Ronnie on Politics

On April 29, 1998, tragedy struck Donna and John Trempe when their daughter Courtney was savagely attacked and killed by the neighbors Pitt Bull dog. The attack took place when Courtney and two friends were playing in the back yard. One of the children asked the neighbor if her dog could come out and play. The owner woke the 120-pound dog and let it out. The dog went directly towards Courtney and lunged at her throat.

Courtney was standing still at the time and did nothing to provoke the attack. The dog owner, who was 34 weeks pregnant at the time, was only able to stop the attack by stabbing the dog repeatedly with a garden trowel. Courtney died on the way to the hospital.

This was not an isolated incident; deaths from dog attacks average twelve each year with Pitt Bull dogs being the primary culprit. It is for that reason that we should ban the breeding of pit bulls.

“These dogs were bread specifically to fight other animals and kill them, for human sport,” says Ingrid Newkirk, director of People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals, and former Washington Humane Society executive director. This is why the animal has a barrel chest, thick hammer-like head, strong jaws, and tremendous stamina. Pitts can take down a bull weighing in at over a thousand pounds, which is what they were originally bred to do, so a human being a tenth of that weight is small potatoes to them. So, why would anyone want to even own such a dog?

Now days, almost every drug dealer and pimp in every major city keeps them for protection. At the same time, this criminal element also spurs many fearful citizens to acquire pit bulls as a defensive measure. The Center for Disease Control’s Jeffrey Sacks, M.D., an injury prevention specialist, says that while “it used to be that people got dogs for pets, now more get them out of fear of crime.”

Many of us feel terrorized by the number of these animals showing up on our city streets. District Councilman Chavous was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, “I’m tired of having senior citizens call my office saying they do not feel comfortable sitting on their porches or walking down the streets of their own neighborhoods because they are afraid of pit bulls.”

And we have good cause to be afraid. According to the Center for Disease Control 199 people were killed in dog attacks between 1979 and 1996. Sixty were the results of Pitt Bull attacks with the remainder being divided between sixteen other breeds.

Some people will argue that of all the dog bites in the United States, an estimated 4.7 million, those inflected by Pitt Bulls make up a mere three percent. Although this may be true the number of deaths resulting from Pitt Bull attacks is very high. There is a significant difference between being nipped by a Chihuahua and being savaged by a Pitt Bull.

Others who are opposed to banning Pitt Bulls claim that it is against the nature of Pitt Bulls to act vicious toward people and that they will only do so if not properly socialized. However, many of these dogs are improperly socialized, trained and cared for by uneducated guardians. According to Leslie Sinclair, a veterinarian formerly employed by the Humane Society for the United States, “A lot of pit bulls involved in attacks have never had a chance to be around people,” attesting to the devastating effects of social isolation upon an animal. Many of these irresponsible dog owners will eventually dump these dogs on the street, an animal shelter, or even give or sell them to dog fighters.

Many shelters nationwide have refused to adopt out pit bulls, partly because of the ponderous legal liability they present and partly as a preemptive strike against potential abusers with a taste for dog fighting. Instead these animals are killed.

Pitt Bulls are an extremely large and powerful dog that can and have inflected horrible injuries and death on innocent citizens. Statistics have shown that far too many Pitt Bull owners are irresponsible and can’t or won’t control their animals. This is a dog breed that should be banned for the safety of the public. People who genuinely care about dogs won’t be affected by a ban on Pitt Bulls. They can go to the shelter and save one of the countless other breeds and lovable mutts available for adoption. We can only stop killing Pitt Bulls if we stop creating new ones.