Fair warning here.
I'm only wrapping up my thoughts on the poll and the preceding post.
This subject is taking me straight over to horses, but not until next week, because I'm a little fried.
I've been working on a post off and on, for months.
It involves research, trainer brain and touchy subjects, and to be honest, I've been shying away from finishing and posting it.
My family friend, who is still shaken to the core over what went down with her pit bull, brought it to the surface.
So, I'm finally diving in. Next week. Not today.
Today, I want to tell you what our informal, not covering all the bases, but still, very telling poll, told me.
It told me there are waaaaaay too many pit bulls and chihuahuas in the world. The market is saturated.Now there's the understatement of the year. There is only one blanket statement about these two breeds I am willing to make. There are just....too...many...of...them. There, I said it.
Responsible, concerned breeders of quality examples of these dogs must be absolutely horrified by what's happened.
The dogs in the shelters and rescues are the throwaways, the ones that didn't work out.
44.1% of the dogs in our shelter survey, of the almost 10,000 dogs counted, come from two breeds.
The CDC study on human deaths by dog attack, so appropriately shared with us by Calm, Forward and Straight tells us this:
Approximately 25 breeds of dogs were involved in theses deaths; pit bulls and rottweilers were involved in over HALF of the reported deaths.
So, can we quit crying over breed profiling and pointing fingers at Labs and Golden Retrievers? They didn't make the cut, even if we all know there are bad apples in every poorly bred barrel.
Instead, lets move on to human responsibility.
Again, the CDC came up with unarguable statistics:
Nearly a quarter (24%) of the deaths involved unrestrained dogs off their owners’ property.
Over half (58%) of the deaths involved unrestrained dogs on their owners’ property.
Over half (58%) of the deaths involved unrestrained dogs on their owners’ property.
The following stats came from AH.org, as bleeding heart, love-every-puppy-on-the-planet organization you could possibly wish for. The next portion of the point I'd like to make is here:
Approximately 92% of fatal dog attacks involved male dogs, 94% of which WERE NOT NEUTERED.
50% of dog attacks involve children under 12-years-old
82% of dog bites treated in the emergency room involved children under 15-years-old.
70% of dog bite fatalities occurred among children under 10-years-old.
Unsupervised newborns were 370 times more likely than an adult to be killed by a dog.
65% of bites among children occur to the head and neck
Boys under the age of 15 years are bitten more often than girls of the same age.
So what exactly is my point?
Research the history of your breed of choice.
Understand what they do and why they do it.
Educate yourself, be honest about your involvement and capabilities when committing to taking a dog into your life.
NEUTER THE DAMN DOGKEEP THE DAMN DOG PROPERLY CONTAINED
UNDERSTAND A DOG IS A DOG, NOT YOUR CHILD, NOT A BABYSITTER, AND HAS IT'S OWN MORAL CODE.
I guess that's about it.
Oh yeah, and this...
shttp://youtu.be/iVMvRepBwKs
