Bob - what's your solution to the problem?
I'd like to hear the unvarnished truth please.
At this point, I don't know if there is a solution. In the area that I live, I see so many people of questionable character, buying Pit Bulls. Many of them buy 2 at a time. They buy this breed because they know it can be an intimidating dog to walk down the street with, and if it growls and snaps at people and other dogs,
hey that's even better. That is the image that they want to project. This is what the residents of these urban communities get to know as a Pit Bull. These citizens don't like these dogs because they are afraid of them, and afraid that their children and their pets will be attacked by them. Add to this the accounts of attacks in the local papers every few months, and this just exacerbates the situation. Anyone that doesn't have that fear walking by one of these out of control dogs, with either his family or his dog, has to be brain dead. These owners couldn't care less about socializing or training these dogs. This is a big group of new Pit Bull owners that are popping up everywhere. Every time people see these owner-dog combinations that I am relating, you make more enemies for this breed. One jerk walking around the dog park next to my house with his snappy untrained PB, has a dozen dog owners already, commenting to each other on his creepy dog and wishing he would either go away or his dog would drop dead.
Right in the Condo complex where presently I live , I have seen three Pit Bulls come and go besides the one that is still here. People adopt the dog, think it is cool to tell their friend they have a Pit Bull, and spend zero time with the dog training it. These people are not the same type of people that are going to get a mixed breed from a shelter, or a Corgi, or a Poodle. They want something that looks
mean, and acts mean and makes them look tough. Usually they get bored with it after a few months and take it to the animal shelter and drop it off. Sometimes they chain it up in their backyard and it stays there all day, day after day, getting meaner and meaner.
Now, do I have a solution for this problem.. Sorry, but I don't. I don't think any of the other people that are posting on this thread do either. I haven't read one solution that has been offered yet, that made any sense. The typical line is ... The dogs are good, it's the owners..... let's go after the owners. OK..... Why don't the ones that feel that way figure out a way to go into the cities, and talk to these people that are buying these dogs for all the wrong reasons , and lecture them on how they should raise their dog..
You and I know that this will never happen... So all this, "Let's get the owners" talk is alot of blowing smoke and hot air. Will the problem get better, probably not. What could make it better would be Pit Bull getting the reputation of not being a mean, scarey , D/A dog and then the current buyers will move onto something else. Right now the Pit Bull is their weapon of choice and that is just the way it is...
So cities like Miami have banned the dog, and to them, they have solved the problem. The citizens are happy and feel safer. If people that would normally buy a PB, then start buying Rottweilers from the same reasons, then the focus will probably switch to that breed. There is nothing that I can see that will do anything to reverse this trend. One thing that doesn't do the anti-ban people any good is to try and make the victim look foolish and that is what happens on many of these threads that I have read on this topic.