A question about pit bull dogs

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BoSoxGal
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A question about pit bull dogs

Post by BoSoxGal »

How would you go about killing one if it attacked you?


I never thought about this much before but I live in a city where there are actually quite a few of this breed and I know from following the community pages on Facebook that there are a few morons who are quite negligent about letting their pitties get out of the yard to wander the neighborhood, repeatedly. A year or so ago a middle aged woman was mutilated and hospitalized for days and her dog ripped to shreds by a couple of pit bull dogs the owner let out the front door as she happened to be walking by.

I know that all pit bull dogs are sweet and loving and would never ever hurt a fly, but since a 15 month old baby girl was just torn to pieces this week in a nearby community by her family’s pit bull dog - who also mutilated two adult family members who attempted to save the baby, and the dog kept attacking them despite being wounded by the adult humans - it got me seriously thinking about how best to defend myself against attack by a pit bull dog, because I’ve taken up walking and realize that one of these monsters could jump the fence or get out the door or get free of its idiot master at the park any time, really.

I was thinking I’d go back to carrying bear spray as I did on my hikes in Montana, and also a buck knife to eviscerate the thing before it has a chance to rip out my throat or femoral artery. I’ve read that there is not really any use in hitting a pit bull dog, that they can stand even a bat cracked on their ugly thick skulls without flinching. It was a running joke between me and one of the deputies I used to work with in Montana that he’d shot a pit bull dog in the head and it was home resting comfortably the following day - plus I don’t really want to go to the trouble or expense of buying a gun.

Any ideas of how best to fully disable or end one of these killing machines masquerading as pet? I am open to all suggestions; I am truly earnest about preparing myself psychologically to defend my life (or my dog’s) against one as necessary.

Please no ‘pit bulls are special and misunderstood’ replies; as far as I’m concerned they should be genocided.
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Joe Guy
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by Joe Guy »

If I were going to use a spray, I would use this (or something similar) before I would use bear spray. I read somewhere that bear spray is weaker than pepper spray but it shoots farther.

Other than that, if you can't run and get out of its reach on a nearby car or something, you don't have much choice. You would either need to carry a baseball bat, ax or a gun - Taser? - and hope it works.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by BoSoxGal »

You don’t think a buck knife could be useful? I thought either in at the genitals and rip straight up toward the ribs, spilling the guts - that’s a very quick end, I would think - or depending on angle available, a quick stab at the base of the neck or into an eye right into the brain. I have read that some pits have survived multiple stab wounds and kept tearing and biting, so I think I have to condition my brain to think about the right place(s) to stab for maximum effect.

I do know that running is a very bad idea; even Usain Bolt couldn’t outrun a dog and I’m no Usain Bolt. They can’t climb well so if a tree was handy . . . but I can’t climb terribly quickly either these days, so. This is why I feel like if I’m going to keep walking I need to be thinking very seriously about this possibility- especially because there will be terror involved in an actual eventuality so training is critical.

I was once almost attacked by a pit bull type dog in the courtyard of a condo complex where I lived in Arizona; it was the neighbor’s dog and we all hated that he let it run loose but he was essentially a gang banger type and I think all the neighbors were afraid to confront him on it. Anyway I walked out to head to my car one day and the dog came charging at me and honestly it might’ve been playful but I take no chances with potential killers so I just took several steps at the dog and screamed at it as loud and low-voiced as I could and that dog turned and ran. Some dogs *can* be managed with intimidation that way, but you never know. I should’ve had a backup plan then, but just didn’t think.

I looked up that story I remembered from two years ago; it’s really amazing the lady lived because she was attacked by SIX PITBULLS - she dropped to the ground and assumed the fetal with the little Yorkie puppy in her grasp, and managed to protect her face, neck and arms. The dogs tore large pieces out of her legs and it’s just luck they didn’t rip her femoral and kill her. In her pain she let go the puppy and they ripped it to shreds. She only survived because a cop was driving by and stopped to intervene, and the owner of the dogs ran out to help her and to try to control his dogs. I almost felt sorry for him when I saw a picture of him crying in court the day the judge ordered them all destroyed - except nope, he needs to get a golden retriever. Or a border collie.


