Dogs deserve respect, but owners must use care

Family pets mauled two siblings, ages 2 and 5 months, last month in Tennessee.

The attacks left the children’s mother with grave injuries after she threw herself on top of the older child to shield her. Nevertheless, both children died.

The dogs were pit bulls.

According to the mother’s friend, quoted in USA Today, the animals had been with the family for eight years and had given no indication of being aggressive. Authorities are investigating, and both dogs have been euthanized.

America has a love affair with canines. The American Veterinary Medical Association says some 38.4% of American households have dogs, but other sources estimate almost twice as many.

Whatever the exact number, millions of dogs and dog owners live in the United States, with the vast majority going about their business without incident.

Pit bulls, many owners would say, have been unfairly vilified and singled out as “dangerous.” The AVMA notes on its website that “any dog can bite: big or small, male or female, young or old.”

The organization does not support breed-specific legislation. Instead, it recommends laws that designate specific animals as dangerous, based on that animal’s history.

This position is sensible. A dog that bites is a dog that bites, after all, meaning that if an animal attacks once, it is likely to do it again. Protecting the community from that animal by requiring the owners to take certain steps, up to and including euthanization, is warranted.

However, for a particular dog to be designated as dangerous, a dangerous incident must occur. Here is the problem with waiting for an attack − someone gets hurt before the animal is identified.

The nonprofit DogsBite.org says that pit bulls contributed to 67% of the 568 American deaths from dog bites from 2005 to 2020.

Some readers will see such numbers as a scare tactic, pointing out that dog-attack fatalities over a 16-year period are minuscule compared to the 647,000 U.S. deaths annually from heart disease or 1,670 per day from cancer. No argument there.

The AVMA also notes the challenge of correctly identifying dog breeds, especially with mixed breeds. It can be hard to tell a dog’s breed by the way it looks, so some dangerous dogs may be incorrectly labeled as pit bulls. That’s not fair.

So, these statistics should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt.

Still, the numbers would be enough for me, if I had small children, to think long and hard before introducing a pit bull into the family. Or to allow a pit bull to remain, even if it were a long-standing part of the household, once I had children.

Yes, there may be a prejudice among the public regarding the breed. And perhaps pit-bull attacks have gained greater traction in the media than attacks by other breeds. I have no doubt that many pit bulls are gentle, lovable and loyal toward family and friends, just as some terriers and toy poodles are vicious.

Despite what the law in a particular community might or might not dictate, is it worth the chance?

Pit bulls feel too risky, like having an open well on the property but not fixing it because nobody has fallen in yet.

I can’t imagine the pain of owners who shrug off the risks or pooh-pooh the warnings, only to have their pet attack a passerby or a family member. Did they look at the numbers and still convince themselves that their case was the exception?

Because it’s better to be unfair to a dog breed a million times over than to a child even once.

Reach Chris at chris.schillig@yahoo.com. On Twitter: @cschillig.