Babysitter’s Two Pit Bulls Mauled 14-Month-Old Dax Borchardt To Death

The statistics are crazy. And scary.

Unfortunately, it isn’t the breed at fault here and vowing to rid the world of them is not going to fix the problem.All dogs have the potential to bite and kill. lets not forget the baby that was killed by a 12 week old labrador!

These dogs were likely unsocialised and jealous. Dogs who aren’t socialised properly with children can and do bite.

Also, the term is quite broad and anything from a Staffordshire bull terrier to bull terrier to ridgeback cross can be described by people as a ‘pit bull.’

omg fuckng im sick of hearing ppl say its not the breed all dogs bite whaa whaa whaa cry baby and all dogs bite they dont shred you into pieces…and it is NOT the owners fault or how they are raised.. almost all of these dogs that have killed are very well treated if anything they are spoiled and thats why they kill……they become teritorial and these dogs are wild by instinct and no matter how many ppl wanna sugar coat it.thats fact…just because there is other dogs that r also dangerous doesnt mean this breed is not…how many inocent ppl die i bet way more kids been killed by pits then saved

I can link you to fifty different stories of pit bulls that have done heroic things.

I’m not saying they’re perfect, just that a dog is only as good as the person who raised it.

Omg it’s not the breed it’s the dog blah blah – yep all dogs can bite – but 73% of the deaths are pit mixes. 73%.

73%

it’s the breed. Not that they bite – that’s a dog thing – that *when* they bite – they kill.

*when* they bite they kill – and *any* dog can bite regardless of how it’s treated. 66% of attacks are at home and 77% of the targets are family or friends.

Every fatal dog attack has to be reported and those reports are available online – read them – over and over and over it’s ‘the dog was a family dog well treated and just turned’

Yes – there are the occasional ‘dog was trained to attack’ or ‘mistreated’ – but those are the exception. This is the problem with ‘it’s not the breed’ argument – that argument is predicated on the idea that dog attacks are predominantly perpetrated by dogs that are mistreated – while that may be true overall (I don’t know the stats for non-fatal dog bites) – the *fatal* ones do not fall into this description.

No – I’m against total extermination of a breed – but I think needed a special license to own one with special requirements to keep them (must like other exotics) isn’t beyond reasonable considering the fact that when these dogs go bad – they kill.

I don’t trust any dog 100%, especially around children. With that being said, I will never be comfortable around pit bulls or other dogs along that same breeding line simply because of reports like these. I don’t agree with exterminating a species but I also dn’t have an answer of how to prevent these types of incidents so I can’t pick a side. People will have to take their own safety and the safety of their children and other loved ones into account when dealing with pit breeds and their owners. As for myself, I can respect someone’s love for the breed and wanting to own them as long as they can respect my feelings in not wanting to be exposed to them and not trusting them when they say they’re harmless and sweet. I don’t tell people my lab mixes are harmless simply because they are dogs and anything can happen.

I was letting my then 3 year old daughter ride around the new bike (with training wheels) her grandma got her last May. We went by this really white trash looking row of houses. Our neighborhood isn’t wealthy and though many houses are not in the best condition we don’t have trash laying all over the place or cars on blocks or anything. So getting to these houses was kind of off-putting.

Anyway, we’re in front of a house with really overgrown grass. I hear this low growling and then barking and see something crouched down partially covered by the “lawn”. I’m like oh shit! Pit bull! I yell at my daughter who doesn’t listen to anyone for shit no matter what you do and she of course ignores me. Rides off down the sidewalk. I try to walk calmly but quickly to get her and cross the street when that fucking dog busts of the yard.

Their fucking gate was wide open. Runs straight up to my baby girl and latches onto her leg. Two children run out of the yard and grab the dog. They’re like 10 years old at most. The boy curtly says something and sort of smacks the dog in the head and it just lets go and like HAPPILY follows the boy into the house. A methed out looking woman and man come out and they’re apologetic but just like more irritated than anything. I was sort of in shock and just picked up my girl and walked to my moms house. I don’t know what I was thinking. Halfway there I notice my pants are all bloody and realize my girl has very visible and bleeding puncture wounds in her leg.