To be clear, I want to be mentally prepared to terminate any dog that attacks me, not just a pit bull. I just think that’s more likely. It could also be a Rottweiler or a rogue German Shepherd (the one that lives next door and is tied out on a not chain chain for hours on end has lost its poor mind and I think it would totally attack me, my niece, my dog if it ever broke off the run. I actually live in some fear of that because neither yard is fenced).
Last edited by BoSoxGal on Sat Jul 18, 2020 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by Bicycle Bill »

Do you lie awake at night thinking up things that could harm, bother, or annoy you?

Sure a pittie could jump a fence and attack you.  A person in a car paying more attention to their text messages than their driving could come up the curb and clobber you. In your age and condition, you could even trip on a crack in the sidewalk and fall, striking your head and punching your ticket for the Stygian ferry that way.  Better you should give up walking and all outdoor activities.  Sit at home with your cats and your computer and get fat like a lot of the other older women I know.  You never know when a piece of space debris could be incoming and wipe you out too.
Sputnik Crashed Here
Manitowoc, Wisconsin

The galleries of the Rahr-West Art Museum contain paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, Picasso, and Andy Warhol.  They also contain a piece not even the Met or the Getty or the Louvre can equal — a piece of space junk.  It's not here because it's art.  It's here because it crashed right outside.

It was with much fanfare that the Soviet Union launched Korabl-Sputnik 1, dubbed "Sputnik IV" in the West, on May 14, 1960.  It carried a super-secret 7-ton payload including, it was rumored, a life-size "dummy cosmonaut."  The Reds were so proud that they put their newest satellite on a postage stamp.  But five days later, when its re-entry rockets were fired, something apparently exploded.  Instead of a triumphant return to earth, Sputnik IV (and the dummy) drifted into space.  This time there was no fanfare.  The Russians said that they'd never planned to bring it back anyway.

Sputnik IV stayed in its useless orbit until September 6, 1962, when it fell screaming from the sky over Wisconsin.  All 7 tons, including the dummy cosmonaut, burned up in the atmosphere — except one 20-pound hunk of metal.  That piece crashed into the street outside of the Rahr-West Art Museum.  (A rival 14-pound piece, found on a loading dock in Sheboygan, was later dismissed as doubtful.)
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Our helpful guide at Rahr-West takes us past the paintings and sculptures to see the piece.  It rests serenely inside a plexiglass box atop a pedestal, a blackened disk of carbon steel perhaps six inches across.  It looks like it broke off the bottom of a hot water tank.  We're told that it was glowing "like the Blob" when two city police officers discovered it, and an accompanying display praises the patrolmen as "particularly astute."

The local newspaper at the time painted a less dramatic picture.  The hunk had been embedded three inches deep into the asphalt of 8th Street, just off the center line, for an hour before patrolmen Marvin Bauch and Ronald Rusboldt noticed it from their squad car.  They thought that it was a piece of cardboard and ignored it.  An hour later they noticed it again, stopped to move it, and found that it was too hot to touch.  They then thought that it was a piece of slag from a local foundry that had fallen out of a dump truck.  They kicked it to the curb.  It wasn't until noon that Bauch and Rusboldt associated what they had seen with the reported breakup of Sputnik.  They returned to the spot and found it, still in the gutter, more than seven hours after it had fallen.  A check at the fire department with a Geiger counter showed no radioactivity, so the lump was shipped to the Smithsonian.

Nine days after the crash, satisfied that what they had was essentially just a hunk of metal, the Americans offered most of it back to the Soviets.  The Russians huffed and puffed and finally accepted, carrying away the hunk in a box — but not before NASA had made two replicas.  One was given to Wisconsin's democratic senator, the other to Wisconsin's republican representatives, on the one-year anniversary of the crash.  Neither wanted them, and so both ended up back in Manitowoc, even though Manitowoc itself only wanted one.

