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11 thoughts on “2012 Dog Bite Fatality: Pet Pit Bull Mauls to Death 74-Year Old Owner in Santa Fe

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  1. By the son's dog. There were also other "Incidents" where police were called to the house because of pit bulls, but it's not quite clear if those incidents involved dogs at the residence. Also, the nutters are out in full force saying that there has never been an attack by a neutered pit. I know it can reduce the instinct to attack, but that isn't true, is it? That there is no record of a neutered pit bull attacking?

  2. Opalina,
    I am the victim of a spayed pit bull. Pit owners have been killed by their neutered pit bulls. Never is a long time. The reason that reports of neutered pits attacking are not as common as S&N pits is because pits are much less likely to be spayed or neutered. The JAVMA Journal April 2011 has an article on the percentages of S&N in various breeds. Pits and Amstaffs have the lowest percentages. This is in pits that see the inside of a Vet Clinic. Expect that numbers in the community are far lower.

  3. This son Gavin wants the pit bull back. He must be hoping to get rid of his mother too.

  4. When nutters say something like "no neutered pit bull has ever attacked" you can simply ignore those statements.

    1. it is like stating "no neutered beagle has ever attacked someone" and given the number of neutered male beagles you know this must be false, it is like saying "lightning has never struck someone on their left shoulder"

    2. very often the sexual status of an animal is not noted in the report materials we have, some of those animals were likely neutered

    What pit nutters could possibly say with some honesty

    "In the materials we have collected and at our disposal related to pit bull attacks, we do not have an instance where a pit bull that attacks is confirmed to have been neutered."

    The other way to look at this: why aren't the unneutered labs doing this at anywhere near the same rate? Let's say testicles and pit bull DNA is like fertilizer and diesel fuel (explosive when mixed) but relatively harmless when separate (which I don't believe in relation to the pits, but just to humor nutters). If we cannot make people neuter their pits and therefore defuse them, then we are in the same position regardless. Because we cannot prevent people from mixing fertilizer and diesel we are now beginning to regulate the fertilizer in question.

    http://www.dhs.gov/files/laws/ammonium-nitrate-regulations.shtm

  5. "nutters are out in full force saying that there has never been an attack by a neutered pit"

    Yes, neutered pit bulls have attacked.

    It helps reduce the aggression, but with pit bulls as opposed to other breeds, it can still be a problem. They need to still be properly contained, don't beong near children or in public places like parks, and muzzles stop a lot of problems for the pit bull owner, if they would just wake up to it but they don't seem smart emough.

    (Why hasn't a pit bull enthusiast started a line of fashion muzzles for pit bulls? I am not kidding. Use them and their owners and the dogs won't be getting in trouble.)

    However the incidence of attacks by neutered pit bulls is lower, so getting these dogs altered is a great start (and a way to stop the major overpopulation that kills them, but pit bull enthusiasts don't seem to care. I guess the breeders influence them to try to forget about that.)

  6. I think we have a new Maul Talk term here "make them your child."

    "Make them your child and they will respond as such, they want to please you," says Mary who runs the Pet-A-Bulls organization.
    It’s a non-kill shelter only for pit bulls.
    “They're the most co-dependable creatures on earth. Problem is when you don't spay or neuter. They need human interaction, the more you treat them like your child the better dog you have," adds Mary.

  7. Dog Lobby SmokeScreen Piece of the Day: July 1987; After 9 of 14 US DBRFs are caused by Pit Bulls in 1986, Mark Paulhus of the HSUS steps in to set the record straight. He ends up being colossally wrong as 229 Americans have been killed by Pit Bulls since he gave his expert opinion. Pit Bulls now kill an average of 18 Americans annually.

  8. Thank you all; I knew that couldn't be true. They are just pulling out that card because this pit wasn't neutered. They use whatever excuse they can to exonerate the pit in any attack. I'm just glad to see more and more comments against pits, and more and more people saying, "We aren't buying your bs anymore!" Thanks in large part to dogsbite.org, and other sites.

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