"Pit Bull" -- it must be ok to stop reading now

The reaction in the aftermath of the death of 7 year old Zach King in Minneapolis is exactly what one would expect.  Outrage.  Anger.

Neighborhood activists are now hanging flyers calling for people to report dangerous dogs in their neighborhoods.

City Council members like Don Samuals is calling for a change to the state law that would allow for breed specific legislation for pit bulls.

It seems that most everyone stopped looking at the actual information in the case after they read "pit bull" in the headline.

The reality is that there were two adult pit bulls in the house.  One was allowed to roam free in the house, and one was not.  The female dog, that was allowed to roam free, also had 5 puppies.  Most of the time, the momma dog ends up being aggressive in protection of their young.

So why is it that it was the male pit bull, that had less access to the child and no babies to protect, was the one that killed Zach King?

The answer is pretty obvious.  The adult dog, named Face, was kept chained in the basement.  He wasn't allowed to socialize with the rest of the family.  Who keeps a dog CHAINED in a basement.  Isolated in a basement is bad enough.  CHAINED?

The dog had a history of being aggressive.  Two people had been previously bitten by the dog.  So, let's look at the factors.

One pit bull, a female, with no history of aggression, and was allowed to roam and be social with the members of the house, was not aggressive.

A male pit bull, with a history of aggression, chained in a basement, kills a child.

Clearly, it must be because pit bulls are dangerous.

Don Samuals goes so far as to say that pit bulls are becoming the "weapon of choice for intimidation and assault."

In 2006, Minneapolis had 60 homicides.  None of them were by dog attack.  47 by gun.  It looks as if the gun still remains the "weapon of choice" for people who want to hurt people.

This isn't difficult to figure out what went wrong in this instance.  However, as long as people continue to quit reading after they hear the words "pit bull", instead of figuring out that there were a lot of determining factors why one of the household pit bulls attacked, and the other did not. If we are ever going to create a society that is safer from dog attacks, we must, as a society, look at the REAL factors of what causes dog attacks, instead of looking at the breed of dog. 

If we go to the root causes of the problem, we can solve it...but you've got to keep reading.

Comments

[Caveat]

Exactly.

[Tony]

Brent > Don Samuals

Samuals got owned. You should send that to Indy Pit Crew, maybe they can counter-post this by all those fliers. I still don't think that people could rationally handle it. It would blow their feeble minds like a kid who sees Santa take his beard off.

[selwyn john marock]

Scum like Nelson and Samuels got voted in by the people,now the decent people must vote them out.
They are Cowards that will not take on real issues,defenceless animals are easy targets.

[Tony]

Somehow, banning breeds of dogs became a "family value."

[Tammy Grimes]

Minnesota, mostly the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, has had a rash of chained dog attacks on children since April, this makes #4 I believe...Haley Fillion, 6, Minnesota, injured, Huyen Phan, 4, Minnesota, injured, Wyatt Fillion, 8, Minnesota, seriously injured, and now Zack King Jr., 7, Minnesota, killed. What I find oddest is that they don't really seem to be questionning much the whole 'dog chained in the basement' thing...sigh! To read the articles associated with these attacks, visit the MADC attack page at: http://www.mothersagainstdogchaining.org/attacks.html

Tammy