On November 15, 1963, the International Association of Machinists embedded a brass ring in 8th Street to mark the exact spot where Sputnik had fallen.  It's in the middle of a street, where drivers won't necessarily see you crouching with a camera — so don't.  Safer is a marker next to the sidewalk, a small slab of pink granite mounted flush with the grass, providing sparse particulars of Sputnik's demise.
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The second Sputnik lump replica is supposedly in Manitowoc's Safety Building (police and fire headquarters).  But we didn't have the time to verify this, and frankly we didn't relish the thought of calling the police dispatcher and asking, "Do you have a piece of Sputnik?"  So we'll leave it to someone else to track down this final relic of the Space Race.

Update:  Eric Thiede wrote us: "The other copy made of this fragment of Sputnik IV that fell in Manitowoc, WI, in Sept. 1962 is at the observatory of the Milwaukee Astronomical Society in New Berlin, WI.  I am sure because I saw it there in 2000."
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by dales »

Do you lie awake at night thinking up things that could harm, bother, or annoy you?
Like I expressed in my Trader Joe's piece.

Some people have way too much time on their hands.

I myself live for what little things I am profusely happy for.

An attitude of gratitude is the way I choose to live.

Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.


yrs,
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BoSoxGal
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by BoSoxGal »

It’s total idiocy to walk blithely through life while ignoring the obvious dangers in one’s life. For 50 years I haven’t devoted any energy to thinking of how to defend myself against a pit bull dog attack, so your responses are quite stupid. I’m spending a little bit of time thinking about a very real danger in my community - lots and lots of pit bulls, some running loose, in a community where just two years ago a woman was almost killed and her dog ripped to pieces in front of her. I’m a woman of similar age who walks her dog regularly in this community. And I was just reminded of the very real danger of these dogs by reading a news story about a 15 month old baby being torn apart by her family pit bull.

I’d have to be as stupid as you two to not spend a few moments considering a plan for how to respond to such an attack.

Thanks for reminding me why I have you guys on ignore and don’t read your posts 99% of the time. I’ll up my compliance to 100% since it’s clear that even in a thread like this, which calls for zero debate, you can’t a) shut your fucking mouths from personal attacks, or b) offer useful advice.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by TPFKA@W »

Please no ‘pit bulls are special and misunderstood’ replies; as far as I’m concerned they should be genocided.
Agreed. I really believe if you were attacked the only realistic protection would be a .38. Even that though has a strong chance of being ineffective since you would have to take it out and aim while this killing machine is mauling you. I used to carry a bat while I was walking our local trails because of the insane number of people who walk their dogs unleashed, while my dog was leashed, and leashed and unleashed do not mix and my dog was attacked often. None were pits but who knows when that could change. I beat the holy crap out of a few dogs with their idiot owners protesting.

Your concern is valid.

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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by Darren »

I've heard of first responders that used CO2 fire extinguishers on Rottweilers. Those are too bulky for everyday carry. Maybe one of the more potent bear sprays will work. If you carry something heavy enough to cripple the dog, you won't carry it long. I suspect a real samurai sword would not be legal for carry.

You're better off getting trained, buying a pocket sized 9mm semi and having it readily available in case of need.

If that's not possible, you're not going to stop a dog w/o major damage to yourself and the detriment later as a follow on.
Thank you RBG wherever you are!

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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

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Thanks for reminding me why I have you guys on ignore and don’t read your posts 99% of the time. I’ll up my compliance to 100% since it’s clear that even in a thread like this, which calls for zero debate, you can’t a) shut your fucking mouths from personal attacks, or b) offer useful advice.
Promise?

eta: so thin-skinned and unable to deal with criticism.

Sad

Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.


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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by MGMcAnick »

I don't think there is any way you can open a Buck knife fast enough to eviscerate an attacking dog, or anything else for that matter. I also didn't know if bear spray or pepper spray would have any real effect on one, so I googled it. Apparently it works, but this appears to be an ad: https://www.sabrered.com/blog/pepper-sp ... %20attacks for their Sabre brand.

Ask your mail carrier what he or she uses. Mine never gets out of her vehicle (van thingy).

We darned sure can't out run one.

Do you need a permit to carry a small gun in your locale?

