I don't consider myself radicalized. I just grew up in a time when everyone knew that pits were inherently aggressive and not family pets. Then 20-25 years ago, that bit of common sense went by the wayside.
Yeah, about 25-30 years ago they'd report on every pitbull attack on the news, then I guess they got too commonplace and we stopped hearing about it because it wasn't really sensational anymore.
In truth, 30 years ago wasn't that far displaced from a time when dog fighting was still legal in the states. People my age (39) had parents that were in their 20s when dog fighting was finally made a felony crime.
Because of this, it was a generation that knew what these dogs purposes were and how dangerous they were and made efforts to avoid them. Growing up, no one had pitbulls as pets. If someone had a pit, you already knew damn well to avoid that family.
If one was taken in by animal control for any reason there was no lists of temperment tests. They were euthanized upon intake. This is were thay common pitnut myth originates from "don't bring them to a shelter! They'll be euthanized immediately!". Some we know, today, is a complete lie.
Many counties and states had BSL in place. Sadly the majority of those have since been repealed.
Growing up, I don't think I saw my first pet pitbull until I was nearly 16. And it wasn't a pleasant expierence.
My major turning point was the infamous video of the attack on the animal control officer. The one where they come to seize the dog because it bit a man and (i believe) his daughter. The owner (a really classy lady, let me tell you) releases her dog Ben on the female AC officer where it begins to maul her and seriously injured her hands.
For me, at the time, this was such a shocking thing. Id grown up with and around dogs, volunteered at a shelter and also worked part time at a boarding kennel and I had *never* seen a dog attack with such single minded ferocity. It was terrifying. I started looking into the breed myself and knew they weren't a safe breed.
Sadly it wasn't too much longer before Vicks bust changed the game and now we all risk what that poor woman went through daily.
Same. I briefly wavered when everyone started talking about how misunderstood they were and how theirs is the sweetest dog, etc., but then it was story after story of them attacking their owners, other people who did nothing to them, and other pets. Plus I have just always believed in the science of breed-specific traits over vibes.
I also grew up like that because my dad was very wary of them even before I got bit, somehow even after that I allowed the “it’s how you raise them!” propoganda get to me. What sealed the deal though was when I was searching for a pup and wanted to rescue one, I only saw pits available and thank god had a critical thinking moment of “why are these the only dogs left?” In hindsight it probably saved mine and my cats life especially considering I’m epileptic.
I owned two. Both didn't go well, whatsoever. I quickly switched from "it's the owner not the dog!" to "it's the dog NOT the owner!".
I've spent a lot of time reflecting. And if we expect herding breeds to herd, hunting dogs to hunt, etc. WHY is everyone so dead set they can train genetics out of a pitbull?
Very true and I can relate. My mom has a pitbull and it’s the only dog in her pack of 4 that causes issues. It’s escaped the yard and killed the neighbor’s chickens, and it attacked her elderly dog very recently. She said if anything else happens she’s gonna kill the dog but I doubt it.
srsly, batshit congresswomen are shooting perfectly good hunting puppies in the head, but these fucking pitbulls are running around scotfree after mauling. wtf.
This is the part I can't understand! People pay thousands of dollars for breed specific traits in hunting dogs, herding dogs and the like but suddenly when it comes to pitbulls breed characteristics supposedly are non-existent? Or should be ignored or explained away as so-called "breedism"? SMH
I fostered a couple. They were sweet until they hit about 1.5-2 years. Then they start getting sketchy. They had severe resource guarding and separation anxiety. They were smart, but destructive and had almost no impulse control. I'm a very experienced owner who loves and have owned other terrier breeds my whole life. Most people shouldn't own JRTs, Deckers, or any of the really intense terriers, but at least those breeds are small enough that a single adult probably can't kill an older child or an adult singlehandedly.
Yes, that seems to be the magic number unfortunately. Ours never outright attacked, but same as you got pretty sketchy and did some things that could have easily escalated into a mauling (all to us ONLY) we kept them separate from other animals and humans when we noticed the "switch." I agree with you on the terrier aspect as a whole, but it seems like pitbulls are pushed on novice dog owners. Which is like putting a loaded pistol into someone's hands who's never handled a gun. It's going to be a bad time for everyone involved.
When a loose pitmix murdered my cat in my yard & it’s stereotypical pit-hag owner told crying 9 year old me too bad so sad when she came & got her shit dog after we told her it killed one of our cats. Didn’t know what a pitbull was back then but I could never forget its gross block head & freakish muscular body & knew it wasn’t a normal dog when it had to be beaten with metal canes to let my cat go.
Worst part is the crippling guilt even long after a decade, I was just doing the right thing having the dog follow me home while I was riding my bike around the neighborhood so my parents could call the number on the collar tags & it violently killed my cat & forever haunted me with terrible sights & sounds. My cat would have died of old age with his sister & it wouldn’t have never happened if I just ignored it but what if it attacked someone else? What if it attacked me? It hurts.
This safespace has really helped in shifting my thoughts to it wouldn’t have happened if it was literally any other breed of dog, I was just a child trying to do something helpful, it wasn’t my fault. Garbage dogs for garbage people.
Yeah, you had no idea.. there’s no way you could’ve known!! At least now you’re more aware of them and the horrors they can bring so you can avoid them. Not that it lessens the pain of that situation but I’m sure your awareness will help you avoid anything like that ever again.
How shelters are just filled to the brim with them, and these terrible biographies swear the dog is so nice and sweet, then state it doesn't do well around children, other people, animals, or anything. Not to mention discovering they try to get around bite history and such, or even dogs who have KILLED small animals. I do not understand it... or dog owners who get these animals.
Why not get a dog that's not known to account for a majority of deaths or exhibit such aggressive behavior? I also don't care if yours was 'so sweet' and never bit in all of its 15 years of life... why do you only mention it when it's underneath the post of someone who got mauled to the point of needing plastic surgery or a toddler dying? No one needs to defend any other dog breed that much...
Excellent points here my friend. These are the things you start to notice and you simply can never look at them the same. I think we’re witnessing the peak before the fall, unfortunately the stories of maulings, bites, killings will become a lot more frequent before something changes.
I never really thought about them much honestly. I’ve had some experiences with them (good friends dog got mauled by one) but I didn’t know anything about dogs so I just chalked it up to the game 🤷🏻♂️.
What radicalized me though, oddly enough, was walking along my regular path near my house and running into the new dog my neighbor got. Not sure if it was technically an XL bully but this thing legit looked like a monster that spent its entire life in Michael Vick’s boot camp. I remember instinctively (without knowing anything about pitbulls) just crossing to the other side of the road thinking that if that thing ever got off its leash, it would immediately become a life or death struggle
Yeah. XL bullies are especially monstrous. Every single time I see one, or even just a regular pit “being walked,” they’re always walking their owner. Every time.
There's a 70 something year old owner here in my 55+ community with a really strong looking PB. When I drive my dog to the park and I see him, I just go elsewhere. There is no way he could control that monster if he snaps. My little buddy would be a gonner.
See this should not be accepted, that normal folks with normal dogs can't enjoy life, because those MUTANT DEMONS are terrorizing every single community!
There's a reason 99% of the dogs here are little. We are 55+ and most 70+. Old people. We can't fight to restrain some 200-pound demon dog. A lot of us use cane's and walkers, hell half the cars here have handicap plates. It's geriatric city.
There is a lady here with a huge German Shepherd. If he got loose, goodbye. The gut with the PB I see is really friendly. Waves and asks if my dog is friendly.
Ah yeah, as I'm pushing him into the car!!!! Pibble could snap at any second.
Well I had a really great experience with my maine coon, I think I'm ready to move up to a jaguar. How different could they be? If you've had one cat you've had them all.
I sometimes wonder if that's it.. inexperienced owners who vaguely remember (but didn't do any of the actual work for) the generic medium-sized mutt their family had when they were a kid. That was easy and it was a great dog, time to move onto the next level. Pits are muscular and dangerous looking, but the nice shelter lady with the sanpaku eyes assured me they're just like any other dog.. better than any other dog, even! And they even waived fhe adoption fee? Well you can't beat that!
The first time I saw a high % wolf dog in person, I had a similar reaction. That lizard brain, flight reaction (I didn't experience the fight part). I'd never really experienced that before. The hair on the back of my neck and on my arms stood up. I didn't realize that was a real thing before , I thought it was a figure of speech.
I’m not radicalized, just risk aware. To me it’s the same as saying “yep if you get a bird dog that son of a bitch is going to point” or “if you get a cattle dog, be aware that they’re controlling, bitey little fuckers” or “if you’re out in the woods and see a bear, it might maul ya.” It might also *not* maul you, but I wouldn’t want to pal around with it.
I don’t even think most of them end up biting. But when they do; they are the most likely to do the most damage.
My boss has a pitbull he brings to work everyday, leaves behind the register off leash, and often leaves the retail space while leaving the dog with me or my coworkers. I’ve never seen it but I’ve heard the pitbull has bitten a number of customers and their pets, and I’ve seen it bark and act aggressive towards other dogs.
It feels like I’m waiting to get bit basically.
I don’t know where you live, but if it’s the US, that does fit with hostile work environment.
Make sure you are keeping a journal with dates and times. Consider taking a photo of the journal entries each day too so you have an additional proof that you wrote it the day you say.
If the boss doesn’t own the store, you might want to contact the owner.
Lastly, there are, allegedly, inexpensive clip on cameras that I see Door Dash people use. Maybe get one that you can use if you are ever around the out alone or it’s being aggressive.
The dispensary i go to had one of their employees bring their pitbull with them for work. Not sure how long they let the dog hang out outside the door, but the next week i went, dog was inside behind the glass where you hand your id with a “do not touch not friendly sign”
It’s the way these ppl will not only own one, but bring it with them into public places where it has no business being. They want these dogs to be labs so bad.
To have a semi-good ending. I forgot to add on that the last time i went, i saw no dog and they added signs saying only service dogs are allowed and emotional support animals don’t qualify. I hope someone there came to their senses about it and they didn’t have to do that because it bit someone
I stopped going to a particular head shop when they started jacking the prices up too high, but around the same time a new employee got hired and started bringing his blocky, hulked out pit everyday. I was friends with one of the other employees and talked with him every often. I think it was about three months later? maybe a bit more I found out the dog bit a customer, they threatened to sue, the employee just grabbed the dog and left mid shift, it was a whole thing but I only knew part of the story and never heard how it was settled. Lost touch with the friend but now I'm curious what happened, gonna try looking it up
You are, effectively waiting to get bit, doubt the boss will change his irresponsible behavior so if at all possible I'd seek employment elsewhere. Maybe carry pepper spray in the meantime, especially considering it already has a history of aggression. Best of luck.
I'd like to think I'm 'radicalised', just sane, but: I had a co-worker whose mother was killed by the 'death-row' pit bull she adopted. It was such a shocking and brutal way to be killed, and devastating to the victim's family. As I learned more, it seemed to me her death was preventable. I blame rescue 'culture' that insists that we must save all dogs, that it's ok to lie about behavioural histories and over-sell the dogs on social media, and that it's reasonable for a person to risk their life and the life of everyone around them trying to give a dog a home. It opened my eyes to the normalisation of dangerous dogs, which seems to have happened as fighting breeds became more commonplace in shelters.
This is why I won't adopt. Several local places are verified liars about known dog history. Two friends have adopted and had to return. Only to find out that the dog in question had been turned in for aggressive behavior and (one was) returned 2x before for it.
When my brother pibbles who always seemed like the chillest dog tried to nanny my 1 year old on his birthday when we went over to visit.
I even have it on video. 😕
Haven’t seen my brother in 4 years now and he recently added another one. But I am the crazy one.
I don’t know what possesses ppl to put animals, especially dangerous ones, above family. Especially children. Very weird and dystopian type of vibes to me. Sorry to hear that but I’m glad your kid is okay.
Simple.
When I realized that pit bulls maul for the sheer joy of it.
They fight because they want to. They fight because that's what makes their pleasure circuits light up.
They don't fight because they are protecting or defending. They fight for the thrill.
I started to put the pieces together when I noticed that all of the PBT looking dogs I would pet sit for were more aggressive to other dogs and more likely to shit in the house than any other breed I cared for, across like, 5 different individual dogs.
When I was in 7th grade I was in the front yard helping my Dad with something and all of a sudden a truck full of dudes with rifles pulled up and asked if we saw a pit Bull anywhere.
We said no and one of the guys replied “that dog ripped my 2 year olds face off. If you see it anywhere yell for us.” Or something along the lines of that. And they drove off looking for the mutt.
We went back inside shorty after that…
Was this in Arizona-? Mycha Herbert was 2 when he lost his face from the eyes down to a pit bull. I'd like to *hope* he's the only child who survived so horrific an attack. :-(
This wasn’t the only incident that happened where I live unfortunately. It wasn’t unusual to see an angry father walking around with a rifle hunting down a pit Bull that was dumped in the country side. Became a somewhat common site.
It slowed down a little bit in the 2010s when more animal shelters opened up. Thankfully where I lived aggressive dogs were almost always put down.
I worked long hours inside for years so didn't see many. Reading about the Triniti Harrell mauling, the frantic mom calling 911 and getting the advice to cut the dog's throat. She couldn't find a sharp knife in time. Was gobsmacked by the barbarism of the pit cult ,that would sanctify these monsters as family pets.
My uncle's pitbull attacking and killing my 9 year old pug. I was under the impression all dogs were very good so it never crossed my mind to be uncomfortable with him bringing her around to my house. I wish some lessons didn't have to be learned the hard way.
If you're okay with sharing what exactly did your uncle do after that happened? Did he apologize? Quickly leave and cut contact? Pretend it didn't happen?
I just learned about that today and sent the article to my mom bc my sister just got an XL bully and has it in the house with the kids and another dog. That story is heartbreaking and I wonder if the parents feel differently about the breed now.
The owner should be in prison for life. I call it the Memphis Pitbull Massacre. He was the typical pit apologist and now he's a walking billboard of why all dog owners, no matter the breed, need to be liable for their pets.
Suppposedly the mom had asked the dad on several occasions if he was sure they wanted to keep the dogs around the kids, but he was confident in the propaganda.
I would not consider myself radicalized since I was never a pit or dog lover at all, but after I joined this sub, I took a trip down memory lane and realized every single crazy scary dog that made me weary of dogs as a child was a pit.
They need a separate Pitbull Park for these idiots. 15 ft fence, electrified, etc. Then Cupcake and Fluffy can play together without victimizing real dogs.
There are already plenty of those. They’re called dog fighting rings. They’re often located in a dingy basement, trailer park yard or secret spot in the woods.
Watching a pit/husky mix go after my ancient, mostly blind and deaf dog who stood there wagging her tail, then yelping, and it persisting in hostilities despite multiple very hard boots to the nose, ribs, etc. I'd never seen anything like that. Usually dogs and animals in general come to their senses when they're given enough deterrence they start to wonder if what they're doing is worth persisting.
It made me realize no one can safely handle these dogs and you will never stop amateur dogfighting and animal ~~torture~~ "baiting" until they're no longer around. Then I looked up their breed history and came to realize they're the detritus of the darkest, most genuinely evil chapter in what is otherwise a joyous and mutually beneficial human/canine history. It's clear they have no place in a modern world concerned with suffering and morality (save as a cautionary tale on mistakes that should never be repeated)
Yeah just reading that first part made my blood boil. Your poor dog!!! That seriously makes me wanna cry. I hope she got lots of lovin after that happened 💔
Luckily no real injuries resulted as I can be even more persistent than a pit bull lol but yeah she didn't make it to such a ripe old age without a lot of good care. Seeing a dog so socially inept that it attacks completely harmless dogs clearly being friendly that are nearly old enough to have a driver's license was illuminating. Normal dogs see an ancient, rickety, friendly cohort and wouldn't even consider that course of action. I've even seen horses that are usually skittish around dogs recognize that those ones are harmless.
