Bad to the bone

Letter from the editor

What do you call the proposed or active bans of the pit bull in 17 cities in the United States and in five major countries around the world?

A good start.

Pit bulls are in the news again thanks to football star Michael Vick, the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons. Vick is so smart, he decided to throw away his $120 million dollar contract and millions of dollars in endorsements to raise and fight pit bulls.

The charges are almost unbelievable. He allegedly bet massive sums of money on the fights, and if one of his dogs lost, he executed the animal.

While Vick won't be winning any "Pet Owner of the Year" awards, part of this story is the ongoing problem with pit bulls.

The history of pit bulls is one filled with violence. They were bred to be exceptional fighters.

Pit bulls are short, very muscular dogs with a frightening capacity to inflict damage on any other living thing.

Yes, other dogs will attack or bite humans and other dogs, but pit bulls are genetically engineered in a way that makes them especially dangerous.

Take the bite of a rottweiler, for example. This dog can produce about 800 pounds per square inch of bite pressure. Not bad, right?

A pit bull can exert more than 2,000 pounds per square inch of bite pressure.

There is a reason Vick wasn't charged with raising and fighting basset hounds. Some dogs are designed to kill, and the pit bull is one of them. Other dogs certainly have the potential to be vicious, but a labrador retriever or a chihuahua doesn't have the potential to maim and kill like a pit bull.

Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People, conducted a study on dog bites from 1982 to present shows that pit bulls and rottweilers were responsible for 65 percent of all fatal dog attacks.

He states in his study: "If almost any other dog has a bad moment, someone may get bitten, but will not be maimed for life or killed … . If a pit bull terrier or a rottweiler has a bad moment, often someone is maimed or killed."

I know there are a lot of good pit bulls out there. Some are extremely loving, but that does not change the inherent nature of the dog. They just have a look that gives them away. Any person or any other animal can set them off. The risks that come with these dogs are too great.

Vick should go to jail, and pit bulls should go away - permanently.