Pit Bulls

[JoB]

lattemom… i will answer the question “why would anyone want an aggressive dog in their house?’.

There are two answers.. the first is that they aren’t aggressive in the house among family and friends. They are just pets.. generally sweet pets at that.

The second is that most aggressive dogs are rescue dogs who have been abused by their past owners.. either physical abuse or extreme neglect. Most of these dogs can still have good lives if they are rescued, loved and trained. Some of us are willing to do that.

I guess a third involves both aggressive dogs and gangs of kids. They both reflect our societies failures… the investment of time and some training can go along way towards changing their lives.

If the kids were truly threatening.. call the police. if not, they are a good object lesson for your children… something to pity, not fear.

If you want to make the world a safer place for your children, invest some time in some sort of outreach program that helps to fix these problems… one life at a time.

don’t fear the problem, become part of the solution.

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[Kayleigh]

Lattemom, I think it’s really crucial, especially if you live in a big city, to learn to discern when you and your family are in real danger as opposed to just being annoyed or uncomfortable.

You seem to react to so many things as if they are dangerous. I have lived here all my life, done a lot of walking and bus-ing downtown, sometimes in not-great parts of town. Only a handful of times did I feel genuine fear for my safety—though I have been annoyed or uncomfortable lots of times.

(apologies if that sounds pedantic—I don’t mean it to be. I just think it’s very important for women especially to develop their good natural instincts for self-protection. Knowing how to do that really could save your life.)

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[Anonymous]

Kayleigh, we were in danger simple as that, please do not mimimize the situation. We did call the Police but not until we were safely away from the restaurant. We also walk and occassionally take the bus when one of our cars is in the shop for repair, and we also go Downtown but there are places there we do not go, some we go only with my husband with us. I do not take any chances with our kids and their safety. As for the lesson these brought to our kids they already know not to dress that way, speak with foul language and to show respect. I also feel badly for the kids that work in that restaurant, they can’t get away. The foul language I am referring to is every other word was a a swear word and very crude as well, when people speak like that it shows a very low self-esteem and does not make them mightier as they may think.

This posting was originally for pit bulls and their aggressive behavior, I know that there are plenty of other dog breeds that are also aggressive. Afew persons have brought up children and them wanting to pet dogs nto this discussion, ok fine but that wasn’t the point of this original discussion, I am talking about when an aggressive dog is wandering the streets and approaches the child, not the other way around. In our family our kids know that they are not to pet an animal without premission, but if the owner says no or is iffy about the interaction we skip petting the animal all together.

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[JoB]

lattemom…

Foul words and crude behavior are not life threatening. Neither is the “macho” behavior often exhibited by teen groups when they are together.

I agree that it has the potential to become life threatening if more than one group gets together and guns are present… but even baggy pants and red clothing doesn’t mean that guns are present.. or will be.

I am sure that you felt threatened. I am sure that you felt unsafe. And you are always right to leave any situation that makes you that uncomfortable.

But to condemn the behavior and expect society to do something about it just because it makes you feel unsafe is asking a bit much.

pit bulls aren’t a threat to society just because they exist. They only become a threat to society when they are not properly supervised by their owners.

Teenagers… even those teenagers who dress in colors… are not a threat to society. They only become a threat to society when they engage in violent behavior.

I agree that people in general should have more consideration for those around them.. but quite frankly i am as offended listening to someone divulging the details of their private life on the cell phone next to me as i am by the swearing and rowdy behavior of teenage boys.

And i am even more offended by intolerance…

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[san]

Lattemom-

I understand that you have your opinions, and I know that you feel very strongly about your right to express them. So, Im not going to debate you on any subject. ( It’s frankly not worth my time. ) However, I will make one suggestion. Choose your words and emotions more carefully. You’ve managed, again, to make some pretty appalling generalizations in this thread. IF you are worried about feeling attacked, you should consider watching what you say. ( or at least putting some delicate thought into your posts/rants before you submit them ) I can’t help but think you accept conflict with open arms, just to add some spice to what may be a normally dull existence. My apologies if you feel my comments have caused you more grief, but I think someone needed to say it.

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[hopey]

This is really confusing. I thought lattemom lived near Arbor Heights school. Shopping in Burien I can understand, I do that myself. But there is a Jack in the Box across the street from Fred Meyer in Burien. Why would the one in SeaTac be on the way home?

Something doesn’t add up here. On the one hand I suppose it doesn’t really matter, but on the other hand inconsistencies such as this are an influence on the reader’s perception of credibility.

