Owner Attacked by Dog and Loses Arms: Was it Provoked or Out of the Blue?

[renie408]

130. Another false equivalency...I think, I might be confusing my logical fallacies...

"Pit bulls are more likely to be dog aggressive than human aggressive, if you want to talk about what they were bred for. They weren't bred for generations to tear people apart, but other dogs."

My Lab mix wasn't bred to retrieve balls; he was bred to retrieve birds. But throw that ball, and by God, he will bring it back every time. Or a stick or a piece of trash. Basically, you throw it, he is bringing it back.

I swear, I love dogs. All dogs. We have several Pit mixes in the family and they are all good dogs. But saying that they are just like any other dog is NOT doing them a service. You end up with people who should probably not have a Pit Bull under their car with their arms chewed off and another black mark against the breed. It would seem smarter to me to say "With good handling by the right kind of owner, Pit Bulls can make fantastic family dogs. However, they are not for everybody."

I train horses and have made a modest success of retraining off the track Thoroughbreds. Because they are bred for a great deal of flight and have been through race training, these horses are just not for everybody. They are strong, sensitive and QUICK when they get upset. They also seem to have a harder time calming themselves down once they get upset, so that presents a whole 'nother layer...Anywho, right now we have two in the barn that were sent to us as a last resort by owners who said that their other option was putting the horse down because they were dangerously unpredictable.

Bullshit.

They are great horses. One I have taken as my own personal horse and he is just as good as gold. The other is going to make a great horse for the right rider some day soon. But they are thin skinned, smart animals who tend to over react and work much, much better under someone who is non-reactive and uses firm, kind methods of handling. They are not for everybody. Now, I could go around saying that the prejudice against Thoroughbreds is unjust, or I can acknowledge that some people really should stick with a dead head QH. But pretending that they are not what they are is not going to do them any good. They wind up in the wrong hands with people who think they are dangerous and need to be put down.