Pit Bull Kills Child
(WARNING - SARCASM AHEAD) Now’s here something we don’t see very often - a story about a pit bull killing a kid. Turns out James Martin and Heather Frango, who will never be confused for James Herriott and Jon Katz, have had previous run-ins with their neighbors and the law over their doggies. Seems they’ve owned pit bulls (scientific name: Timebombus waitingtoexplodus) for years, with the usual results.
Now, I’m a dog owner, and admittedly biased (when I was a kid, my dog - a Pekinese/poodle mix - got into it with a pit bull that was running around loose. Guess who won?) against this particular breed. Ever wonder WHY they’re called pit bulls? (Google it. And see how many times you come across the phrase “bred to fight”.) And I’m waiting for all of you pit bull owners out there to write me and tell me how wonderful they are and how great they are around kids blah blah blah bullshit bullshit bullshit. I’ll believe that as soon as I come across a story with the headline “Dachschund Kills Child”.
Tags: animal, bad+parents, Death, dog, pit+bull
15 opinions for Pit Bull Kills Child
Candace J
Oct 7, 2005 at 10:08 am
No, really, they *can* be good. I’m not denying that there are bad people who do bad things to the breed, and I’m not denying that there are bad dogs in every breed, either. Hell, my grandmother’s Pekinese took a chunk out of my chin when I was six, for NO REASON. I was terrified of dogs then; I would NEVER have gone near her. She lunged at me and bit, as I was sitting on the couch reading a book.
So, anyway, we had a pit bull mix (boxer and beagle as well) and she was WONDERFUL. She’d let the kids pull her ears and sit on her (they were five and two at the time). She would look at them like, “You love me, you really love me,” and she’d take anything they dished out. But we trained her that way, and she obeyed us.
You can’t expect good behavior from ANY unproperly trained dog.
Lori
Oct 7, 2005 at 10:08 am
This is truly a sad thing to hear… ummm, where were the parents when this occurred? Perhaps they are as much at fault as the dogs. As a dog lover, I happen to love my kids more, so which would be the first to go??? Potential parents ought to take a common sense test before breeding.
Jason
Oct 7, 2005 at 11:37 am
Et tu, Candace?
Agree with you that improper training = potentially bad dog. What people fail to take into account when making this argument is the consequences when the dog’s nature, bred into it over numerous generations, takes over. Small, yappydogs (I’m lobbying to have the AKC formally classify them as such) can be prone to fear-aggresion and it’s very common for them to nip at kids. Our vets, for example, singled out Jack Russells as being a breed that they’d strongly recommend against buying if you had a small child. (Sorry, Eddie and Skip.) You can train the heck out of ANY dog - but you can NEVER be 100% sure that at any given moment they won’t up and do something bad. Jon Katz, in my mind the best dog writer out there, has an interesting piece on Slate about the thought processes of dogs (http://slate.msn.com/id/2127419/), and time and again in his writings makes the compelling argument that dogs are what they are, and that we can never truly know what’s going on in their heads. Nor, he’s argued, should we ever completely “trust” a dog as we might a person. How this applies to the pit bull is simple: this was a breed that for many, many years was bred and raised to be a fighting dog. It’s in their genes. (My dog is a border collie mix, and it’s very evident in his behavior - he’s VERY protective of us, and his favorite beach game is “herding” other dogs. Do I worry about him hurint others? No. Do I ever take my eye off him? No.) While I’m sure there are - and have indeed met - pits who are completely wonderful, in my mind there would always be two questions: what if the dog were to attack me or someone else, and could I stop that dog from doing so before he injured or killed that person. In my opinion, that’s a question that every responsible dog owner must ask him or herself regardless of what type of dog he or she has, and regardless of how well-trained that dog may be. And I’m much more comfortable with the odds against certain breeds doing that than others.
To Lori’s question - the parents are COMPLETELY at fault, and should be put in jail for negligent homicide. The dog should be put to sleep.
Candace J
Oct 7, 2005 at 2:00 pm
See, the thing is, I don’t believe they were bred for years and years to fight. The pit bull’s original purpose was to keep bulls under control. I think the fight breeding thing is a fairly recent phenomenon, maybe the last 15 years or so? (Ok, so that *is* years and years; I was going on the assumption that you meant generations and not actually years.)
