What Would You Say About This to the Management?

ORIGINAL: peter_89
 I would happily adopt a pittie myself, keeping in mind, however, that they mustn't be in dog parks or live with other animals in your home.

I know many others have pointed out the inaccuracy of this statement, but I'll add to it as well.    An American Staffordshire Terrier lives in my apartment building.   He used to have some issues with hyperactivity and excitement that looked like aggression.    Now he's been in training for a few months and he is the biggest sweetheart ever.   My tiny cockapoo puppy greets him and licks his nose all the time.    His tail wags like crazy.  We've also met countless lovely pit bulls in the dog park, some muzzled (because of the pit bull ban), some not and they've been nothing but gentle, sweet and well-behaved with my dog and all others I've seen.    While certainly there are aggressive pit bulls (just like there are aggressive cocker spaniels, bichons, golden retrievers, etc.), I have personally never seen one and they certainly can be in dog parks.

BTW Shannon..sure is nice to see those pics of Buck!!!

As long as there is someone willing to pay money for a product or service, there will always be someone willing to provide it.  You demonstrated your support for the store by shopping there.  Shame on you.

I would happily adopt a pittie myself, keeping in mind, however, that they mustn't be in dog parks or live with other animals in your home.

 
Oh my you DO know your Pitties don't you?  I'm sure that a bunch of my friends with APBTs and AmStaffs would disagree about them living with other animals.  I KNOW I disagree about them not being in dog parks, as there are bunches in the dog parks that I frequent.  And when there's trouble, it is rarely the Pits involved.  So please do a bit more research and ask some questions about these wonderful dogs, as you can see there are alot of fans of these dogs on this board.
 
So take that for what it's worth.

Sally lives peacefully with 2 cats.  OK, maybe not peacefully, because one of my cats harasses Sally like it's her job, but Sally doesn't hurt them.

Oh my you DO know your Pitties don't you?  I'm sure that a bunch of my friends with APBTs and AmStaffs would disagree about them living with other animals.  I KNOW I disagree about them not being in dog parks, as there are bunches in the dog parks that I frequent.  And when there's trouble, it is rarely the Pits involved.  So please do a bit more research and ask some questions about these wonderful dogs, as you can see there are alot of fans of these dogs on this board.

So take that for what it's worth.

[linkhttp://www.pbrc.net/dogpark.html]http://www.pbrc.net/dogpark.html[/link]
This is from a Pit Bull rescue.
Again I am tired of these advocates of the breed who absolutely refuse to admit any faults. This is unrealistic and childish. Again, I am a big fan of this breed (along with mastiff-type breeds; please ignore typos, I am simply a human) but am realistic about it. You are completely ignoring the breed's history to say it has no chance of being violent.

Please explain this to me then....

Of course you're tired of it...you're not winning. There are too many supports of the breed who can tell you from experience what the breed is like. You are taking your information from a webpage who you don't even have the slightest clue who wrote that page.
Yes, the breed was originally used for fighting but that can be worked out just as easily as it was trained in. Did you read that..trained in!
 My first experience so many years ago was with a varifiable pit fighting bitch I rescued. She came with baggage, scars and broken teeth.....The story is long and I won't bore you since you probably wouldn't really care to read it anyway but the fact is she was rehabilitated and is the reason why I own 9 Am Staffs/APBT.
 
Do more research, you've obviously not really absorbed all you can. Also please do keep in mind..two breeds that you feel you know so much about
The American Pit Bull Terrier
The American Staffordshire Terrier
 
You know, dogs owned by Helen Keller and seen on the Little Rascles

When I look into my American Pit Bulls Eyes, this is what goes through my head, a story written by a member on a pit bull forum and the reality of what humans have done to this breed. Why not take responsibilty for the cruelty humans have inflicted on this breed. They have done nothing but serve humans with unfaltering loyalty and honor. I only wish half of the people I knew had such traits......
 
Your footsteps carry to my tattered ears as you make your way up the hall. Upon approach, your body speaks to me with a sense of...purpose. You seem secure in the righteosness of your task, your "mission".

Now you stand before me, a look of utter disdain and hate smeared across your face; and something more... I prostrate myself before you. On my back, I look into your eyes and lick appeasingly at my lips, seeking any semblance of mercy, the "humanity" of which you and your orginization so often speak.

I find none. I can read your body, and it shows me your eagerness to see this one task to its end. In your eyes...you see me as nothing more than a nuisance, an imagined threat, a peice of garbage to be harshly disposed of.

