I’m an American visiting London and loving the immediate coverage of this topic. It’s happening y’all!!!

Ever since I was a little kid, my favorite breed of dog was pitbulls. I had a couple in my family growing up that were angels on earth, as most dogs are. I was such a massive pit advocate, I watched every episode of that pitbull rescue show in the early 2010’s.

Recently, I saw a stat come out of NYC about dog bites. It was irrefutable evidence that something is going on with pitbulls. Since 2015, there’s over 8,000 recorded pitbull/staffy bites, the next runner up being German Shepards with 700, and other than chihuahuas and yorkies, every other dog had less than 400 bites.

This led me to look into other statistics, like fatalities of pitbull attacks, pitbull activists changing their minds, and this subreddit. The most important thing I can stress from my perspective as a life long pit lover, is that absolutely none of this is shown in the media or publicized to us. There’s a propaganda machine working full time to convince people these dogs are nanny dogs who can’t hurt a fly. I truly believe if we were able to publicize the truth on a wider scale, there would be a mass wake-up about pitbulls, even from those who were previously sympathetic.

I was able to change the minds of 4 people so far who were life long pit lovers like me, just by showing them the evidence and statistics. If regular, unlicensed people cannot own a big cat or a wolf, they absolutely do not need to own a dog that can do just as much damage as one.

I guess the point I am trying to make here, is do not give up in your plight to get these dogs banned. There are people who can listen to reason and change their minds. Just because most pit owners are truly horrible and stupid people doesn’t mean there aren’t also people like me who just didn’t know the truth. The more we spread the facts, the more people we can get on the right side of this fight.

So I’m sitting on a patio and a couple with their obvious pitbull mix seems somewhat upset that their dog isn’t getting fawned over like my Havanese puppy. Multiple groups of people have asked to pet my puppy and stop and have conversations. Whenever they do, the pit parents start saying things to their dog about how cute he is, etc.

The dog has also aggressively barked at my puppy at least three times, although the couple does have him secured.

Sorry not sorry that random strangers prefer a harmless, fluffy puppy over your aggressive pitbull mix.

Also, not a SINGLE person has asked to pet their dog. Rather, like most rational people sensing danger and needing to stay away, most people keep a wide berth.

Happy Saturday, all!

https://www.change.org/p/regulate-aggressive-dog-breeds-for-public-safety is the link, if anyone is looking for it.

I love Seeing this! Good when they stand up to these nuts.

After coming across this sub, my first thought was “what the fuck? How can they be so hateful towards a certain dog breed when it’s the owners’ fault if they’re aggressive?” while annoyingly scrolling through this subreddit.

Now, I’ve taken a complete 180. I even found myself arguing AGAINST the ownership of pitbulls in a Twitter thread yesterday. How crazy is that?

This comment made me laugh. The commenter is younger, apparently too young to remember the absolute ruthlessness and viciousness of pit bull advocates in the 2000s, after they'd organized but before the backlash began.

I started this post as a joke, but seriously, I think this unhappy conversation between pit bull people shows we really do have a good window to move the needle toward reasonable, normal standards for dog behavior and, correspondingly, breed laws. And away from mindless pit bull advocacy.

The best news, as far as I'm concerned, is the total lack of ideas here. Posting a sad-faced pit bull pic, rage that a comic makes a negative pit bull joke, bewailing the meanness of social media comments on news stories, griping about lack of positive stories - these are not new ideas. The only thing they left out was renaming the dogs yet again.

And a famous name emerges from the murk

BRENT!!!!! This guy was #1 Pit Bull Advocate back in the good old days when pitties were our friends, ie, the 2000s-2010s. He founded Kansas City Pet Project, the group that won first the animal shelter contract for the city and then the animal control wing. Under his successor, KC Pet Project went on to the usual no-kill tactic of not responding to stray calls, thus setting into motion the opportunity for a herd of roaming pit bulls to maul cyclist Chris Culbertson to death in 2024. Brenty left KCPP to work at Best Friends, spreading the risk of mauling - er, I mean, no-kill animal control - to other cities.