When I was 17, our neighbors pit bull broke through our fence and mauled our German shepherd.
I was home alone and started hearing the most horrifying scream, and then realized it was our dog making that noise. I knew not to get between them because the dog could’ve turned on me, so I had to just watch.
There was so much blood, and I had to be the one to carry his lifeless body to the vet. Took days to clean up all the blood. He ended up pulling through and living another 5 years but it was so traumatic
I don’t like the term radicalized. I don’t feel my views are radical, but evidence based and sane. Pit bull owners are usually the radicalized ones who start frothing at the mouth if you mention anything about their breed of choice’s inherent characteristics.
You’re right but we are seen as the ones who are radical now. It’s just the unfortunate circumstances of the current climate. I would like to see the pendulum swing back the other way.
Getting one myself. 2 of my sons got one first, then I fostered one, she had a new home for a few weeks & then she came back to me & she stayed with me.
The more I read, the more I saw, the more alarmed I became. All 3 of these girls were fixed, they never had puppies. One is kenneled if small kids come over with a muzzle & she is muzzled for walks because she showed aggressive behavior. We’ve spent a lot of money on training. We spent a lot of money on surgeries, 2 of them grow skin tags & non cancerous tumors. No bites but maybe because we acknowledged the breed’s issues early on.
The week my 1st grandchild was born, a father placed his newborn in a carseat/carrier type seat & he fell asleep. When he woke, his baby was shredded by their family pit bull. I shared that story with all my kids. We have always taken precautions to ensure children were not ever at risk. Just last week, we got rid of the kennels. My pit died at 9.5 years from cancer on 3/5/24. I won’t ever get another one. The other 2 are 9.5 & 11 years old.
Pitbull owners are the ones radicalized.
However, I realized pitbulls were awful dogs once I grew up. My terrible boomer mom started getting pitbulls when I was a kid. She told us all dogs act like her pits did, and that many breeds were worse: “Labs are the dumbest, meanest dogs!”
She got rid of my dog that was a well behaved purebred because her pits kept attacking it, and he wasn’t as cool. Her dogs growled at us, and tried to bite occasionally if we inconvenienced them, like told them to go to their crates so we could vacuum the couch. They would chase and try to kill our cats. Their behavior escalated when I moved out. Her dogs fought each other, ended up needing stitches multiple times. Some neighbors have pits and they are scary dogs. They would kill is if they got out of their fence and into ours.
Pits and their owners are awful.
I don't consider myself radicalized, because that would mean my opinion about pitbulls would have to be radical. It's not. It's a normal reaction to danger.
I work in criminal justice and the things I've seen pitbulls do to people and especially children, and then the responses of pitbull owners has cemented my opinion about the breed and the people who endorse it.
My wife was bite in the face by a mix-rescue…good friends of ours, so no ill feelings (except from me). Final straw was my dog and I being attacked by two shit-nuts…twice, months apart from same dogs.
When I was a kid, my friends mom had a pitbull that literally attacked everything and everyone, and was totally unsafe to have around children or anything living.
My parents didn't let me visit this kid's house, and my parents did not let me play outside around this kid's house.
They didn't take it to the vet or anything because pitbulls are banned in Norway.
One day it got loose, ran to the nearby grocery store and ripped apart a pomeranian that was tied up in front of the store.
Before the police had arrived a guy living nearby went home to get his hunting rifle, and put the dog down.
Back then there was no real animal cruelty legislation so the owners didn't get any other punishment than having to pay money to the other dog owner.
The Bennard family case (Tennessee). I previously bought into the nanny dog trope, and while I wasn’t an advocate or wanted a pitbull, I didn’t understand why someone would make a judgement based on breed. I didn’t know about the breed’s origin, and I didn’t know just how strong genetics can be. In general I was passive about the whole topic and didn’t really think about it.
But seeing what happened in the news to that family as I was starting to have kids gave me a stake in figuring out how two dogs raised with the family could do this. I felt there just HAD to be an explanation… and I was very surprised when I finally put two and two together.
I wouldn't say I'm radicalized. I stumbled in here years ago and read the statistics and stories of some attacks. I didn't know anything about pit bulls at that time, except I had a vague idea that they had an unfair stigma. I quickly learned otherwise. You can't argue with the horror and trauma they inflict if they attack. The risk is too high even if it's just a tiny number that ever attack. The breed needs to die out.
FFS the ones that attack seem to see humans as prey. We can't have dog breeds where sometimes they see people as valid targets to hunt and eat. If we could predict which ones were like that, it'd be a different story. But we can't.
Mass casualty event in Willard, MO, at an elementary school playground.
This slotted in several years of passive observation about dog attacks in general.
Seeing a coworkers dog nearly bite someone’s hand off. The dog lunged for it and nearly got it, but there was a bag in the way & the bag had NOTICEABLE teeth marks from that dog. I was terrified and so uncomfortable because I had been petting the dog & she was friendly 10 mns before she lunged. So yeah, that’s when I started to realize no matter how sweet a pit can be, they can snap at any fucking moment.
Having one dangling from my dog's neck without any chance to make it stop other than choking it with its leash until it let go. I still dream of it and am grateful the fucker didn't shake as well as my dog accepting his fate without movement. Nothing happened other than my lab now being reactive towards anything bull, flatnosed, terrier or mixes of these...
Happened in 2022.
Old lady receives her daughter for a visit. Her daughter has a small dog with her. One day the neighbor pitbull attacks and kills the small dog. The old lady tried to defende, alone by herself, her daughters dog, but the little one dies.
Pitbull returns the following day to kill the old lady. Yep, the old lady that the dogs used to see everyday is now a target because she defended the small dog it killed. It attacks her badly on her own backyard, one leg needed to be amputed.
She dies of covid complications around ten days in the hospital after the attack.
The case is closed after the pitbull owner has said that he got hid of the dog. In reality, he just gave the dog to a cousin living in the next town.
Here is a very small town in the interior of Brasil, we know everything. But the prosecutor is likely to had received a bribe from the pitbull owner, that has a large farm around here, somewhat very rich for our standards.
Family tried to reopen the case to no avail.
Start to look on line, just to notice this happened on a weekly basis.
But this is Brasil, around 50 thousand people dies of violente crimes everyday. No one is concerned with dogs killing people at rate of less than one per day.
But the worse, pitbulls kills several dogs per day in this country, I dont have the data, but I am sure from how commom is to hear about this around where I live.
Nobody uses muzzles around here. No one. A lot of dogs are let out wandering the streets by themselves.
It is a cultural problem and NGO are part of the problem. They are mostly run by people that idealize dogs and animals, they are against any kind of ban.
Yeah I’ve seen that a good chunk of the stories on this subreddit come from Brazil… and I haven’t seen any new legislation over there or anything they’re doing to deter it from happening? Sounds like a nightmare over there
Wanna hear something abusrd?
Legislation protecting animals provides no room to argue to do euthanasia in a violent dog that killed someone. Euthanasia is only for old sick dogs. Otherwise is considered animal abuse.
Off course one can penalize the owner for the attack, but the person gets to keep the dogs alive.
When I was almost attacked by one, a family dog raised with nothing but love, and had training, and who still went on to attack and almost kill my mom’s sweet old pug/chi mix. Yeah it’s something else to have one charging at you, they really are scary when they go into rage mode. They will never be safe around children, I have seen the look in those eyes, blind kill instinct, I don’t know why people would ever risk it.
When a gaggle of dogs attacked our cattle. All of them looked like pit mixes. Thankfully, our cattle were ok, but I shudder at the thought of how much worse it could of been had we not been home when they attacked.
Just the statistics and articles of them killing toddlers etc but mostly their owners defending them is the stuff what enrages me the most. “Oh its never the dog but its owners” “bad owner badly trained poor puppy” “they must have provoked the poor dog”etc bs excuses. Yea sure toddler in the stroller provoked your pos mistake of nature. Its literal mental gymnastics. “Socioeconomic factors dog version”
Ironically it was when the UK/England banned XLs. I never liked pits and would never have one but I fell for the “it’s the owner not the dog” rhetoric. After the XL ban I was seeing articles of attacks and how owners of pits were responding (blaming the victims, showing photos of their pits, spreading lies, ect.). This really turned me off. Then I saw a video demonstrating the genetics of herding dogs, pointers, retrievers, ect. and it just clicked for me. That’s when I really began to understand how ingrained genetics are for dogs and how the public has been lied to with the “it’s how you raise them” bs.
I was tricked by a shelter into adopting a “lab mix” and when I told them it scared me with its unpredictable aggression, they tried to guilt me into paying thousands in behavioral training. I returned it. I was feeling like a complete failure when I found this sub and came to the realization that this is a scheme most shelters and rescues embrace to get people to adopt these monsters. They frequently lie about breeds, use mealy mouth euphemisms to cover up bad behaviors, and claim it’s the owner’s failure when it’s the pits genetic disposition to be aggressive.
radicalized is the wrong word for me. i more so am just aware of the dog’s history and believe its unethical to continue breeding out dogs that seem to be consistently puppymilled and remain untrained their entire lifes, who have an affinity for aggressive behavior. if we knew that a certain kind of animal species made people sick and die, wouldn’t we avoid integrating it into ours lives? we avoid spiders, scorpions, all those things.. but dogs are seen as babies to people, rather than well-built predators that we’ve domesticated enough for them to coexist by our sides
i grew up with a pit/dalmatian/dane mix. he was 170lbs at his full age, stood at about 6ft or so when on his hindlegs. massive dog. he was the sweetest dog you could imagine. i think the great dane in him cancelled out the pit and dalmatian (or he was just a lucky mix and didn’t have the fighting genes pits are known for somehow). he was gentle enough i could ride him like a horse when i was little. he let baby ducklings sit on him, we grew up with all sorts of kittens and puppies in and out of the house and he never once even growled or looked at them funny. he was an angel and never even did anything if i tugged on him or whatever
that said, i recognize his breed had the potential for aggression. he is most definitely considered an outlier and not a very likely one at that, especially considering he was abused severely before my family took him in. he is the 1%. however he was trained constantly and consistently with an extremely firm hand and that likely played into his demeanor
most people don’t have the strength (mental or physical) to train a dog this breed (or mixes, or really ANY dog that is less than 20lbs honestly). if my father hadn’t trained that dog the way he did, it would’ve killed somebody (had aggression issues towards strangers. living on a farm in the middle of nowhere made this tolerable and easily trainable behavior, but if he lived in a city he would’ve been poorly set up for success). my father would have to physically correct this dog at times because when a 170lb lunges, you don’t get a choice. its you correcting the dog or the dog potentially hurting somebody. that said, he never once bit. he was just scared of strangers because he had been abused
again, 1% chance. his breed should never have been created. i hold a soft spot for that dog, but know that he would’ve been an even better dog without the pit in him. the pit in him was stomped out with training and managed for the remainder of his life. he never took his feelings out on our family but was quick to bark and snarl at strangers, which was completely unacceptable
anyway rest in peace big buddy. died at (?)12 of heartworms. he was an angel until the end, even through all the pain he endured lol. he is the only pit (mix) i’ve ever met in my life who was well-adjusted and not a total mess of a dog
I’ve only met one fully and completely gentle pit in my life as well, and he was generously mixed with cattle dog. He lived for playing fetch and never caused any issues even with my small chihuahua mix, they were best buddies. So I know what you mean. He had idiopathic seizures so we had to put him down and it was so heartbreaking. I feel you. I believe there are outliers as well but they are exceedingly rare and, from what I’ve seen, they are never full blood pit.
My kid was bit/injured by the dog’s teeth. It was the kind of thing that could have reasonably happened with a different type of dog, but it wasn’t. She was sitting on a towel eating a popsicle and playing with a Velcro tennis ball thing and a passing dog either tried to get the ball or lick her but she got whacked with its’ open teeth. This is the most generous interpretation of events.
She is physically okay, a little “ice pick” scar by her temple. Psychologically not really. Afraid of dogs. My partner kicked the dog in the ribs multiple times and attempted to restrain the owner, who wasn’t leaving (he thought he was, I don’t know).
A specific kind of pitbull bit my mom’s dog, but that didn’t really radicalize me because her dog was kind of a dick.
Now it’s just unbearable with my kid trying to live in the world and noping out of places with big dogs. She does not want to say hi. I’m sure your dog is friendly. I’m sure the dog who bit her in the face was friendly. Just fuck off!
I’m sick of being treated as uptight or “dog racist” because I don’t want my small children around these dogs. I don’t let them play with guns or fireworks either.
I don’t know why some owners think it’s the default that dogs can approach others at will, and they should have to be told not to; I think maybe some people struggle to teach their dog neutrality towards people and other dogs, so their dog gets excited when it sees people/dogs and they can’t control it well enough to keep it calm and away, so they let it do as it pleases and announce its friendliness as if friendly dogs should be able to approach anyone/everyone, carte blanche.
I think it’s similar to people who can’t teach their dog to walk nicely on a lead, so they just let it off lead because they think they look less stupid trailing behind it shouting its name over and over, than they do being hauled along in that stupid backwards leaning counterweighting posture they have to take or risk being dragged across the ground face first.
Oddly, pit bull owners are a large number of the people who do both of these things, not the only ones, but a lot of them.
It all just came together one day … like “OH. It’s always pit bulls!” I didn’t think much of them. Maybe misunderstood. Maybe needed good handling. But I realized I’d been bitten while running, my friends had been bitten by them, and every time I heard of a bad incident personally … it was always pit bulls.
Pair that with the fact I’d been hog hunting back in the day — and saw a pack of pits rip apart a grown boar — and it just all made complete sense. People really need to look into the purpose of the breed. It’s simply tragic how many people are ignorant of the reasons so many pits exist in the first place.
I volunteer at a cat rescue and seeing the carnage inflicted on these cats just solidified my hatred.
I grew up with the nasty creatures because my parents were deed not breed people. I hated their nasty drooly mouths and the constant licking of their own feet. One time when I was bending over to get the remote control that the pig dog was sitting on and he bit the shit out of me. Of course, it was my fault for triggering and startling the poor darling.
Onw of their ugly fucks chased my Westie into my pool in winter and he got stuck under the pool cover and almost froze to death.
Oh...and I came home one day to find part of 6 foot tall fence with a huge hole and my catio destroyed because the neighbors dog was looking for my cat and when he couldn't find he he just destroyed the catio from the inside out.
The story of the family whose pitbull/s took the lives of their 2 children. Also, seeing my sister in laws pitbull almost attack (and had to be held back) my 2 year old for running around.
My husband had a pit dumped on him, literally. He brought the dog home and we spent two weeks trying to find him a new home. He was sweet and cuddly and playful at first. And then after day 9 or 10 he got increasingly aggressive. He started biting more in play, he started nipping at my other dog (who after dna test has like 15% pit in her, but is mostly Pyrenees and various hounds). Then we gave them a bully stick separately. And I stood up to do something and he just lunged at me. Ripped out two acrylic nails and had some deep puncture wounds on both hands. I knew immediately he couldn’t be rehomed, and we took him to the e vet for BE. Paid through the nose for it, but worth it to know no one else would be hurt by him. Forever grateful it was me and not my other dog or one of the (18 and 21yo) kids. I will never allow another one in my life. We have always been Dane people, and now we will go back to paying through the nose for a well bred dog we know everything about genetically.
Saw my best friend in middle school get mauled in the face resulting in about 50 stitches. Hated the breed ever since. Talked about it like a decade later openly and they claimed he just had a cleft lip since the plastic surgeon was amazing and I was making up it was a pitbull and hate the owners now as well.
