News Sep 2, 2011 at 12:42 pm

Comments

1
It's starting to seem like maybe Dan isn't fond of pit bulls.
2
The Stranger wastes a lot of time on their anti-Pit Bull campaign, its pretty tiring at this point. Can you please just shut up and talk about something interesting?
3
Chihuahas may have originally been developed as food sources. Perhaps it would be nice to revert some of the toy breeds to this function.
5
when will Ellen Taft's batshit group's website be added to the Friends of Slog list?
6
Yep- such nice dogs. Must have been the owners.
I have an idea- why not share your home with 5 timber wolves? Lions? Perhaps a wolverine or two?
7
@6: I'll take a wolverine if it looks like Hugh Jackman.
8
Darwin award. Your pits get out and attack people, you negotiate their return to your home, then they fatally maul you. It's one thing if they had never shown any violent behavior in the past (and thus it was a complete surprise to the victim), but this...this does not inspire one bit of sympathy.
9
Do you know why pit bull attacks are in the media more than any other animal? Because the name sounds scary, that's it. http://www.americanhumane.org/animals/st… Sorry, but I'll believe people who work with animals much more than idiots at a desk with a keyboard.

"Any breed of dog can bite, and research suggests BSL does little to protect the community from dog-bite incidents."

If you really want to stop dog bites, ban all dogs, or ban the more deadly pets, like cats and rodents (that includes hamsters). Cat claws can actually cut through the skin. Rodents are natural carriers of deadly diseases. BSL is stupid, ignorant, and a chicken shit form of racism.
10
@8 Read the article, the death was ruled accidental, not caused by the canines.
11
Pit Bulls have been bred to fight since the early 19th century...what do people expect? When you run from a shepherd dog, they chase/herd you because they're bred to do that. If a pit bull interprets aggression from you, they will fight you. Most people are not well-read on what dogs perceive as aggression or a challenge (i.e. looking directly into its eyes) so shit happens. So for those pit bull lovers out there, understand the risks and for fucks sake keep your dogs away from us sane people who don't like risking our lives everyday for some ugly ass dog (not that a dog being ugly is a reason to dislike it, just in the case of pit bulls).
12
@9 I don't get your point about cat claws ripping through skin. Does that surprise anyone? I've known multiple people who have gone to the hospital from cat attacks but you'd have to be severely physically limited to be fatally injured by a cat (And if you die from infection that's your own damn fault). As for rodents, don't care for them and don't intend or expect to be bitten by them. I think BSL is stupid too but you're being a bit ridiculous.
13
In a related story, hundreds of thousands of pit bulls sat around, panted, licked their asses and chased tennis balls to the mild interest and entertainment of all concerned.

Goddamn cherry picking around here is getting pretty shameless.
14
guuyyys...NONE of these creatures has been charged, much less convicted of these dubious allegations. Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to judge and entire breed based on the ALLEGED actions of a select few. The overwhelming likelihood is that they were bred & raised incorrectly, by SOCIETY. Let that shit marinate on yo skull for a minute, man. It's toootally like the Jim Crow justice era in the deep south..if people were dogs...and the concept of law was envisioned by the Greeks/Hammurabi to apply to canines...and..oh fuck it, waffles.
15
I didn't want to invest the time and effort and expense into properly training a large dog. So I didn't get one.
16
FOR FUCK SAKE.

Is anybody else sick to death of these monotonous axe-grinding Pit Bull posts?
17
@10 Okay, that's fair. I still don't think that the two dogs who attacked the neighbors should've been allowed to return home. Someone dropped the ball on that one.
18
@10, 17: The death was ruled "accidental" as opposed to a homicide. This was not a "How'd that happen?!" moment, however. Very first sentence in the article:
Authorities say a Philadelphia woman found dead in her home had been fatally mauled by her own dogs.
19
@18 Ah yes, apparently I fail at reading comprehension today. My original point and my second point stand after all: no sympathy for the victim, and at any rate those dogs should've been put down after their first attack.
20
Dan, how many more anti-pit-bull posts do you need to get that free membership to the Concerned Mothers of America? I know that membership is more of a challenge when you aren't Christian, suburban, anti-heavy metal and gangsta rap, and requesting more surveilance cameras on the park to protect the children, but is this really necessary. Is your plate not full enough helping the LGBT community gain full equality? Where do you get this energy for multiple causes (one of which is barely justifiable, guess which one)? The only think I have to fear from LGBT equality is that Dan will have more time to drag himself through the mud crusading against a dog breed.
21
@17 that point is valid.

