A pit bull nearly kills a child, the attack is hushed up but then the mother starts squawking...

What does any good pit bull propogandist do in this dire situation? 

1.  Deny the breed
2.  Talk about Petey, Helen Keller, and the first World War.
3.  Spout garbage about "the perfect family dog" and "nanny dogs".
4.  First there was the "Decade of the Doberman"!
5.  Blame huskies (if you're in Canada) and chihuahuas.
6.  Tell us that every dog over 50 lbs is a ticking time bomb just waiting for the      opportunity to kill a child.

And Bill Bruce has managed a 6 for 6, with a couple of twists even I am impressed with!

1. “Basically, we don’t have a definition,” he says. "It’s not an exact science.”

2. "Petey was an endearing Staffordshire terrier made popular by The Little Rascals.
The TV-show pooch harkens to a time when pit bull-type dogs were not saddled with the label.

They were a decorated hero dog during the First World War, Helen Keller owned one, and renowned dog expert, Cesar Millan defied stereotypes with his sweet pit bull, Daddy.
3. Once touted as the perfect family dog, they are now maligned in public perception as nothing more than a toothy, ticking time-bomb, indisputably, with the power to launch devastating attacks."  (okay, these quotes are from the reporter, not from Bruce directly, but I'm guessing where she got her information)

4. “In the early 1900s the bloodhound was the devil dog, in the ’60s it was the German shepherd, in the ’70s it was the Doberman pincer, then it was the Rotweiller and then it was the era of pit bulls,” Bruce says (did he actually say pincer and misspell Rottweiler or is the grammar and spelling of reporters really going to the dogs?)
 
5.  Bruce says huskies are behind the bulk of human fatalities caused by dogs in Canada.
 
"The worst bite I saw was by a 15-lb chihuahua cross which took a (chunk) almost as big as a tennis ball out of a person’s leg,” he says." 
 
6. “Bites are worst than ever in Ontario since the legislation,” Bruce says. “If you do not train it, do not control it and it is left unattended with children or running at large, all large dogs can and will bite,” he says.
 
But my personal favorite quote from Bill doesn't fit in the top 6, in fact I've never quite seen anything like it before.  A new trend, perhaps?
 
"The pit bull attacked, likely in a bid to offer protection, when its owner began throwing punches at his girlfriend.

His owner told city officials to euthanize it.

It was a done deal but heartbreaking, says Bruce, given the darling pooch passed behaviour assessments with flying colours.

“Her only offence was being a pit bull,” Bruce says of the case several years ago in Calgary where two people were bitten by their own dog"

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Now, the only case of a pit bull attacking its owners and being put down in Calgary that I can recall showing up in the news occurred in March of 2009.  The dog attacked the man first, then the woman, and the man was unable to free the woman from the dog's grip.  The responding police officers had to taser the dog 3 times to subdue it.  The only article still in existence that I could locate regarding that attack was this one:

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/dog-attacks-owner-couple-to-stop-their-fight_100172622.html

Dog attacks owner couple to stop their fight

March-28-09 9:05:49 PM by IANS ( Leave a comment )

Toronto, March 29 (IANS) A fight between a Canadian couple upset their faithful dog so much that he attacked them to end the fight.

But in the process, the dog bloodied the husband and his wife so badly that they had to be rushed to hospital for multiple stitches.

The incident happened Friday night in Calgary city when a pit bull cross got angry as it saw his masters fighting. According to Calgary Herald, the pit bull cross attacked its owners when the couple began shouting at each other loudly.

A police spokesman told the newspaper said the attack began just before 9 p.m. when the argument between the man and woman became nasty.

The dog first attacked the man and then the woman.

“The man managed to get the dog off, but the woman could not,” said the police spokesman.

“They were both bitten very seriously, all over their bodies, head, face, neck, arms, everywhere,” he added.

The bleeding couple were immediately rushed to hospital where they received multiple stitches for bite injuries.

Ed Karout, a neighbour who witnessed the attack, told the newspaper, the dog was “all over” the woman. “The dog was actually bitting at her and pulling at her.

“It was pretty bad.”

He said, “I saw blood all over her shirt. She was trying to get into the house. (The man) was trying to pull her in, and the (dog was) dragging her back out.”

He said he started honking his horn to distract the dog, but it didn’t work.

The dog was captured and handed over to veterinary authorities, police said.

More at : Dog attacks owner couple to stop their fight http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/dog-attacks-owner-couple-to-stop-their-fight_100172622.html#ixzz0yXiFSCEc
 
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The dog's "only offense" was certainly not being a pit bull, it was savagely and relentlessly attacking 2 people for 10 to 15 minutes and sending them both to the hospital.   And that dog was a male - I remember Bruce making mewling noises about it not being neutered and it being "dominant".  Was there another attack that didn't make the news or is he just forgetting things?

So Alphie wasn't the first dangerous pit bull that passed Calgary's behaviour assessment with "flying colours"?  Methinks Calgary needs a new behaviour assessment tool.