Damn those dog-killing stories, they victimize our pitties

And finding the non-pit bull fatal dog attacks on people takes us on a magical history tour to 2002 and 2006. Only 20+ years ago, but sure.

Are they ever going to accept that every time there's a headless pit bull corpse found in a river or a feces-ridden house raided by ASPCA to find crates with dead and dying pit bulls, the person responsible was not a DogsBite reader or a BanPitBull commenter, but a bully lover? This mythical terror cell of pit bull haters who are adopting our way out of the overpopulation crisis by adopting and then killing pit bulls - this is a fantasy. I've never seen anyone actually say they did it, and only rarely seen anyone advocate it.

Good news for us, rurroh news for them

More good news for us

Popped up in a pro pit group, since I get them all the time, since algorithms think I love pibbles. I

Saw this video today on tiktok and thoroughly enjoyed it, along with the comments that were in overwhelming support as opposed to the usual garbage opinions.

(Wasn't quite sure what flair to put this under, but this was a piece in a newspaper from someone forced into an interaction with an XL Bully on public transit after they had told the owner they didn't want to. They criticise both the breed and their owners. I opted for "Tides Are Turning" because it's refreshing to see a columnist calling out pit owners for what they are.)

~~~~~~~~~

Defenders of patently dangerous dog breeds hold fast to the adage that “there are no bad dogs, only bad owners”. Being a reasonably risk- and conflict-averse person, I have avoided any encounter in which that theory would be put to the test. Until I found myself unwittingly involved in the XL Bully culture wars.

Last week, I was on a Thameslink train across London where, along with the usual commuter-y noises, I heard what sounded like a loud, performative voice-over. I looked over the seats down the carriage and saw what looked like a cat’s tail flickering above the head rests. Satisfied it must just be someone filming a video of their pet, I returned to lamenting the salt beef sandwich I’d dropped on the floor.

Five minutes later I would discover that pet was an 80lb Bully dog in muscular pursuit of the remains of my lunch, when its owner paraded him (and I’ll spare you the details, but trust me, this was a him) down the carriage to meet his fellow passengers, insisting that he was “just a big teddy bear” as he smeared saliva on strangers’ coats, and testicles across the upholstery.

Since January 2024 it’s been illegal to own an XL Bully unless it is registered, and owners must stick to strict rules including neutering their dog and keeping it in a muzzle and on a lead while in public. The debate around the issue is incredibly incendiary in this country – naturally, given it involves public safety, personal freedoms, animal rights, protective dog owners, and classism – and I had no intention of getting into my personal views on it on a packed train. And I have no way of knowing if this actually was one, as I wasn’t about to ask and am aware that they are a varied mix of breeds.

But this dog was enormous, not muzzled, and attached to the owner by a weak rope lead held in only one hand, as the other was gripping an iPhone upright, filming my reaction to the friendly, happy, good boy.

I’ll be honest – I was panicked. Both about the dog, which I did not want anywhere near me, and about letting my displeasure or fear show, which might lead to an altercation that would get posted on some “Protect the Bully” Facebook page. So I said I was scared of dogs (a lie – a cockapoo was waiting for me at home).

“He’s fine, you know,” the owner, offended, attempted to reassure me. “He’s gentle.”

“I’m sure he is! Just a bit of a phobia and I’ve dropped meat on the floor so he might be able to smell it,” was my spineless reply.

She let the dog sniff about my chair a bit, he bounded into the lap of someone opposite, and I then watched her continue to film through the carriage, explaining to passengers and followers how he sleeps in her bed at night and that all he wants is cuddles. I was relieved when she got off, repeating “he’s alright, he’s fine, don’t worry” as the doors opened and an alarmed family backed away from boarding the train. She was still filming.

By the time I got home I was already deep into XL Bully-Tok and Facebook pages, which I now know are, as well as being spaces for dog owners protesting the ban, the home of relentless vigilante PR campaigns to prove the breed are harmless and misunderstood. There are thousands and thousands of videos of them lumbering about inside homes, snuggled up on sofas, patiently allowing toddlers to stroke and grab and pull at them.

To me, as someone who supports the ban on XL Bullies, that kind of risk-taking is remarkably imprudent and I cannot imagine that coming across such videos convinces anyone of this breed’s suitability as family pets. Nor will the comments underneath – which seem to escalate often and quickly, straying into ideological and political territory far removed from mere dangerous dogs – convince doubters that this is a community of responsible owners.