@18 The medical examiner's statement did not include the details, you are simply connecting dots here when we don't know all the dots. Animals play with corpses, no matter what corpse it is, even their own, all the time. There are only a few species like us who bury or otherwise "protect" the corpses, so unless the examiner states specifically that death was a result of the injuries, you are guessing more than the rest of us. Without a detailed report (not likely considering the source of the article) it would be wrong to imply anything. Unless you like seeking WMDs in poor people's houses as a hobby.
22
Every child should have a pitbull and a youth pastor.
23
Two things:

1) Dogs aren't people and we shouldn't treat them or equate them as such.

2) If you don't like pitbull posts, don't read them, and stop being such a whiny douche because Slog doesn't post content you like 100% of the time.
24
@9 - There's a difference between being bitten by a dog and being killed by a dog. Toy poodles bite plenty, but you're not going to see any deaths caused by them. Pitbulls, on the other hand, top the human-kill list, no contest.

I'm not a breed-ban advocate, but I'm also not willfully ignorant of the dangers posed by breeds that were bred specifically for killing.
25
Dan, you're such a dramatic petty cunt. Get a life, perferribly one off the office couch.
26
Clearly this is due to human privilege. We should all raise our hands and admit to being speciesists.
27
I mean seriously, why don't you go back to san fran to your loving husband and leave the blogging to people who aren't spreading hate?
28
AND IGNORANCE. you piece of shit hypocrit.
29
The Stranger makes better kindling than reading.
30
Dan, what exactly is your goal with this anti-pit bull campaign. I think everyone can see that you think they should be banned as potential pets in the future, but what do you propose we do with all those that are currently in the care of families, exactly? Would you prefer that they all be round up and euthanized? I am genuinely interested in your response because so far the only clear message you've been sending with these posts is that you hate this particular breed of dog, but I assume you have a greater purpose in mind.
31
24/Free Lunch, thanks for the link to the CDC report. From that report:

An alternative to breed-specific legislation is to regulate individual dogs and owners on the basis of their behavior. . . Generic non–breed-specific, dangerous dog laws can be enacted that place primary responsibility for a dog’s behavior on the owner, regardless of the dog’s breed. In particular, targeting chronically irresponsible dog owners may be effective.


This seems like such a reasonable thing to do yet it's my belief that pit bull owners generally aren't held accountable when their dogs maul and kill (or even just bite) someone, or another dog.
32
I'm really very happy that the stranger is taking a stand against this violent and dangerous breed and their negligent and reckless owners.

Good on ya,
33
@23, not liking pit-bull posts is a very legitimate reason to read them and respond to them. Dan and Dominic are advocating a policy I think is very wrong and ignorant. It is also ignorant for you to call the rest of us whiny bitches for openly disagreeing with this opinion. What do you think we are here on Slog, blind locksteppers like the Republicans with no room for dissent?
And if you think Dan is infallible, you should be reminded that way back when he was about the only person on the Strangers staff who saw Iraq as a threat warranting the military action (a position for which he has admitted the error of his ways, yet still earned him point towards that Concerned Mothers of America membership).
34
@13 FTW
35
@21, it's trivially easy to tell whether tissue damage has occurred before or after death. With the naked eye, though more-sophisticated examinations are generally done. For skin wounds, very little blood exudes after the heart stops beating. If the dear departed had collapsed from a fatal heart attack or stroke and at some later point her beloved pets had roused themselves from the cool flagstones of the hearth to "play with the corpse," the ripped flesh would just be lookin' like beige flannel cut with pinking shears.

If the authorities (who deal with dead bodies on a regular basis) say she was fatally mauled by her own dogs, you can rest assured that they made that judgment on an educated basis. Of course, even if they had printed the whole autopsy report in the paper and posted a YouTube home-surveillance video of the actual attack, you people would still be tying yourselves in knots to explain and excuse the obvious.
36
Clearly both sides are wrong here. Breed bans may be overly broad, but dogs are not blank slates who only reflect their training/lack thereof. And yes, dogs are not people, and they do not get to (unless actually protecting you from a real threat- not a percived/misread threat) get to be aggressive w/ people. The rule back home is: Your dog even nips someone, they are immediately put down. if you don't do it, the injured party may do so. There is no debate. I have no time for this 'doggy moms and dads' bullshit.
37
Inbreeding and shitty pet owners create violent animals, and mostly it's the owners. It's not the breed's fault.
38
Dan Savage, American Kennel Club expert on canine breeds and temperament. Such a noble Savage.
39
I think if your dog is a breed which is known to KILL several people a year and it attacks someone?? no second chances. sorry. It's a shame he was returned.
40
@ 5...let's not forget Russ & Irina Terrell's Craven Desires...all the same whack-a-dos are involved in it; dogsbite.org and FDAFB.
41
You know, the LGBT Blogmistress Pam Spaulding (Pam's House Blend) is very fond of Pit Bulls. I wonder how she and Dan Savage would get along...
42
Enough with the pit bull hate. It's pathetic.
43
What is the point of this post and the idiotic second sentence? It doesn't prove anything except what many of us have been saying all along: that there need to be better laws and more accountability for owners.

