The War on Terriers in Alabama
Montgomery City Councilman Glen Pruitt is considering proposing a city ordinance that would ban the animals from the city limits.
“I want us to be proactive. I don’t want to open the paper and see where a child or senior citizen has been hurt or injured by one of these dogs,” Pruitt said.
He believes this will eliminate many of these issues and improve public safety.
“Seeing some of the things in the paper lately has brought the issue to light,” Pruitt said. “It is something we probably need to address pretty soon.”
Pit bulls often are linked to people involved in illegal activity such as drugs, dog fighting and hog-dog rodeos, in which the dogs chase, catch and brutalize wild hogs for people’s amusement and gaming.
But, you know, let’s not go after people who do those things, let’s go after the dog. And, regarding the wild hogs, it’s called hunting. People do hunt wild hogs with dogs, the dogs do catch them but brutalize is a misleading term.
I do think Glen Pruitt should maybe refer to the Alabama Supreme Court, which ruled there is no genetic evidence that one breed of dog is more dangerous than another, based on breed alone.
August 20th, 2005 at 12:51 am
What A moron……Thats kind of like saying lets take all the merchandise off the shelves when the thieves come in…instead of lets’ catch the thief… I love dogs…my Rottie saved our lives 3 years ago …our house caught fire late one night. When Kilo my Rotties smelled the smoke ,he ran upstairs and scratched on our door until we woke up….If he had not done this ..I may not have been here today.
August 20th, 2005 at 11:09 pm
Wait a minute. There is one breed which I believe was specifically bred to go after humans. That’s the Doberman Pinscher. IIRC, Herr Doberman was a German tax collector who got tired of being dissed by his victims and decided to breed a critter which would help him intimidate them.
For what it’s worth, I despise all dogs bred by Germans, starting with Dobies, then Rottweilers (Who bite *lots* more people than pit bulls), and then German Police Dogs (Now called German Shepherds by the PC) and on down through Schnauzers and Dachshunds. Gimmee an American Staff or English Mastiff, any day. I think the dog breeds reflect, in their doggy minds, the personalities of the humans who bred them.
August 20th, 2005 at 11:35 pm
“A study published in September 2000 found that Rottweilers and pit-bull-type dogs are responsible for the vast majority of fatal dog bites, with Rottweilers being number one. Some of that is due to the fact that Rottweilers have gotten so popular there are a lot more of them around……(For a number of reasons, including owners’ rights to equal protection under the law, the authors of the study did not recommend laws banning either pit bulls or Rottweilers.)
Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson, “Animals in Translation”, 2005, New York City. Page 132.
Professor Grandin is careful to point out that one should always make sure that the dog views his human as the top dog, and that the dog should be socialized, *early* to any small humans or kittycats which might be about.
August 21st, 2005 at 12:40 am
Well, xrlq, look up “Rin-Tin-Tin” (the original), who, I believe, was a German Police Dog captured by Americans and brought home in 1919 or thenabouts. I remember when I was a kid, in the 50s, hearing those dogs spoken of as “Police Dogs” or “German Police Dogs.” I was born in GA, lived there until I was five or so, then moved to FL. My childish impression was that those dogs were foreign and un-American. And owned by cops, and foreigners, and people with no vowels in their names.
August 21st, 2005 at 6:48 pm
Back when I trained police dogs, we trained shepherds exclusively. For that kind of work, there are dogs that can do obedience better, track better and do protection better. But for a dog to be good at all three, it takes a shepherd.
Their temperament is fine and they make great pets. Rotties are the same. Dobies too. It’s just bad owners that give them bad raps.