We had to go to the ER, get X-rays to make sure no teeth were stuck in there, and give her antibiotics. She will have a scar there for the rest of her life as the doctor said they weren’t going to stitch it as that might trap in bacteria. The police came and talked to me and they took the dog on a 10 day hold to monitor for rabies. Whenever I see these stories I’m like OMG, that dog could have mauled by little girl to death. And luckily I hadn’t had my baby boy with me in his stroller as usual, who was like 10 months old at the time.

To summarize: My toddler was attacked by a pit bull. Whenever I see the people advocating for pit bulls it is all I can think about. The end.

Why is this breed so important to some people?

“two dogs were later euthanized by a local veterinarian.”

This is why the world will come to an end because we continue to go out and kill perfectly normal dogs. When will we have the money to build simple wooden crates that brandish the label “LIVE FOOD EXPORT N. KOREA”?

There’s no vowels in “don’t” in Texas?

Gross. Lol but funny

Many states have laws allowing you to keep exotic animals (like tigers and bears) but they require the animals to be kept in entirely secure enclosures and have state inspections to verify that the animals are kept well. Getting rid of the entire breed seems a bit extreme – if it was a royal PITA for someone to keep the dog no one would own them outside of people who *really* love the breed – for them I say let it happen with the PITA factor…. some people are nuts I don’t mind that – I do mind when their nuts endangers my safety as John Q Public.

Probably because if you’ve ever know or loved a “good” Pit you know how incredibly intelligent, sweet, and in a way, funny they can be and that makes it hard to view Pits as “bad” across the board. Yes, I’ve had two, but that was also 20+ years ago so I’m not a Pit fanatic. Give me a good Newfoundland any day!

Ok, so maybe we were irresponsible and bred them incorrectly. Maybe the aggressive ones were bred, etc. The fighters puppies were given away and the breeding kept on going down the line. Maybe it WAS us. But….how can we possibly get a handle on it now?
Pits have been favored by a certain type of person for a long time. Certainly less than 50 yrs, but long enough for a stigma to grow. That certain type started adopting and breeding these dogs BECAUSE of their likely dispositions. They are fierce, they fight, they are intimidating and that’s what the owners wanted.
Now what? We of course want to be fair but how can we possibly back pedal or cut through a stigma so strong?

And it can happen anywhere. My teen daughters classmate was bitten by one in a very affluent area. She was walking through her pristine gated community & it literally hopped the fence & ran after her, biting her in the butt. And she got away, I don’t know how but she did.
ALL types own pits. We live in older area but there are no homes in disrepair – 3 pits in 1 block. 1 is owned by a family with a small baby. Another I actually trust – she’s so old she can barely walk & just LOOKS at other dogs because barking is too much for her.
I’m glad your little girl is ok & I hope she is not scared of dogs today (non-pits!).

“I don’t tell people my lab mixes are harmless”
Lab dogs are the best!!!

I never understood why anyone would want a pit bull. Maybe for the military, but that’s it…

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I would argue that. I think the ‘criminal types’ that you’re referring to choose dogs based purely on their appearance *then* breed for the personalities (or lack there of) that they want. They don’t just happen upon thousands of evil mean dogs. Any dog can be made aggressive and ‘scary’. You could make chihuahuas incredibly vicious and mean and train them to bite everything that moves and in fact a Dachshund in Maryland managed to kill a month old baby back in 2002. Small dogs actually account for a very large number of bites, people just don’t make a big deal because it’s supposedly less serious (even though proportionally a small dog attacking a small child could be very dangerous even when non lethal. If you look at how small a child’s fingers are for example, even a chihuahua could easily bite one off).

I don’t think it’s ever ‘too late’ to change attitudes and perceptions. There’s still millions of Pits out there and millions being born and they deserve a chance. I think it comes down to being willing to legislate *people* which generally results in a huge uproar over civil rights/liberties.

