Another dog attack in the SUN

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2005/01/02/804682-sun.html

Why do people insist on letting their pit bulls (or any other dog) off leash in public areas?

Again, this is the owner's fault because he/she should have insisted that the dog-walker not let the dogs off leash, which is in fact, illegal.

Stupid owners will be the death of the pit bull breed.

While I agree, this was stupid, especially since it bit another boy already, I think we should also be asking the sun whey it hasn't printed anything about the attacks by other dogs in the past few weeks.

It also goes to show that these children need some type of doggy education. This young boy is 11 and he states that he "didn't know how to cover his face".

Toronto has over one million people, and the only dog attack in the last month was a pit bull? I find that hard to belive, I would belive there have been over 30 and one was a pit. But here again one more jerk of an owner, and the media holds the entire breed responsible, after all it can't be the owners fault, that would make to much sence, A mere human takeing responsibility for there actions, no news there, let's blame the breed!
I no longer buy any news papers, they only report what they want you to think, not what you need to know.
Hopefully some young entrepreneur out there will start a paper that reports the real news, not the politicaly sensored news we have now. It seems all the papers are afraid to speak the truth. There was a day if the goverment tried to take away basic civil liberties and flat out lied to the people, the papers would be all over the story, now they pretend it's not really happening.

The only valid solution is prevention and education- as addressed in the Coroner's Inquest into the death of Courtney Trempe - a document that Courtney's mother has indicated she does not believe Attorney General Michael Bryant has even read AND both he and his staff have ignored her calls. Why - because neither she nor the inquest's findings into her daughter's death support breed specific legislation. But as Mr. Bryant's actions indicate, what do they know?

You ask but we already know why the Sun only prints stories about pit bull attacks just as the Winnipeg Sun only prints stories or Shepherd and Rottweiler attacks - it sells papers. Lab bites child in Niagara Falls or German Shepherd jumps fence and bites child in St. Catharines doesn't. :evil:

As I said in another post - board your dogs if they can't be trusted in somebody else's hands or you don't know if somebody else will be responsible with your dogs. It's just not worth it. A lot of reports on attacks lately have the words 'taking care of the dogs' in the story. That's a lot of responsibility to place on somebody else. If you don't board make the rules clear - on leash only.

In this case, it was not even the "owner" but someone else who allowed to dog loose. Gawd!

I wonder what the history is between the dog and the child is though - if they've lived next door, not to blame the child. And while it would be nice if all children knew how to interact with dogs -and any animal for that matter - (I am just lucky my rabbit liked kids because he also liked to bite!! - the fact remains there are families without pets who are not going to teach their children this skill. So it is incumbent on us - when walking a dog - to make sure the pooch does not hurt the child. I always make the chocolate lab I walk (only dog I have in the family at the moment, :) ) sit when we meet anyone with a child. He's a wonderful dog but I still feel I need to be careful!

The problem is a lot of people don't know how to handle a dog. One thing that irritates me is these idiots with small dogs and toy breeds (before I finish, I just want to say that I'm not saying all people with small dogs are idiots, I'm going to talk about a specific set of people with small dogs :) ) who think it's funny when thier dog acts vicious. I've seen these little dogs get snappy and take swipes at people's hands, and they think, what's the big deal, it's not going to hurt anyone. Then when a larger dog does the same thing, suddenly it is a big deal! It's the behaviour that's the issue, not the result. They need to focus on these behaviours, not the results. A dog bite is a dog bite. How many of these people who's dogs have bitten others are not being addressed because of the pending legislation? "Pitbulls are vicious, not other dogs". So the collie down the street bit some kid in the leg who happened to walk by, nothing's done, it must be an anomaly. The pitbull around the corner bit the Cocker Spaniel who was off-leash, the pitbull is put down because they are vicious. And to make things worse, is when people who have smaller dogs, or dogs that aren't deemed to be dangerous (though we know any animal can be) and just laugh off thier dogs anti-social behaviour, get a large breed or stronger dog suddenly have all these problems with thier dogs being vicious, because they continue to do stupid things that are now being noticed. And by the media focusing only on pitbulls is re-inforcing those stereo-types, and doing nobody except the liberals any favours. If any thing, it's going to hurt the general public, because the focus is being put on specific breeds, and not specific training.

