CityPulse News: Banning pitbulls

[Nameless]

Did you guys see the news yesterday talking about banning pitbulls in toronto? How do you feel about it?

[PooGirl13]

I was in Toronto over the weekend for my cousin's wedding and I was staying in a hotel downtown, near where these 2 pitbulls mauled a person. I hadn't heard the entire story, just caught pieces of it on the news as I was waking up in the morning.

I think the police shot the dogs, correct? I'll have to read up on the story..

[goob]

Yes, they were shot. One was still alive though after numerous shots, so a police officer smothered it by putting a matress over it. Nice to know that folks like that are what we're supposed to rely on to "protect" us, eh?

(BTW.... I have utmost respect for the good police officers out there, but it eats me up to see people so incompetant allowed so much power)

[goob]

Here's the article I found the part in my last post in:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1093990212754&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

As for the ban itself, I think it's a ineffective waste of money. Good law abiding citizens will be punished, their dogs taken away or killed, or forced to move out of the province; meanwhile, criminals who are not the least worried about following the law will continue to own the dogs, or move on to other breeds. Banning all cars might keep some drunk drivers from killing other people, but is it really a good solution?

In a city near where I live, pit bulls have been banned for over 5 yrs (maybe closer to 10, I don't remember). Since that time, the papers have been overrun by people peddling rare mastiff breeds like the Presa Canario, Cane Corso, Neapolitan Mastiff, and American Bulldog. Bites by these breeds have also increased, and there have been a couple serious attacks. AC still picks up numerous pit bulls daily from people who are either ignorant of the law, or choose to ignore it, and the dogs are killed for it. Even they acknowledge though that there are plenty of people there who have pit bulls, but are just very good at hiding them. Still more laughable is that the shelter there ADOPTS OUT pit bulls under the guise of being other breeds. The city has been considering repealling the ban there since it has done little good, aside from using up hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers' money for nothing.

Passing BSL to stop dog bites is about as effective as sticking a bandaid on someone who's bleeding out internally.

[Nameless]

It's a hard topic to debate about, because the breed is being punished for the careless actions of the owner, who does not take the initiave to get the dog trained while knowing the reputation of such a breed if not properly trained. So from that point of view the dog should not be banned. However, how effective is it going to be to ban the breed and hope that there are no more in toronto. By doing that it may cause an overpopulation of the breed in animal shelters because of owner unwilling to move to another city where there is no ban on their dog's breed. Also, some owners may even kill their dog. In addition, even if they ban pitbulls there are still going to be ppl selling privating. They should just allow ppl who are definetly going to properly train these dogs to keep them. I had two pitbulls in my life and they were the most loyal and amazing dog I have ever had and it is not fair to punish the breed and not the owner.

[spencerpits]

[ChronicBlue]

i saw something on the news here in vancouver bout, how that will never happen here, and laws might be put in place to prevent bans like that from happening. here they see the one at fault as being the owner. not the poor dogs.

[Nameless]

Which is generally the one at fault.

[juice1348]

the best part is the opening paragraph...."the often viscious dogs..."

i have NEVER seen a viscious pitbull so i can t see how they are 'often viscious'. No i dont live in the innercity so maybe there are more there because of the way they are brought up, but where i live i have never seen a mean one.

[For Harley]

Does anyone see the resemblance of Hitler with nazi germany getting rid of the Jews by killing them and the city banning pit bulls by killing them? It is a form of racism. It is not in a pit bull's breed to be naturally vicous but since they are capable of doing the most damage they make the paper and if more than one has bit someone then all of a sudden they all do? It's kind of scary to think that our society is so ignorant. I have a pit bull and she is the most loveable dog i have ever owned and if someone took him away I would feel like those Jewish people in world war 2 who had their family members taken away because of what they were. People need to think, that is the bottom line.
SAVE THE PIT BULLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[spencerpits]

Same here - I've never seen or heard of (through direct personal aquaintences) a viscious pitbull. I have; however, heard of many accounts of my fellow APBT owners/breeders being bitten/attacked by other, usually small, "harmless" breeds.

[Angie]

Tuesday - Thursday we evaccuated to my grandmaw's house for the hurricane. I took my dog (Pit Bull) and my brother took his dogs (3 female, 1 male, and he also had 3 puppies, all Pit Bulls)
My aunt was there with her daughter and they also bought their dog. Not sure of the breed. It was small though.
Anyway, my aunt was terrified of our Pit Bulls because "I know they might not be mean but they snap."
So she wouldnt go any where near our dogs.

Its funny, our dogs were supposed to be so 'vicious' or "might bite my finger off" yet her dog was the only one to 'snap' at three different people and bite one.

[Kirk]

I think that the people should be alowed to have whatever kind of dogs they want but if one of my dogs mauled a person id shoot it myself.

[spencerpits]