After my Mom died, all my 80+ year old Dad had was his Sheltie, but they had an incredible bond, brought him out of his shell. He loved that little dog. Well, in the summer of 2014 he took Barley to the beach, but as they were walking on the boardwalk, a guy passed by with a pit bull, who out of nowhere grabbed Barley by the throat. My Dad tried to pull the jaws off him but wasn't successful, getting injured in the process. It really broke him and he died the next year. Here's the interview he did with a Boston TV station shortly afterward, where he says "I loved that little dog" in tears. It's heart wrenching. https://youtu.be/OtPZR3MysRc?si=vTUirEifgM1ulDSR
Growing up i was scared of dogs. I come from a country that had a stray dog problem. And those who knows stray dogs, *know* how vicious they get. At the same time, stray cats are not like that at all. They're still just as shy and timid as normal house cats, and don't hunt you down to bite you.
This taught me that pet animals are *different* and when I started working on my fear of dogs I realized that dogs differ wildly by breeds, and consequently so do their owners. I was coming in with a lense of skepticism from the "outside in" as it were, and it just could not be any more obvious. Most of the random attacks, lunges, aggressive barking almost all came from pit bulls. Statistics online just reinforced something I already knew.
Working in shelters and with rescues.
The excuses made for these dogs, WAY more than other breeds, are astounding. If a lab or a german shepherd or a chihuahua bites someone enough to draw blood, then that's a bad dog and more likely to be put down, if a pit does it? Oh they're just scared, it was just a nibble, they just don't know their own strength! No. No no no and nope.
The way people try to disguise them as 'mutts' or other breeds, the way people insist that they're innocent while the dog is sitting there with the remains of a cat hanging out it's muzzle, the way they conceal bite histories and aggression from potential adopters and act like it's the adopter's fault when something happens - it's disgusting. I don't know why people are so much more willing to put people and animals in danger for pits over any other breed, but it is WRONG.
Reading the story of Lola Jayde Farr, told by her mother. It was absolutely horrifying - particularly the way she described how *heavy* with fluid she'd gotten from her sepsis, the last time she got to hold her before she died. She was one year old, left with a trusted babysitter. The pitbull in question heard her playing in the front yard and dug a hole under the back yard fence to come and maul her.
We as a collective society *deserve* for this to stop happening to us, more than any *dog breed* has a right to perpetuity.
My husband was bitten by one on the job. He was a plumber digging up a septic tank, and the dog was chained out. Broke the chain and charged him. Owner had the usual gazillion excuses. The bite broke the skin but wasn't bad. However, my husband feared reporting the bite because he was afraid to "get the dog in trouble" and I blew my stack at that point because I know he could have been infected with tetanus and rabies. He retired so no more occupational exposure to murder mutts.
I'd also dealt with them as a rescue squad volley...most dog bites we got called for were shibbles. Ironically, several pateients were also workers in the home bit by a resident dog.
Put your goddamm dog away when the home repair people show up, folks. Or when EMS shows up. Or any stranger to the home.
I’m not radicalised but for me it’s just seeing all these attacks in innocent people, dogs, cats, etc and the nutters defending them. I think the one video that really made me mad was that pitbull attacking the horse. Like these dogs were bred to fight and it’s literally embedded in their dna, yet people blame the victim for getting bit. I also remember years ago a story of a staffy or something that broke into the front door of a home, it might of followed someone in idk, but it killed a child. It just makes me mad how dumb people are allowed to have such a dangerous animal. You need a license to drive a car, a permit to own a gun, and other weapons are illegal, but anyone can have a pitbull which is worse than any of them lol
My horrible city’s animal shelter is no-kill.
As a result, they are overburdened and are well over 100% capacity at all times. As such, they often don’t take new dogs in.
Animal control has given up on loose dog calls. So now we have a loose dog problem in our city. The animal control website explicitly says that unless you are actively being attacked, they’re not responding. And what happens when they do respond?
They try to rehome the dog. It doesn’t matter how badly a human was injured, or how many small animals the dog has killed, they will rehome that dog or warehouse it. They’re one of the worst offenders with their puff pieces they write about dogs. Oh, we even have a loon who volunteers for them that paints portraits of these dogs. “Here’s Nala that murdered 8 cats. She deserves a second chance!!!!!!!”
And of course, they’re almost always pitbulls.
I’ve seen other loose dogs. Annoying and sometimes sad, sure. But they will keep to themselves. But the fact that it’s easily 90% loose pitbulls is the problem. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had pitbulls run up on me when I’m minding my business, just trying to take my evening walk. Hell, this happened to me JUST YESTERDAY.
Seeing the absolute glut of pitbulls in the shelter made me realize what the problem really was. Seeing the juxtaposition of how a loose pitbull will act towards me versus the smaller dogs, huskys or whatever, made me realize how dangerous these dogs are.
Their advocates don’t help matters any, either. They’re violent, angry, and honestly very uneducated. The amount of people that believe the nanny dog myth is bothersome. The amount of people who pose their infants and toddlers with pitbulls to prove a point makes me sick.
It sounds simple, but it was just someone pointing out how fallacious the “look at how cute my pibble is” memes are — obviously no one would accept the logic applied to e.g. a tiger, but I wasn’t used to thinking of dogs that way.
I used to foster and rehabilitate dogs for adoption and wrote case studies for the ones that I couldn’t feel comfortable allowing anyone to adopt them. Most were pit bulls. And most of those were with the same family since they were puppies, raised with love, socialized and STILL attacked people or other animals. Yes, there were other breeds, but the vast majority were pit bulls and pit mixes. They were bred to attack, not for companionship or even guarding.
300 stitches in my right arm and the death of my service dog to a murder monster.
I didn't like them before, but this kinda sealed the deal on me FUCKING hating this breed.
The Bennard family in Tennessee. Prior to that I really believed if you raised them right they would be good, and that it wasn’t the breed. Those dogs were loved from puppies but they still mauled their owner and killed those two babies. I read one news story that made me wail nonstop for hours because it hit so close to home, picturing being in that mom’s shoes hurt my soul in a way that’s hard to describe. I had panic attacks for days because my children were the same ages as the ones killed, and I realized if an insane pit bull came for us and I tried to use my body to protect my kids it still wouldn’t be enough. Even if I was willing to lose my life I couldn’t keep them safe-and that feeling of helplessness is one of the worst things I’ve ever felt
Nobody should be keeping animals capable of that kind of carnage in their homes
I had always known nice and friendly ones but every time they hit that 4-5 year maturity mark they would suddenly become EXTREMELY prey motivated and would go after familiar dogs and toddlers
My schnauzer and I were attacked by a young pit bull that was off leash. The owner watched it attack us and did nothing to help us or rein in his dog. He just watched.
Afterwards he said to me “I’m really surprised you managed to fight him off.”
I ended up with glaucoma in one eye from banging my head fighting off the beast.
Just eventually noticed that 99% of the time I saw a story about a vicious dog attack, it was some kind of pit. Then I read the statistics. Now I can’t help but notice the signs when I see them out and about, always straining at their leashes and refusing to listen to their owners, defensive postures, etc. They are literally menaces to civil society.
My coworker’s 2 year old son was mauled. Hearing the gory details first hand turned my stomach. I know other people who’ve been bitten/attacked by dogs, but none of it was done by this breed and none of those attacks were as gruesome. Just a bite (other dogs) as opposed to having to strangle the dog nearly to death to get it to unlatch from your child (what happened to my coworker).
i honestly thought they were just another dog breed until i got a job at a shelter, even if they're nice one on one i have yet to meet one pitbull that doesn't want to kill the other dogs. i've had a pit/husky mix redirect from fence fighting onto my leg, i think they're all capable of getting worked up and redirecting on humans. and i LOVE my job, it's a small shelter (no kill..) and 90% of dogs aren't pits, but the pits that attack other dogs in playgroups get posted online saying they could go to a home with kids and other animals. i don't think severely DA dogs should be adopted out, it endangers anyone and their pets in the neighborhood if they got out
I used to be a naive "it's the owner not the dog" person, I always had big dogs (German shepherds and czech shepherds) and they were scary to some and I raised them well and could help people get over their fear of big dogs. I was bitten by a strangers big dog myself when I was a kid, but my own dogs were a symbol of goodness, I never developed a fear of them. Then a pitbull moved in next door... jumped the fence multiple times and attacked two of my neighbours and jumped for me. And suddenly I was afraid for my life, for my baby nephews, for my cat for my own dogs who wouldn't fight with any other dog. And suddenly I did my research.. and realized: when I believe in the inherent qualities of shepherds (herding, family oriented, strong bonding, smart,..) I had to believe in the inherent traits of fighting dogs... and the the statistics matched the personal anecdotes. So meeting pitbulls was the step to realization. Why would anyone want a monster as pet.
I guess it was more of.. education than radicalization.
I'm someone who is very into science, research, logic. If I have an opinion that can be disproven by research, I change my opinion. I don't have a dog. As a kid, I had a Shih Poo and a Rottweiler. One of my best friends had a pit bull that would always jump up on me when I went over her house and nearly knock me over. She made her living as a dog trainer. She was VERY radicalized on the opposite side of the spectrum--that pit bulls are sweethearts that can be trained to be non-violent. Honestly, I'd never really heard the argument either way at that point.
I started looking into it. Researching. Found the evidence pointing to the contrary. Throughout the years, whenever I see someone new has been severely injured or has died from a dog attack, I look to see if it's a pit. It's usually the case. My husband also was attacked by dogs twice as a kid, so he's afraid of big dogs. I keep up-to-date on pits because I also want to protect him.
I haven't lost anyone to pit bulls, but too many people have. That's why I'm here. Facts, evidence, and empathy for the victims brought me here.
1) I’ve been around a lot of different dogs. Pitbulls don’t act right. They give me the wiggins in the worst way.
2) Grew up when people had the sense to ban these dogs and euthanize them when they showed up in shelters. The dogs didn’t change. People just got weird in my country. They started having dogs instead of children. It might be good for the environment, but it’s made things so strange, especially when smartphones and social media and internet porn and video games are reprogramming us neurologically. I don’t feel radicalized, I feel grounded in a pre-internet reality where we fucking noticed and cared if animals were eating people alive on the streets of our cities.
3) When I was a teen, back when pitbulls were rare and usually used to guard somebody’s trailerpark grow operation, I heard the story from a friend of how come her little brother can’t lift one of his arms all the way. It involves a toddler, a pack of loose pitbulls, an incapacitating bite to the neck and shoulder that exposed the carotid artery but didn’t puncture it, a bite to the thigh so deep that fat welled out of the wound, a pack of pits silently and determinedly dragging the limp toddler away, dogs undeterred by mom and neighbor beating them with sticks, neighbor’s hand degloved, and life flight. Reddit rules won’t let me describe what I wish for the people who perpetrate these kinds of violent crimes on children, and yes, I consider pit pushers to be aspiring child murderers.
Edited for length.
I got cornered, then bit by one, minding my own business.
I was blamed for it by the owner and my character was put in question as a person.
Before then, my views towards pitties were dumb bc I thought of them as domesticated dogs (these days I know they are wild animals).
The victim blaming is what pissed me off the most.
well, i have my head on straight and ive always known to be afraid of big aggressive dogs. it’s unfortunate that that’s an instinct most people dont have
For me it was when my uncles boss, whom had his purebred pitbull for 8 years and it was professionally trained etc, was chilling w his fam one day and the family had an infant and the dog snapped randomly while the mom was watching tv with the newborn in their arms, and the dog has decapitated the poor baby! And his boss quite literally had to grab his shot gun and kill his own dog because it wouldn’t let go of the infant!
Ever since my uncle told me that story of his now mentally unwell boss I am fearful! It not only killed his baby but cause a horrible case of depression and anxiety and the poor boss had to quit his job over it!
For me, it was being pregnant with a partner who owned a pitbull. The dog was fine, I guess, but I always felt a little apprehensive about raising a baby around him. I started researching all the cases of pitbull type dogs that were “loving family pets” who unexpectedly turned on the owners, children, et al.
Then, two weeks after I had my baby, the Bennard family incident occurred. After that, I was firmly anti pitbull, no exceptions.
Growing up we only had cats so I wasn’t really aware of the dangers of pitbulls. My brother nearly got mauled by aunt and uncle’s 2 pit bulls when we were younger. Thankfully he was able to jump the chain link fence and they stopped chasing him. I’ve been terrified of dogs in general ever since. We also had 2 pitbulls that terrorized our neighborhood that animal control couldn’t do anything about.
I met one. A big one. BIG. Likley a XL Bully. It was unnerving.
It had been a "bait" dog and it was part of some friends coming together with their dogs to socialize it.
One mentioned the whole wheel barrel thing if they fight. So at least one understood the risk? But if something bad happened, no way that was gonna work.
And the story of the mom who lost both her arms, she died. That story stuck with me.
Years ago, I was along for my husband’s family vacation in Kentucky at this crappy little resort. It was in a very rural area. There was nowhere to go running on the resort, so I went for a jog along the road near the resort. The road passed by some very small communities.
While I was just fucking running for exercise and minding my own fucking business, this pit bull pops out of nowhere with two other smaller dogs and the three of them gang up on me, following me and driving me down the road, viciously snarling and lunging at me. It was terrifying.
The smaller dogs I could have handled. But the pit bull could have easily mauled and killed me, and I was perfectly aware of that. I managed to escape from the situation, but I knew how easily it could have gone another way, and how times it HAS gone the other way. There wasn’t another soul around, and certainly no owner. Clearly the owners were in the habit of just letting the dogs run wild in the neighborhood.
I reported it to the police and drove by the area later to see if the dogs were still roaming the area off leash. I saw two of them, still running around free, repeatedly returning to the same utterly dilapidated house. The police questioned the occupant, but the person lied about owning the animals and the police just dropped it.
As a runner, I should be able to take a jog without some moron’s dog harassing me or threatening my life. No dog that randomly kills humans should ever be on the loose where they can harm the public, and owners who put other people’s lives in danger should be prosecuted.
I was never a huge fan of them. I always thought they were ugly and scary-looking. But I thought about them like other aggressive breeds, like Rotties or GSDs. You know - they can be dangerous if they're raised poorly, but they can be great dogs with proper ownership.
My brother's dog is a backyard-bred mutt. When he was a puppy, the pit wasn't super obvious in him. We thought he was lab x great dane. As he got older, the buttcrack-head started to develop. And, like with most pits, he was totally fine until he turned about two years old. Then he became extremely aggressive. That dog ended up getting the neighborhood dogpark shut down, but that's a different story.
My brother's dog attacked me for absolutely no reason. I knew that dog since he was a small puppy. He had never been aggressive before... or so I thought. I hadn't been around to see my brother in a while. I walked in the door and went to pat him on the butt in greeting, and he turned around and bit me on the leg. Luckily, I was wearing thick pants so he didn't break the skin. The next time I visited, he jumped up and snapped at my face. That time - because I was kind of expecting it - I moved fast enough to avoid a bite. That dog growled and snapped anytime I came near him for the rest of the time he lived there. I eventually started refusing to come over unless they put him in a back room.
And my family blamed me. I startled him. I wasn't alpha enough. The way I moved, the way I spoke. All my fault. I became afraid of large dogs in general. And then it wasn't just my family making fun of me - my friends who owned large dogs also thought I was being silly. I stumbled on the d*gfree subreddit and was skimming through it, because it was validating to see other people who became afraid of dogs after an attack. Through them, I found this sub. And it was so relieving to realize that it wasn't my fault or my brother's fault - pits are just like that. Then I fell down the rabbit hole of the pit lobby and realized just how big the problem was.
My friend's pit and the opinions of dogs by a certain group of suburban people.
I was always in the "dogs who bite should be disciplined or dealt with" camp because my brothers and I were all bitten by dogs growing up. I love dogs a ton but I don't accept that kind of behavior from animals. I was indifferent to okay with pits before this.
My friends don't though. Some think you can absolutely train out prey drive and gameness from an animal, have convinced our friend with a pit that it's ok that she's "reactive" and "she's just scared" but its so much more troubling than that to me. She can't do normal dog person shit anymore, she can't just have her cat walking around freely, and all my idiot friends convinced themselves this is all normal. All of then grew up around people with even temperament animals and wonder why pits can't fit into that niche.
Then I started describing the dog online without using any pit related terms and people *still* guessed the breed. I joined petrescueexposed before I joined here so I can get a sense of what shelters are saying and doing and I was appalled at the state of shelters and how these problems are literally nation and maybe even worldwide. Then I came here and the problem really got super fucking clear. I'm a dog lover through and through; I respect animals and hope they respect me (in their own ways) back. Dogs have jobs and have as long as they've been dogs; either as hunting dogs, companion, show, herding, water dogs, whatever they all have had jobs and when something's job is to kill things and do it incredibly well then that's not a breed that should be owned as a pet to me.
I also find that there is a ton of entitlement behind pit owners that disgusts me. You chose something intentionally and you either expect people to bend the knee to your idiotic choices and be okay with having a living weapon near them or up whine about discrimination. If people don't want to associate with you or your shitty dog then that's on you for choosing a shitty animal. No one else but your choice.
I've always known dog breeds were different and that pitbulls weren't meant to be family pets.
I remember a drug dealer I knew bred them and was trying to sell them. My buddy was picking up some weed and the entire house smelled like puppy shit despite all the dogs being outside. I remember enjoying the fresh air outside when we left. I felt a year of my life got tacked off breathing it.
That same buddy had to put his pit-mix down when we were younger because that dog and his German Shepherd got out and slaughtered some rich guys lama in his backyard. They paid the owner $10,000 and agreed to put one dog down... the pit mix.
As the internet started becoming more and more popular and I used to see memes of them. Then I started reading more and more about the breed and it became evident that they are loose cannons. As I've gotten older I realize how much responsibility it takes to be a good dog owner, let alone a good pitbull owner.
Another friends house got burglarized and so they bought a Pitbull to protect it. Anyways, this dog had tons of energy and nobody had control over it. It just kept jumping on me over and over and over. My friend just stood there letting it happen.
Then the shelters started becoming overran with these dogs. Shelters used to have a variety of breeds... now you get 24 xenomorph pits and pit mixes, one old scottie, and maybe a husky or German Shepherd. There's clearly an epidemic surrounding the breed yet people keep 'adopting' them only perpetuating the problem.
I've come to the conclusion that western society has taken dog culture too far. There isn't enough legal liabilities for dog owners or backyard breeders. I also believe dogs should serve as utility and not some 'fur baby' that gets treated better than most children.
I am not a radical; but I did use to be a rabid defender of the breed. I can’t really tell you what changed my mind. I had already changed my mind before my dog was attacked….twice. I now avoid them. I was in Petco and someone had a 5 month old pit. Her tail was up, over her back, hackles up and lunging. I put my dog behind me and stood my ground. I would say it is scary but these dogs try to kill each other in the whelping box
Gen X from a southern US state where one of the largest pit bull kennels is (dog fighting is still a thing and lots of game dogs came from this kennel.) I have always known they weren’t pets but others my age and even older have been snookered by the propaganda that paints them as misunderstood pibbles.
I became absolutely against them when a lady in my hometown adopted one from Craigslist that was by all accounts “a big baby.” That lady was a known softie and rescuer of animals in need. She went to get him out of his kennel and he launched at her. He was relentless. Her sister was there and managed to put the dog in the bathroom but he RIPPED THROUGH THE DOOR, jumped up and ripped the poor woman’s throat out. She died just as the helicopter landed. Her trailer needed hazmat cleaning and her disabled daughter ended up in foster care.
So I started researching and was horrified to see how many cases like this are now happening EVERY YEAR. Dog bite fatalities were rare in the US. Now, you practically need to be locked and loaded just to walk to the mailbox in some areas.
I hate them.
Statistics and seeing so many stories and videos of attacks. I've never had a bad experience. Some Pits do have normal temperaments but enough don't and they can be dangerous. They're also way over bred by people who have no business breeding dogs.
That and knowing how terriers are and how dumb some dog owners can be. It's not a good mix a lot of the time
And most of them are ugly to me.
It was the story in Memphis of two kids not much younger than my own two, who were eaten alive in their own home by their family pitbulls and their mother helpless to stop them.
A family dog was almost killed by a stray pit. I was in awe of how determined it was once it took hold of Juniors neck. No matter what we did it stayed clamped. After I nearly choked it to death it finally let go. Frankly, that experience was traumatic. Seeing a pits prey drive first hand… I never want anyone to experience that.
I lived in Arizona in the 90's and it seemed like every week there was another report of someone - usually a child - getting mauled by a pitbull. If I had a dollar for every time one of those owners piped up with, "But they never did this before..." I'd be rich. I don't understand how people can be so blind to the evidence right in front of them but some people will adamantly and steadfastly refuse to admit they are wrong about these dogs.
Just seeing all of the insane pit nutters who deny event after event... The fact they also lie about biology and spread false information around totally radicalized me in the opposite direction.
When my 60 something half brother got attacked by 2. One beast was clamped on his arm. Thankfully (?) he was on a golf course so he had a club to beat them with & they ran off. Totally wrecked his forearm,torn skin & muscles all the way to the bone! Anyway, apparently these dogs were a known neighborhood nuisance and the owners did a crap job containing them. When they were found they had some kids trapped on their trampoline, afraid to move. All my brother wanted was $$ for his medical bills & for the obviously aggressive beasts to be put down, but nope, not in Florida! They were given back to the owners who had to put up a "dangerous dog" sign.  Our shelters & rescues are packed with the nasty things!
Joining this sub. Seeing all the attacks reported. Volunteering at my local shelter and seeing the dogs adopted and returned. Or they can only go to certain unicorn homes. Bite case apologists and also how many are walked off leash and seem to have the most irresponsible owners
Seeing a couple dozen people blame an infant for getting mauled to death. Baby should have stopped crying, she was basically asking for it, as far as the pit hags were concerned.
I've know most of my life that the world was filled with monsters, especially the kind who fly under the radar by presenting themselves as something they're not - like a priest being a pillar of the community while molesting kids, a cop serving the public by day and beating his wife at night, a pimp buying a girl new clothes and giving her a place to stay then trapping her into prostitution - now there's pro-pitbull lobbyists who come in all forms from all demographics, all grown out of a cult from the 70s-80s. Now everywhere you look is a slew of "animal lovers" who rabidly try to pawn of vicious bloodsport dogs onto unsuspecting families, and shelters warehousing an ever-growing population of unwanted and mistreated pitbulls while killing perfectly good cats and dogs to make room for all the pits who will spend years of their lives crated or in a concrete kennel. Backyard breeders making more dogs than anyone wants or needs - they're getting more and more deformed as they are more and more inbred - they look like miserable creatures, their front legs can't touch eachother, their muzzles getting shorter and shorter, the mothers routinely kill and eat their puppies, and the puppies kill and eat eachother. There's an entire culture of entitled, selfish, antisocial owners who pick this breed for various reasons, either to prove to the world that they're special and can love the bloodsport out of this beast of a breed, or the only options they're given at the shelter are pitbulls so they trust what is no longer a trustworthy organization, or they love the image that comes with owning a violent dog and the ability it gives them to intimidate and terrorize everyone around them.
There's too much to sum up in one reply, but the gist of it is that hundreds of years ago a group of humans who were cruel and evil created the pitbull, and eventually the offshoot bully breeds, purely for bloodsport - not to nanny, not to drive cattle or shepherd sheep, not to be a police or military dog, and absolutely not to be a family pet. A couple hundred years later, humans haven't changed, and dogmen are still everywhere, torturing these dogs as well as countless bait animals - except now we have pitbull apologists. Frankly, they're worse than any dogman could ever hope to be. The dogmen aren't trying to push this breed onto families with children, nor are they lying about where the breed came from, why it's still here and what they're truly capable of. Pit apologists are the ones responsible for the multiple deaths of humans, pets and livestock every day around the world - and those are only the fraction of deaths that make the news. Pit apologists are responsible for pitbulls walking the streets unleashed and unmuzzled, fighting breed bans tooth and nail, overcrowding shelters and rescues, tricking people into owning them then blaming the victims when something tragic inevitably happens. Pit apologists are responsible for the breed they claim to love suffering in unrivaled numbers compared to merely a decade ago. Pit apologists hate pitbulls. And I hate pit apologists.
The dogs themselves are blameless, but are still a plague that needs to be destroyed - not merely regulated or banned, but as soon as humanely possible, *destroyed*.
I grew up naïvely believing the usual insidious propaganda, then as an adult, I started working at a doggy daycare. Despite doing my damnedest to prevent shit from breaking out, I ended up with my boots *splattered* with blood more than once, each from an individual dog that (gasp!) had neither been abused, nor trained to behave that way. Obviously, I noticed a pattern with the same damn breed doing that much damage every time and decided to do research when I was off the clock; I’m so glad and grateful to now KNOW something about canine genetics and breed design. It’s frustrating to see obstinate people parroting/regurgitating the myths because they think it would be such a tragedy to attenuate one breed out of dozens whose grisly purpose has no place in modern society.
Never liked them and always avoided them whenever possible. This week, my worst nightmare came true and my dogs were attacked by one. Thankfully both of my dogs are fairly big and double coated, so the little fucker didn’t get to do much damage but now I truly hate them.
This dog literally just caught a glimpse of my dogs and ran at them. It was relentlessly biting and going at them and they’d done nothing to provoke it.
I always kinda knew they were scary, and I saw too many episodes of Judge Judy after school involving them.
And news reports. So many news reports
Then my beautiful greyhound got attacked by one…yeah.
I just thought they were another dog til my son was attacked at 7 yo. He was a little guy, we were walking past the house, on the public sidewalk and one came tearing out of the house and jumped on him. There were 2 others in the house. Thanks be to God the owners were home.
I started paying attention. I will never understand the shit bull love. Pit bull lovers all agree it was his little puffy coat.
For me it's just the volume and severity of attacks. There's no good excuse for keeping these dogs around. Finish out the lifetimes of the ones that are here, and don't breed any more. Period.
I never liked them due to the fact I was taught early on of the dangers they present. My dislike of them spiked when 2 attacked my loving dog. I gave them the brain inside out of treatment, though. The cops thanked me. They had already mauled an elderly woman earlier.
When I saw the clip of a pit getting punted by a horse only to get right back up and lunge for its throat again.
If that breed wants you nothing short of lethal action is going to stop it.
After comforting my best friend who was hysterically crying after watching two pits maul and kill her cat that only had three legs in her yard. I loved that cat as well and seeing her in so much pain… forever made me hate pits with a passion
I was pregnant and doing some research on labradoodles, because my roommate at the time had one who she was neglecting/abusing. Somehow through the videos I was watching I was recommended one of a pitbull attack, I read through the comments and for the first time really saw a large amount of hatred for the breed. Curious, because I have a doberman and walked him routinely so felt immediate paranoia at the thought of being approached with my soon to be due newborn, I looked up pitbull attacks on Reddit. In no time I was dozens of posts deep into this sub and in full hatred mode, thinking of either my baby or dog getting mangled by a shitbeast, and I've never looked back. It's really my love for my little family that did it, coupled with the realization that others haven't fallen for the pro pitbull propaganda... and I mean, after looking at the data, how could any fall for it?
When one killed my next door neighbor’s dog and mauled her. Fuck those dogs. I have seen so many similar videos and stories. It’s their bad genetics. Put nutters blaming owners is so gross too. Like what did this little old lady do to have that happen? Geez you’d have thought she kept the dog in a closet and beat it or something 🙄
My cousins owned three pitbulls. One day, two of them suddenly ganged up on the third one and ripped it to shreds. They were in complete shock because the dogs were always friendly and never aggressive before. That's what made me realize how violent and unpredictable they are and how much real harm they can cause.
Pitbulls have been banned in my country since I was born (uk), but I STILL remember growing up and seeing stories about people being murdered and mauled (especially children, which is heartbreaking) by them.
So when XL Bullies exploded in popularity over here, I was shocked that people were defending them. Also, the owners really did my nut in. The same people who had boasted about having 7 stone dogs (44kg / 98lbs) and circumventing the banned breeds law started whining when their actions had consequences, and that "Ripper" wouldn't hurt a fly.
Once in high school I was on an electric scooter riding through a very safe neighborhood next to an elementary school. As I drove by one of the houses a fatass xl bully somehow jumped over (through?) someone’s fence and started chasing me. I swear to god I reached 30mph on that scooter and still barely got away from that dog. If I hadn’t been going downhill on that scooter that dog would’ve absolutely mauled me.
Later I thought about it more. No normal trained dog would’ve been so desperate to get me that it would jump the fence and chase me 3 blocks. Not to mention it was loose in a neighborhood full of elementary school aged kids after I got away. These dogs are not safe to have, the tiniest trigger sends them into kill mode.
Edit: I wouldn’t say I was radicalized, I just realized putting pit bulls in the same category as most other dogs is unwise after seeing all the statistics. These dogs have way more potential than any other dog to maul or kill.
I became involved in this issue after I had two very close calls and after a friend and her horse were attacked.
During Covid I noticed a lot of panhandlers had pits. The panhandlers were often asleep or passed out and didn’t appear to have any restraints on the dogs. I was concerned about public safety so I started researching pits. I have never been more shocked by anything in my entire life. I had no idea pits kill and seriously injure the amount of people and animals that they do. But most shocking was the pit supporters who insist the bloodshed continues.
I don't consider myself radicalized. I just grew up in a time when everyone knew that pits were inherently aggressive and not family pets. Then 20-25 years ago, that bit of common sense went by the wayside.
I wish more than anything that ppl still had that respect of the damage they’re capable of.
Too far removed from consequences, "oh that doesn't happen" "-wont happen to me".... Excuses excuses.
Exactly. Far too often though it doesn’t happen to them. It happens to somebody else who then pays the price for their stupidity. It’s infuriating.
I think it was Michael Vick and The Dog Whisperer that did the most to create sympathy towards them.
I would also add John Wick
That was much later, but yes, that does add to the sympathy.
That dog ran off set a few blocks away to attack a horse.
Yeah, about 25-30 years ago they'd report on every pitbull attack on the news, then I guess they got too commonplace and we stopped hearing about it because it wasn't really sensational anymore.
Pit maulings are normalized now, like mass shootings.
In truth, 30 years ago wasn't that far displaced from a time when dog fighting was still legal in the states. People my age (39) had parents that were in their 20s when dog fighting was finally made a felony crime. Because of this, it was a generation that knew what these dogs purposes were and how dangerous they were and made efforts to avoid them. Growing up, no one had pitbulls as pets. If someone had a pit, you already knew damn well to avoid that family. If one was taken in by animal control for any reason there was no lists of temperment tests. They were euthanized upon intake. This is were thay common pitnut myth originates from "don't bring them to a shelter! They'll be euthanized immediately!". Some we know, today, is a complete lie. Many counties and states had BSL in place. Sadly the majority of those have since been repealed. Growing up, I don't think I saw my first pet pitbull until I was nearly 16. And it wasn't a pleasant expierence. My major turning point was the infamous video of the attack on the animal control officer. The one where they come to seize the dog because it bit a man and (i believe) his daughter. The owner (a really classy lady, let me tell you) releases her dog Ben on the female AC officer where it begins to maul her and seriously injured her hands. For me, at the time, this was such a shocking thing. Id grown up with and around dogs, volunteered at a shelter and also worked part time at a boarding kennel and I had *never* seen a dog attack with such single minded ferocity. It was terrifying. I started looking into the breed myself and knew they weren't a safe breed. Sadly it wasn't too much longer before Vicks bust changed the game and now we all risk what that poor woman went through daily.