(Sorry for the rant, I've had too many owners of vicious 10lb-ers laugh when they try to take my finger off, or get angry when there little "evil covered in fur" threateningly gets in my dogs face, and Daisy's back gets up)

Think about every pit bull / rotty attack that you've read in the SUN and the sensational descriptions.

Here is an attack by a wolf:
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2005/01/05/808107-sun.html

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see as much sensationalism or gory detail in this.

Well I don't know if you know the area but this is one of those areas where pit bulls are status and you are tough and usually a dealer of stolen goods or drugs. So since you have no self esteem you need a dog to be it now you are cool you have a dog that you have made vicious and you barely have control of it and we wonder why these dogs are getting such a bad rap. Lets put down the owners and leave the poor dogs alone they were trained to do this.
P.S. We are talking about the Toronto Scum oops Sun

I'm in Toronto.
I know all too well.......................

Well I don't know if you know the area but this is one of those areas where pit bulls are status and you are tough and usually a dealer of stolen goods or drugs. So since you have no self esteem you need a dog to be it now you are cool you have a dog that you have made vicious and you barely have control of it and we wonder why these dogs are getting such a bad rap. Lets put down the owners and leave the poor dogs alone they were trained to do this.
P.S. We are talking about the Toronto Scum oops Sun

easy there. that's my hood your talking about. :D jones & danny is not that bad.

i agree there are alot of your stereotypical drug dealer types with the mean pitbull in tow, but there are alot of responsible pit owners in the area too. thugs are all over the city though, and in the burbs too. they're not isolated to only a few pockets in the city.

easy there. that's my hood your talking about. :D jones & danny is not that bad.

i agree there are alot of your stereotypical drug dealer types with the mean pitbull in tow, but there are alot of responsible pit owners in the area too. thugs are all over the city though, and in the burbs too. they're not isolated to only a few pockets in the city.

No, you're right, they aren't isolated, but there does seem to be certain areas where they are more prevalent. Either way, I think the real point is that these aren't they typical pitbull owners, but rather the STEREOtypical owners that the majority of problems come from. I think the point is coming out of frustration that the media is only focusing on the dog, not the owner and the purpose of the dog. If this were instead a shooting, then it would be reported differently. If it happens in Richmond Hill, for example, there seems to be large write ups everywhere, and everyone wants to know why it happened. If it happens in, say, the Jane and Finch area, an area that is one of the rougher parts of town, then it is understood (usually) that it is probably the result of some sort of illegal activity (I mean besides the murder part. And that isn't to say that if you live there, you are part of a gang, or involved in illegal activity. I know a few very good people who just happen to live in that part of town) Gunfire there gets a small blurb, while gunfire in suburbia gets a big write up. But when there is a pitbull attack, no one in the media looks at who is owning the dogs, if it is a "rough" neighbourhood, or anything. They condemn the breed for being evil and having one purpose--attack and kill people.

Anyway, I don't want to see people get thier backs up over condemning a part of town. I think it is just a frustration that no one is looking at why people have the dogs before they make a judgement. I saw this conversation take a bad turn in a previous thread, I don't want to see it happen again. (Don't make me turn this thread around and go home! :D )

I wasn't taking a poke at pitbull owners in Toronto. I've met alot of good ones.
Sorry, if it came across that way.

What I meant was:
I've been called each and everyone of those things, in Toronto, simply because I'm a guy that owns a pitbull.

Now I'm gonna shut up.

I wasn't taking a poke at pitbull owners in Toronto. I've met alot of good ones.
Sorry, if it came across that way.

What I meant was:
I've been called each and everyone of those things, in Toronto, simply because I'm a guy that owns a pitbull.

Now I'm gonna shut up.


Please don't shutup , all too often in the interest of not offending anyone we keep our thoughts and the truth from being spoken. The fact of the matter here is " I am offended as are many others " . First by our government for not addressing the previously mentioned underlying problem with the majority of these dog attacks and secondly by the politically correct minority that seems to have taken over the continent .
If we are speaking the truth why are we so afraid to say it ? Nothing will change the problems in our society if we all remain silent in the interest of not offending anyone to the point of becoming offended ourselves.