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[JoB]

well said san

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[san]

Thanks JoB. :)

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[Anonymous]

Well hopey, we went to the Trade Shopping Market in Tukwila then we went to Jack in the Box, and finally to Freddy’s and we also stopped at acouple other places, does that answer your question?? We will not be back at the Jack in the Box in SeaTac I can assure you!

Go ahead and have your dangerous and aggresive dogs kust keep them away from us and other innocent people!

San: I do not have a dull life, for from it! It is fun to interact with people on this forum. It is entertaining to say the least. And as for our experince at the restaurant there were 2 groups of kids threatening eac other as well as cutomers of the restaurant.

And for the cell phone use hearing people’s life stories and all on a bus, in the mall or in a restaurant makes me cringe as well.

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[Anonymous]

I am not trying to win a popolurity contest here, I have my beliefs, think what you may. I can post pretty much what I want it is a free country to post opinions online. ABut not one of you will ever change my perception of aggressive dogs.

As for the baggy pants and all remember reading a story in the Sunday Times recently about a kid who is now an adult and had the life in a gang, has tattoos and a police record and he is trying to change his life around, great but since he stil dresses that way, speaks with a slang, has tattos all over and a police record he will not get very far. He has been looking for a job for over 2 years, so what did that life with a gang serve? Nothing!! He would have been better off saying no to the gang and not caring what others want or think and believe in himself. I believe it comes from home.

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[Anonymous]

JoB, I’m curious when did I defend an inflammatory post by lattemom? I don’t recall doing that.

I do recall agreeing with the statement that pit bulls are aggressive, they do make up one third of all vicious dog attacks (of course, according to you, that statistic is inaccurate), but I certainly do not agree, nor have I agreed with any name calling or disrespectful posts.

I do think lattemom gets ganged up on, but I also think she brings some of that on herself by too quickly becoming argumentative and defensive. There definitely are people that thrive on that. I think it’s disrespectful to egg her on, some people have posted that they enjoy it. This is a forum and people can do what they want, but that is a little immature.

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[JoB]

new resident… we have a basic difference of opinion concerning lattemom’s posts. you think she gets ganged up on while acknowledging that she might be bringing that upon herself…

i don’t think disagreeing with her is ganging up on her and if you read the threads where the “egging on” occurs, you will find in most cases she is doing most of the “egging on”.

as for name calling… most of the time lattemom initiates the name calling… and once initiated… indulges in round after round of nastiness to anyone who disagrees with her.

For some reason, i seem to be an exception… but it is clear even to me that she doesn’t actually read my posts.

i am the one who posted that pets are not a petting zoo.. that it is rude to ask anyone to pet their dog… and when you do so you are assuming responsibility for any unintended consequences.

As for disrespect… well, intolerance of any opinion other than your own is disrespectful.

Some people are only comfortable in a world of black and white… so anything different becomes inherently black and therefore evil and dangerous.

thus she responds to my post saying that teenagers wearing red.. even if they are in a gang are not inherently dangerous… with one countering that gang membership is a stupid and life limiting choice.

she is right. it is. but that still doesn’t make the existence of teenagers wearing red dangerous. they certainly could have become dangerous.. but what she described was merely frightening to her.

however in that paradigm anything which makes her uncomfortable frightens her and anything which frightens her is bad and anything bad is dangerous and therefore things which frighten her shouldn’t exist… and that they are allowed to exist makes her angry.

i probably shouldn’t exist because nice lady that i am, i swear occasionally in public and i own dogs that i know to be aggressive and i walk them in public places. And… i am truly a bleeding heart democrat… and proud of it.

as for pit bulls.. the original thread of this post… i don’t remember ever saying that pit bulls were not an “aggressive breed”. I said that pit bulls just happen to be getting a ton of attention lately.

If the two dogs in the last encounter had been standard poodles… chances are the outcome would have been different even though the actual circumstances might have been the same.

And certainly, the response would not have been to euthanize all standard poodles.

I happen to own dogs who are also an aggressive breed. In fact, the last 4 dogs i have owned have all been an aggressive breed. But that doesn’t make them bad dogs that ought to be eliminated.

None of them were as nasty and bad tempered and as inclined to bite anything in it’s path as my sister’s toy poodle.

Just because those dogs were pit bulls does not make all pit bulls bad. That kind of thinking only confuses the real issue… unsupervised dogs are the problem.

banning a breed won’t end the problem.. it will only shift it to another breed.

Enforcing animal control laws will end the problem.

But that means we will have to pay more taxes and no-one wants to do that… so they shift the problem to something that is easy to blame…

It’s so much easier than confronting the fact that many well meaning dog owners regularly ignore leash and containment laws with their pets and that some people regard back yard breeding as a right they wouldn’t want restricted.