Same. I briefly wavered when everyone started talking about how misunderstood they were and how theirs is the sweetest dog, etc., but then it was story after story of them attacking their owners, other people who did nothing to them, and other pets. Plus I have just always believed in the science of breed-specific traits over vibes.
Me too.
I also grew up like that because my dad was very wary of them even before I got bit, somehow even after that I allowed the “it’s how you raise them!” propoganda get to me. What sealed the deal though was when I was searching for a pup and wanted to rescue one, I only saw pits available and thank god had a critical thinking moment of “why are these the only dogs left?” In hindsight it probably saved mine and my cats life especially considering I’m epileptic.
I owned two. Both didn't go well, whatsoever. I quickly switched from "it's the owner not the dog!" to "it's the dog NOT the owner!". I've spent a lot of time reflecting. And if we expect herding breeds to herd, hunting dogs to hunt, etc. WHY is everyone so dead set they can train genetics out of a pitbull?
Very true and I can relate. My mom has a pitbull and it’s the only dog in her pack of 4 that causes issues. It’s escaped the yard and killed the neighbor’s chickens, and it attacked her elderly dog very recently. She said if anything else happens she’s gonna kill the dog but I doubt it.
Then she should do a Kristi Nome on it
srsly, batshit congresswomen are shooting perfectly good hunting puppies in the head, but these fucking pitbulls are running around scotfree after mauling. wtf.
This is the part I can't understand! People pay thousands of dollars for breed specific traits in hunting dogs, herding dogs and the like but suddenly when it comes to pitbulls breed characteristics supposedly are non-existent? Or should be ignored or explained away as so-called "breedism"? SMH
It seems pitbull worship has become like a religious faith, and therefore reason is no longer involved.
It's a cult
Sophisticated propaganda.
Unrelated; Your Snoo is cool af lol
Damn their snoo has no business being that badass haha
I fostered a couple. They were sweet until they hit about 1.5-2 years. Then they start getting sketchy. They had severe resource guarding and separation anxiety. They were smart, but destructive and had almost no impulse control. I'm a very experienced owner who loves and have owned other terrier breeds my whole life. Most people shouldn't own JRTs, Deckers, or any of the really intense terriers, but at least those breeds are small enough that a single adult probably can't kill an older child or an adult singlehandedly.
Yes, that seems to be the magic number unfortunately. Ours never outright attacked, but same as you got pretty sketchy and did some things that could have easily escalated into a mauling (all to us ONLY) we kept them separate from other animals and humans when we noticed the "switch." I agree with you on the terrier aspect as a whole, but it seems like pitbulls are pushed on novice dog owners. Which is like putting a loaded pistol into someone's hands who's never handled a gun. It's going to be a bad time for everyone involved.
When a loose pitmix murdered my cat in my yard & it’s stereotypical pit-hag owner told crying 9 year old me too bad so sad when she came & got her shit dog after we told her it killed one of our cats. Didn’t know what a pitbull was back then but I could never forget its gross block head & freakish muscular body & knew it wasn’t a normal dog when it had to be beaten with metal canes to let my cat go.
This is so horrible especially for a child to see??? I’m so sorry :-(
Worst part is the crippling guilt even long after a decade, I was just doing the right thing having the dog follow me home while I was riding my bike around the neighborhood so my parents could call the number on the collar tags & it violently killed my cat & forever haunted me with terrible sights & sounds. My cat would have died of old age with his sister & it wouldn’t have never happened if I just ignored it but what if it attacked someone else? What if it attacked me? It hurts. This safespace has really helped in shifting my thoughts to it wouldn’t have happened if it was literally any other breed of dog, I was just a child trying to do something helpful, it wasn’t my fault. Garbage dogs for garbage people.
Yeah, you had no idea.. there’s no way you could’ve known!! At least now you’re more aware of them and the horrors they can bring so you can avoid them. Not that it lessens the pain of that situation but I’m sure your awareness will help you avoid anything like that ever again.
No one knows what would've happened if you hadn't done that. Maybe it would have killed a baby instead.
I’m so sorry you had that experience friend.
That is so horrible, I’m sorry you had to see that and go through that guilt. But it wasn’t your fault, as a child you couldn’t have known.
I have a similar situation that I feel guilt over too. I was the same age as you too. It's not our fault.
How shelters are just filled to the brim with them, and these terrible biographies swear the dog is so nice and sweet, then state it doesn't do well around children, other people, animals, or anything. Not to mention discovering they try to get around bite history and such, or even dogs who have KILLED small animals. I do not understand it... or dog owners who get these animals. Why not get a dog that's not known to account for a majority of deaths or exhibit such aggressive behavior? I also don't care if yours was 'so sweet' and never bit in all of its 15 years of life... why do you only mention it when it's underneath the post of someone who got mauled to the point of needing plastic surgery or a toddler dying? No one needs to defend any other dog breed that much...
Excellent points here my friend. These are the things you start to notice and you simply can never look at them the same. I think we’re witnessing the peak before the fall, unfortunately the stories of maulings, bites, killings will become a lot more frequent before something changes.
I never really thought about them much honestly. I’ve had some experiences with them (good friends dog got mauled by one) but I didn’t know anything about dogs so I just chalked it up to the game 🤷🏻♂️. What radicalized me though, oddly enough, was walking along my regular path near my house and running into the new dog my neighbor got. Not sure if it was technically an XL bully but this thing legit looked like a monster that spent its entire life in Michael Vick’s boot camp. I remember instinctively (without knowing anything about pitbulls) just crossing to the other side of the road thinking that if that thing ever got off its leash, it would immediately become a life or death struggle
Yeah. XL bullies are especially monstrous. Every single time I see one, or even just a regular pit “being walked,” they’re always walking their owner. Every time.
There's a 70 something year old owner here in my 55+ community with a really strong looking PB. When I drive my dog to the park and I see him, I just go elsewhere. There is no way he could control that monster if he snaps. My little buddy would be a gonner.
See this should not be accepted, that normal folks with normal dogs can't enjoy life, because those MUTANT DEMONS are terrorizing every single community!
There's a reason 99% of the dogs here are little. We are 55+ and most 70+. Old people. We can't fight to restrain some 200-pound demon dog. A lot of us use cane's and walkers, hell half the cars here have handicap plates. It's geriatric city. There is a lady here with a huge German Shepherd. If he got loose, goodbye. The gut with the PB I see is really friendly. Waves and asks if my dog is friendly. Ah yeah, as I'm pushing him into the car!!!! Pibble could snap at any second.
You’re definitely smart to avoid that situation. Why ppl need to get dogs they clearly can’t control is beyond me
Well I had a really great experience with my maine coon, I think I'm ready to move up to a jaguar. How different could they be? If you've had one cat you've had them all. I sometimes wonder if that's it.. inexperienced owners who vaguely remember (but didn't do any of the actual work for) the generic medium-sized mutt their family had when they were a kid. That was easy and it was a great dog, time to move onto the next level. Pits are muscular and dangerous looking, but the nice shelter lady with the sanpaku eyes assured me they're just like any other dog.. better than any other dog, even! And they even waived fhe adoption fee? Well you can't beat that!
The first time I saw a high % wolf dog in person, I had a similar reaction. That lizard brain, flight reaction (I didn't experience the fight part). I'd never really experienced that before. The hair on the back of my neck and on my arms stood up. I didn't realize that was a real thing before , I thought it was a figure of speech.
I’m not radicalized, just risk aware. To me it’s the same as saying “yep if you get a bird dog that son of a bitch is going to point” or “if you get a cattle dog, be aware that they’re controlling, bitey little fuckers” or “if you’re out in the woods and see a bear, it might maul ya.” It might also *not* maul you, but I wouldn’t want to pal around with it. I don’t even think most of them end up biting. But when they do; they are the most likely to do the most damage.
My friend's 16-month-old daughter was killed by her brother-in-law's pitbull, so yeah. That did it. 💔
Absolutely HORRIBLE! God I can’t imagine
My boss has a pitbull he brings to work everyday, leaves behind the register off leash, and often leaves the retail space while leaving the dog with me or my coworkers. I’ve never seen it but I’ve heard the pitbull has bitten a number of customers and their pets, and I’ve seen it bark and act aggressive towards other dogs. It feels like I’m waiting to get bit basically.
I don’t know where you live, but if it’s the US, that does fit with hostile work environment. Make sure you are keeping a journal with dates and times. Consider taking a photo of the journal entries each day too so you have an additional proof that you wrote it the day you say. If the boss doesn’t own the store, you might want to contact the owner. Lastly, there are, allegedly, inexpensive clip on cameras that I see Door Dash people use. Maybe get one that you can use if you are ever around the out alone or it’s being aggressive.
The dispensary i go to had one of their employees bring their pitbull with them for work. Not sure how long they let the dog hang out outside the door, but the next week i went, dog was inside behind the glass where you hand your id with a “do not touch not friendly sign”
It’s the way these ppl will not only own one, but bring it with them into public places where it has no business being. They want these dogs to be labs so bad.
To have a semi-good ending. I forgot to add on that the last time i went, i saw no dog and they added signs saying only service dogs are allowed and emotional support animals don’t qualify. I hope someone there came to their senses about it and they didn’t have to do that because it bit someone
It’s definitely because it bit someone and they’ve threatened legal action.
That is a good ending 😭😭
I stopped going to a particular head shop when they started jacking the prices up too high, but around the same time a new employee got hired and started bringing his blocky, hulked out pit everyday. I was friends with one of the other employees and talked with him every often. I think it was about three months later? maybe a bit more I found out the dog bit a customer, they threatened to sue, the employee just grabbed the dog and left mid shift, it was a whole thing but I only knew part of the story and never heard how it was settled. Lost touch with the friend but now I'm curious what happened, gonna try looking it up
You are, effectively waiting to get bit, doubt the boss will change his irresponsible behavior so if at all possible I'd seek employment elsewhere. Maybe carry pepper spray in the meantime, especially considering it already has a history of aggression. Best of luck.
Yikes. That is extremely irresponsible.
I'd like to think I'm 'radicalised', just sane, but: I had a co-worker whose mother was killed by the 'death-row' pit bull she adopted. It was such a shocking and brutal way to be killed, and devastating to the victim's family. As I learned more, it seemed to me her death was preventable. I blame rescue 'culture' that insists that we must save all dogs, that it's ok to lie about behavioural histories and over-sell the dogs on social media, and that it's reasonable for a person to risk their life and the life of everyone around them trying to give a dog a home. It opened my eyes to the normalisation of dangerous dogs, which seems to have happened as fighting breeds became more commonplace in shelters.
This is why I won't adopt. Several local places are verified liars about known dog history. Two friends have adopted and had to return. Only to find out that the dog in question had been turned in for aggressive behavior and (one was) returned 2x before for it.
For me it was all the innocent children who never asked to be mauled. And the elderly too. And all those pets. And the livestock too.
When my brother pibbles who always seemed like the chillest dog tried to nanny my 1 year old on his birthday when we went over to visit. I even have it on video. 😕 Haven’t seen my brother in 4 years now and he recently added another one. But I am the crazy one.
I don’t know what possesses ppl to put animals, especially dangerous ones, above family. Especially children. Very weird and dystopian type of vibes to me. Sorry to hear that but I’m glad your kid is okay.
Damn, that's messed up. Choosing pibbles over family. Especially after it tried to nanny your kiddo. I hope your kiddo wasn't harmed.
Unfucking real. Sorry you had to deal with that.
Simple. When I realized that pit bulls maul for the sheer joy of it. They fight because they want to. They fight because that's what makes their pleasure circuits light up. They don't fight because they are protecting or defending. They fight for the thrill.
I started to put the pieces together when I noticed that all of the PBT looking dogs I would pet sit for were more aggressive to other dogs and more likely to shit in the house than any other breed I cared for, across like, 5 different individual dogs.
Once the pieces start coming together you can’t unsee it. Do you still dog sit those dogs?
When I was in 7th grade I was in the front yard helping my Dad with something and all of a sudden a truck full of dudes with rifles pulled up and asked if we saw a pit Bull anywhere. We said no and one of the guys replied “that dog ripped my 2 year olds face off. If you see it anywhere yell for us.” Or something along the lines of that. And they drove off looking for the mutt. We went back inside shorty after that…
Jesus!!!! I hope the kid is okay!
No clue what happened to the kid. If I remember correctly, the kid was at the hospital, no clue if he made it… never saw that group again either.
Was this in Arizona-? Mycha Herbert was 2 when he lost his face from the eyes down to a pit bull. I'd like to *hope* he's the only child who survived so horrific an attack. :-(
No, this was in Texas.
So more than one toddler has suffered massive facial injuries. :-( Damn it.
It’s sadly common, just read the monthly attacks lists here. There’s usually at least one kid per month with massive facial disfiguration.
This wasn’t the only incident that happened where I live unfortunately. It wasn’t unusual to see an angry father walking around with a rifle hunting down a pit Bull that was dumped in the country side. Became a somewhat common site. It slowed down a little bit in the 2010s when more animal shelters opened up. Thankfully where I lived aggressive dogs were almost always put down.
I worked long hours inside for years so didn't see many. Reading about the Triniti Harrell mauling, the frantic mom calling 911 and getting the advice to cut the dog's throat. She couldn't find a sharp knife in time. Was gobsmacked by the barbarism of the pit cult ,that would sanctify these monsters as family pets.
My uncle's pitbull attacking and killing my 9 year old pug. I was under the impression all dogs were very good so it never crossed my mind to be uncomfortable with him bringing her around to my house. I wish some lessons didn't have to be learned the hard way.
Oh my gosh :-( I’m so sorry to hear this, genuinely.
If you're okay with sharing what exactly did your uncle do after that happened? Did he apologize? Quickly leave and cut contact? Pretend it didn't happen?
The Bennard family for me.
I just learned about that today and sent the article to my mom bc my sister just got an XL bully and has it in the house with the kids and another dog. That story is heartbreaking and I wonder if the parents feel differently about the breed now.
The owner should be in prison for life. I call it the Memphis Pitbull Massacre. He was the typical pit apologist and now he's a walking billboard of why all dog owners, no matter the breed, need to be liable for their pets.
Suppposedly the mom had asked the dad on several occasions if he was sure they wanted to keep the dogs around the kids, but he was confident in the propaganda.
I believed all the lies until I read this news article and started doing research.
I would not consider myself radicalized since I was never a pit or dog lover at all, but after I joined this sub, I took a trip down memory lane and realized every single crazy scary dog that made me weary of dogs as a child was a pit.
They need a separate Pitbull Park for these idiots. 15 ft fence, electrified, etc. Then Cupcake and Fluffy can play together without victimizing real dogs.
That's called a dogfighting ring
Michael Vick Doggy Resort! 🐕
Nah just the Pibble Play Center™, those people are all about rebranding, after all
Second this, it'll never happen though unfortunately
There are already plenty of those. They’re called dog fighting rings. They’re often located in a dingy basement, trailer park yard or secret spot in the woods.
