Tuesday, July 6, 2004 (SF Chronicle)
Pit bull apologists, wake up
C.W. Nevius


Eighty-eight year old Mabel Wong was still in critical condition in John
Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek on Monday. She's been there since a
week ago last Saturday, battling for her life, after a horrible mauling by
a neighbor's pit bull near her Concord home.
In the aftermath, people wondered how it could happen. What did this
little elderly lady do to trigger such an attack? The answer is simple and
blunt. Nothing.
"This lady had interacted with this dog hundreds of times," said Lt. Abe
Gamez of Contra Costa Animal Services. "She was just trying to get from
one place to another."
Whenever there is an account of a mauling by a pit bull, there is a howl
of protest from those who love the breed. There are no bad dogs, just bad
owners, they say. Or they ask how the media reporting the incident knew
the dog was a pit bull. Pit bulls, they insist, are no more inherently
dangerous than any other breed of dog.
That's not true.
"What I usually say is that it is not uncommon to spend thousands of
dollars breeding a good hunting dog," says Gamez. "With a good hunting
dog, that is not something you teach -- he's got it in his genes. The pit
bull is bred for fighting."
"You can't make a German shepherd stop herding," says Merritt Clifton,
editor of the Washington-based Animal People magazine. "You can't make a
Chihuahua stop barking."
It is at this point that everyone starts yelling at each other and
pointing fingers. My pit bull, someone says, plays with my children every
day. He's the cutest, most affectionate pet we've ever had. Pits are no
more aggressive or dangerous than beagles.
That's not true.
According to a study by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, covering the years between 1979 and 1994, pit bulls were
involved in 57 fatal attacks -- well over twice the number for the next
breed on the list, rottweilers, with 19, and more than German shepherds
(17), huskies (12) and malamutes (12) combined. A 2000 study by the
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association concluded that pit
bulls "were involved in 65 fatal attacks between 1979 and 1998 ... twice
that of rottweilers and more than three times German shepherds."
Even more damning are the statistics kept by Clifton, a dog activist who
has been keeping meticulous records since 1982 of dog attacks severe
enough to have been reported in the media. It should be noted that Clifton
excludes attacks by guard dogs, police dogs and trained fighting dogs and
does not chart cases where the breed is uncertain.
The numbers are stunning. As of last week, meaning Mabel Wong's mauling
would be included, pit bulls were cited in 831 attacks. The next closest
was the rottweiler with 373. No other breed made it out of double digits.
"They are off the charts," says Gamez. "If you look at the fatals and
severe bites, you will see the majority are rottweilers and pits."
But that's just part of the story. If you've been to an animal shelter
lately, you know that it seems like half the dogs there are pit bulls.
Naively, our family thought that was because families were not adopting
them.
Actually, it is the result of a population boom in pit bulls. In the three
days before the Fourth of July holiday, Clifton contacted 22 animal
shelters, and compared the results with a study he did 11 years ago. In a
sample of 918 dogs, he found that the number of rottweilers and pit bulls
had increased five times, including an "astonishing" four times more pit
bulls. And, it is important to note that with spay and neuter programs,
the number of animals of all breeds in shelters has actually been
decreasing.
"I've been in this business since 1975," Gamez says. "In those days, we
used to pick up lots of types of dogs, Irish setters, Afghans. Now you
walk into a shelter, and every other dog is a pit bull. This has been
going on for 10 years. It may appear to be exploding, but it has been
happening exponentially."
The result is more opportunities for that sudden, unexpected moment when a
pit bull loses control. Gamez says he always cautions his officers to keep
an eye on pit bulls when capturing them.
"They don't growl," says Gamez, who was also part of the team
investigating the Shawn Jones mauling case in Richmond. "It usually just
comes right after you. These dogs can just go off. And when they do, they
cause tremendous damage."
What can be done? Gamez says it is important to report incidents of
menacing or intimidating behavior by dogs in your neighborhood to animal
control. As in the Diane Whipple case in San Francisco, where people came