If it’s the dog’s fault, we don’t have to confront the fact that any untrained and unsupervised animal is a threat to public safety.

enough.. i have things to do. i get to go pick up my two little aggressive monsters at the kennel i left them in for everyone’s safety while i was gone. A breed so genetically close to a wolf that aggressive would hardly begin to describe their breeding… and the biggest danger is that i will be showered with kisses and have to listen to their howls of disappointment that i would leave them. everyone should be so lucky.

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[Anonymous]

Believe me, I agree that lattemom lets things make her angry. A lot of things. She seems very quick to make assumptions. I could not live like that. That just seems to be her personality.

I agree that, more than anything, the real issue is irresponsible dog OWNERS, as apposed to the actual breed of dog. However, it is a fact that pit bulls make up a third of all vicious dog attacks. I find it naive when people say that their neighbor’s, cousin’s, friend’s.. etc.. pit bull is the nicest dog in the world and therefore all pit bulls are nice and everyone else who thinks they are vicious dogs is wrong just because they happen to know one friendly pit bull (run-on sentence, I think). That one friendly pit bull probably has responsible owners and was raised to be friendly and loving. That is not the case, as we all know, of all dogs (yes ALL dogs).

All the stuff about the kids in the restaurant, I’m just exhausted. I think pretty much anyone would have just left that situation. It’s sad that a family cannot enjoy a meal out because of some punk kids, but, hey, they are kids and they are just ignorant. Nothing you do will change their behavior. Eventually they will grow up. But that’s how the world works.

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[san]

Job

I could kiss you! :)

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[Anonymous]

JoB – I’m so glad you’re home. Now I can go back to typing…what she says!

I found an interesting quote put forth by lattemom. Perhaps it could be printed and taped to ones’ keyboard….”So all that said I still believe people should just shut their mouths and stop making any comments that are unkind to anybody”.

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[Kayleigh]

Lattemom, I’m thinking you’ve missed the real points of what I said. But that’s okay.

I won’t block you or anybody else…that would just feel lame to me.

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[Anonymous]

I’m not very bright, but I am nice, so bear with me on this question.

If we have the blocking mechanism in effect on this forum, would that eliminate just those posts from the specific people we choose to block? Is that how it would work? If so, wouldn’t you then be missing one side of a conversation? That seems like it could become confusing. Can someone explain how it would work?

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[Jeannie]

Umm…weren’t we talking about pit bulls here?

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[Anonymous]

I know, sorry, Jeannie. I should have moved that over to the “name calling thread”. I’ll do that.

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[Anonymous]

NewResident said what I have been tryin invain to post that 1 friendly and loving pit bulls or other aggressive dog does not make those breeds any less aggressive or less threatening. I do not live my life in fear people, I have a glorious life thank you very much! I just don’t frequent certain places per se (not knowing about the upcoming situation at Jack in the Box yesterday).

And by blocking anyone from posting on this or any forum would be very one-sided.

And NewResident: I totally agree that is the fault of the irresponsible dog owners as well, which I have tried to express many times.

A young man came went to the employer my husband works for dress in baggy pants, a backward hat and was promptly turned away because of his unprofessional attire let alone his attitude of self-righeousness.

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[Anonymous]

lattemom- It’s that guys problem that he didn’t dress appropriately for a job interview, not yours. Now he’s the one without a job. That shouldn’t bother you.

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[Anonymous]

Id doesn’t bother me, it is just a fact that if he would have taken time to dress appropriately he might have been considered for the job. Like when I take the kids Downtown Seattle the way that people dress for business is very confusing, casual, more like they are on vacation. So I am sorry I do not feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t take the time to dress appropriately, learn to speak clearly in English, without slang or slurs.

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[Kayleigh]

Lattemom, I wear jeans to work most days. My bosses don’t care what I wear. I work very hard, sometimes very long days. I’m good at what I do–some days even very good.

Will you please, for the last time, stop throwing out cliches, generalilzations, and negative judgments? Just stop.

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[Anonymous]

Thanks, Kayleigh. You can’t change anybody, lattemom! Live and let live. Just don’t put yourself in situations where the only outcome will be a bad one!

You have definite opinions of certain people based on the way they look or dress. My advice? Just stay away from those type of people if you feel you can’t trust them.

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[ALS]

Ditto Kayleigh! What does dressing casually for work have to do with anything? Many companies these days do not have a dress code. If I have an important meeting I’ll dress up, but if I’m just going to be sitting behind a computer all day anyway, why bother? It has no effect on my productivity or my progress within my job, and I too consider myself quite successful.

It makes me sad that you seem so judgmental and are probably instilling those values in your kids as well.

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[Author]

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