Yet, at the same time, you stink of fear. I can smell it as you cautiosly open the gate just wide enough to bring your pole to bare. Your fear only serves to justify my mounting terror as it signifies that there truly is no hope for mercy; not for me...not for any of my kind, not from you.

I tinkle myself. The arc of my stream reaches your leg. You sneer in disgust, and in anger you kick out at my battered body as the noose on your pole slides over my scarred head.

In your fear and hate and righteous purpose you yank me out on my back, peeing and hollering in terror. You drag me through the dark hall from which you originally came. I manage to gain my feet just to be yanked off of them again. I can't catch a breath, as your noose tightens and pulls at my throat. My cries are nothing but choked gasps.

The others cry out to me, sentiments of courage, and strength. They remind me of who I am, of what I am...My fear melts away, and as I again struggle to find my feet, it is replaced with acceptance. I am not the first this day to find my way down these dark halls at the end of a pole, and I will surely not be the last. The faces of those I pass in the hall, my kith and kin, litter mates, and sparring partners alike, show me the truth of this.

I vow not to let you see my fear; you might still smell it...if you and your kind weren't so very lost to the Earth.

Now I come along behind you. I overtake you, determined to meet my fate headon. You cringe and your fear stink rises as I pass you. You fear me...how ironic, for your kind's carefull manipulation of mine has insured your safety at my jaws.

You are determined to maintain the semblance of control and now you push me forward with your pole. My paws scrabble for purchase on the slippery floor. Half sliding, half scrabbling, we make our way to the end of the hall.

Now... I will not falter. I will not quit in this final and most difficult struggle of my short life. I will accept my end with courage and pride, as I have accepted my scars. I will not fight my fate, nor will I cower from it. The faces in the hall look on, they honor me now with silence and intense stares, as I will honor them with the dignity that befits my creed.

We pass the final door at the end of the hall. It smells of tinkle, and poop, and fear, and another sweeter smell. You lift me by my throat to a metal table. I do not struggle.

I can smell death and burning flesh. I see my kin, lying in a pile on the floor. Their eyes wide and tongues lolling...seeing no more.

My fear has been replaced by a great sadness. I pity you. Your kind, whom I and my kind have served with such devotion for hundreds of generations.

Yes. I pity you. You, who created my kind to eximplify that which you honored most in your own warriors; courage, bravery, strength, wisdom, and an indomitable spirit.

I pity you because you, and the rest of your race, have lost these traits that you so painstakingly imparted to mine.

You are a race that is weak, and full of fear. Now you seek to destroy that which you cannot understand. Perhaps you are aware of your loss, and are jealous, yes.

It is no matter. My kind has served you for its entire existance, and I, we, will continue to serve in any way you ask of us.

You created me, my lords, and, if in your infinite wisdom, you deem that you would be best served by my death, then so be it.

You hold me with your noose pole, though I would not now struggle against your wishes, as another approaches my head. as she straps the muzzle to my jaws I lick her hand. She jerks away in surprise and I can smell the fear stink again. But as I look into her eyes, and she into mine, I see them soften. She turns away.

You push me down so that I am lieing on my side on the cold metal.
She turns back to me with something in her hand. I can smell the sweet-chemical smell again. My heart beats faster in anticipation of what is to come. I do not fear any pain, for what is pain to a true warrior?

Life is so full and beautiful to my kind, and it is our most powerfull urge to live, to survive, to carry on, no matter what hardship befalls us. I fear the end of this beauty.

This is truly my most difficult battle. But I will not quit--I will win, as I have always won before, as it is in my nature to win, even if it means death.

Death has always been a possibility in all of my battles, but to win this one, I must accept my death without a fight.

Your grip on the pole tightens, as though you fear I may struggle for freedom. You needn't worry, I will night fight against your wishes.

She scratches behind my ear as the needle slips into my vein. My head drops to the cold metal table, and, as my vision fades, I see your eyes, full of hate and satisfaction...and then I see hers; as a tear rolls down her cheek. "I'm sorry." she whispers. As the last breath leaves my body, I thump my tail against the table, once, twice...I forgive you, master.

Oh, MAN!  Blubbering now.....sobbing, tears coursing.......

I am crying and snotting all over the place now.

I love that photo of Buck with the dead Barbie! He's a cutie.
 
