Just a ‘bad moment?’

Last Wednesday, a 7-year-old LaSalle boy was tragically killed by three pit bulls and a mixed breed dog. The following comments were made in an article dated Aug, 27 about the tragedy.

“Though pit bulls were involved in the attack, Bureau County Humane Society Director Nancy Bland said she doesn’t think the breed itself is the problem. People once considered German Shepherds, Dobermans and Rottweilers as dangerous breeds.”

My first reaction to this is what does Ms. Bland mean by people once considered shepherds, Dobermans, and Rottweilers as dangerous breeds. If I were walking in my neighborhood and one of these breeds ran up to me, I would be terrified. My guess is that most people would feel that way.

Bureau County Sheriff John Thompson agreed with Bland that the problem of dangerous dogs cannot be targeted at one breed. In his research, he’s learned pit bulls (pit terriers) were once bred to be a companion dog to children.

I don’t think too many parents would want their children petting a stray pit bull.

My curiosity was stirred. Am I unnecessarily frightened by the docile Dobermans and pit bulls. I did some research to alleviate any fears I may have due to the local experts feeling that these breeds pose no problems.

Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People, has conducted an unusually detailed study of dog bites from 1982 to the present. (Clifton, Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. and Canada, September 1982 to Nov. 13, 2006.) The Clifton study show the number of serious canine-inflicted injuries by breed. The author’s observations about the breeds and generally how to deal with the dangerous dog problem are enlightening.

According to the Clifton study, “Pit bulls, Rottweilers, Presa Canarios and their mixes are responsible for 74 percent of attacks that were included in the study, 68 percent of the attacks upon children, 82 percent of the attacks upon adults, 65 percent of the deaths, and 68 percent of the maimings. In more than two-thirds of the cases included in the study, the life-threatening or fatal attack was apparently the first known dangerous behavior by the animal in question.”