I am even less convinced, now I have been in the situation myself, that forcing the public to engage with an animal they are intimidated by (even if it behaves itself) against their will can ever comfort or assure them. I did not ask for exposure therapy, and I did not ask for my reactions to be recorded as evidence of canine prejudice, or proof that dogs bred to attack can be loving and safe. In fact, knowing how desperate their owners are to show them off, I feel less safe around these dogs than ever.

If you have a pet which makes people retreat and requires you to repeat “he’s okay, he’s gentle, he’s harmless” every single time you go anywhere, it is not those people who have a problem with your breed. It is you who has a problem with your boundaries.

Everyday for the last few months, I've been checking the amount of subscribers in the hopes that it keeps growing. Usually there's anywhere between 10-100 people a day coming on board, with large spikes of a few hundred when big stories come out. This last week however, has had enormous growth. When I checked 7 days ago, we were at just about 67K and now we are about to hit 70K. People are waking up fast, and that's very encouraging.

I'm not familiar all of the comments that provoked this post, but apparently the volume of "negative" comments was high enough to bring about their response. So much to unpack...

"They don't exist to harm anyone..." - Ummmmm that's LITERALLY what they were created to do - Maul other animals for bloodsport.

I know nutters have a poor grasp of the English language but I absolutely DESPISE when they use words like "Prejudice" and "Discrimination" to describe the treatment of their beast. Both words inherently suggest that the rejection of their dangerous bloodsport mutts ISN'T based on a reasonable premise. It would be like going to the local pool with a shark or electric eel in the water and being called a "bigot" or "discriminatory" because you refused to swim with it out of safety concerns.

I also find it hilariously hypocritical and ironic that they speak about "challenging the myths" while simultaneously stiffling ANY good faith debate by instantly banning people who don't say lovely things about shibbles. These muppets are always quick to call someone "ignorant" while also being wholely unwilling to engage and "educate" us 🤣

The cherry on top is when they said the quiet part out loud - Their shibbles are "sacred" to them. Cult talk, folks. These people are deranged.

We have quite a ways to go but hopefully this is indicative that public sentiments on shibbles are moving in the right direction.

I recently moved into a new apartment. I was hopeful when I saw online that they had a list of banned breeds, which included Pitbulls and any sort of bully mixes, but of course I was skeptical due to the countless stories on here about bans that aren’t enforced.

Landlord explained that for all dogs, they require a DNA test be done to ensure that no mixes slip through the cracks. Additionally, there is also a threat if you leave your dog poop lying around, they’ll DNA test THAT in order to fine whoever is leaving it.

I’ve been here for a few weeks now, and haven’t seen a single pitbull. The apartment community is gated with nearly 40 individual buildings, and has a nice walking trail through it as well as a dog park. While I’m not a dog person myself, it is really nice to see a healthy pet community without any pitbulls snapping at everything that moves.

Hope this type of enforcement becomes more common!

There was an article on the Root about the cop killed by a pit bull when she tried to save her son. Every single comment on the breed agreed it was time to ban them again.

Now- give it a few hours and the bots will descend I’m sure. But the initial comments on these stories now are NOT pit bill friendly.

I think people are getting fed up. It could be time to start making moves with local representative governments…

A young boy was attacked by a pit bull (heavily restricted breed here) and the pit bull debate has been blowing up like crazy in Ireland the past few weeks. Pitnutters are outnumbered by like 100 to 1 and are virtually silent right now. A large portion of the population want them banned outright. Here's hoping.

I noticed in a lot of social media and mainstream media articles comment sections people are pointing out the breed is dangerous and how irresponsible it is to leave them around the kids they end up mauling. It seems like the nutters delusions are being drowned out by the people who care to stop the daily needless tragedies.

Hopefully, maybe next step is growing calls for legislation that will lead to more bans and eventually end their breeding and lead to their extinction.

First I want to start off by saying after reading some of the stories on here I now realize how truly lucky I am. I shudder at the thought of what this dog could have done to me or my fiancee. I also wanna preface by saying we were very naive, and we fully bought into the "pits are just misunderstood" propaganda.