I’m totally willing to concede on this point. I agree completely that there are dogs that are more dangerous than others, especially for children. But I do get up in arms when the smaller breeds aren’t mentioned. I think we agree more than we disagree, especially where the parents’ culpability comes into play.
I never, EVER leave my children unsupervised with ANY dog. You just never know.
Jason
Oct 7, 2005 at 2:55 pm
There’s a gazillion (I counted) pit bull sites out there; here’s what one of them has to say about the history of the breed:
http://www.pitbullregistry.com/Pit%20Bull%20History.htm
Candace J
Oct 7, 2005 at 3:25 pm
I bow to you, o master of The Internets! :-)
A gazillion, eh?
Jason
Oct 7, 2005 at 5:24 pm
Well…maybe not a gazillion.
But at least THIS MANY (extends arms widely, to the approximate length of that big fish he once caught).
achromic
Oct 7, 2005 at 6:52 pm
Stop blaming the dog and blame the adults in the sitution. Where were the parents? What is wrong with them that they don’t know not to leave a dog of that size alone with a child? EVEN the SPCA says dogs of that size should NEVER be alone with a child. Have they not heard the gazallion reports about dogs killing kids to not be cautious?
The dogs should be put to sleep. But it is the parents that should be held accountable.
BTW this is like my favorite site dudes. Like wow who know you could roll up the Jerry Springer show and the Enquire and make a blog? It is true love!
Theresa
Oct 8, 2005 at 2:30 pm
The only good pit bull…you can finish that thought.
Dread Pirate Robert
Oct 11, 2005 at 5:05 pm
Easy there. They may have been bred to fight in bear pits, but were also trained not to attack humans. (The handlers had to pull them off so as not to kill the much more expensive bear.) Remember Petey, from Our Gang? PIt Bull.
That being said, there are some sickos out there. We have a pit bull cross rescued from someone who had trained her to fight other dogs. She’s doing much better now, thanks for asking, but I don’t trust her around other dogs.
As for your other comment, Dachsunds were also trained to fight and kill. And so were Pomeranians.
ryan
Oct 26, 2005 at 3:50 am
yes, um this comment is for theresa and all the other pitbull haters out their. i hope your kids get eaten by a pitbull and your state doesnt do a darn thing. i’m serious! ignorant narrow minded human beings.
eddie hohmann
Jan 26, 2006 at 11:42 am
pits r good dogs if you make a pit mean then thats your problem well thats all i got to say
Fiona
Feb 24, 2006 at 7:44 pm
STOP YOUR IGNORANCE!! I AM ONE OF THOSE PIT BULL OWNERS WHO WILL TELL YOU THEY ARE WINDERFUL AND GREAT WITH KIDS!! DO YOUR HOMEWORK, BEAGLES HAVE MORE ATTACKS ON FAMILY MEMBERS ON RECORD THAN PITS. OH, AND BY THE WAY-IT WAS BITTEN BY A DOG ONCE AND IT WAS A DASCHUND! THERE ARE NO BAD DOGS, JUST BAD OWNERS-DON’T BLAME THEM-TRAIN THEM!
Fiona
Feb 24, 2006 at 8:08 pm
Sorry, I was a little excited. My dog wasn’t bit, I was. Okay I feel better! (warning-sarcasm ahead)oh and here is my vicious dog eating my Goddaughter.
Shaina
Feb 28, 2006 at 10:52 pm
OK, pit bulls were bred to fight in pits, hence the name. But how many dogs were pred for a purpose that they no longer perform? Great Danes were bred to hunt boars, poodles are also hunting dogs, rhodesian ridgebacks were bred to fight lions, wolf hounds (duh), dachschunds, MOST terriers. In fact, most dogs outside the herding group no longer perform their intended function. Pit bulls are unfairly stereotyped because bad people use them for bad things.
Most of the time parents should be held responsible if the family dog kills the child, but there are rare exceptions. And you can’t automatically label a dog vicious if it bites a child (killing is different of course). Remember, children pinch and pull, and play rough, and they don’t usually recognize the dog’s “leave me alone” warnings. Supervision and education would prevent a lot of attacks.