They should be treated like any dangerous, exotic animal. Like you can own a tiger but there are hoops and red tape, same should be true for pit bulls. This would alleviate the whole “it’s not the breed it’s the owner” retort - fine, ensure that only good owners have them.
5 Likes
Lets ban humans that behave worse than dogs and disregard them as trash! Dogs are not disposable like garbage!
38 Likes
Nope this one is not realistic. Pit Bull Terroirs are great dogs. They are fantastic family dogs. The government has no place in regulating this breed.
64 Likes
Do you have any stats on what percentage of dogs owned as pets are pits? These numbers don’t say much if they’re overrepresented as pets.
You also need a sense of circumstances surrounding the deaths. It may well be the case that since they predominate in shelters, they’ve had a tough life with less training than other breeds.
The whole breed classification system is really blurry too.
15 Likes
Oh looks like the Karen’s have arrived.
Not even on the top 1000 list of things that need to be fixed in this country. Way to focus on something completely anti freedom… Banning an animal based on their DNA not on their actions. Good grief
57 Likes
This is why I will not get another pit.
My pit is just a sweetheart and will cuddle you to death
13 Likes
I would like to add that tensions are already high in this country. Supporting the slaughter of millions of innocent dogs and taking them from their homes would be a good way to start widespread violence in this country. If you want peace, you don’t want to do that.
You said 50 dead, but you want to kill millions of dogs for this idea and take them from their loving homes. Please think further about that.
39 Likes
Since I’ve posted this morning, I’ve had to edit the post and add another death. Here is the list of 2024, which now includes ANOTHER baby.
Dog Bite Fatalities in America in 2024:
All the breeds of the attacking dogs, when known are represented
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01/24/24 - Reuben Pierce, 70, Jacksonville, AK -mauled by neighbor’s 2 Pitbulls on 10/30/2023, died 3m later
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01/29/24 - Duke Miller Whittington, 4, Monroe Center, IL. - Great Dane
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01/29/24 - Lenore Lawson Hale, 72,
Cheifland, FL. - Catahoula -
01/30/24 - Willie Mundine, 85, Indianapolis, IN, - 2 pit bulls
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01/30/24 - Sommer Crivello, 42,
Ocean View, HI, - Her own pit bull -
01/31/24 - Carlon Galloway, 19,
Fort Hall Reservation, ID, - pit bulls -
02/2/24 - Harold Phillips, 35,
Detroit, MI, - 3 pit bulls -
02/2/24 - Jay Simms, 67,
Longview, TX - (heart attack during pit bull attack). -
02/15/24 - Dominic Cooper, 35,
Los Angeles, CA, - His own pit bulls -
02/16/24 - Brayden Burwell, 2-weeks-old, Milford, CT, - Family Husky
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02/26/24 - Beau Clark, 4,
Morgan County, AL - neighbor’s pit bull type dog, “Olde English Bulldog” -
03/1/24 - Mark Alan Partain, 2, New Hope, AL - neighbor’s Husky and German Shepherd mix
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03/9/24 - Daymon Balbuena, 3 months old,
Woodbridge, NJ, - Family Pitbull -
03/13/24 - Lennox Rohena, 1-year-old, East Hartford, CT, - Dalmatian/Pitbull mix
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04/12/24 - Cindy White, 52, Portsmouth, VA, 3 pit bulls
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04/15/24 - Shiraz Amal Asirvadam, 1, Duncanville, TX,
3 German Shepherd mixes -
04/26/24 - Kaheem Robinson, 41, Bronx, NY, - his own Pitbull.