I agree. No altered Pit Bull has ever killed.

But what is known to all is that the kid is dead, and it was a pit bull, again.

I love pit bulls. But I have been around multiple extremely loving ones. Nevertheless, statistics do not lie. People should be vary weary having large dogs around small children.
The worst dog bite I ever received was actually from a “friendly” lab. We adopted him from the pound. The most aggressive dog we ever had was actually a bloodhound. Pit bulls have stronger jaws which is why I believe they are more deadly, although I could be wrong.

I don’t think they should be bred out of existence because they’re creatures. They feel, love, everything all other dogs do. Plus, we haven’t eliminated all the spiders and Mosquitos in the world yet so I don’t think that’s fair to the pit bulls.

Lol, but they don’t eat any type of dog. They breed a specific breed of dog for consumption. I forget the name …malanese? Something like that. They’re actually really cute :<

When are pet owners going to understand that you don’t keep dogs around babies. Following this simple rule tragedies like this would not happen. Pit Bulls especially since they seem to comprise 70% of the fatal maulings reported. Regardless of how gentle a dog may seem they all have the potential to snap so why take that chance. You’d think that with the reports of a mauling by this breed every other month anyone with half a brain would learn not to have them around babies. Sad and pathetic.

I say that a child’s life is (was) worth more than all the Pit Bulls on earth. I have no issue with banning private ownership of wild animals. I have no problem charging the owners with manslaughter and subjecting all their private assets and much of their future earnings to a civil lawsuit filed by the parents of the brutally killed child.

I do believe until society comes to the conclusion that extreme view is seen as completely prudent that extreme taxes be put on pets with high incidences of human and property attacks. I also think that “fixing” the remaining Pit Bulls could be a compromise. I have yet to see a Pit Bull owner that I feel comfortable with – much less their dogs.

I flat out don’t trust this breed. I don’t want to be around them, and won’t let my family around them, either.

I’m a GSD girl myself! Love them

I was assuming your were responding to yourself and giggled myself silly with this.

When you say 73%, please note this is achieved by layperson description. Many people don’t even know what a pit bull is. Anything in the bull family, ridgeback x, lab x, American staff x, mastiff x etc are all misidentified as pit bulls.

In a high profile case that happened in Melbourne, two dogs killed a young girl. The dogs were consistently call pit bull mastiffs by the media (not a breed btw) and no photos were ever shown to us of the dogs.

The state government then enacted a law that said any unregistered pit crosses needed to be registered, kept under specific conditions (those conditions now rendering the dog unable to be correctly socialised with the public) and any dogs that were found to be pit bulls but not registered as one would be killed.

Unfortunately, people with American staffs crosses, and other dogs with stock bodies and squarish heads are now being seized and going through expensive VCAT trials. These are costing the taxpayer money. “Bobo” the family dog that has been through obedience classes to become a well trained dog, is now under threat. Not because he has done anything wrong but because of the way he looks. Meanwhile, dogs are still biting people…

We have no right to say what breed of anything should be exterminated. Are you wanting to see a Domino Theory in action? Have you not watched “Cartoon Wars” (South Park)?

German Shepherd? Sorry first time I’ve encountered GSD. If that’s what you mean I’ve had two and LOVE them too!

They used to. A PB was the mascot for the US Navy around World War I.

http://hollywoodpitbulls.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/ww1.30883312_std.jpg
http://hollywoodpitbulls.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/navy1.30971140_std.jpg

Sergeant Stubby was one of many PBs used during the war. He served 18 months and was awarded 11 different honors including a Purple Heart, three service stripes and the Republic of France Grande War Medal.

They’re often used by Navy SEALS still today.
http://news.discovery.com/history/a-us-navy-seals-secret-weapon-elite-dog-team-110503.htm

Here’s one as a guide dog:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/my-pitbull-guide-dog-512605

Here’s one from Oregon who works as a K9 police dog:
http://www.dogheirs.com/tamara/posts/1217-a-rescued-pit-bull-is-an-ace-police-dog-and-family-member

And another PB in police training:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=johtyuuowlM

So they *do* use them in law enforcement and in other jobs. Some other PB feats:
Modernly significant pit bulls are: Weela, who helped save 32 people, 29 dogs, 3 horses, and 1 cat;
Popsicle, a five-month-old puppy originally found nearly dead in a
freezer, who grew to become one of the nation’s most important police
dogs; Norton, who was placed in the Purina Animal Hall of Fame after he rescued his owner from a severe reaction to a spider bite; Titan, who rescued his owner’s wife, who would have died from an aneurysm, and D-Boy, who took three bullets to save his family from an intruder with a gun.

1. close to a century ago.

2. I found no mention of Pit Bulls in a search on that page.

3. The UK bans Pits (https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public/banned-dogs_)

4. The dog was chosen to be given to another force during a reduction in the program (did not measure to the other dogs?). Given to Oregon and the officier is pleased.

5. I saw mention of a K9 training, but nothing Pit Bull

Hitler loved dogs and babies and was loyal to Eva Braun. I still wouldn’t trust him.

I lived in Japan for a little but as a child. There was PLENTY of questionable food there as well

Don’t know for sure, the only reason I knew it to start with is I was on the wrong end of this argument before, and to a brother-in-law no less.

I certainly hope you don’t apply that logic to the children born via IVF.

Better analogy then: interracial or biracial folk. One biracial person murders someone, you feel all biracial people should be subjected to genocide?

The problem is very few owners of small dogs take them (or dog ownership) seriously. They’re viewed (and even called) as ‘toys’ and most owners think everything they do is cute and that includes nipping (aka ‘biting’), aggressive barking (‘yapping’) and so forth. Just because they’re less dangerous to adults they’re viewed as harmless to all when they aren’t. It’s very rare to see small dog breeds in obedience classes even though they need it just as much as German Shepard, Lab or PB…especially since many of these small dogs are kept as family pets around babies and young children.

Hey – I don’t disagree with you even a little bit. Most of the time the real issue is humans anyway.
I just don’t understand how we’re to fix the problem when these dogs have such rotten statistics & we read about them on a regular basis. No matter the education people receive, the stigma will stick. If pits could stay out of the news……they’d have a greater chance.
Remember the dachsund (i think?) that ate a baby’s penis? I KNOW small dogs can be just as aggressive, but a pits jaws are a lot bigger, a lot longer & a lot scarier. So they WILL be in the news, media will never let go.

Okay but I’m not doing it from my phone. Wait til a bit later and I get on the laptop.

Wow – a down vote over THAT? OK – I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve only had good Pit experiences or because I love Newfies? Either way, kind of odd!

I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Well FFS! I don’t blame ou for laughing yourself silly. I look like an idiot talking to myself! This ended up in the wrong place. I was trying to respond to Oreoface. WTF? I’ll blame it on my meds that I accidentlly double dosed myself on yesterday.

you are making me lol again

I have personally know of a person who owned 2 pitbulls, and insisted that they were such sweet animals, who a couple of months later was mauled by them during a domestic situation with her husband. Her arm was almost completely torn off. I was phobic of them before that. I can’t trust a pit bull no matter how “sweet” an owner instists they are.

Pit bulls as a breed have been ruined by overbreeding, like just about every other breed that has become popular. Unfortuantely, the only way to save the breed is for most of them to die off and for them to be very selectively bred to get better temperaments. Yes, any dog can turn, but these dogs are too unstable and it is the fault of humans. Environment does play a role, but they are also genetically predisposed to aggression. The original pit bull terrier was not supposed to be human aggressive, but the dregs of society perverted the breed and now we have a plethora of mentally unstable animals that are more than capable of killing us. It is a sad fact. I like pits, they can be great dogs, I will not ever own one. With all of the overbreeding, you can never know whether or not you will get a good one.

You win the voice of reason award.

