polly

I agree, you can add all the dogs to the list that are of a weight and size that can overpower a human to the list of dangerous dogs. I was not attacked by a pitbull, but a german shephard. No other dog has the locking mechanism though: but add all the variations of the breed to the list of dangerous dogs. I am sure the media just makes it all up though, there are no dogs that kill people. And yes we should just tolerate the danger for the love of dogs.

Are you truly trying to claim that the media makes all this up?!!!! Having been attached by dogs myself, It is difficult to have sympathy for your dislike of the story and the way it is reported. You may find no sympathy for the small, unassertive young girl unable to control the dog. You may find no sympathy for the woman with the baby being ran at and terrified by a large dog. You may have no sympathy for the police faced by a snarling dog. You may find no sympathy for the neighbors terrorized by a dog. I do. I know the terror of being attacked for no reason by a dog. It may be the small, the weak, or the person with fear who is attacked or on the other hand even the strong, large, fearless people who are attacked by these dogs. To downplay personal damage to a person by a dog seems to me to deny that the problem is there. The list of descriptions I included were not in small local tabloid papers: they were in national papers. I agree that many people have these dogs that don't know how to control them, but there isn't any way to effectively make that problem go away besides elimination of the kind of dog which attacks in a manner that is beyond belief. Then there are plenty of people who do supposedly know how to control them, but lose control of them and then they or their children, or grandchildren or complete strangers, or other animals suffer or die for it. I repeat, that civilization and towns and cities are meant to free us from the fears of nature. They are meant to be free of the kinds of animals which lock their jaws onto men, women or children and won't let go. I believe that owning animals is a wonderful and joyous experience and that it is a priveledge to do so, but I do not believe that people should have the right to own animals which have the power of doing such horrible things to people. Owners with the best intentions of responsibility lose control of thier animals all the time. I do not believe that the media is responsible for exaggeration in these cases: these animals have created terror by their physical acts, which has created further terror in peoples minds. It is a human problem because we as humans have created it. It is also our job to end it. The media can't exaggerate enough the terror of being attacked visciously by a dog, nor can the media exaggerate enough the danger of these breeds of dogs. There is a big difference between a dog bite and the bite of an enormous dog with jaws that lock onto you and won't let go until you are dead or the dog has been killed. We don't keep sharks in little tanks in our houses, we don't keep bears. We don't keep lions, we have house cats. We should only keep dogs that are sensibly sized and not capable of doing the damage pitbulls do.

I can only point out the obvious about why other breeds of dogs are not generally listed in attacks against humans. The most common headlines are about a man, woman or child bitten by dog. End of story. The stories that list the type of the dog such as pitbull say things like: flesh ripped from bone babies head crushed police had to shoot dog four times to stop it man had to throw dog off roof to stop attacking child mauled to death woman attacked jogging, flesh ripped off arm leading to amputation woman found in pool of blood in kitchen with pitbull still attached to her childs brains spattered out neighborhood terrorized by pitbulls with several people badly bitten loose pitbulls attacked multiple people on rampage through neighborhood man tries to save child an receives severe lascerations grandmother drug from her own porch and killed by neighbors pitbull police attacked by pitbull trying to save woman dog grabs childs head in jaws and drags him out of his mother's arms screaming woman finally freed from jaws of pitbull by man only after beating it to death with iron bar womans finger bitten off trying to save child woman violently mauled whey trying to save dog killed by pitbull dogs jaws clamped onto victim with no possibility of freeing him pitbulls used to guard property escape and go on killing spree These are all from stories over the last couple years regarding attacks by pitbulls. They are all marked by extreme, unstoppable violence. Nearly all the owners of a family pitbull implicated in cases like these say the dog was always friendly and never provided cause for alarm. These types of reports are not seen regarding any other animal in civilized living conditions. These reports sound like reports of wild animal attacks. I am an avid animal lover and I love all kinds of animals, but I do not believe that we should be forced to accept all animals living amoungst us, especially those that are capable of inflicting horrible damage and are difficult to control due to their size and physical nature. Especially those that have been created by man as a killing machine, a sort of frankenstein experiment gone wrong. There has to be something wrong with these animals when every owner says they were always such loving creatures, before they attacked, maimed or killed someone. Animals which are domesticated should be those that do not pose mortal terror or harm to society. I live in Italy and I read stories every week about pitbull attacks in Europe and the United States. These attacks earn the title 'pittbull' instead of dog because of their peculiar violence, not because of a prejudice against pitbulls. From a concerned animal lover who does not believe humans should have to fear 'domesticated' animals in a civilized society. Being attacked by a large, powerful animal with no sense of remorse, no sense of right and wrong is a horrible horrible thing. That is why we have spent millenium eliminating wild and violent animals from our midst. That is why we have created civilization: to create safety for men, women and children.