Are some people stupid

No, don`t ban the breed ban the breeding.

 

I think part of the problem is that however placid a dog may be, when a baby who needs and has a lot of attention paid to it is brought into the dogs domain they like children tend to get jealous just like children and take their revenge, therefore should not be trusted.

 

Clueless - I think all animals have a placid and an agressive side. Crocodiles can be very gentle with their young, but I still wouldn't trust one. I think it is the potential of the aggressive side that has to be considered. And that is a reason why I would never trust a Staffordshire terrier. Most of the cases in the news of childred killed by dogs have been by Pit Bulls or Staffordshire terriers.

I don't think much agression has been bred out. Firstly, there is no incentive. Staffordshires are prized as aggressive dogs, so why breed it out. There will still be many people trying to breed it in. And secondly, even if there were a concerted effort to breed it out, it would take tens of years. It took a long time to breed it in.

I think as gardeners we are all aware that species and cultivars are bred to be different. To say that they are all the same would upset many breeders of both dogs and plants.

 

Staffordshire Bull Terriers don't have the same temperament as Pit Bulls. They are no less trustworthy than, say, border collies or labradors. They get a lot of bad press because people associate them with Pit Bulls due to their similar appearance.

There was a Jack Russell involved. These are known to be nasty, and in fact are bred for it, more so than Staffys. As far as I know it is still legal (or if not then it was recently) to use dogs in pest control to seek out and destroy rats, rabbits and other prolific pests. They very much have the instinct to attack small creatures. In dog mentality, if one member of the pack attacks, they all join in, regardless of breed. I'm not saying that in this instance the Jack Russell started it but then we can't assume the staffy started it either. We can safely assumed that one started it and the other joined in (that's how dogs work), and I personally would be more suspicious of the Jack Russell.

In any case the fact is that anyone who knows anything about dogs would not let any dog anywhere near a baby unless the dog was being securely held away by someone strong enough to hold it securely. Dogs can move their heads, and jaws with surprising speed and without warning. This is true of any breed of dog. We have to remember that regardless of breed, dogs are predators and they are pack animals. They also have very sensitive hearing which could be upset by the noises that babies make, and they have an instict to chase and catch anything that moves suddenly, like a baby waiving its arms about and wriggling as they often do.

 

I think Pit Bulls and Staffordshire terriers are closely related. I found this on the workingpitbull site :-

 

Nonsense is a staff the same as a lab, and the aggression hasn`t ever been bred out of them it has been intensified-after all who will pay £400 for a mongrel?

Maybe there would be less euthanasia amongst mongrels if so called animal lovers actually loved animals rather than the status of owning a pure breed.

 

Are dogs that different from people?

There are agressive people who do very similar things, or even worse.

 

I agree with you Pete, dogs are not that different from people, so lets line up a few of them and neuter/spay them too.

 

I`d go further and put them down.

 

Hey, yeah Claire, would save lots of tax payers money. $$$$$$ But those poor social service people who want to save everyone would be out of a job, OH MY.

 

Poor social service people, Red? You want to look up baby P, to see what social workers in this country can be like. As far as this baby`s death goes, I fervently believe the grandmother should be prosecuted for death by neglect.

 

Fine to prosecute and criticize the grandmother but any atempt to blame the breed is IMO wrong.

 

How have I blamed the breed? I`ve not even blamed the dogs, just the grandmother.

 

David, Claire and I were continuing a vein of thought, That in general, if we fix certain people (my suggestion) or put down certain people (Claire's suggestion) Then because these people would not be around or to procreate ---then the social service people would have less to do or be out of a job.
We were just generalizing David.

And earlier I also stated that the Grandmother was neglectful.

 

Ok, David, I looked up Baby P on google. Sounds like the social service folk are worthless and/ or the system is big time flawed. Unfortunately, with social services, even here, there are so many needs and little workers. Also, there are "rights" that social services workers have to follow. And let me tell you if a social service person steps in to quickly because of a gut feeling and not perfect documentation, that family can bring a law suite for some such thing, privacy interference, or some wording.
It is a shame what happened to Baby P. poor lad.