forward after the fatal attack with accounts of having had earlier
concerns about the dogs, Wong's neighbors are now reporting having had
problems with the dog that attacked her.
And some cities and states are considering "breed specific" legislation,
passing a law to keep pit bulls and rottweilers out of populated
neighborhoods. The idea has encountered a firestorm of opposition from
owners and dog organizations.
"The human community has been in denial for 20 years," says Clifton.
"There's only hope where we begin to recognize the problem. We need to get
that layer of denial lifted."
In the meantime, if you encounter a pit bull or a rottweiler, keep an eye
on it no matter how often its owner says it is the sweetest little pup
you've ever seen. That's especially true if it is a "rehabilitated" dog,
which has supposedly had its breeding curbed by good training.
"Rehabilitated," says Gamez, "means it hasn't bitten anyone lately."
E-mail C.W. Nevius at .
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Copyright 2004 SF Chronicle

"Tricia9999" wrote in message
...
Tuesday, July 6, 2004 (SF Chronicle)
Pit bull apologists, wake up
C.W. Nevius

i saw this earlier today.

i sure hope my the "sudden, unexpected moment" when Lola looses control
isn't while she's sleeping under the covers in my bed. that would sure
suck.

what an idiot this guy is. he makes statements about how everything pit
bull owners say is not true, but then offers nothing to prove it.

typical anti-pit hysteria.

i'm sure the folks at Bad Rap will have a few well written rebuttals in the
coming days.

-kelly

"Tricia9999" wrote in message
...
Tuesday, July 6, 2004 (SF Chronicle)
Pit bull apologists, wake up
C.W. Nevius

i saw this earlier today.

i sure hope my the "sudden, unexpected moment" when Lola looses control
isn't while she's sleeping under the covers in my bed. that would sure
suck.

what an idiot this guy is. he makes statements about how everything pit
bull owners say is not true, but then offers nothing to prove it.

typical anti-pit hysteria.

i'm sure the folks at Bad Rap will have a few well written rebuttals in the
coming days.

-kelly

"Tricia9999" wrote in message
...
Tuesday, July 6, 2004 (SF Chronicle)
Pit bull apologists, wake up
C.W. Nevius

i saw this earlier today.

i sure hope my the "sudden, unexpected moment" when Lola looses control
isn't while she's sleeping under the covers in my bed. that would sure
suck.

what an idiot this guy is. he makes statements about how everything pit
bull owners say is not true, but then offers nothing to prove it.

typical anti-pit hysteria.

i'm sure the folks at Bad Rap will have a few well written rebuttals in the
coming days.

-kelly

"Tricia9999" wrote in message
...
Tuesday, July 6, 2004 (SF Chronicle)
Pit bull apologists, wake up
C.W. Nevius

i saw this earlier today.

i sure hope my the "sudden, unexpected moment" when Lola looses control
isn't while she's sleeping under the covers in my bed. that would sure
suck.

what an idiot this guy is. he makes statements about how everything pit
bull owners say is not true, but then offers nothing to prove it.

typical anti-pit hysteria.

i'm sure the folks at Bad Rap will have a few well written rebuttals in the
coming days.

-kelly

"Tricia9999" wrote in message
...
Tuesday, July 6, 2004 (SF Chronicle)
Pit bull apologists, wake up
C.W. Nevius

i saw this earlier today.

i sure hope my the "sudden, unexpected moment" when Lola looses control
isn't while she's sleeping under the covers in my bed. that would sure
suck.

what an idiot this guy is. he makes statements about how everything pit
bull owners say is not true, but then offers nothing to prove it.

typical anti-pit hysteria.

i'm sure the folks at Bad Rap will have a few well written rebuttals in the
coming days.

-kelly

"culprit" wrote in message ...

what an idiot this guy is. he makes statements about how everything pit
bull owners say is not true, but then offers nothing to prove it.

It isn't that easy to dismiss. I've known Abe for years and he can be
somewhat inflexible, but he's no idiot. The sad facts are that our
area has had 7 deaths or near deaths in the past 5 years and of those
5 have been pit bulls, 1 Presa Canario, 1 Lab. The impression he
gives about the shelter population in our county is also absolutely
true.