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05/9/24 - Courtney Williams Cox, 35, Quitman, GA, neighbor’s 13 loose pit mixes
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05/14/24 - Amaya Rose Carmack, 4 days old, Greeneville, TN, family Husky
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05/18/24 - Unnamed 40-year-old male, Farmington Hills, MI, family Pitbull mix
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05/19/24 - Lester Peneaux, 9,
Eagle Butte, SD, Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation - pack of feral dogs -
05/30/24 - Ezra Mansoor, six-weeks-old, Knoxville, TN, - family Husky
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05/30/24 - “Jenn”, 53, Los Angeles, CA, mauled to death by her own pit bull named “Ice”
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06/3/24 - Willard Norton, 83,
Town Creek, AL, neighbor’s 2 Pitbulls -
06/9/24 - Trina Sandlin, 57, Jeremiah, KY, - neighbor’s Pitbulls/mixes
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06/14/24 - Sheila Jones, 54,
Baltimore, MD. - 2 Pitbulls -
06/27/24 - Toby Bryan Berkley, 40,
Snyder TX. - friend’s 3 Pitbulls -
06/28/24 - Geronima Florez, 85,
Monte Alto, TX. - her own Pitbull/mix -
07/1/24 - Teresa Rhodes, 61,
Bolivar, TN. - 2 Pitbulls -
07/3/24 - Jaxson Dvorak, 6,
Lorain, OH. - Family American Bully,(Odin, male) and family Shepherd/Pit mix(Roxy, female) -
07/3/24 - Johnny Clint Fontenot, 41, Arkadelphia, AR. - His own XL Pitbull
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07/4/24 - as-yet unidentified homeless male, 58, Fresno, CA. - Husky
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07/06/24- Hispanic man, 80, Houston, Texas - mauled to death in his own yard by 5 dogs, 2 of them Rottweilers, the other 3 not yet identified.
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07/7/24 - Joni Hatcher, 59
Shreveport, LA. - mauled to death by 2 pit bulls she was dog sitting -
07/10/24 - Karen Nelson, 71, Florence, SC - mauled to death by a pit bull while riding her bike
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07/11/24 - Renona Ewing, 62, Tuscaloosa, AL, mauled to death by her own BullMastiff/Bully mix at home
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07/24/24 - Covil Lee, 3, Brooklyn Park, MN, mauled by 2 American Bullies on 07/19/24, later died from his injuries
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07/29/24- A’Daya Rain Fisher, 2, Houston, TX - mauled to death by a relative/babysitter’s 3 Rottweilers
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08/02/24 - Kimberly A. Williams, 60, Indianapolis, IN, mauled by 2 Pitbulls she was dog sitting
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08/03/24 - unidentified baby boy, 3mo, Rochester, NY, mauled to death by 2 “Pitbull-type dogs”
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08/08/24 - Davina Corbin, 56, Feather Falls, California, mauled to death by a pack of 25 Great Danes
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08/09/24- unidentified boy, 1, Memphis, TN, mauled to death by 2 XL Bullies
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08/09/24 - Shiree Barney, 9, Overgaard, Arizona, mauled to death by 2 Cane Corso
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08/24/24 - Keshawn Bullock, 33, Chicago, IL, mauled to death by 2 “XL Bullies”
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09/01/24 - 53yo man, Oakland, CA, mauled to death by 2 Cane Corso mixes
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09/04/24- 18mo baby girl, Newark, NJ, mauled to death by at least 1 Pitbull while being babysat
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09/04/24 - Zoey Hawkins, 4yo, Visalia, CA, mauled to death by the family Pitbull
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09/22/24 - Leslie Mccray, 56, Conway, SC, mauled to death by a Pitbull (unreported by media)
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09/25/24 - Jimmy Miller, 72, Cardwell, MO, mauled to death by his “mixed breed dog”
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09/25/24 - Nancy Ann Punches 91, Chehalis, WA, mauled to death by her 2 German Shepherds
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10/07/24 - Jiryiah Johnson, 1, Bexar County, TX, mauled to death by his babysitter’s 4 XL Bullies
ETA: Since writing this yesterday, 2 more fatalities because of Pitbulls have been reported-
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10/08/24 - Chevy Womack, 1 month, Torrance, CA, mauled to death by the “family Pitbull”
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10/09/24 - Man, Albany, NY, mauled to death by Pitbulls
8 Likes
I want them to be banned from being bred because they are dogs born to suffer and to cause suffering. They are bloodsport dogs. I’m not calling for a cull, just a ban. They should also be muzzled in public. In this country, taxpayers are paying millions of dollars every year to house dogs that have seriously injured and killed people while they’re in the court system.