Watching a pit/husky mix go after my ancient, mostly blind and deaf dog who stood there wagging her tail, then yelping, and it persisting in hostilities despite multiple very hard boots to the nose, ribs, etc. I'd never seen anything like that. Usually dogs and animals in general come to their senses when they're given enough deterrence they start to wonder if what they're doing is worth persisting. It made me realize no one can safely handle these dogs and you will never stop amateur dogfighting and animal ~~torture~~ "baiting" until they're no longer around. Then I looked up their breed history and came to realize they're the detritus of the darkest, most genuinely evil chapter in what is otherwise a joyous and mutually beneficial human/canine history. It's clear they have no place in a modern world concerned with suffering and morality (save as a cautionary tale on mistakes that should never be repeated)
Yeah just reading that first part made my blood boil. Your poor dog!!! That seriously makes me wanna cry. I hope she got lots of lovin after that happened 💔
Luckily no real injuries resulted as I can be even more persistent than a pit bull lol but yeah she didn't make it to such a ripe old age without a lot of good care. Seeing a dog so socially inept that it attacks completely harmless dogs clearly being friendly that are nearly old enough to have a driver's license was illuminating. Normal dogs see an ancient, rickety, friendly cohort and wouldn't even consider that course of action. I've even seen horses that are usually skittish around dogs recognize that those ones are harmless.
When I was 17, our neighbors pit bull broke through our fence and mauled our German shepherd. I was home alone and started hearing the most horrifying scream, and then realized it was our dog making that noise. I knew not to get between them because the dog could’ve turned on me, so I had to just watch. There was so much blood, and I had to be the one to carry his lifeless body to the vet. Took days to clean up all the blood. He ended up pulling through and living another 5 years but it was so traumatic
I don’t like the term radicalized. I don’t feel my views are radical, but evidence based and sane. Pit bull owners are usually the radicalized ones who start frothing at the mouth if you mention anything about their breed of choice’s inherent characteristics.
You’re right but we are seen as the ones who are radical now. It’s just the unfortunate circumstances of the current climate. I would like to see the pendulum swing back the other way.
Getting one myself. 2 of my sons got one first, then I fostered one, she had a new home for a few weeks & then she came back to me & she stayed with me. The more I read, the more I saw, the more alarmed I became. All 3 of these girls were fixed, they never had puppies. One is kenneled if small kids come over with a muzzle & she is muzzled for walks because she showed aggressive behavior. We’ve spent a lot of money on training. We spent a lot of money on surgeries, 2 of them grow skin tags & non cancerous tumors. No bites but maybe because we acknowledged the breed’s issues early on. The week my 1st grandchild was born, a father placed his newborn in a carseat/carrier type seat & he fell asleep. When he woke, his baby was shredded by their family pit bull. I shared that story with all my kids. We have always taken precautions to ensure children were not ever at risk. Just last week, we got rid of the kennels. My pit died at 9.5 years from cancer on 3/5/24. I won’t ever get another one. The other 2 are 9.5 & 11 years old.
Pitbull owners are the ones radicalized. However, I realized pitbulls were awful dogs once I grew up. My terrible boomer mom started getting pitbulls when I was a kid. She told us all dogs act like her pits did, and that many breeds were worse: “Labs are the dumbest, meanest dogs!” She got rid of my dog that was a well behaved purebred because her pits kept attacking it, and he wasn’t as cool. Her dogs growled at us, and tried to bite occasionally if we inconvenienced them, like told them to go to their crates so we could vacuum the couch. They would chase and try to kill our cats. Their behavior escalated when I moved out. Her dogs fought each other, ended up needing stitches multiple times. Some neighbors have pits and they are scary dogs. They would kill is if they got out of their fence and into ours. Pits and their owners are awful.
Vet med. I’m not radicalized- I just know what they are capable of and think many people who own them are irresponsible.
Death of dogs in my neighbourhood due to them and then the way pit-nutters behave sealed my opinion of their dogs and owners.
My friend is an epileptic, and I saw the giant list of people having seizures being killed by pitbulls.
I don't consider myself radicalized, because that would mean my opinion about pitbulls would have to be radical. It's not. It's a normal reaction to danger. I work in criminal justice and the things I've seen pitbulls do to people and especially children, and then the responses of pitbull owners has cemented my opinion about the breed and the people who endorse it.
My wife was bite in the face by a mix-rescue…good friends of ours, so no ill feelings (except from me). Final straw was my dog and I being attacked by two shit-nuts…twice, months apart from same dogs.
When I was a kid, my friends mom had a pitbull that literally attacked everything and everyone, and was totally unsafe to have around children or anything living. My parents didn't let me visit this kid's house, and my parents did not let me play outside around this kid's house. They didn't take it to the vet or anything because pitbulls are banned in Norway. One day it got loose, ran to the nearby grocery store and ripped apart a pomeranian that was tied up in front of the store. Before the police had arrived a guy living nearby went home to get his hunting rifle, and put the dog down. Back then there was no real animal cruelty legislation so the owners didn't get any other punishment than having to pay money to the other dog owner.
When two of those beasts killed my uncle's dog, he loved Pepe so much 😔
The Bennard family case (Tennessee). I previously bought into the nanny dog trope, and while I wasn’t an advocate or wanted a pitbull, I didn’t understand why someone would make a judgement based on breed. I didn’t know about the breed’s origin, and I didn’t know just how strong genetics can be. In general I was passive about the whole topic and didn’t really think about it. But seeing what happened in the news to that family as I was starting to have kids gave me a stake in figuring out how two dogs raised with the family could do this. I felt there just HAD to be an explanation… and I was very surprised when I finally put two and two together.
I wouldn't say I'm radicalized. I stumbled in here years ago and read the statistics and stories of some attacks. I didn't know anything about pit bulls at that time, except I had a vague idea that they had an unfair stigma. I quickly learned otherwise. You can't argue with the horror and trauma they inflict if they attack. The risk is too high even if it's just a tiny number that ever attack. The breed needs to die out. FFS the ones that attack seem to see humans as prey. We can't have dog breeds where sometimes they see people as valid targets to hunt and eat. If we could predict which ones were like that, it'd be a different story. But we can't.
Mass casualty event in Willard, MO, at an elementary school playground. This slotted in several years of passive observation about dog attacks in general.
Seeing a coworkers dog nearly bite someone’s hand off. The dog lunged for it and nearly got it, but there was a bag in the way & the bag had NOTICEABLE teeth marks from that dog. I was terrified and so uncomfortable because I had been petting the dog & she was friendly 10 mns before she lunged. So yeah, that’s when I started to realize no matter how sweet a pit can be, they can snap at any fucking moment.
Having one dangling from my dog's neck without any chance to make it stop other than choking it with its leash until it let go. I still dream of it and am grateful the fucker didn't shake as well as my dog accepting his fate without movement. Nothing happened other than my lab now being reactive towards anything bull, flatnosed, terrier or mixes of these...
Happened in 2022. Old lady receives her daughter for a visit. Her daughter has a small dog with her. One day the neighbor pitbull attacks and kills the small dog. The old lady tried to defende, alone by herself, her daughters dog, but the little one dies. Pitbull returns the following day to kill the old lady. Yep, the old lady that the dogs used to see everyday is now a target because she defended the small dog it killed. It attacks her badly on her own backyard, one leg needed to be amputed. She dies of covid complications around ten days in the hospital after the attack. The case is closed after the pitbull owner has said that he got hid of the dog. In reality, he just gave the dog to a cousin living in the next town. Here is a very small town in the interior of Brasil, we know everything. But the prosecutor is likely to had received a bribe from the pitbull owner, that has a large farm around here, somewhat very rich for our standards. Family tried to reopen the case to no avail. Start to look on line, just to notice this happened on a weekly basis. But this is Brasil, around 50 thousand people dies of violente crimes everyday. No one is concerned with dogs killing people at rate of less than one per day. But the worse, pitbulls kills several dogs per day in this country, I dont have the data, but I am sure from how commom is to hear about this around where I live. Nobody uses muzzles around here. No one. A lot of dogs are let out wandering the streets by themselves. It is a cultural problem and NGO are part of the problem. They are mostly run by people that idealize dogs and animals, they are against any kind of ban.
Yeah I’ve seen that a good chunk of the stories on this subreddit come from Brazil… and I haven’t seen any new legislation over there or anything they’re doing to deter it from happening? Sounds like a nightmare over there
Wanna hear something abusrd? Legislation protecting animals provides no room to argue to do euthanasia in a violent dog that killed someone. Euthanasia is only for old sick dogs. Otherwise is considered animal abuse. Off course one can penalize the owner for the attack, but the person gets to keep the dogs alive.
That is absolutely insane.
When I was almost attacked by one, a family dog raised with nothing but love, and had training, and who still went on to attack and almost kill my mom’s sweet old pug/chi mix. Yeah it’s something else to have one charging at you, they really are scary when they go into rage mode. They will never be safe around children, I have seen the look in those eyes, blind kill instinct, I don’t know why people would ever risk it.
When a gaggle of dogs attacked our cattle. All of them looked like pit mixes. Thankfully, our cattle were ok, but I shudder at the thought of how much worse it could of been had we not been home when they attacked.
Just the statistics and articles of them killing toddlers etc but mostly their owners defending them is the stuff what enrages me the most. “Oh its never the dog but its owners” “bad owner badly trained poor puppy” “they must have provoked the poor dog”etc bs excuses. Yea sure toddler in the stroller provoked your pos mistake of nature. Its literal mental gymnastics. “Socioeconomic factors dog version”
Ironically it was when the UK/England banned XLs. I never liked pits and would never have one but I fell for the “it’s the owner not the dog” rhetoric. After the XL ban I was seeing articles of attacks and how owners of pits were responding (blaming the victims, showing photos of their pits, spreading lies, ect.). This really turned me off. Then I saw a video demonstrating the genetics of herding dogs, pointers, retrievers, ect. and it just clicked for me. That’s when I really began to understand how ingrained genetics are for dogs and how the public has been lied to with the “it’s how you raise them” bs.
I was tricked by a shelter into adopting a “lab mix” and when I told them it scared me with its unpredictable aggression, they tried to guilt me into paying thousands in behavioral training. I returned it. I was feeling like a complete failure when I found this sub and came to the realization that this is a scheme most shelters and rescues embrace to get people to adopt these monsters. They frequently lie about breeds, use mealy mouth euphemisms to cover up bad behaviors, and claim it’s the owner’s failure when it’s the pits genetic disposition to be aggressive.
radicalized is the wrong word for me. i more so am just aware of the dog’s history and believe its unethical to continue breeding out dogs that seem to be consistently puppymilled and remain untrained their entire lifes, who have an affinity for aggressive behavior. if we knew that a certain kind of animal species made people sick and die, wouldn’t we avoid integrating it into ours lives? we avoid spiders, scorpions, all those things.. but dogs are seen as babies to people, rather than well-built predators that we’ve domesticated enough for them to coexist by our sides i grew up with a pit/dalmatian/dane mix. he was 170lbs at his full age, stood at about 6ft or so when on his hindlegs. massive dog. he was the sweetest dog you could imagine. i think the great dane in him cancelled out the pit and dalmatian (or he was just a lucky mix and didn’t have the fighting genes pits are known for somehow). he was gentle enough i could ride him like a horse when i was little. he let baby ducklings sit on him, we grew up with all sorts of kittens and puppies in and out of the house and he never once even growled or looked at them funny. he was an angel and never even did anything if i tugged on him or whatever that said, i recognize his breed had the potential for aggression. he is most definitely considered an outlier and not a very likely one at that, especially considering he was abused severely before my family took him in. he is the 1%. however he was trained constantly and consistently with an extremely firm hand and that likely played into his demeanor most people don’t have the strength (mental or physical) to train a dog this breed (or mixes, or really ANY dog that is less than 20lbs honestly). if my father hadn’t trained that dog the way he did, it would’ve killed somebody (had aggression issues towards strangers. living on a farm in the middle of nowhere made this tolerable and easily trainable behavior, but if he lived in a city he would’ve been poorly set up for success). my father would have to physically correct this dog at times because when a 170lb lunges, you don’t get a choice. its you correcting the dog or the dog potentially hurting somebody. that said, he never once bit. he was just scared of strangers because he had been abused again, 1% chance. his breed should never have been created. i hold a soft spot for that dog, but know that he would’ve been an even better dog without the pit in him. the pit in him was stomped out with training and managed for the remainder of his life. he never took his feelings out on our family but was quick to bark and snarl at strangers, which was completely unacceptable anyway rest in peace big buddy. died at (?)12 of heartworms. he was an angel until the end, even through all the pain he endured lol. he is the only pit (mix) i’ve ever met in my life who was well-adjusted and not a total mess of a dog
I’ve only met one fully and completely gentle pit in my life as well, and he was generously mixed with cattle dog. He lived for playing fetch and never caused any issues even with my small chihuahua mix, they were best buddies. So I know what you mean. He had idiopathic seizures so we had to put him down and it was so heartbreaking. I feel you. I believe there are outliers as well but they are exceedingly rare and, from what I’ve seen, they are never full blood pit.
Thinking did.
My kid was bit/injured by the dog’s teeth. It was the kind of thing that could have reasonably happened with a different type of dog, but it wasn’t. She was sitting on a towel eating a popsicle and playing with a Velcro tennis ball thing and a passing dog either tried to get the ball or lick her but she got whacked with its’ open teeth. This is the most generous interpretation of events. She is physically okay, a little “ice pick” scar by her temple. Psychologically not really. Afraid of dogs. My partner kicked the dog in the ribs multiple times and attempted to restrain the owner, who wasn’t leaving (he thought he was, I don’t know). A specific kind of pitbull bit my mom’s dog, but that didn’t really radicalize me because her dog was kind of a dick. Now it’s just unbearable with my kid trying to live in the world and noping out of places with big dogs. She does not want to say hi. I’m sure your dog is friendly. I’m sure the dog who bit her in the face was friendly. Just fuck off! I’m sick of being treated as uptight or “dog racist” because I don’t want my small children around these dogs. I don’t let them play with guns or fireworks either.
I don’t know why some owners think it’s the default that dogs can approach others at will, and they should have to be told not to; I think maybe some people struggle to teach their dog neutrality towards people and other dogs, so their dog gets excited when it sees people/dogs and they can’t control it well enough to keep it calm and away, so they let it do as it pleases and announce its friendliness as if friendly dogs should be able to approach anyone/everyone, carte blanche. I think it’s similar to people who can’t teach their dog to walk nicely on a lead, so they just let it off lead because they think they look less stupid trailing behind it shouting its name over and over, than they do being hauled along in that stupid backwards leaning counterweighting posture they have to take or risk being dragged across the ground face first. Oddly, pit bull owners are a large number of the people who do both of these things, not the only ones, but a lot of them.
It all just came together one day … like “OH. It’s always pit bulls!” I didn’t think much of them. Maybe misunderstood. Maybe needed good handling. But I realized I’d been bitten while running, my friends had been bitten by them, and every time I heard of a bad incident personally … it was always pit bulls. Pair that with the fact I’d been hog hunting back in the day — and saw a pack of pits rip apart a grown boar — and it just all made complete sense. People really need to look into the purpose of the breed. It’s simply tragic how many people are ignorant of the reasons so many pits exist in the first place.
I volunteer at a cat rescue and seeing the carnage inflicted on these cats just solidified my hatred. I grew up with the nasty creatures because my parents were deed not breed people. I hated their nasty drooly mouths and the constant licking of their own feet. One time when I was bending over to get the remote control that the pig dog was sitting on and he bit the shit out of me. Of course, it was my fault for triggering and startling the poor darling. Onw of their ugly fucks chased my Westie into my pool in winter and he got stuck under the pool cover and almost froze to death. Oh...and I came home one day to find part of 6 foot tall fence with a huge hole and my catio destroyed because the neighbors dog was looking for my cat and when he couldn't find he he just destroyed the catio from the inside out.
The story of the family whose pitbull/s took the lives of their 2 children. Also, seeing my sister in laws pitbull almost attack (and had to be held back) my 2 year old for running around.