We all know that every dog can bite and will bite, given the right
circumstances. What's important is how that bite is expressed (bite
inhibition). There's a 6-level scale used to classify bites, from a
level 1 air snap to a level 6 death or removal of a significant amount
of body tissue. Those level 6's are the ones that make the news.
It's true that bite inhibition has to be actively taught and there may
be social or ignorance reasons why it isn't taught in some areas. But
it's also true that some breeds have been selectively bred for traits
that also contribute to lesser bite inhibition. If you combine
failure to teach it and the genetic factor, you're going to get dogs
that make the news. I hate BSLs but I'm not going to claim that all
breeds present equal risk either.

Lynn K.

"culprit" wrote in message ...

what an idiot this guy is. he makes statements about how everything pit
bull owners say is not true, but then offers nothing to prove it.

It isn't that easy to dismiss. I've known Abe for years and he can be
somewhat inflexible, but he's no idiot. The sad facts are that our
area has had 7 deaths or near deaths in the past 5 years and of those
5 have been pit bulls, 1 Presa Canario, 1 Lab. The impression he
gives about the shelter population in our county is also absolutely
true.

We all know that every dog can bite and will bite, given the right
circumstances. What's important is how that bite is expressed (bite
inhibition). There's a 6-level scale used to classify bites, from a
level 1 air snap to a level 6 death or removal of a significant amount
of body tissue. Those level 6's are the ones that make the news.
It's true that bite inhibition has to be actively taught and there may
be social or ignorance reasons why it isn't taught in some areas. But
it's also true that some breeds have been selectively bred for traits
that also contribute to lesser bite inhibition. If you combine
failure to teach it and the genetic factor, you're going to get dogs
that make the news. I hate BSLs but I'm not going to claim that all
breeds present equal risk either.

Lynn K.

"culprit" wrote in message ...

what an idiot this guy is. he makes statements about how everything pit
bull owners say is not true, but then offers nothing to prove it.

It isn't that easy to dismiss. I've known Abe for years and he can be
somewhat inflexible, but he's no idiot. The sad facts are that our
area has had 7 deaths or near deaths in the past 5 years and of those
5 have been pit bulls, 1 Presa Canario, 1 Lab. The impression he
gives about the shelter population in our county is also absolutely
true.

We all know that every dog can bite and will bite, given the right
circumstances. What's important is how that bite is expressed (bite
inhibition). There's a 6-level scale used to classify bites, from a
level 1 air snap to a level 6 death or removal of a significant amount
of body tissue. Those level 6's are the ones that make the news.
It's true that bite inhibition has to be actively taught and there may
be social or ignorance reasons why it isn't taught in some areas. But
it's also true that some breeds have been selectively bred for traits
that also contribute to lesser bite inhibition. If you combine
failure to teach it and the genetic factor, you're going to get dogs
that make the news. I hate BSLs but I'm not going to claim that all
breeds present equal risk either.

Lynn K.

"culprit" wrote in message ...

what an idiot this guy is. he makes statements about how everything pit
bull owners say is not true, but then offers nothing to prove it.

It isn't that easy to dismiss. I've known Abe for years and he can be
somewhat inflexible, but he's no idiot. The sad facts are that our
area has had 7 deaths or near deaths in the past 5 years and of those
5 have been pit bulls, 1 Presa Canario, 1 Lab. The impression he
gives about the shelter population in our county is also absolutely
true.

We all know that every dog can bite and will bite, given the right
circumstances. What's important is how that bite is expressed (bite
inhibition). There's a 6-level scale used to classify bites, from a
level 1 air snap to a level 6 death or removal of a significant amount
of body tissue. Those level 6's are the ones that make the news.
It's true that bite inhibition has to be actively taught and there may
be social or ignorance reasons why it isn't taught in some areas. But
it's also true that some breeds have been selectively bred for traits
that also contribute to lesser bite inhibition. If you combine
failure to teach it and the genetic factor, you're going to get dogs
that make the news. I hate BSLs but I'm not going to claim that all
breeds present equal risk either.

Lynn K.