10 Myths About Pit Bulls

A few weeks ago I attended the Pet Days at the Orange County Marketplace. I had the chance to talk to several different dog rescues and even met several loving dogs who were up for adoption. Not surprisingly (to me) some of the friendliest dogs I met were Pit Bulls. Many of you now might be thinking: What are you talking about? Aren’t Pit Bulls mean vicious dogs bred solely for dog fighting. That’s hardly the case.

10 Myths About Pit Bulls

One of the rescues (I’m not too sure which one or I’d add a link here) had some great information on 10 Myths About Pit Bulls. Here’s the list I received from the rescue:

1. Pit bulls have locking jaws. They can’t let go even if they want to.
2. Once they bite down, a pit bull will not let go. You can’t even pry its jaws apart if you kill it.
3. Pit bulls are genetically bred to kill people.
4. Pit bulls are not good for anything except dogfighting.
5. Pit bulls are very aggressive.
6. Pit bulls can not be trained or controlled.
7. Pit bulls are unpredictable; they can turn on anyone, even their owner, at any time.
8. Pit bulls do not feel pain.
9. If a pit bull bites down and tastes blood, they will become aggressive and unstoppable.
10. Pit bulls have jaw muscles that can clamp down with (insert high number here) PSI of pressure.

All of the above rumors/myths are completely absurd and untrue of a Pit bull.

Fatal Dog Attack Statistics

Here are a few interesting facts about fatal dog attacks:

• 2000-2001 there were 41 fatal dog attacks. Of these, 28 were attacks by a single dog (the other 13 were caused by multiple dogs).
• Of the 28 single dog attack fatalities: 26 were male, 2 were female. Of the 26 males, 21 were found to be intact (the reproductive status of the remaining 5 male dogs could not be determined).
• Of the 448 cases of fatal dog attacks from 1965 – 2002, there is NO documented case where a single, neutered, American Pit bull terrier was teh cause of a human fatality.

Source: Karen Delise, Fatal Dog Attacks (www.fataldogattacks.com)

Those are some pretty amazing statistics.

My Experience With Pit bulls

A couple of our best friends are a Pit bulls. Bubba and Finn are friends with Derby, Linus, and Stetson and all of them get along really well. Bubba and Finn are two of the sweetest kindest dogs we know and also very well trained.

As I mentioned earlier some of the nicest dogs we met at the Pet Days were Pit bulls and if we were in the dog adoptions market we wouldn’t hesitate to adopt a Pit bull.

Do you own a Pit bull? Would you consider adopting a Pit bull a your next dog?