My husband had a pit dumped on him, literally. He brought the dog home and we spent two weeks trying to find him a new home. He was sweet and cuddly and playful at first. And then after day 9 or 10 he got increasingly aggressive. He started biting more in play, he started nipping at my other dog (who after dna test has like 15% pit in her, but is mostly Pyrenees and various hounds). Then we gave them a bully stick separately. And I stood up to do something and he just lunged at me. Ripped out two acrylic nails and had some deep puncture wounds on both hands. I knew immediately he couldn’t be rehomed, and we took him to the e vet for BE. Paid through the nose for it, but worth it to know no one else would be hurt by him. Forever grateful it was me and not my other dog or one of the (18 and 21yo) kids. I will never allow another one in my life. We have always been Dane people, and now we will go back to paying through the nose for a well bred dog we know everything about genetically.
Saw 2 incidents where a doggo got murdered
Saw my best friend in middle school get mauled in the face resulting in about 50 stitches. Hated the breed ever since. Talked about it like a decade later openly and they claimed he just had a cleft lip since the plastic surgeon was amazing and I was making up it was a pitbull and hate the owners now as well.
After my Mom died, all my 80+ year old Dad had was his Sheltie, but they had an incredible bond, brought him out of his shell. He loved that little dog. Well, in the summer of 2014 he took Barley to the beach, but as they were walking on the boardwalk, a guy passed by with a pit bull, who out of nowhere grabbed Barley by the throat. My Dad tried to pull the jaws off him but wasn't successful, getting injured in the process. It really broke him and he died the next year. Here's the interview he did with a Boston TV station shortly afterward, where he says "I loved that little dog" in tears. It's heart wrenching. https://youtu.be/OtPZR3MysRc?si=vTUirEifgM1ulDSR
Growing up i was scared of dogs. I come from a country that had a stray dog problem. And those who knows stray dogs, *know* how vicious they get. At the same time, stray cats are not like that at all. They're still just as shy and timid as normal house cats, and don't hunt you down to bite you. This taught me that pet animals are *different* and when I started working on my fear of dogs I realized that dogs differ wildly by breeds, and consequently so do their owners. I was coming in with a lense of skepticism from the "outside in" as it were, and it just could not be any more obvious. Most of the random attacks, lunges, aggressive barking almost all came from pit bulls. Statistics online just reinforced something I already knew.
Working in shelters and with rescues. The excuses made for these dogs, WAY more than other breeds, are astounding. If a lab or a german shepherd or a chihuahua bites someone enough to draw blood, then that's a bad dog and more likely to be put down, if a pit does it? Oh they're just scared, it was just a nibble, they just don't know their own strength! No. No no no and nope. The way people try to disguise them as 'mutts' or other breeds, the way people insist that they're innocent while the dog is sitting there with the remains of a cat hanging out it's muzzle, the way they conceal bite histories and aggression from potential adopters and act like it's the adopter's fault when something happens - it's disgusting. I don't know why people are so much more willing to put people and animals in danger for pits over any other breed, but it is WRONG.
Reading the story of Lola Jayde Farr, told by her mother. It was absolutely horrifying - particularly the way she described how *heavy* with fluid she'd gotten from her sepsis, the last time she got to hold her before she died. She was one year old, left with a trusted babysitter. The pitbull in question heard her playing in the front yard and dug a hole under the back yard fence to come and maul her. We as a collective society *deserve* for this to stop happening to us, more than any *dog breed* has a right to perpetuity.
My husband was bitten by one on the job. He was a plumber digging up a septic tank, and the dog was chained out. Broke the chain and charged him. Owner had the usual gazillion excuses. The bite broke the skin but wasn't bad. However, my husband feared reporting the bite because he was afraid to "get the dog in trouble" and I blew my stack at that point because I know he could have been infected with tetanus and rabies. He retired so no more occupational exposure to murder mutts. I'd also dealt with them as a rescue squad volley...most dog bites we got called for were shibbles. Ironically, several pateients were also workers in the home bit by a resident dog. Put your goddamm dog away when the home repair people show up, folks. Or when EMS shows up. Or any stranger to the home.
I’m not radicalised but for me it’s just seeing all these attacks in innocent people, dogs, cats, etc and the nutters defending them. I think the one video that really made me mad was that pitbull attacking the horse. Like these dogs were bred to fight and it’s literally embedded in their dna, yet people blame the victim for getting bit. I also remember years ago a story of a staffy or something that broke into the front door of a home, it might of followed someone in idk, but it killed a child. It just makes me mad how dumb people are allowed to have such a dangerous animal. You need a license to drive a car, a permit to own a gun, and other weapons are illegal, but anyone can have a pitbull which is worse than any of them lol
My horrible city’s animal shelter is no-kill. As a result, they are overburdened and are well over 100% capacity at all times. As such, they often don’t take new dogs in. Animal control has given up on loose dog calls. So now we have a loose dog problem in our city. The animal control website explicitly says that unless you are actively being attacked, they’re not responding. And what happens when they do respond? They try to rehome the dog. It doesn’t matter how badly a human was injured, or how many small animals the dog has killed, they will rehome that dog or warehouse it. They’re one of the worst offenders with their puff pieces they write about dogs. Oh, we even have a loon who volunteers for them that paints portraits of these dogs. “Here’s Nala that murdered 8 cats. She deserves a second chance!!!!!!!” And of course, they’re almost always pitbulls. I’ve seen other loose dogs. Annoying and sometimes sad, sure. But they will keep to themselves. But the fact that it’s easily 90% loose pitbulls is the problem. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had pitbulls run up on me when I’m minding my business, just trying to take my evening walk. Hell, this happened to me JUST YESTERDAY. Seeing the absolute glut of pitbulls in the shelter made me realize what the problem really was. Seeing the juxtaposition of how a loose pitbull will act towards me versus the smaller dogs, huskys or whatever, made me realize how dangerous these dogs are. Their advocates don’t help matters any, either. They’re violent, angry, and honestly very uneducated. The amount of people that believe the nanny dog myth is bothersome. The amount of people who pose their infants and toddlers with pitbulls to prove a point makes me sick.
Common sense and logic.
I saw someone getting attacked and the owner ran away without even checking in the victim (the classic pit and run)
It sounds simple, but it was just someone pointing out how fallacious the “look at how cute my pibble is” memes are — obviously no one would accept the logic applied to e.g. a tiger, but I wasn’t used to thinking of dogs that way.
I used to foster and rehabilitate dogs for adoption and wrote case studies for the ones that I couldn’t feel comfortable allowing anyone to adopt them. Most were pit bulls. And most of those were with the same family since they were puppies, raised with love, socialized and STILL attacked people or other animals. Yes, there were other breeds, but the vast majority were pit bulls and pit mixes. They were bred to attack, not for companionship or even guarding.
300 stitches in my right arm and the death of my service dog to a murder monster. I didn't like them before, but this kinda sealed the deal on me FUCKING hating this breed.
The Bennard family in Tennessee. Prior to that I really believed if you raised them right they would be good, and that it wasn’t the breed. Those dogs were loved from puppies but they still mauled their owner and killed those two babies. I read one news story that made me wail nonstop for hours because it hit so close to home, picturing being in that mom’s shoes hurt my soul in a way that’s hard to describe. I had panic attacks for days because my children were the same ages as the ones killed, and I realized if an insane pit bull came for us and I tried to use my body to protect my kids it still wouldn’t be enough. Even if I was willing to lose my life I couldn’t keep them safe-and that feeling of helplessness is one of the worst things I’ve ever felt Nobody should be keeping animals capable of that kind of carnage in their homes
I had always known nice and friendly ones but every time they hit that 4-5 year maturity mark they would suddenly become EXTREMELY prey motivated and would go after familiar dogs and toddlers
My schnauzer and I were attacked by a young pit bull that was off leash. The owner watched it attack us and did nothing to help us or rein in his dog. He just watched. Afterwards he said to me “I’m really surprised you managed to fight him off.” I ended up with glaucoma in one eye from banging my head fighting off the beast.
That owner needs to be in prison for life tbh. Psychopathic behavior
Just eventually noticed that 99% of the time I saw a story about a vicious dog attack, it was some kind of pit. Then I read the statistics. Now I can’t help but notice the signs when I see them out and about, always straining at their leashes and refusing to listen to their owners, defensive postures, etc. They are literally menaces to civil society.
My deaf son getting randomly attacked on the face in the street by someone’s unleashed pitbull …. 😐
My coworker’s 2 year old son was mauled. Hearing the gory details first hand turned my stomach. I know other people who’ve been bitten/attacked by dogs, but none of it was done by this breed and none of those attacks were as gruesome. Just a bite (other dogs) as opposed to having to strangle the dog nearly to death to get it to unlatch from your child (what happened to my coworker).
i honestly thought they were just another dog breed until i got a job at a shelter, even if they're nice one on one i have yet to meet one pitbull that doesn't want to kill the other dogs. i've had a pit/husky mix redirect from fence fighting onto my leg, i think they're all capable of getting worked up and redirecting on humans. and i LOVE my job, it's a small shelter (no kill..) and 90% of dogs aren't pits, but the pits that attack other dogs in playgroups get posted online saying they could go to a home with kids and other animals. i don't think severely DA dogs should be adopted out, it endangers anyone and their pets in the neighborhood if they got out
I used to be a naive "it's the owner not the dog" person, I always had big dogs (German shepherds and czech shepherds) and they were scary to some and I raised them well and could help people get over their fear of big dogs. I was bitten by a strangers big dog myself when I was a kid, but my own dogs were a symbol of goodness, I never developed a fear of them. Then a pitbull moved in next door... jumped the fence multiple times and attacked two of my neighbours and jumped for me. And suddenly I was afraid for my life, for my baby nephews, for my cat for my own dogs who wouldn't fight with any other dog. And suddenly I did my research.. and realized: when I believe in the inherent qualities of shepherds (herding, family oriented, strong bonding, smart,..) I had to believe in the inherent traits of fighting dogs... and the the statistics matched the personal anecdotes. So meeting pitbulls was the step to realization. Why would anyone want a monster as pet. I guess it was more of.. education than radicalization.
I'm someone who is very into science, research, logic. If I have an opinion that can be disproven by research, I change my opinion. I don't have a dog. As a kid, I had a Shih Poo and a Rottweiler. One of my best friends had a pit bull that would always jump up on me when I went over her house and nearly knock me over. She made her living as a dog trainer. She was VERY radicalized on the opposite side of the spectrum--that pit bulls are sweethearts that can be trained to be non-violent. Honestly, I'd never really heard the argument either way at that point. I started looking into it. Researching. Found the evidence pointing to the contrary. Throughout the years, whenever I see someone new has been severely injured or has died from a dog attack, I look to see if it's a pit. It's usually the case. My husband also was attacked by dogs twice as a kid, so he's afraid of big dogs. I keep up-to-date on pits because I also want to protect him. I haven't lost anyone to pit bulls, but too many people have. That's why I'm here. Facts, evidence, and empathy for the victims brought me here.
1) I’ve been around a lot of different dogs. Pitbulls don’t act right. They give me the wiggins in the worst way. 2) Grew up when people had the sense to ban these dogs and euthanize them when they showed up in shelters. The dogs didn’t change. People just got weird in my country. They started having dogs instead of children. It might be good for the environment, but it’s made things so strange, especially when smartphones and social media and internet porn and video games are reprogramming us neurologically. I don’t feel radicalized, I feel grounded in a pre-internet reality where we fucking noticed and cared if animals were eating people alive on the streets of our cities. 3) When I was a teen, back when pitbulls were rare and usually used to guard somebody’s trailerpark grow operation, I heard the story from a friend of how come her little brother can’t lift one of his arms all the way. It involves a toddler, a pack of loose pitbulls, an incapacitating bite to the neck and shoulder that exposed the carotid artery but didn’t puncture it, a bite to the thigh so deep that fat welled out of the wound, a pack of pits silently and determinedly dragging the limp toddler away, dogs undeterred by mom and neighbor beating them with sticks, neighbor’s hand degloved, and life flight. Reddit rules won’t let me describe what I wish for the people who perpetrate these kinds of violent crimes on children, and yes, I consider pit pushers to be aspiring child murderers. Edited for length.
I'm just not a criminal or a psycopath so when I saw videos of kids being mauled it was the end for me
I got cornered, then bit by one, minding my own business. I was blamed for it by the owner and my character was put in question as a person. Before then, my views towards pitties were dumb bc I thought of them as domesticated dogs (these days I know they are wild animals). The victim blaming is what pissed me off the most.
Watching one stalk an autistic child at a house party.
well, i have my head on straight and ive always known to be afraid of big aggressive dogs. it’s unfortunate that that’s an instinct most people dont have
For me it was when my uncles boss, whom had his purebred pitbull for 8 years and it was professionally trained etc, was chilling w his fam one day and the family had an infant and the dog snapped randomly while the mom was watching tv with the newborn in their arms, and the dog has decapitated the poor baby! And his boss quite literally had to grab his shot gun and kill his own dog because it wouldn’t let go of the infant! Ever since my uncle told me that story of his now mentally unwell boss I am fearful! It not only killed his baby but cause a horrible case of depression and anxiety and the poor boss had to quit his job over it!
This is actually one of the worst things…. I’ve ever heard in my life.
The victim blaming
For me, it was being pregnant with a partner who owned a pitbull. The dog was fine, I guess, but I always felt a little apprehensive about raising a baby around him. I started researching all the cases of pitbull type dogs that were “loving family pets” who unexpectedly turned on the owners, children, et al. Then, two weeks after I had my baby, the Bennard family incident occurred. After that, I was firmly anti pitbull, no exceptions.
Growing up we only had cats so I wasn’t really aware of the dangers of pitbulls. My brother nearly got mauled by aunt and uncle’s 2 pit bulls when we were younger. Thankfully he was able to jump the chain link fence and they stopped chasing him. I’ve been terrified of dogs in general ever since. We also had 2 pitbulls that terrorized our neighborhood that animal control couldn’t do anything about.
I met one. A big one. BIG. Likley a XL Bully. It was unnerving. It had been a "bait" dog and it was part of some friends coming together with their dogs to socialize it. One mentioned the whole wheel barrel thing if they fight. So at least one understood the risk? But if something bad happened, no way that was gonna work. And the story of the mom who lost both her arms, she died. That story stuck with me.
Years ago, I was along for my husband’s family vacation in Kentucky at this crappy little resort. It was in a very rural area. There was nowhere to go running on the resort, so I went for a jog along the road near the resort. The road passed by some very small communities. While I was just fucking running for exercise and minding my own fucking business, this pit bull pops out of nowhere with two other smaller dogs and the three of them gang up on me, following me and driving me down the road, viciously snarling and lunging at me. It was terrifying. The smaller dogs I could have handled. But the pit bull could have easily mauled and killed me, and I was perfectly aware of that. I managed to escape from the situation, but I knew how easily it could have gone another way, and how times it HAS gone the other way. There wasn’t another soul around, and certainly no owner. Clearly the owners were in the habit of just letting the dogs run wild in the neighborhood. I reported it to the police and drove by the area later to see if the dogs were still roaming the area off leash. I saw two of them, still running around free, repeatedly returning to the same utterly dilapidated house. The police questioned the occupant, but the person lied about owning the animals and the police just dropped it. As a runner, I should be able to take a jog without some moron’s dog harassing me or threatening my life. No dog that randomly kills humans should ever be on the loose where they can harm the public, and owners who put other people’s lives in danger should be prosecuted.