Keep walking. It's good for you as long as you can maintain social distance.
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by rubato »

I'm sorry you have to deal with this. Large powerful dogs which are either not trained or trained to be aggressive can be very dangerous; and frightening. If you have to live there I would say pepper spray, or better bear spray, with some kind of physical backup. I'm not a martial artist but I would guess that a knife at the end of your delicate and easily broken arm would not be my first choice. A good heavy cane might help. If you use it at need try to kill the dog.

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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by wesw »

my father was the best persn with d0gs and cats that I ve ever met, and he gave me this advice when I was 12 0r 13.....

he said that if a pit was c0ming f0r y0u it w0uld l0ck 0n and be a real problem

he advised me t0 0ffer my arm as it came at me, and then t0 sc00p up the d0g and slam it 0n its back

this w0uld likely break its back

this 0nly w0rks f0r the smaller m0dels th0...

they c0me pretty big these days, s0metimes.

n0t much the average pers0n can d0 against a large pit, I certainly w0uldn t stand a chance these days

even a .22 w0uld be unlikely t0 st0p a determined large bull-type d0g

luckily m0st are n0t aggressive t0ward pe0ple,

0ne l0cal d0g was attacking an0ther d0g, and withst00d a r00fing hatchet t0 the head, he is still alive, but 0ld and feeble n0w, he c0uld still kill y0u, but c0uldn t catch y0u

scary creatures

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Joe Guy
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by Joe Guy »

One day in the early 2000s I was taking a walk when a Rottweiler jumped through an open gate and came running toward me from about 100 feet away. I stopped and stayed in place until he came up to about two feet away and stood there looking at me. I said, "Hello dog" and then walked away. He stayed where he was and watched me go. I still wonder what would have happened if I had tried to run away.

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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by BoSoxGal »

I earned the expert marksman designation in JROTC in high school, and was raised and trained with guns from an early age. It’s been a while since I used one, but I suspect with a little time on the range I’d be back in the swing. I had a concealed carry permit in Montana so wouldn’t likely have trouble getting one here . . . but, when I consider scenarios in which I might be attacked by a dog and there could be bystanders rushing to aid me as I try to shoot a moving animal while being attacked, I feel the risk of a stray bullet harming a human being (or for that matter my own dog) is unacceptably high. I would struggle mightily with grievously wounding or killing another human being who wasn’t harming me.

I think I’ll start with ordering police strength pepper spray and taking a walking staff with me even on sidewalk walks (I take it in the woods always to assist with balance on uneven ground). Hitting with the staff might not be terribly useful, but I might be able to use it to block the dog from biting me if I can get the staff in its mouth first.

I wonder if a dog whistle would disturb an attacking dog enough to disrupt the attack? (Policeman used an air horn in the pittie attack I detailed above; he didn’t feel he could safely shoot at the dogs without possibly killing the woman they were attacking.)
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by dales »

WOOF!

Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.


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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by Bicycle Bill »

While it's a good start, why stop at just a shillelagh, pepper spray, and an air horn?  The best defense is a good offense, after all.
You can get one of these — a sword cane or umbrella — for less than a hundred bucks.
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And although it might cost extra, I'll bet you could even get one in an attractive pastel color so you can still maintain that lady-like image that endears you to so many people here on Plan B.   :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by dales »

Illegal in CALIFORNIA but in Mass:
A Massachusetts resident can own, and carry on their private property or in their home (if renting), any sort of bladed implement, from pocket knives and switchblades to Bowie knives, swords, sword canes, throwing stars (known as “shuriken” in Massachusetts law), machetes, daggers, disguised knives, and so forth.
So you're in luck BSG!

Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.


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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by Econoline »

Joe's suggestion of a "dog pepper spray" seems like the best answer...though I also like Bill's suggestion of a sword cane or umbrella.
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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by Gob »

I'd not leave the house, except in an armoured vehicle. Crazy gun owning neighbours, mad dogs, people who want to be known as "they", you're living in a lunatic asylum....
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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Re: A question about pit bull dogs

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

I worry about acorns. One of these from a 150 foot (45.72 meters, for those of that lifestyle choice) tree could kill you. That's why I never go for a walk around my block without a hard hat. It's even worse if a squirrel gets hold of it and decides to toss it at you: the added speed of a well flung fling is just a dead cert.

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