Most pit bulls need to be fixed and not bred. Then real advocates of the breed need to be very selective on what dogs are allowed to breed. Temperament needs to be the trait that is looked at. Not color, size, or “blood lines”. The aggression can be bred out, but it needs to be extremely controlled and all dogs that show aggression need to be culled from the population.

I lock my dog when strangers come and I make sure I can handle my dog.

I highly disagree that all pit bulls should be wiped out or anything stupid like that. 5% of the population may be causing 73% of the problem, but I’d wager that it’s the 5% or so of our own human population that causes 73% of pit bulls to be a problem. And until I can find any random group of people who can reasonably identify an ACTUAL pit bull at least 70% of the time and not some other random breed like Presa Canario, Dogo Argentino, or even currs and Swiss Mountain Dogs, that’s not likely to change. People see a big head and say ‘it’s a pit bull!’ because that’s what the news said (and if it’s on TV, it must be true!), which means I can’t take them seriously at all, because they’re idiots. It’s the same as calling any ‘scary looking gun’ an assault rifle and wanting to ban all scary looking guns because of it.

Most of the kinds of people who specifically want a pit bull want one because of how they think it makes them look. They want to look tough. These kinds of people also usually aren’t the type to think too hard about the future, or about anything other than themselves, so they think it’s cool to breed their horrible dog so they can have a new puppy, and drop the rest off at the shelter to die when they realize that they can’t actually sell them for what they thought they’d get. Then you have the few good souls on the other side trying their hardest to undo the harm caused by the first group, but they’ll never be enough to curb the problem.

If you want to ban vicious biting dogs, you’d better just ban dogs, because they all have the potential for harm. Just last year a baby was half eaten by a lab retriever mix, or remember the story from a few years ago when a 2 month old baby was killed by a pug PUPPY when left unattended? Should we ban pugs? Or puppies? Or maybe ban leaving your child alone with animals? Oh wait, that would mean that the people would actually have to take responsibility for their offspring! Can’t have that kind of nanny state bullshit now, can we. Alright, let’s kill all the dogs.

http://vimeo.com/22734940

Here is an interesting experiment done on foxes. They bred together the most docile foxes and in subsequent generations, the foxes became domesticated. They also bred the most aggressive foxes and the offspring became more and more aggressive. This is why the majority of pits need to be allowed to die off to save the breed. Only the non-aggressive dogs should be allowed to breed.

If we could eliminate roaches, I’d die happy.

When I was a teen I got in a argument with my parents. I had to get away so I walked down the ridge (I lived in Hixson Tn at the time). I was walking to a friends house. All of a sudden five big dogs start following me. This went on for a few blocks. I kept my head down, avoided eye contact, and kept walking. I made the mistake of turning around to look after ten to fifteen min. of this. The leader started growling. That was it, I went to the next house I saw and knocked (as calmly as I could) and begged them to let me in. The dogs paced back and forth in front of the house for about five minutes. Got bored and walked away.
The place I live now has quite a few dogs who either run free or get free a lot. One is a Rot. If you own a aggressive breed you should be required to go outside with them. Too lazy or don’t have time? Then don’t own a animal that are known killers.

My collie and I were chased by a snarling Doberman when I was about fourteen. We only got away without it biting us because an elderly couple walked past and it decided to go for them instead. I feel ashamed for taking the opportunity to run, but I was worried about my dog’s safety because she was old and loyal. I didn’t think I would be killed by the dog, because there were people around, but if it had bitten me, she would have probably died defending me.

The Doberman was in front of its house, and its owner was just watching it terrorize people like the inbred redneck he was. Didn’t even yell at the dog, let alone lift a finger to stop it.

This is not because the dogs were pit bulls, its also not because they were dogs..this comes down to sheer human idiocy. An animal is an animal PERIOD!! Humans can not communicate with them and therefore can never fully predict their behavior..only an idiot would have a small child around an animal that has the potential to kill them. It doesn’t matter if it’s a pit bull, boa constrictor, or fluffy the cat…if you have an animal larger than a small child then get some brains and do not, under any circumstances, allow a potentially dangerous situation happen!

That sounds rather perverse, out of context, coming from you.