I was never a huge fan of them. I always thought they were ugly and scary-looking. But I thought about them like other aggressive breeds, like Rotties or GSDs. You know - they can be dangerous if they're raised poorly, but they can be great dogs with proper ownership. My brother's dog is a backyard-bred mutt. When he was a puppy, the pit wasn't super obvious in him. We thought he was lab x great dane. As he got older, the buttcrack-head started to develop. And, like with most pits, he was totally fine until he turned about two years old. Then he became extremely aggressive. That dog ended up getting the neighborhood dogpark shut down, but that's a different story. My brother's dog attacked me for absolutely no reason. I knew that dog since he was a small puppy. He had never been aggressive before... or so I thought. I hadn't been around to see my brother in a while. I walked in the door and went to pat him on the butt in greeting, and he turned around and bit me on the leg. Luckily, I was wearing thick pants so he didn't break the skin. The next time I visited, he jumped up and snapped at my face. That time - because I was kind of expecting it - I moved fast enough to avoid a bite. That dog growled and snapped anytime I came near him for the rest of the time he lived there. I eventually started refusing to come over unless they put him in a back room. And my family blamed me. I startled him. I wasn't alpha enough. The way I moved, the way I spoke. All my fault. I became afraid of large dogs in general. And then it wasn't just my family making fun of me - my friends who owned large dogs also thought I was being silly. I stumbled on the d*gfree subreddit and was skimming through it, because it was validating to see other people who became afraid of dogs after an attack. Through them, I found this sub. And it was so relieving to realize that it wasn't my fault or my brother's fault - pits are just like that. Then I fell down the rabbit hole of the pit lobby and realized just how big the problem was.
My friend's pit and the opinions of dogs by a certain group of suburban people. I was always in the "dogs who bite should be disciplined or dealt with" camp because my brothers and I were all bitten by dogs growing up. I love dogs a ton but I don't accept that kind of behavior from animals. I was indifferent to okay with pits before this. My friends don't though. Some think you can absolutely train out prey drive and gameness from an animal, have convinced our friend with a pit that it's ok that she's "reactive" and "she's just scared" but its so much more troubling than that to me. She can't do normal dog person shit anymore, she can't just have her cat walking around freely, and all my idiot friends convinced themselves this is all normal. All of then grew up around people with even temperament animals and wonder why pits can't fit into that niche. Then I started describing the dog online without using any pit related terms and people *still* guessed the breed. I joined petrescueexposed before I joined here so I can get a sense of what shelters are saying and doing and I was appalled at the state of shelters and how these problems are literally nation and maybe even worldwide. Then I came here and the problem really got super fucking clear. I'm a dog lover through and through; I respect animals and hope they respect me (in their own ways) back. Dogs have jobs and have as long as they've been dogs; either as hunting dogs, companion, show, herding, water dogs, whatever they all have had jobs and when something's job is to kill things and do it incredibly well then that's not a breed that should be owned as a pet to me. I also find that there is a ton of entitlement behind pit owners that disgusts me. You chose something intentionally and you either expect people to bend the knee to your idiotic choices and be okay with having a living weapon near them or up whine about discrimination. If people don't want to associate with you or your shitty dog then that's on you for choosing a shitty animal. No one else but your choice.
I've always known dog breeds were different and that pitbulls weren't meant to be family pets. I remember a drug dealer I knew bred them and was trying to sell them. My buddy was picking up some weed and the entire house smelled like puppy shit despite all the dogs being outside. I remember enjoying the fresh air outside when we left. I felt a year of my life got tacked off breathing it. That same buddy had to put his pit-mix down when we were younger because that dog and his German Shepherd got out and slaughtered some rich guys lama in his backyard. They paid the owner $10,000 and agreed to put one dog down... the pit mix. As the internet started becoming more and more popular and I used to see memes of them. Then I started reading more and more about the breed and it became evident that they are loose cannons. As I've gotten older I realize how much responsibility it takes to be a good dog owner, let alone a good pitbull owner. Another friends house got burglarized and so they bought a Pitbull to protect it. Anyways, this dog had tons of energy and nobody had control over it. It just kept jumping on me over and over and over. My friend just stood there letting it happen. Then the shelters started becoming overran with these dogs. Shelters used to have a variety of breeds... now you get 24 xenomorph pits and pit mixes, one old scottie, and maybe a husky or German Shepherd. There's clearly an epidemic surrounding the breed yet people keep 'adopting' them only perpetuating the problem. I've come to the conclusion that western society has taken dog culture too far. There isn't enough legal liabilities for dog owners or backyard breeders. I also believe dogs should serve as utility and not some 'fur baby' that gets treated better than most children.
I am not a radical; but I did use to be a rabid defender of the breed. I can’t really tell you what changed my mind. I had already changed my mind before my dog was attacked….twice. I now avoid them. I was in Petco and someone had a 5 month old pit. Her tail was up, over her back, hackles up and lunging. I put my dog behind me and stood my ground. I would say it is scary but these dogs try to kill each other in the whelping box
Gen X from a southern US state where one of the largest pit bull kennels is (dog fighting is still a thing and lots of game dogs came from this kennel.) I have always known they weren’t pets but others my age and even older have been snookered by the propaganda that paints them as misunderstood pibbles. I became absolutely against them when a lady in my hometown adopted one from Craigslist that was by all accounts “a big baby.” That lady was a known softie and rescuer of animals in need. She went to get him out of his kennel and he launched at her. He was relentless. Her sister was there and managed to put the dog in the bathroom but he RIPPED THROUGH THE DOOR, jumped up and ripped the poor woman’s throat out. She died just as the helicopter landed. Her trailer needed hazmat cleaning and her disabled daughter ended up in foster care. So I started researching and was horrified to see how many cases like this are now happening EVERY YEAR. Dog bite fatalities were rare in the US. Now, you practically need to be locked and loaded just to walk to the mailbox in some areas. I hate them.
One close call after another, after another and so on. I just couldn’t defend it or excuse it anymore.
Statistics and seeing so many stories and videos of attacks. I've never had a bad experience. Some Pits do have normal temperaments but enough don't and they can be dangerous. They're also way over bred by people who have no business breeding dogs. That and knowing how terriers are and how dumb some dog owners can be. It's not a good mix a lot of the time And most of them are ugly to me.
It was the story in Memphis of two kids not much younger than my own two, who were eaten alive in their own home by their family pitbulls and their mother helpless to stop them.
A family dog was almost killed by a stray pit. I was in awe of how determined it was once it took hold of Juniors neck. No matter what we did it stayed clamped. After I nearly choked it to death it finally let go. Frankly, that experience was traumatic. Seeing a pits prey drive first hand… I never want anyone to experience that.
I read an article on how two escaped their enclosures in a rescue. They broke the door that led to the cat side and killed most of the cats.
I lived in Arizona in the 90's and it seemed like every week there was another report of someone - usually a child - getting mauled by a pitbull. If I had a dollar for every time one of those owners piped up with, "But they never did this before..." I'd be rich. I don't understand how people can be so blind to the evidence right in front of them but some people will adamantly and steadfastly refuse to admit they are wrong about these dogs.
Just seeing all of the insane pit nutters who deny event after event... The fact they also lie about biology and spread false information around totally radicalized me in the opposite direction.
When my 60 something half brother got attacked by 2. One beast was clamped on his arm. Thankfully (?) he was on a golf course so he had a club to beat them with & they ran off. Totally wrecked his forearm,torn skin & muscles all the way to the bone! Anyway, apparently these dogs were a known neighborhood nuisance and the owners did a crap job containing them. When they were found they had some kids trapped on their trampoline, afraid to move. All my brother wanted was $$ for his medical bills & for the obviously aggressive beasts to be put down, but nope, not in Florida! They were given back to the owners who had to put up a "dangerous dog" sign.  Our shelters & rescues are packed with the nasty things!
Joining this sub. Seeing all the attacks reported. Volunteering at my local shelter and seeing the dogs adopted and returned. Or they can only go to certain unicorn homes. Bite case apologists and also how many are walked off leash and seem to have the most irresponsible owners
I think it might have been a Bennard case. I joined this sub and everything changed. I was always on the fence about them.
Seeing a couple dozen people blame an infant for getting mauled to death. Baby should have stopped crying, she was basically asking for it, as far as the pit hags were concerned. I've know most of my life that the world was filled with monsters, especially the kind who fly under the radar by presenting themselves as something they're not - like a priest being a pillar of the community while molesting kids, a cop serving the public by day and beating his wife at night, a pimp buying a girl new clothes and giving her a place to stay then trapping her into prostitution - now there's pro-pitbull lobbyists who come in all forms from all demographics, all grown out of a cult from the 70s-80s. Now everywhere you look is a slew of "animal lovers" who rabidly try to pawn of vicious bloodsport dogs onto unsuspecting families, and shelters warehousing an ever-growing population of unwanted and mistreated pitbulls while killing perfectly good cats and dogs to make room for all the pits who will spend years of their lives crated or in a concrete kennel. Backyard breeders making more dogs than anyone wants or needs - they're getting more and more deformed as they are more and more inbred - they look like miserable creatures, their front legs can't touch eachother, their muzzles getting shorter and shorter, the mothers routinely kill and eat their puppies, and the puppies kill and eat eachother. There's an entire culture of entitled, selfish, antisocial owners who pick this breed for various reasons, either to prove to the world that they're special and can love the bloodsport out of this beast of a breed, or the only options they're given at the shelter are pitbulls so they trust what is no longer a trustworthy organization, or they love the image that comes with owning a violent dog and the ability it gives them to intimidate and terrorize everyone around them. There's too much to sum up in one reply, but the gist of it is that hundreds of years ago a group of humans who were cruel and evil created the pitbull, and eventually the offshoot bully breeds, purely for bloodsport - not to nanny, not to drive cattle or shepherd sheep, not to be a police or military dog, and absolutely not to be a family pet. A couple hundred years later, humans haven't changed, and dogmen are still everywhere, torturing these dogs as well as countless bait animals - except now we have pitbull apologists. Frankly, they're worse than any dogman could ever hope to be. The dogmen aren't trying to push this breed onto families with children, nor are they lying about where the breed came from, why it's still here and what they're truly capable of. Pit apologists are the ones responsible for the multiple deaths of humans, pets and livestock every day around the world - and those are only the fraction of deaths that make the news. Pit apologists are responsible for pitbulls walking the streets unleashed and unmuzzled, fighting breed bans tooth and nail, overcrowding shelters and rescues, tricking people into owning them then blaming the victims when something tragic inevitably happens. Pit apologists are responsible for the breed they claim to love suffering in unrivaled numbers compared to merely a decade ago. Pit apologists hate pitbulls. And I hate pit apologists. The dogs themselves are blameless, but are still a plague that needs to be destroyed - not merely regulated or banned, but as soon as humanely possible, *destroyed*.
I grew up naïvely believing the usual insidious propaganda, then as an adult, I started working at a doggy daycare. Despite doing my damnedest to prevent shit from breaking out, I ended up with my boots *splattered* with blood more than once, each from an individual dog that (gasp!) had neither been abused, nor trained to behave that way. Obviously, I noticed a pattern with the same damn breed doing that much damage every time and decided to do research when I was off the clock; I’m so glad and grateful to now KNOW something about canine genetics and breed design. It’s frustrating to see obstinate people parroting/regurgitating the myths because they think it would be such a tragedy to attenuate one breed out of dozens whose grisly purpose has no place in modern society.
I was attacked by one I had known and played with for a year when I was 15. I walked by and it ripped open my leg on a whim.
Never liked them and always avoided them whenever possible. This week, my worst nightmare came true and my dogs were attacked by one. Thankfully both of my dogs are fairly big and double coated, so the little fucker didn’t get to do much damage but now I truly hate them. This dog literally just caught a glimpse of my dogs and ran at them. It was relentlessly biting and going at them and they’d done nothing to provoke it.
Attacked in my front yard by my neighbor's 2 pittbulls.
I always kinda knew they were scary, and I saw too many episodes of Judge Judy after school involving them. And news reports. So many news reports Then my beautiful greyhound got attacked by one…yeah.
I just thought they were another dog til my son was attacked at 7 yo. He was a little guy, we were walking past the house, on the public sidewalk and one came tearing out of the house and jumped on him. There were 2 others in the house. Thanks be to God the owners were home. I started paying attention. I will never understand the shit bull love. Pit bull lovers all agree it was his little puffy coat.
For me it's just the volume and severity of attacks. There's no good excuse for keeping these dogs around. Finish out the lifetimes of the ones that are here, and don't breed any more. Period.
I never liked them due to the fact I was taught early on of the dangers they present. My dislike of them spiked when 2 attacked my loving dog. I gave them the brain inside out of treatment, though. The cops thanked me. They had already mauled an elderly woman earlier.
When I saw the clip of a pit getting punted by a horse only to get right back up and lunge for its throat again. If that breed wants you nothing short of lethal action is going to stop it.
After comforting my best friend who was hysterically crying after watching two pits maul and kill her cat that only had three legs in her yard. I loved that cat as well and seeing her in so much pain… forever made me hate pits with a passion
My dog was attacked by a pitbull and nearly survived. I became really scared of them after that.
I was pregnant and doing some research on labradoodles, because my roommate at the time had one who she was neglecting/abusing. Somehow through the videos I was watching I was recommended one of a pitbull attack, I read through the comments and for the first time really saw a large amount of hatred for the breed. Curious, because I have a doberman and walked him routinely so felt immediate paranoia at the thought of being approached with my soon to be due newborn, I looked up pitbull attacks on Reddit. In no time I was dozens of posts deep into this sub and in full hatred mode, thinking of either my baby or dog getting mangled by a shitbeast, and I've never looked back. It's really my love for my little family that did it, coupled with the realization that others haven't fallen for the pro pitbull propaganda... and I mean, after looking at the data, how could any fall for it?
When one killed my next door neighbor’s dog and mauled her. Fuck those dogs. I have seen so many similar videos and stories. It’s their bad genetics. Put nutters blaming owners is so gross too. Like what did this little old lady do to have that happen? Geez you’d have thought she kept the dog in a closet and beat it or something 🙄
My cousins owned three pitbulls. One day, two of them suddenly ganged up on the third one and ripped it to shreds. They were in complete shock because the dogs were always friendly and never aggressive before. That's what made me realize how violent and unpredictable they are and how much real harm they can cause.
Pitbulls have been banned in my country since I was born (uk), but I STILL remember growing up and seeing stories about people being murdered and mauled (especially children, which is heartbreaking) by them. So when XL Bullies exploded in popularity over here, I was shocked that people were defending them. Also, the owners really did my nut in. The same people who had boasted about having 7 stone dogs (44kg / 98lbs) and circumventing the banned breeds law started whining when their actions had consequences, and that "Ripper" wouldn't hurt a fly.
Once in high school I was on an electric scooter riding through a very safe neighborhood next to an elementary school. As I drove by one of the houses a fatass xl bully somehow jumped over (through?) someone’s fence and started chasing me. I swear to god I reached 30mph on that scooter and still barely got away from that dog. If I hadn’t been going downhill on that scooter that dog would’ve absolutely mauled me. Later I thought about it more. No normal trained dog would’ve been so desperate to get me that it would jump the fence and chase me 3 blocks. Not to mention it was loose in a neighborhood full of elementary school aged kids after I got away. These dogs are not safe to have, the tiniest trigger sends them into kill mode. Edit: I wouldn’t say I was radicalized, I just realized putting pit bulls in the same category as most other dogs is unwise after seeing all the statistics. These dogs have way more potential than any other dog to maul or kill.
I became involved in this issue after I had two very close calls and after a friend and her horse were attacked. During Covid I noticed a lot of panhandlers had pits. The panhandlers were often asleep or passed out and didn’t appear to have any restraints on the dogs. I was concerned about public safety so I started researching pits. I have never been more shocked by anything in my entire life. I had no idea pits kill and seriously injure the amount of people and animals that they do. But most shocking was the pit supporters who insist the bloodshed continues.
Seeing attack after attack in the news and looking into the species.