I have never been a fan of pit-bulls, or to be more precise pit-bulls with bad owners. And as pit-bulls aren’t required to wear color coded collars showing their owners competence level, they all scare me. As I am a big guy, I have never personally feared for myself with regards to a pit-bull. Not saying I would fare well in a pit-bull fight, but it has always been a fear that my wife, dog, and kids (especially when little) would be attacked by a poorly trained pit-bull when I’m not around to protect them that scares me.

This weekend it happened.

My wife and dog were attacked by a pit-bull while on a walk through our neighborhood. It came out of nowhere. Even though she was not bitten, my wife was pretty sore for a couple of days, but came out of it OK. My wife kicked and beat on the pit-bull until he finally let go of my dog, which received the brunt of the attack.  She is a hero. We immediately took him to the emergency vet to get stitched up. My dog is not small, 50 pounds, and he’s pretty beat up.

We called animal control and a local sheriff came out to take our statement. The sheriff explained all the options and asked what I would like to do. I said “I would like you to find a nice home for the pit-bull and put down the owner.” She stood there not knowing what to say as she didn’t know whether I was serious or not. I finally said that I would like to file an official complaint, to eliminate a little of the social discomfort I was causing. As my wife was obviously still shaken and I was still wiping up drops of blood from my stitched-up dog off the floor, at that moment, I was serious.

The sheriff called a little later and said it went well and the owner had been very apologetic and would be taking his dog to training and only taking the dog into the back yard from now on, and… It all seemed a little late as I listened. My dog, even while groggy on Tramadol, gave the phone the doggy finger.

Now, I am sure there are nice pit-bulls out there. But I think I can safely say there aren’t many nice ones with bad owners. When you are a bad owner of a yorkshire terrier, a dachshund, or bassett hound, your lack of dog ownership skills, while annoying, don’t have life threatening consequences. Even a border collie or lab, while much larger, don’t seem to have that killer instinct that even when poorly trained or mistreated will lead to really dangerous situations. But having a poorly trained and or mistreated pit-bull or Rottweiler in your front yard is like leaving a table full of loaded hand guns for the neighborhood kids to play with.

Now, I will never be a fan of pit-bulls and will always give them a wide berth, but I’m not naive enough to think people won’t continue to own them. But if you’re looking for a dog and have never had one before, or you previously had a dog that didn’t come when you said “Come,” please heed my advice and don’t get a pit-bull. Stick with dogs that can’t do damage to others.

Bottom-line, my wife and dog are afraid to walk in our neighborhood, because someone has a weapon they can’t control. This person probably isn’t a bad person, just a bad dog owner that should have stuck with a Yorkie or better yet gardening.