How many of those ankle-biter injuries were fatalities? How many of them were fatalities in which the victim’s skull was crushed, or, breached by the teeth of the attacking dog?

What’s the difference between a pit bull and a social worker?
The pit bull eventually gives the child back.

I had a pitbull but got rid of it a few weeks ago since that I have a child and noticed a lot of reports about people and children getting killed by them. I don’t trust them at all. I wouldn’t even go on the back porch because of that dog even though it was nice. Just had to do it to protect my family

“All of the people I’ve seen with that breed are usually those who feel
the dog will protect them or people who have the dog to intimidate
others”

All? Just more ignorant stereotyping. I am a Pit Bull mom. I am also a mother, wife and full time animal advocate. My six year old APBT lives inside. No one would even know we have a dog if I didn’t take her out to go potty when she needs to go. She wears a pink collar with a heart tag that has her name and mine and her dads phone numbers on it. Very intimidating, hmm?

It is *my* job to protect *her.* Not the other way around and every one of the hundreds of people that I work with, crossposting and networking and donating for animals and Pit Bull rescues feel the same way about their Pits. Only a coward would hide behind an animal.

Not an uneducated stereotype at all. I didn’t generalize every pit owner; I said the people I’VE seen (with emphasis on “I’ve”). Don’t get on the defense or offense because of something I’VE been noticing. Btw, dressing any thing in pink doesn’t lessen its intimidation; i could put a lion in a pink dress and it wouldn’t take away from its ferocity.

My post was in favor of the pit bull or that not translate? Not sure how i received two thumbs down; it is baby sitter fault as she place the baby in an image environment (the dogs attacked its owner, that speaks volumes on its level of training and the owner’s control of the animals). The entire need doesn’t need to be killed just because a few owners forget to discipline their pets. I live in the inner city; everyone I know with a dog like that is also wearing bullet proof vests. And everyone I hear of a dog missing someone k, it’s always lead with “Pit Bull Murders *insert*”.

Get a phudging grip, people.

Is it the Pits, though, or the people who own them? I mean, I know it’s a combination of the two, but I can’t help but think FAR fewer deaths would occur if Pits were the preference of people like you and I rather than thugs and trailer trash.

Ugh. http://dogbites.org/ is NOT, I repeat NOT, a factual website! http://bslnews.org/2012/01/24/the-real-dog-bite-statistics-plus-media-myths-colleen-lynn-exposed/

God bless you Michelle! Thank you again for providing this information! I don’t expect half of these who commented to read them, but as a Pittie supporter I wanted to say thanks.

*You also did it in a completely non-confrontational way too and I applaud that. My blood is slightly boiling from reading some of these comments! I could not have been that cool and calm

A lot of people and children get killed in car accidents. Are you going to stop getting in cars too? Statistically, there is a much bigger chance of people getting killed by OTHER PEOPLE. You better stay away from everyone. Of course, since you said “got rid of it” the dog probably never meant that much to you anyway. I can only hope and pray it got a much better home.

I got bit in the butt too but instead it was a poodle that bit me, I remember I was 11 years old and it hurt I can’t imagine a bigger dog doing that to me..

Dogbite.org is such a bullshit site.

There are thousands more dog bites/attacks per year by small breeds of dogs than by pit bulls. But since most people aren’t really concerned with filing a report when a chihuahua takes a nip at them, the statistics get badly skewed. Terriers are a more vicious breed than pit bulls. They just don’t have the strength to kill you.

Good luck to the father, who is rightfully angry, about “wiping out an entire breed”. Just think, if the sitter had labs, he’d be trying to get labs/lab mixes abolished. And then what will happen? People will STILL be bitten and killed by dogs. EVERY dog is capable of this. It’s like the idiots who think banning guns will prevent shootings. It won’t. It’ll just start happening with the next breed and so on…

Someone asked what happened. They released the police report and the 911 tape this week. We are still a community in mourning. We are remembering Dax everyday and keeping his parents in our prayers.
As for the babysitter, no charges will be filed.