Re: “Pit bulls too unpredictable”, (Citizen, Jan. 11)
John [McDonald] used a conversation with a police dog trainer to support his claims, which, although I have great respect for these trainers, he is but one person that has an opinion from the perspective of a police dog trainer.
Allow me to explain why I have issues with this. The statement of pit bulls “have a hard bite, hard to break, and they grind, also tear like a shark.” Yes, and so do the terrier breeds because they also were bred to kill, which neither breed would be good for police work when you are needing your police dog to take down a fleeing suspect.
The second statement about their brain “short circuits when it feels threatened or challenged and goes into a fight and kill mode”.
Is he now a veterinarian that specializes in the study of dogs’ brains? And by the way, that potential lies within any dog that feels threatened, not to mention humans have also been known to act the same way.
Despite what some of your readers may be thinking, no, I do not own a pit bull, but as a person that has been running for over 25 years, I have been bitten several times by dogs on trails, and not one of them weighed more than 10 pounds, but you don’t see me writing articles called “Small dogs bite, due to little-dog syndrome brain”. As an owner of a dog running business, I can tell you from personal experience there is no such thing as a bad dog breed; let’s be careful of judging any dog solely on their breed.
Dominica Dorazio Shillito
Duncan