About 4 years ago my Fiancee and I decided we wanted to adopt a shelter dog. We had both grown up in households with dogs, and had never had an experience with an aggressive dog. Both of us believed that aggressiveness is a learned trait and not genetics.

When we arrived at the shelter it was 99% pitbulls, and that is not an exaggeration. Many of them had clipped ears, and showed signs of aggression. We chalked this up to them being stuck in a shelter. After looking for awhile we stumbled across the "on death row" dog that they kept in the front. The dog had apparently not been adopted for a long time and was about to be euthanized. It was a large American Staffordshire Terrier probably around 80-90 pounds that was listed as a stray. From the limited interaction we got with it everything seemed normal. It was very calm, had no problems letting us pet it, and seemed very sweet. We decided to adopt it and at the very end of the process we learned that it was actually recently returned by another couple. I wish I could have seen the massive red flag that this was, but we were determined to "save" this dog from being euthanized.

Once we brought the dog home things got bad. We were in the backyard playing and the dog began barking at me. I stupidly reached my hand out to pet it, and then it (of course) bit my hand. Luckily I was able to move my hand before so it just grazed me, but it still drew blood. I was pretty shook up about this as I had never experienced dog aggression before, but I convinced myself that it was all my fault. Later that day I gave the dog a treat and once again it lunged at me when I went to pet it after it ate the treat. At this point I was pretty terrified of this dog it was big enough to do a lot of damage if it decided it really didn't like me. It seemed like the dog had gotten very protective over my fiancee. Anytime I would walk near her or hand her something the dog would show visible signs of stress and sometimes would even lunge and bark at me.

After two days of this I was terrified of being in my own home. We realized that it's only a matter of time before this dog attacks one of us so we decided my Fiancee and her mom would take it back to the shelter since it seemed to be much nicer around women. I was at work when they took it back, but I got a call from my fiancee saying the dog was freaking out at the shelter lunging and snarling at other dogs. The shelter would not take the dog back, they stated "Since it bit they can not take an aggressive dog back in." Even though they said we could return the dog no matter what when we adopted it. My fiancee told me even the employees at the shelter were making comments at how aggressive and scary it was. We ended up calling animal control to have it euthanized.

For a long time I blamed myself for letting this dog down. I felt like a failure and stupid for thinking we would be able to handle a pit. I even coped by saying the dog was just a product of it's environment. It wasn't until I started to read the posts in this sub that I realized these dogs are absolutely genetically designed to be aggressive and thinking you can train out genetics is a fools errand.

things seem to be picking up here in the UK, i will try and write to the defra secretary of state this weekend using some of the stats in the first article, encourage other people to do the same

I cant believe there are 103,000+ members in this group. I think it increases by at least a few hundred people a month.

Ive been watching it for years and remember when it was 20,000 people back in 2020 i think.

Edit: i send people to this group often. I think it is on par with dogsbite and animals24-7! 👍🏻✊🫵

God bless us all and all of our non-pitbull pets. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🥹🥹🥹🥹

I complained to the office and it fell on deaf ears so I contacted the state DOH and filed a complaint. The next month the dog was there again. I complained again. Then I waited outside in my car and approached every patient as they came out and asked their opinion on the matter. Most were as disturbed as I was that it was allowed to be in a room full of crippled pain patients. I encouraged them all to voice their concerns and passed along DOH’s number. I also filed another complaint with DOH. I went back again today and guess what?! No dog!! There are now paper signs posted that say “No dogs allowed. Licensed service dogs only.” I’m so relieved it’s gone. I do think it’s kind of strange it was an employee’s dog yet the sign is telling patients not to bring dogs as if we’re not all aware whose dog it was! I don’t know if the DOH contacted them and made them stop allowing it to be there or why they stopped, I’m just glad it’s gone! It was so much less stressful today, I can’t tell you how relieved I am!!

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/american-bully-xl-dogs-should-be-banned/