[Deleted]

Pit bulls represent 6% of the dogs in US

OK, I don't care who gathered that info or how they got it, but in my experience pit bulls are insanely popular and make up WAY more than 6%.  Maybe it's a local thing (they've never been banned here), but pits and pit mixes generally make up at least 1/3 of the dogs at the Humane Society here and more like 1/2 to 2/3 the dogs at the county shelter.  I think that with bully breeds you get a lot of people keeping them for the wrong reasons, thus they are never properly licensed or ever registered with kennel clubs, thus it's impossible to have accurate data on how many there are.

ORIGINAL: Liesje

Pit bulls represent 6% of the dogs in US

OK, I don't care who gathered that info or how they got it, but in my experience pit bulls are insanely popular and make up WAY more than 6%.  Maybe it's a local thing (they've never been banned here), but pits and pit mixes generally make up at least 1/3 of the dogs at the Humane Society here and more like 1/2 to 2/3 the dogs at the county shelter.  I think that with bully breeds you get a lot of people keeping them for the wrong reasons, thus they are never properly licensed or ever registered with kennel clubs, thus it's impossible to have accurate data on how many there are.

How would one even track how many pit bulls there are in the US?  Dog licensing?  In most communities only a small percentage of dogs owners (off all breeds) register their dogs.  The list of "Most Popular Dogs in America" come from the AKC, which only represents dogs that are registered with the AKC.  American Pit Bull Terriers cannot be.  There are many dogs that some would consider "pit bulls" that are not actually pure bred or registerable.  There are many that the shelters report to be another breed that really are "pit bulls."  And while we are at it, how does one define "pit bull?"  Just American Pit Bull Terriers, or does one lump in Amstaffs and staffybulls as well?  Then what do you do about the ones that look like their might be pit in them (like my dog--the one in the siggy), but you have no information as to their parentage?

iwonder, there is no question that some dogs hurt/kill people.  It is a fact.  The questions are
(1)  Are the dogs to which you are objecting really pit bulls?
(2)  Is the data that produced your stats trust worthy?
(3)  Does the media ignore attacks by other breeds because it isn't "news worthy"?
(4)  Will BSL actually reduce the number of human aggressive dogs or will another breed just be choosen by irresponsible owners that want aggressive dogs?
 
This topic has been discussed repeatedly on this forum.  The only thing new you have added is your opinion. If you don't wish to defend your opinion, then you will not persuade anyone to agree with you. 
 
I say "opinion" because your views are based on numbers that I consider highly suspect.  For something to be a "fact", the reliability of the information can't be as shaky as your data.

ORIGINAL: iwonder

ORIGINAL: Amitiel

looks like a thread meant to stir - maybe this should be closed? 

Another proponent of censoring facts not in line with their personal bias.  Sad.

maybe even looking for a place where the thoughts are more to their "mindset"

Doesn't it seem like I'd be bantering with other posters if I were simply a troll trying to stir up squabbling.  Regarding mindsets, the reason for my post was the obvious bias of the poster I quoted -- in his refusal to acknowledge widely known facts and his desire to hide them from view with censorship in hopes they would go away.  The replies to my post seem to indicate where the mindset rests.

 
I have "talked" to Badrap before today & I know her thinking on this (I believe), you were the one that posted the stats - I merely brought forth other infomation in an earlier post that you did not respond to - you have not responded to any post other than the one I quoted - I do have to wonder about that - why only that 1? I did not say you were or are trolling - that possibility was mentioned by a moderator in an earlier post - I was attempting to stop a heated arguement that I saw building in this thread - I do not agree with the idea that these beautiful dogs should be baned and therefore destroyed - yes the mindset here is in their favor and against the stupid owner/handler - your 1st post quoting those stats said more about you and what you think than it did anything else - it appeared by the fact that you did not come back and state your intent (if that is what it was)  that you agreed with the statement and the banning of these dogs it also appeared that you wanted others to agree you and not have minds and opinions of their own -
 
Why did you choose that post only to object to?

I agree with the idea that it's SO hard to know how many pit mixes are REALLY around.  I went to the shelter last week to pick up my little girl...half of those dogs were some kind of "pit" mix (so the shelter said, but who really knwos).  Also, what exactly are we counting as pits?  For all we know, they're only counting pit bull terriers in their COUNT of pit bulls...but any attack by a dog that LOOKS pit...is called a pit bull attack.
 
I happen to love pits, by the way, and they are VERY friendly dogs.  I met one that only had one eye because some idiot had shot him with a bb gun...and despite what humans had done to him, he was loving as can be.

Bread Kills!
 
1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.
4. Every piece of bread you eat brings you nearer to death.
5. Bread is associated with all the major diseases of the body. For example, nearly all sick people have eaten bread. The effects are obviously cumulative:

• 99.9% of all people who die from cancer have eaten bread.
  
• 100% of all soldiers have eaten bread.
  
• 96.9% of all Communist sympathizers have eaten bread.
  
• 99.7% of the people involved in air and auto accidents ate bread within 6 months preceding the accident.
  
• 93.1% of juvenile delinquents came from homes where bread is served frequently.