Too many dangerous dogs are given chance after chance to seriously injure and kill. I want dangerous dogs euthanized after the first unprovoked bite. I want it to be illegal for animal shelters to adopt our dangerous dogs. Too many innocent people and pets have lost life and limb because of dangerous dogs, with the help of government agencies and taxpayer funds.
4 Likes
However, the environment in which a dog is in plays little part in their behavior. Golden retrievers are almost always friendly, due to their breed. I was almost part of the statistic when a pitbull bit me on a walk in California and knocked me into the street where I was about 6 inches from my neck being run over by a car that was coming up to the light.
2 Likes
It 100% is.
Pitbulls are inherently more prone to violent outbursts and random attacks.
They were bred to be fight dogs.
That’s why you see so many pitbull mauling stories because they can get agitated at any given moment.
These shouldn’t be domesticated dogs. They put others around them in danger - especially the elderly and children.
Because they were bred to be fight dogs, their jaws and uncontrollable aggressiveness makes them significantly more dangerous than other dog breeds.
6 Likes
I have been involved in rescue and training of LARGE breed dogs (Kangals, Anatolian Shepherds, Akbash, Great Pyrenees) for years. In that time, I have met my fair share of Pit Bulls as well. The problem isn’t with the breed itself, but rather the humans that breed dogs based on looks RATHER than temperament, health, or other important factors. If you start with a dog that has aggressive tendencies, then put it in a home where it has zero training, you will end up with a dangerous animal: The SAME can be said of nearly every breed of dog though. I have personally only been bitten a couple of times and am MORE afraid of small “ankle biters” than larger dogs. Yes, the larger animal’s bite does more damage, more quickly, so I understand the fear. However, other than the unprovoked attacks and pack driven attacks, all the bite videos I have seen show the animal giving clear signs that it wants to be left alone and the humans (mostly unsupervised children) ignoring them. People need to teach themselves and their children how to interpret a dog’s signals before they insert themselves into the animal’s personal space.
I am NOT for the mandatory sterilization of dogs at a young age, since that is detrimental to the health of many larger breed dogs (they do not finish growing till as late as 3 years). Their are recent studies showing it is better for the health and longevity of some breeds to never be altered (which means they need VERY responsible owners). Personally, we spayed all our female dogs, but my males are intact and we don’t have accidental litters.
The REAL issue here, is a need for better management/regulation of back yard breeders who do NOT have any health or temperament testing done and do zero training or socialization with their animals.
Rather, breeders should be required to have a valid kennel license, do the testing on their animals, and put laws in place that ban the sale of animals originating from unlicensed/untested premises: No roadside sales, online sales, or pet shop sales.
18 Likes
NO. I have owned quite a few of these dogs and the breed is not aggressive. Just like children that become criminals it is all in how they are raised. I’ve been bitten by 3 German Shepherds but never a Pit Bull.
21 Likes
Hard disagree. First of all, this portal is about federal policy not local county ordinances, where this would come into play. Second, my pitbulls have characteristics that make people want to train them to be mean (i.e. they are strongest breed you can find… just powerful) but otherwise noble creatures with sweet dispositions until you train them to be otherwise. I can train a doberman or a shepherd to be equally lethal. It is not the breed, it is always the owner. But again, proposals on local ordinances or city, county or state policy actually detract from this website which should be focused on sifting through sound proposals for federal policy making. Just my opinion.
