Deadly dog attacks have come to this: Ban pit bulls statewide
by The Bay City Times
Sunday April 19, 2009

We have had it with vicious dogs in Michigan, particularly the types known as pit bull terriers.

Ban the breeds.

Dogs have mauled four people to death in Michigan since September. Pit bulls severely mauled two people in Saginaw County last month. A Bay City man wrote in the People's Forum on this page to thank passersby for rescuing him and his dog last month from two attacking pit bulls in the city's South End. Fed up with the danger, a Saginaw man is trapping stray pit bulls in his neighborhood.

Just last week, sheriff's deputies killed on the spot three vicious dogs - described as a Australian shepherd-blue heelers mix - suspected in the death of a 41-year-old Huron County man. In September, a Rottweiler killed a 4-month-old girl in Warren. A day later, two American bulldogs attacked and killed two people in Livingston County. In 2006, a Hamtramck couple's two pit bulls killed their 6-year-old daughter.

It's a rampage of horror by animals that are supposed to be pets.

Vicious dogs have no place in society.

There would be a great hue and cry for action if these deadly attacks had come from wild animals.

Yet, bizarrely, we tolerate dog breeds among us that we know are selected, bred and raised to be stone killers.

No more.

A statewide ban on pit bull breeds and harsh penalties for the owner of any dog that mauls a human are in order.

Pit bull owners and admirers will say, as they have when a few Michigan municipalities started such bans, that it isn't fair to pick on a certain breed of dog.

Oh yes it is.

The frightening reputation of pit bulls didn't just pop out of nowhere.

Pit bull terriers are fighting dogs. Often, they are raised for illegal dog fights. Too many owners mistreat them into meanness for a twisted, macho-man display. Pit bulls are the tough-guy dog of choice.

Raised in cruelty, dogs can and do grow into vicious killers.

Four-legged sticks of dynamite that explode into attack mode if anything lights their fuse.

The flip side, of course, is that many pit bull owners are kind to their pets. Their dogs are well-mannered and friendly. We've met some of them; nice dogs.

So why not just ban vicious dogs, and not pick on pit bulls?

It's easier to spot the breed, which has a known history of mistreatment and killing, than the behavior. By the time a person discovers a dog is vicious, they're already under attack.

A pit bull ban isn't a novel idea. That great nation of dog lovers, the United Kingdom, outlawed "bully" breeds in 1991. The Canadian province of Ontario, our neighbors, banned the breed in 2005.

In contrast, scattered municipal ordinances in Michigan are all bark, with little bite.

Enact a statewide ban. Model it on Ontario's or the UK's. Responsible owners of docile pit bulls might be allowed to have their pets tested for aggression, registered and microchipped.

It's too bad that it has come to this for pit bulls, the poor things. Almost any dog, including this breed, can be bred and raised into a great pet or working companion - or both.

But this dog has been abused. Through society's and breeders' failure to police the breed, its reputation for savagery now precedes it.

Ban the breed. And aggressively prosecute the owner of any vicious dog, of any type.

Some dog owners will howl in outrage.

Consider, though, the price of doing nothing. Four dead in Michigan, in eight months. Killed by "pets."

That's the outrage.