6. Evidence points to the long-term effects of bread eating: Of all people born before 1839 who later dined on bread, there has been a 100% mortality rate.
7. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as a teaspoon of dough can be used to suffocate a lab rat. The average American eats more bread than that in one day!
8. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.
9. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and being fed only water begged for bread after as little as two days.
10. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
11. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
12. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
13. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
14. Most bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.
In light of these frightening statistics, we propose the following bread restrictions:
1. No sale of bread to minors.
2. A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
3. A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
4. No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
5. The establishment of "Bread-free" zones around schools.

thank you Chuffy *hugs*

OK, joke over, with regards to the OP's statistics (seriously now), I do believe that the percentage of dogs in the US that are "pit bulls" is actually much higher than 6%.  "Pit bull" is actually just a type, not a breed, any dog can be said to be XX% "pit bull type".  Lots of dogs are either APBT or a cross but are passed of as a "lab mix" or "boxer mix".  Shelters don't want to put people off by naming the dog as a pit and I think owners can be shady about their dog's breed/ancestry because of the stigma attached to the breed, or because of the existence or likelihood of BSL.  And in other cases, the ancestry of many crosses is really not known.

Secondly, a great many (I owuld go so far as to say MOST) dog bites are never reported.  In addition, I think people are far more likely to report a bite by a pit or rottie, (who they possibly already consider to be dangeous anyway), but would not think to report a bite from a chi or a different kind of terrier.  We had a labrador that bit seven people (including me) and killed one dog, and to my knowledge not a single one of those incidents was reported, despite the fact that most of those incidents did NOT involve friends or family members.  OK so now I am speculating wildly, but do I think that would have been the case had our dog been a rottie?  Seriously (and objectively) no I don't think so. 

In short, I do think the bite statistics are skewed and statements such as "pit bulls kill kids!" should not be based on such evidence.  Certainly a pittie has the power and strength to seriously injure if not kill an adult human, never mind a child.  But a truly well bred pittie should be hyper-human-friendly and therefore less likely to attack a child than another given breed.
 
[Edit] Nor should such a sweeping statement be based on "evidence" presented by the media - others have already pointed out just how suspect such "evidence" is.  In the words of Havelock Vetinari in "The Truth" (Terry Pratchett)  "people think the want news - what they really crave is olds"  And in the words of Rits Skeeter in Harry Potter (J K Rowling) "[The Daily Prophet] exists to sell itself you silly girl!"  Nuff said.

Lastly, remember: Mere accumalation of observational evidence is not proof []
 
 

ORIGINAL: iwonder

  Here are some facts that 20 minutes of net research turned up:

The table below shows the number of fatal dog attacks from 1979 to 1998 by breed.  In parenthesis is the percentage of attacks by breed.   

Pit bull              76 (32%)
Rottweiler          44 (18.5%)
German sheph   27 (11.4%)
Husky type        21 (8.8%)
Malamute          15 (6.3%)
All other breeds 55 (23%)

80% of fatal dog attacks are children 12 or younger

Pit bulls represent 6% of the dogs in US, yet in the years 1965 through 2001 pit bulls accounted for 21% of fatal dog attacks in the US  — this is 3-4 times their fair share of fatalities

 
Please post the links for your statistics.  Thanks.

here's a [linkhttp://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:nLIlKZLTyg8J:network.bestfriends.org/Library/Download.aspx%3Fd%3D2124+dog+attack+statistics+aspca+reported+fatal&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us]link[/link] for you.

This shows how statistics can be skewed with respect to dog bites.  It also gives a few more stats as far as dog bites.

  AKC/UK statistics, found:
Numbers registered No. of Fatal AttacksBreed Percentage
240,00012Chow Chow .705%800,00067German Shepherds .008375%960,00070Rottweiler .00729%128,00018Great Dane .01416 %114,00014Doberman .012288%72,00010St. Bernard .0139%5,000,00060American Pit Bull .0012%

240,000                     12                               Chow-Chow    .705

800,000                     67                                German Shepherds  .008375

960,000                      70                                Rottweiler   .00729

128,000                      18                                Great Dane  .01416


5,000,000                   60                                A. Pitbull    .0012

I'll bet I could find a dozen more sites with conflicting stats.  Anyone want to take me up on that? 

Hmmmm, here are two unreported dog bites.
 
Cocker spaniel...involved in a fight.  DH tried to break it up and she bit him  Required a trip to the ER.
 
German shepherd.  Same cocker started a fight with him.  In a lunge at HIM, he mistook as a lunge for ME, he snapped at her....got my hand, fractured two fingers.  VET treated my broken bones so as to avoid a report.......
 
Both my dogs.  Neither had any intention of biting US, but both bites required treatment.  Who would expect a cocker to inflict a wound that required almost THIRTY sutures??
 
If it has teeth, it can bite and cause some serious damage.

[Deleted by Admins]

The only opinions I stated in my original post were that badrap#%92s post was unbalanced.  And, her suggestion that a statement she didn#%92t like should be the basis for censorship.  Everything else was facts, not opinion.

 
So, we can all agree that your only reason for posting this is to call out badrap, right? 
MODS- Is this not a violation of the rules?
 

 
In fact, this is a sock puppet.  I have many posts to this board.  But, I realized from the remarks I had seen the facts I was going to post would not be well received and I did not want to become unwelcome here.   Will this admission now be used as a vehicle to justify censoring the thread?

MODS- Again is this not another violation?
 
Can we please BOUNCE this troll?

In fact, this is a sock puppet.  I have many posts to this board.  But, I realized from the remarks I had seen the facts I was going to post would not be well received and I did not want to become unwelcome here.   Will this admission now be used as a vehicle to justify censoring the thread?  
 
Not likely.  But the fact that this is a "sock puppet" will likely result in your being banned.  Clear violation of the rules.  Hope you enjoyed stirring the pot, and that it was worth the likely result.
 
 
Belovasvegas....working on it!

Belovasvegas....working on it!

 
Thank you Glenda!!!