Rescues are in some ways the best, and in some ways the least helpful, source of information about a breed. In my experience (talking to rescues to research getting a dog) rescues always err very far on the side of caution and often emphasize or even overstatement the negative qualities of their breed (at least initially). The reasoning behind this is that breed rescues do what they do because they love their breeds and they screen heavily to keep out anyone who has even the slightest chance of mishandling their dogs. When I talked to beagle rescue they told me in no uncertain terms that beagles have poor recall and a beagle must never ever be let off-leash in any unfenced area, EVER. Yet I see beagles at our (only semi-enclosed) dog park all the time, running around off-leash, most with average and a couple with impeccable recall. When I talked to cocker spaniel rescue, they said that they would not place a cocker spaniel in a home with children, period, no execeptions, despite the fact that the breed standard calls for cockers to be excellent family pets and good with children - but the rescue knows that an excess of bad breeding has made cockers potentially bad with children and they won't take the risk. Non-breed-specifically, many rescues will not adopt out to anyone without a completely fenced-in yard, despite the fact that lots of dogs live safe and happy lives in families without fenced yards - but rescues do not want to risk one of their dogs being killed or lost. So you can't really point to rescue info, as much as I respect and admire breed rescues, as definitive information about breed characteristics.

Let's not fool ourselves; if put in the wrong situation they are dangerous.
Simply because a certain trait hasn't been exhibited doesn't mean it doesn't exist in the individual; put it into the right situation and it may show itself.
Looks like it's happened again; another Pit Bull belonging to an irrisponsible owner leaving his dogs outside unleashed (as he claimed that in their entire lives they had yet to exhibit any dangerous traits at all) nearly kills a ten year old boy, tearing all of the flesh off of his right arm. It's in our local Chicago newspaper. Another story shows a woman having to have her arms amputated from an attack. Yet another story shows a man being mauled by his own two beloved Pit Bulls who had an extremely loving and tame history. A simple online search turns up dozens of these; sure, a fair amount of them are probably Presas or Dogos and not Pitties, but you have to admit that they still kill and can have a high amount of animal and even human aggression; and you certainly can't argue that every single attack is really an alternative breed cruelly labeled with the generic and easily recognizable "Pit Bull." Pit Bulls who show their deadly side are always described as being gentle. The problem is unpredictability. And sure, Cocker Spaniels are responsible for more bites that Pitties, but Pit Bulls are responsible for more deaths -- and that's the point. Don't waste time sobbing tears over heartwarming tales about them; I've read such stories about Fila Brasileiros and yet there isn't any disagreement over their temperements, is there? I also found it funny when a woman was mauled by a man's two Presa Canarios in her apartment stairway that owners of the breed fiercely defended it even though they are known to be a very dangerous breed. Why? Because they had a bias towards the breed and had certainly never seen any negative traits from it around the people it was raised with, but any reasonable and objective person who looked at the real, hard evidence would see that the Presa is a generally dangerous dog. It is a similar situation with the Pit Bull; it always seems to be the people who have it in their best interest to keep their Pitties who are fiercely and unrealistically defending it. Again, both parties are speaking in generalities: no, the Pit Bull is most certainly not, if raised well and correctly, a constantly fierce, vicious, and dangerous breed, lunging at anything that moves, and can in fact be very sweet and loving. The media grossely overblows this, indeed. But please, it is a dangerous breed made to be vicious if put in the right situation; no matter how well you try to rid the breed of these negative traits it still has the fundamental unpredictability strongly bred in to it. We must be realistic. They have been bred for hundreds of years to fight. We cannot "tame" them or "fix" them; that would be like ridding herding dogs of their tendencies.

Reality is....The breed was NEVER intended to be human aggressive..the dogs knew not to bite a human even when in severe pain from their skin being ripped off by another in ring sport..any dog who was a biter was not included in any breeding program or kept....the "Pit Bulls" of today are not kept with the same integrity the old lines were developed for BUT there are many who still ARE responsible and do exhibit responsible breeding of thier dogs.
 
There is a difference in this and those who know and live with the breed will defend it till their last breath...me being one of those people. I work very hard at fighting BSL, public education and rescue for the breed, am an office holder for a local and national club as well as several all breed organizations..funny thing...the pictures I've posted, my Am Staffs/APBT's are secondary in my house even though they've been there the longest...they'll put my big dogs in their place in a heart beat and they won't retaliate...

I do not now, nor have I ever, nor will I LIKELY ever, own a pittie.  So I have no personal interest in this issue. But, the pitties I have known, I have adored because of their sweet and gentle natures.  It's not in my best interest to defend pitties, but, by golly, I will.