I used to have a Pitbull, such a beautiful girl, who one day chased and killed one of our cats she’d grown up with. My friend had her brother, such a beautiful boy, who one day chased and killed one of their cats.
Last week, on my lifestyle block, two Pitbulls appeared and killed my chickens before I could stop them. I chased the fuckers off but haven’t found where they came from.
That is all.
That’s not just Pitbull behavior though. That’s called prey drive and a lot of breeds have that. Some everyone expects like Greyhounds and Bulldogs. But it’s also present in breeds like Golden Retrievers, Bassett Hounds, and Irish Setters. Are we going to ban Golden’s next? They can also feature the fun perk, protectiveness, where they go after anyone who gets close to their human. And any dog can become reactive.
And any dog can become reactive.
Any cat can give you a scratch or a bite, it’s just worse if the cat is a tiger. That’s why most places do allow a small pet cat and not a tiger.
Sausage dogs are extremely tough dogs with a lot of prey drive, because they were bred to hunt alone for example a dodger badger underground defending its home. They bite often, are often (pro-)reactive but if someone dies through them it is an old lady stumbling over the leash and breaking her neck, not the dog ripping her guts out.
What is a dodger? When I Google it all I get is the baseball team. Like an animal that is dodging the dog?
How many Basset Hound owners are wannabe tough guys? Not trying to excuse the behaviour, but there is definitely at least a correlation between behaviour of the dogs and that of their owners.
I’ll take the dogs that are less prone to “prey drive” thank you very much. You don’t really see Goldens or Bassetts mauling small creatures or humans.
Tbh amstaffs are quite low on the prey drive. Small terriers, dachshunds, schnauzers, pointers, setters and dalmatians on the other hand have a very big prey drive.
I mean, they are not called hunting dogs, retriever, setter or pointers for nothing. And small terriers have for centuries been bred to kill every rat, mice and what have you in their vincinity.
But yeah, in the end all dogs are predators. And if you let them go unchecked bad things will happen. Especially when you have a powerful breed.
Cats do the same BTW. But for some reason we’re OK with dead mice and birds around the house.
All in all its the same discussion as with guns (and cars): guns don’t kill people, people kill people. And with dogs it’s more or less the same: bad or owners who are Inattentive will Allmost always result in big problems.
And while I do love amstaffs, they can be such chill and fun hunks of love, I can’t deny that they do real damage, more damage when left unchecked and we should probably regulate ownership like with guns and cars.
I do not think outright banning a breed is the solution. Because other breeds are just as susceptible to bad ownership. It will not solve it. The problem will just move away from amstaffs back too rottweilers and dobermans. Or another big powerful breed.
Like with guns we should make it harder for the assholes to acquire one. And like with cars you should prove yourself to be able to take care of one.