25 Likes
I’ve owned rotts, pits & currently own a German shepherd. Never once had an issue with any of them. It most def is the owner. No one is messing with my girl lol. 
20 Likes
I have to stand in opposition against this, as this is a slippery-slope argument that can easily be abused against other things, such as AR-15 style rifles being banned because school shooters tend to favor them, or, in extreme cases, be abused in the form of discriminatory laws against particular groups of people as well, responsibility for dogs falls solely on the owner, as does responsibility for humans committing criminal acts fall solely on the criminal themself, and not on others, or certain objects.
11 Likes
This is an over step of constitutional authority.
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Yes, actually it is. How many beagle deaths have we witnessed over the past century?
4 Likes
So called “pit bulls” and p.b. “type” dogs represent many different breeds, including at least eleven (11) different types of Staffordshire Terrier (hailing now from several continents), as well as the American Pit Bull Terrier, the American Bully and the American Bull Dog. Additionally, a significant number of dogs having “the look” aren’t pure bred of any breed (they’re mixed breed dogs with some of one or more of those breeds in their lineage, along with all manner of other dog breeds mixed in). So, even if the idea of “banning” them was sound (which I will argue here, it is not), the enforcement of such a ban would be scientifically unsound and impossible from a dog breeders’ perspective, and would therefore be rendered completely arbitrary, based on how a given dog “looks” to the person(s) enforcing the ban. Banning things from common accessibility has always been a bad idea, as it inevitably leads to selective enforcment or non-enforcment, various types of corruption and an undermining of public confidence in our laws and criminal justice system. Prohibition becomes an industry unto itself, for anything so prohibited. Just as the best answer to bad speech is more (and better) speech, so to, the best answer to bad behavior or circumstances is access to knowledge / training and better circumstances, to provide opportunities for correction / rehabilitation. The actual problem of vicious dogs that look like these breeds attacking humans, is in fact the result of a previous ban. Dog fighting was a well regulated and humane sport, when it was first imported to America, by modern standards. Much as human fighting contests don’t seek to end in death or severe injury, do to with regulated dog fights. The answer to the “problem” of dog fighting was always to improve said regulations, just as we have in human fighting contests. When dog fighting was banned, the “problem” was made much worse, as any prohibited thing is, whith the complete absence of regulations that comes, hand in hand, with any ban. In regulated dog fighting, dog fights are called once “gameness” has been tested and evaluated. Any injuries are imediatly treated and it would be unthinkable for either dog to perish. The dogs rather enjoy the fighting (as evidenced by tails wagging), and the human handlers maintain control of the dogs and their situation at every step. Dogs that aren’t inclined to fight are simply not matched, and most dogs wouldn’t be in more than a few matches in their lives, with only the most acclaimed champions being matched further. This is my limited understanding of how regulated dog fighting was undertaken, prior to it being banned. I personally would never match any of my dogs, as I feel there are much better things these breeds are capable of. I’m just pointing out that the reason qe see so many pit bull rescue organizations is due to the inhumane & cruel treatment so many dogs have been subjected to, specifically resulting from the unregulated nature of dog fighting in this country, as a direct consequence of previous “bans”. Every one of these dogs I’ve ever encountered are the most people-friendly, loving, intelligent and sensitive dogs on the planet. They definately require more attention and intelligence on behalf of their human counterparts than many other breeds might. But in my experience, a majority of that energy is needed to deal with ignorant people, or their misbehaving dogs. I personally think these dogs would be perfect for Search and Rescue. They have hearts of gold, incredible strength and stamina, and never quit mentalities. Ultimately, it’s humans situational awareness and a dog’s upbringing and surroundings that deturmine their behavior. Not so much, “the breed”.
12 Likes
Just wait until you find out about cars!
Seriously, if you’re gonna ban an animal that kills ~60 per year, you might as well ban all cars, all boats, all motorbikes, all four wheelers, and all forms of weapon. Live in a different country, if you’re so afraid.
24 Likes