By the way, evidently Dan's Google alert only concerns Pit Bulls, because he hasn't made any idiotic posts about Shelties, despite the fact that recently a couple of them were discovered to have partially eaten--yes, eaten--their owner.
44
http://truthaboutpitbulls.blogspot.com/2…

HOLY SHIT!!! THAT JUST BLEW YOUR MIND!
45
I grew up in the dog training/agility/show world. I've worked with pit bulls, rotties, and we've always owned a couple of German Shepherds.

I was badly bitten when I was a child, not by any of these demonized breeds (none of them so much as growled at me . . . in fact, I used to be able to drape myself over the rotties, run the pit bulls through the course myself, and be towed on a sled by the German Shepherds) but by a Portuguese Water Dog. It was a violent animal who eventually had to be put down, after it attacked both me and a UPS driver.
46
I'm not sick of Dan's pitbull posts. I'm sick of morons allowing they're dogs to run around loose biting people. I'm tired of idiots having dogs they can't handle so they can compensate for their own shortcomings. I'm pretty sick of that.
47
@44 it's amazing how gentle large mammals can be. People use to demonize killer whales ... now we have several famous ones that swim with babies, maybe one day people will wake up to pit bulls and realize just how stupid they are behaving about them.

@45 Sad story, I hate hearing about those animals that are somehow insane, for whatever reason.
48
The inherent contradiction in the pro pit bull side is that they claim its all the owner, that the breed doesn't matter, then they go through the trouble and expense of buying a specific pure bred. If it doesn't matter, why do they do it? So many pure breeds have health problems I'm starting to think that the whole pure breed concept is needlessly cruel.

@47- Do you mean Killer Whale babies or human babies? By context I'm guessing you mean human babies and there are not that many human babies that go swimming in a tank deep enough for a whale.
49
@48 Some people like the look of breed, unlike humans animal breed actually vary ... oh wait, humans are suppose to as well, forgot that. Why do some people want pure breed calico cat, so much that a kitten can run for hundreds of dollars? (If the anti-breed freaks want to exaggerate then stop complaining about others doing it). Almost all domestic animals are genetically engineered, Some for physical ability, others for looks only, but some people like skull tattoos, others like crosses, these are very morbid icons but some people think they are cool looking. Asking why someone likes a specific dog breed is like asking why someone like a color.
50
I think I'm just not fond of people who are fond of pitbulls. Cute and cuddly are available, without the possibility of death. Why would someone choose the possibility of death or dismemberment? What point is there to prove?

Put it this way: If you could date a person who carries around a loaded gun all of the time or one who doesn't... and you are responsible for whoever gets killed, then who do you choose? Easy for me, no gun, no pitbull.
51
Calico is not a cat breed. Calico is a coat pattern found in many breeds of cats. The genetics of the calico pattern is pretty cool, but it's not a breed.
52
Maybe all homos should be banned too :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dah…
53
@51 way to miss the whole point, and though it's not technically a breed, it is considered one in many instances, and the term "pure breed" is because there is only one specific breed of calico that has pure color splotches in the tortoiseshell pattern, which is still rare even within that breed (forgot the breed name but meh). However, the point remains, people choose what they like because to them it's "cute" or "pretty" or "rugged", just like humans are sometimes "cute" or "pretty" or "rugged".
54
Dan... I love you. This makes me sad. When a gay guy does something horrible that makes the news, your immediate - and correct - response is to point out that the anti-gay headline makers are going to use this one isolated example repeatedly to make it seem like the norm when it's really just a person being an asshole. How does it now make sense to pick this breed of dog and post a few headlines when there are thousands of perfectly innocent pits out there?

I do think people should take a dog's breed into account when buying or adopting. I also think that once any pet dog has attacked a person, not bitten defensively but actually attacked them, they should be put down immediately. No second chance. But the vast, VAST majority of pits are just dogs - goofy, affectionate, squirrel-chasing butt-licking dogs that are awesome with kids. Has somebody has already pointed out that their nickname used to be "the nanny dog"?

There's another factor with the pit bulls that I don't think you're taking into account - sometimes, people who WANT aggressive, scary dogs will get a pit bull. And then do stupid things consistent with wanting a scary dog, like not neutering it and not disciplining it for aggressive behavior towards humans.

You're being logically inconsistent and hatey, and that is inconsistent with my complete adoration of you. Please cut it the hell out because it's confusing me.

Please wait...

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