Michael, I think the idea that it is the child's fault, if he or is she is mauled by a dog is idiotic. Children have to be taught how to behave appropriately with animals and they have to be supervised according to their age. Each situation is different, but those of us in society that are supposed to be adults have a responsibility to make sure children are safe. This goes for the parents, as well as dog owners. Parents do have the ability to watch their children and to suggest anything else is a "cop out." Finally, you stated in your post that you couldn't imagine a parent knowingly allowing their child to be in that kind of situation. Well, it does happen quite frequently unfortunately. Read more stories about children being mauled by dogs and you will find that out.

It seems to me that BSL is simply an appeasement ploy to make uneducated people feel safer as it does not address the human problem. I am, however, willing to hear both sides of the argument. BSL is in place in many areas. Have there been any studies from reputable un-biased sources on its effectiveness?

Actually, so many of the kids are basically still in training pants that you can't expect to realize the danger.
And when I read detailed reports about what the parents are doing just before their children are killed ( it oftens goes like "well...I was sitting down with Billy Bob and we had just opened our beers when we heard the screaming..." )
Honestly, read some of the detailed after actions report of some of these Pit Bull killings. The irresponsible behavior of the parents is often amazing. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Janelle, I would say that it is parents and children that are at fault. Before my family had our first dog my friends and I had the terrible habit of teasing a couple of chained up, mean dogs in our neighborhood. My parents would've gone ballistic on me if they knew about it ( I have responsible parents). It is a wonder I never was bit. After we got our first dog, I became much more responsible. But as the saying goes, kids will be kids. If they were around and let me do it, they would have been at fault. The situation is not black and white. We can't blame parents for what their children do when they are out playing. I did plenty of things my parents told me not to do, it's part of growing up.

Back to the topic at hand. Having legislature about a particular breed of dogs to try and make areas safer is somewhat out of place. I would say that having laws in place that make dog owners more responsible for their dogs actions, with stiffer penalties in place, would be a better solution.

Sure, you could blame the kids for the dogs killing them. But, I think you would march to the beat of a differnt drum, if it was your kid that was ripped to pieces and had to be put back together so there could be an open casket, so your wife and famliy could see your dead kid one more time.

In some cases kids might be to blame. But, what about the 2 year olds, or the 10 year old just out riding the new bike you got him for his birthday? And, even if some kids are to blame and they were picking on the dog, do they really deserve to die for it? Hell, kids pick on me when I was young in school, I did not kill them, hell I was only 8 years old, so, I did not have any lodgic it was befor the age of reason, maybe I should have killed them.

Any man that would take a dogs life over a humans life is a fool and has never seen death first hand. Thats beyond liberal, that just dipsh*t.

Dave.

O, by the way. I was not talking about anyone person on the forum. I was just saying as a hole.

Dave.

quote:

Janelle, I would say that it is parents and children that are at fault. Before my family had our first dog my friends and I had the terrible habit of teasing a couple of chained up, mean dogs in our neighborhood. My parents would've gone ballistic on me if they knew about it ( I have responsible parents). It is a wonder I never was bit.

unquote:

We had a recent episode involving a tethered GSD, a 3 year old and an 18 year old baby-sitter who failed to see the hazard...3 year old badly mauled, dog destroyed, etc.

The baby-sitter got blamed and maybe she deserved some.

However IMO the major responsibility was the owner of the tethered GSD, who had it on his land but accessible to a three year old.

The public and police missed the point in this case: that to tether a GSD is to make it more defensive and aggressive (ie hazardous), that it is a stupid way to keep a dog, and that if you are going to tether a dog you have just increased the hazard, and this is not a suitable way to protect the public: for that, fences and kennels.

Bottom line is any reasonable person will agree with public policy that keeps kids safe and lets kids be kids.

If we don't like BSL then alternatives all have to focus on public safety.

Any argument that "kids should be less stupid" or pay for stupidity with bites is ridiculous.

Most dog bites that happen to children are directly related to irresponsible parents making a boneheaded mistake. Every study has borne that out over and over again.
Parential responsibilty is declining in this country, along with a big increase in the "victimhood" attitude of people. It's always someone else's fault when something bad happens. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

It's a shame that it's the children that have to pay for the mistakes of the parents.

I'm curious about who decides whether an animal is or is not a certain breed when there's BSL in place. I looked at the now-famous "find the Pit Bull" chart, with a couple dozen clear photos of different dogs, thinking I'd have zero problem picking out the real Pit Bull. Ho ho ho. I was a pathetic failure, and when I showed it to the vets in the medium-size practice I go to, they were worse. And all six people involved chose different pictures for their 1st, 2nd, etc. The single overlap in everyone's group of choices, btw, was NOT the real Pit Bull. I imagine most people on this board have seen this photo-group by now, but if not, I can tell you that they are not tricks, artificially posed, etc. I think any of the photos involved, all of DIFFERENT BREEDS, could and would be considered Pit Bulls by the general public and lots of experts.

I don't support BSL but wanted to share a really funny link my friend from Australia sent:
Funny Dog Disquise

And Mike...there's even one there for your GSD <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />