The emails started arriving fast and furious on the 4th. A 12 year old boy was killed by the family pet Pit bulls when his mother left the home for a few hours. On the numerous professional on-line training lists I am on, links to different articles, blogs and personal commentary has been flowing steadily ever since.

Should I post some of these links on my blog I wondered to myself? No I thought, I love so many Pitbulls, it would be a disservice to add fuel to the already raging fire against them.
But I looked over at my own 12 year old boy playing his X-Box and I was torn. As I was mulling it over I heard an "animal behaviorist" on CNN claiming that children should never be more than an arm reach away from a grown up around any dog.
Sorry-that is just not true. True for kids at dog parks, and younger children, but this boy was 12 years old and he was home alone. 12 is an age where most kids have had a taste of parental freedom for a while. What a ridiculous statement that just doesn't apply in this case.

This spring alone, I have been forwarded numerous links to articles on lethal Pit attacks. Last month there was a story about an Aussie puppy in training to be a guide dog that was attacked while training at a train station by a Pitbull who jumped through a window of a car to get to it.
I thought to myself, if all these stories, too numerous to even recall them all, are upsetting me, then Joe Public who doesn't know any wonderful Pitbulls personally must be very scared.

Why is it that all the Pitbulls that I have had in classes over the years, and there have been too many to count, have not only been exceptionally sweet, but have been the stars of their classes? Usually by the second week of class these dogs have won over the entire class made up of people who originally were skeptical and scared. I have known throughout the media frenzy that surely it must be the good owners, but certainly this poor Mom could not have done anything to deserve such a horrible fate for her child. Images of the bloody scene the Mom came home to have been racing through my mind ever since, and I have even started to rethink allowing grown Pitbulls into group class.

Then I was forwarded an article, put out by the people of Bad Rap. Bad Rap is a San Francisco based education group for pit owners and the general public. If you fear Pitbulls, if you own Pitbulls, if you think they should all be dead, or if you think that Breed specific legislation is the only answer then please read this.

At long last common sense answers to a tough problem.

It is now clear as day. Bad breeding!
It is the breeding that needs to be regulated.
Spay and neuter your pets and especially your Pit Bulls. Do not buy a Pitbull from a back yard breeder. Period.
If you cannot afford to have your Pitbull altered, there are resources providing reduced fee and even free services.

I grieve for this young boy and his family. But I truly believe that by banning all Pitbulls, the unsavory will just conjure up more dangerous dogs,and it won't take long at all.
My vote is to mandate more responsibility for breeders of "dangerous breeds", combined with stricter managment regulations for owners.

Spay- neuter resources:

MAINE
Animal Refuge League
449 Stroudwater Street
Westbrook, ME 04092
Phone; (207) 854-9771
Spay/neuter program for pets of qualified low income people.

Control Animal Population
Maine Federation of Humane Societies
c/o Denise Springer, Administrator
Animal Welfare Society
PO Box 43
West Kennebunk, ME 04094
Phone: (207) 985-3244
Discount certificates for people who demonstrate a financial need.

Friends of Feral Felines
PO Box 8137
Portland, ME 04104
Phone: (207) 797-3014
Email: mchase1@maine.rr.com
Low Cost Spay and neuter for ferals in Southern Maine

Humane Society - Waterville Area
120 Drummond Avenue
Waterville, Maine 04901
Phone: (207) 873-2430
Provides assistance for S/N to low income residents of the towns
in serves in 17 communities in the Kennebec, Somerset and Waldo
Counties

Maine Veterinary Medical Association
PO Box 8
Rumford Center, ME 04278
Phone: (207) 364-8660
Low cost spay/neuter program.

M.A.M.A.
P.O. Box 94
Prospect Harbor, ME 04669
Phone: (207) 422-2358
Email: turnerperkins@acadia.net
Low cost spay/neuter for North and Central Maine