Recently in a heartbreaking ordeal, a Tennessee family was torn apart by their two dogs. Kirstie Jane Bennard and her two young children were viciously attacked by their pit bulls while outside their home. The resulting attack left the Bennards’ children dead, and Kirstie fighting for her life in a hospital — the latest in a long and increasingly noticeable instances of pit bull violence.
If you’ve been online as long as I have, you’ve likely come across videos of pit bulls attacking other dogs, their owners, or children in random outbursts of aggression. This falls in line with studies on dog attacks, which show that pit bulls, despite being a minority breed, are overwhelmingly responsible for attacks and fatalities in the US. Unfortunately, many pit bull apologists tend to deflect to german shepherds as being the most violent breed. Yet, recent data points out that 72% of dog-related deaths in 2020 were attributed to pit bulls. In contrast, german shepherds only represent a small fraction of the dog attack fatalities.
Not every pit bull is violent by any means, but no dog is worth putting your family at risk. Especially if you have children. Tragic cases like these can be avoided if people are realistic about the facts surrounding the breed of dog they are looking to take in, just like people shouldn’t be blind to the risks of owning exotic animals like primates, venomous snakes, and other big-nature game animals. Adults who are well equipped to own strong and sometimes aggressive breeds such as pit bulls do so at their own risk, but people shouldn’t risk the safety of their children. Facts are facts, even ones that may make us uncomfortable.
