs Bite People - Dog Bite Law


Dog bite injuries can occur when a dog's motive to bite a person exceeds his inhibition to bite. Motives to bite Factors that determine whether a dog will bite
dogbitelaw.com




The Provocation Myth


He says that under principles of common law there is the assumption that dogs are harmless unless they have previously demonstrated a vicious propensity.And he then says this often leads to the related assumption that victims of dog attacks have provoked or otherwise precipitated the attack.



He explains that a lot of research information has found that in most cases the dog attack victims did nothing considered illegally provoking the dogs, and in a big survey of non-fatal dog bites most of them had no interaction with the dog and that in 75% of cases the victim was just sitting or walking.



https://dogbitelaw.com/why-dogs-bite-people/provocation-the-myth





Dangerous Dogs




Pitbulls and Rottweilers



https://www.dogsbite.org/dangerous-dogs.php




https://www.dogsbite.org/dog-bite-statistics-fatalities-2018.php

Topazthecat said...

This is an excellent important article.



The Importance Of (Dog) Leash Laws-It Can Be A Life Or Death Choice




https://iheartdogs.com/the-importance-of-leash-laws-it-can-be-a-life-or-death-choice/









While people applaud cities like Carmel-by-the-Sea, California for being so dog friendly, as a dog trainer I worry about the “anti-leash” trend that is growing. There are many out there that seem to think their dog needs to be off leash 24/7 to be happy, or it’s a pride thing: …
iheartdogs.com








The Importance of Leash Laws – It Can Be A Life Or Death Choice




The idea of no leash laws takes me back to the 80’s. I remember a Thanksgiving in Maine where my grandmother put the leftover turkey on the porch (that’s how cold it was) and the neighbor’s dog Coco snuck into the porch, grabbed the turkey off of the shelf and ran down the street with it.






Topazthecat said...

This is an excellent 2010 report by Internationally acclaimed animal behaviorist & animal trainer of over 30 years,Gary Wilkes explains violence is in Pit Bulls genes from being bred as a fighting Dog and he totally debunks the common myth that it's more about how the owners raise and train them.He's owned and worked with Pit Bulls and his grandfather bred them as fighting dogs too.





He explains they have been bred to have a Jekyll /Hyde personality,and they can have a deceptive friendly affectionate side but it's also in their genes because of how they were bred for for so many years,to viciously attack anything or anyone without warning or remorse.




He also says that nationally the odds that a Pit Bull will bite your are slim because there aren't that many of them compared to other breeds.I have a big white Pit Bull running around with no leash with the owner walking away from it right near my apartment complex grounds!






He then says however if you are killed by a dog,the likelihood that it was a Pit Bull is high,and at the time he wrote this in 2010,he said over the last 3 years of the 88 fatal dog attacks in the US 59% were by Pit Bulls or dogs described as Pit Bull types even though they are less than 5 % of the total dog population.These % are now higher,they are 70% of fatal dog attacks, are 6 % of the dog population.



https://blog.dogsbite.org/2010/07/pit-bulls-by-gary-wilkes-21st-century.html





Pit Bulls, by Gary Wilkes: A 21st Century Depiction of the American Pit Bull Terrier | DogsBite Blog
Photo courtesy of the Wilkes family. Behaviorist Gary Wilkes | Download PDF Mechanicsburg, PA - Back in January, Gary Wilkes wrote to DogsBite.org asking for permission to use one of the most powerful images posted to the website in a forthcoming article about pit bulls.


blog.dogsbite.org





https://www.dogsbite.org/pdf/pit-bulls-gary-wilkes-spring-2010-off-lead.pdf




Topazthecat said...

Excellent,Important,Informative Youtube Channels On How Common Dog Attacks Really Are




I Hate Dogs



https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLniPzAs-LwRsBUEUdyp_6Q/videos



Pitbulls Should Be Banned By Law & Exterminated By Law Enforcement



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NawhL5JezG0&t=150s





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nwiHIe5DIk




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VeUrMHe298&t=10s



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-aO8XdfWyY



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPHcplqMwNw&t=309s







And K 9 Aversion



https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWQNwKv6ExM62Go1lPSrd_A/videos
















Topazthecat said...

This 52 year old man just died in May from complications from a dog bite!




https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/200141218/john-patrick-simpson




John Patrick Simpson (1966-2019) - Find A Grave...
John Patrick Simpson, age 52, passed away peacefully on May 28, 2019, at Asante Rogue Regional Hospital, surrounded by his family. His unexpected death was caused by complications from a dog bite. Born in Portland, Oregon, he was the son of John and Marianna Simpson of Grants Pass. He grew up in a close-knit family...




Topazthecat said...

Why was my posts not posted that I tried to post over a week ago about a loose off leash Pit Bull running several times on my apartment complex courtyard grounds with the owner on the sidewalk away from it? And I asked if you could please offer some advice about what to do,I'm terrified to walk outside my apartment building now.




I also posed a lot of great strong information on how dangerous Pit Bulls really are and recent cases of attacks and I said I was very sorry you were attacked by a Pit Bull too and they really should be banned and made illegal to own.

scurrilous amateur blogger said...

hello randie, sorry for the delay in publishing your comments. i don't check for comments very often. and at the moment i don't have the time to read through them all. i will this weekend. in the meantime, i will make a point to check for comments everyday.

Unknown said...

Actually, anyone who knows the origins of the Shiba Inu breed wouldn't be surprised that they attacked someone. Shibas have been bred for centuries for aggression and protection. The same goes for Akitas. If all the pitbulls were switched with Shibas, this post would remain the same, only geared towards Shibas.

The thing is, Shibas are a relatively rare breed. The lay person's chance of encountering a Shiba while walking around their neighborhood is very slim. In addition, because of their rarity, Shibas tend to be expensive and difficult to acquire. So are more likely to be owned by people who understand the breed and take the appropriate precautions to safeguard the public from them.

Unknown said...

Deny, deflect, lie, we are not talking about a rare incident with a rare breed of dog injuring an infant. We are talking about pit bulls predictively killing 20,000 dogs , 30,000 cats and 38 people every year. That's only the deaths.

Boomer Doell said...

Good job and carry on Sir. You are doing a huge service to society and I commend you.

Sebastian Hawks said...

Mostly lowlifes have these things, here in Champaign I was told by a coworker that all that's on the shelters now are pitbulls and pitbull mixes. Then there is another type, one of my coworkers is an animal nut, a weakling who squandered $2000 at the vet on his sick guinea pig. The "no kill shelter type" who adopted a pitbull and is stuck living in one of the worst, crime infested apartment complexes in town because no reputable landlord will allow a pitbull, only slumlords will.