OT - Another reason to hate Ohio (The State) - Insane dog attack laws

I'm sorry to hear about your dog being attacked and I hope he/she recovers.  The issue, as it usually is, if with the owner of the pitbull and not the breed.  Because dogs (and all pets) are typically treated as property and not living creatures for legal purposes you tend to have fewer ways of punishing bad owners.  

When we lived in the Bronx SO MANY wanna-be tough guys would pay $2k for a pitbull or pitbull-adjacent dog and then fail to treat it well or train it appropriately.  Then there would be families who also got pitbulls, took them to training classes, and they'd be the sweetest dogs in the world.  Heck, my dog's best dog friends were typically pitbulls and German Shepherds.  By comparison, I've only been bitten twice in my life by a dog and both times it was a "family" dog - Golden Retriever and some Poodle mix.

I am sorry for your dog but this is a stupid thread. It's also filled with misinformation that has real consequences for people in this county that have "pitbull" dogs in their family.  You want to know why it's kosher to have pitbull bans that can tear apart famalies - it's because bullshit like this thread. 

I live in Ohio and have a complaint with my local town council - should I also bring this to the MgoBoard?  This is better suited for Nextdoor or your own Facebook.

So maybe this is just the backwoods Indiana hillbilly that is running through my veins, but I would be prepared to put that dog down myself if it steps foot on my property again. It is unfortunate that this dog may have to pay the price of its owner being subpar, but a dog that is willing to do that to you will be willing to do it to someone else. Next time it may not be an adult, but a kid. 

I hate to hear that. I'm glad you and your dog weren't fatally injured.

Laws are not much better in Chicago.  Last summer my wife (Elite marathoner) was on a jog with our 10 YO son when our neighbors 3 dogs ran out of their home and viciously attacked.  My wife kept herself between the dogs and my son and took the brunt - significant and permanent damage to her entire left side of body - 10 days hospital stay.  Courts here would do nothing even though attack was caught on our cameras.  Dogs were not placed on any lists and no consequences for the dog owner.

The ordinance in our city and the law in Michigan is "not on you property must be leashed."

Sorry to hear about your experience. I live in west Michigan, and the laws here are similar. We experienced two pit mixes attack our golden, unprovoked. My dog came out of it relatively well with just some minor punctures on each of his ears. The two attackers were probably 60-65# each and had my 100# golden at their mercy. I actually rear naked choked the alpha and had him off my dog for maybe a couple seconds (the event moved so slowly in my mind when it happened, I recalled thinking as the dog released my dogs ear, 'huh - I now have an attacking dog on top of me...'), then he got himself free and was back on the bite. I got up and kicked the other dog in the throat which made him release my dog. The owner then was able to get the alpha off my dog and get them both inside. 

I live in a nice neighborhood of executive/custom homes, and my neighbors lived up to the niceness of the neighborhood - offered to pay the vet bill, etc. Animal Control could only issue them a fine as it was a 'first offense'. This lead me to ponder my options to keep my dog and wife safe when walking by this home, should the dogs break free again. Best advice, bear spray. Offers protection at a distance, and won't injure or kill a human caught in the mix. I had several people suggest a CPL, but in a neighborhood, there is just too much risk for that. Even today, I still would prefer those two dogs were taken and put down, but the law is what it is. I never had a huge beef against pitties a kid of mine had two and they were the sweetest things, but there is something in that breed, and now my opinion of them has changed. I just hope the dogs don't turn on a person, or the kids in their own home.

I know people are going to come rushing in with this comment, and, yes, pit bulls are very sweet (with their owners). BUT, having had a dog in a lot of high density residential areas, I’ve been attacked countless times and it’s almost always a pit or pit-dominant mix. They have that killer instinct and are VERY defensive and territorial. I wish we could do away with the breed honestly. I get some of you are reading this with your innocent pitbull licking your face but when you’re not around, that thing has the potential to be a murderer. And those dogs, having been bred to fight, are nearly impossible to beat without a weapon. They’re mainly why I carry on my dog walks. I have a stun gun as shooting anything is way too big of a legal thing.

Wow. Very sorry this happened to you and your dog, and best wishes to her for a speedy recovery.

Buy a gun and carry while walking your dog. 

Fuck Ohio

Dog whistle here for some blatantly racist attitudes and I am shocked that this thread has been allowed to stand for so longer.  The anti-pit bull rhetoric is rooted in racism stemming out of the thought that certain people primarily own these dogs.  There's a reason why pitbulls were long considered a "family dog" - even the dog from little rascals was a "pitbull"! - and why they no longer have that reputation. And hint, it's not because the dog changed.  

Here's a score card for those playing along at home. I'm pretty sure we're close to a BINGO in this thread already.

Garbage breed that's by and large owned by garbage people. Neg away, fuck you and your pibble.

Well dog's aren't people, so holding them to laws written for humans would be dumb. Sucks what happened to your dog, but it's the shitty owner who should be penalized, not the dog. A dog being aggressive or fighting another dog is pretty normal. The issue is the owner not keeping their dog contained/controlled. 

The problem with Pit Bulls is there are a ton of terrible pit owners out there. Then compound it with pit lovers defend the breed every time something bad happens instead of demanding accountability with the entire pit owner community. In the 70's and 80's there was a problem with Rottweilers, Dobermans, and German Shepherds. The difference then and now is owners and lovers of those breeds first response wasn't to defend the breed as though they were not a risk, but to acknowledge the risk of the breeds and the to police out all the bad owners until the breeds were for the most part going to owners who could properly train the breeds. We do not see the same with the pit community. The breeders of pits will sell them to anyone who will pay knowing the community as a whole won't demand better. 

That being said, the death by dog for years now has been 70% by pit bulls. That's more deaths than all breeds combined. However, only about 32 deaths by dog happen each year, so you are more likely to die in a natural disaster than by a dog, but if you are going to die by a dog, it is overwhelmingly most likely going to be by a pit. 

I am not against pits in any form, but I am against the pit communities blind defense without actively policing out the bad owners. No one should who isn't an experienced and dedicated dog owner should ever own any of the breeds I have mentioned, but there is a reason so many bad owners are now pit owners, breeders know there won't be the same demand from the pit community to only sell the breed to responsible owners as there was in the Rottweiler, Doberman, and German Shepherd community. 

Until the pit community's first response isn't to tell how sweet their dog is, but to first acknowledge it is a dangerous dog and demand only responsible owners and breeders be in the community, we will still see these kinds of incidents. 

I'm fully aware that I will be attacked by pit owners instead of them acknowledging the truth of what I said. But, I don't care. I've been through it before. I don't want to ban the breed, I want the community to take responsibility as a whole and police out the bad owners and breeders.

I once lived with a pit.  I was like the defenders in this thread.  It was raised from a puppy with nothing but love.  It showered every human it met with kisses and tail wags. Then one day a dog pissed it off.  Who knows why.  Maybe the dog was an asshole.   The pit got away from the woman walking it.  They were scraping the other dogs entrails off the sidewalk for days.  

I no longer own pits.  I dont know whether or not they are human aggressive, but they are ticking time bombs with other dogs.

Sorry to hear that this happened to you and your dog, but the owner is a fucking moron. Legislation against negligent owners would be an amazing place to start.