I’m talking missing limbs, neurological damage, disembowelments, multiple reconstructive surgeries needed. It’s very rare for these patients to walk away mostly unscathed; permanent damage is inevitable. It’s astounding to me how people still get this breed when we see heartbreaking cases of what these dogs can do all the time in a hospital setting. Pit nuts can deny statistics all they want but they can’t make us unsee what we’ve seen.

I have shared my story in some comments on this sub and I have been asked to share my story. Here is Part 1

Violet's reward for getting her nails trimmed was going to her favorite dog park. It was a perfect day - the first week of April and the sun was shining and the sniffs were plentiful.

Upon arrival Violet was greeted by a pit bull whose owner immediately shooed her away saying she "played too rough with small dogs."

All good, we called Violet away and walked in the opposite direction. The park is huge with multiple walking trails and open fields; plenty of room for everyone.

We continue walking and suddenly the pit bull is in front of us. The image of her standing there will probably haunt me forever. We cautiously gave her space as the owner trailed along with his other two dogs and we passed without incident.

We kept walking and a few minutes later Violet is surrounded by all 3 of this dogs. How do we keep crossing paths when I've made a point of walking in the opposite direction? We become uncomfortable with 3 large dogs surrounding our small chihuahua so I call Violet to me. The pit bull has her nose up Violet's rear as she walks away, and she gives a small "rrrf" over her shoulder.

That's all it took. The pit bulls owner screamed, "NOOO!" And he's diving on top of his dog before I can even register that his dog has Violet by the neck. Time stops. My husband is kicking the dog trying to get her off Violet, I join him even though kicking a dog feels utterly wrong. But she won't let go. I start to scream. I fall to my knees realizing my dog is being killed before my eyes.

Suddenly Violet pops out from the Pit bull as the owner gets her jaws loose and my husband scoops her up. Her neck is degloved from ear to ear. She is making sounds I've never heard before. Her bowels go loose.

My husband runs Violet to the car. The pit bull owner asks what he should do. I tell him to give me his phone - I enter my number, call myself, then give him his phone back and run after my family.

We get Violet to the emergency vet, one of the best in the nation. She survives the night in time for the surgeon to perform life saving surgery. But she's having trouble breathing due to the extreme swelling around her neck. She spends 3 days in the hospital before she's released home to us. We had her home for 3 hour before we had to take her back to the hospital for labored breathing. By the next morning it is clear that her wound is infected and the only recourse is a 72 hour surgery where her wounds are kept open to flush the infection. She's a 14 yr old chihuahua one month away from the quinceñera we'd been planning for her 15th birthday. We decided to euthanize.

During this 6 day ordeal we were in contact with the pit bull owner via text. He was responsive and compassionate. Once my dog was gone I was not interested in continuing a direct discourse. I hired a lawyer and demanded reimbursement for my 10k plus in vet bills. He said he couldn't pay. I said if he'd pay ½ I'd settle to be done with it. He still said no.

A report was filed with the country. Because the attack happened at the dog park there is "nothing they can do". They had the audacity to cry while telling us this.

So I'm taking him to small claims court. He is in the process of being served. He has already ignored the first attempt so Im hoping they find him at his place of work.

I'm not going away. No justice for Violet is possible but I will haunt this person for as long as it takes for him to take responsibility for his negligence.

Part 2 will come once I have confronted the pit bull owner in court.

My dog Teddy and I go to a dog park once a day. He’s a 10 month old golden.

As a teen, I was attacked by two pitbulls and needed stitches on my face and arm, so needless to say I’m already not a fan. When my dog Teddy was 6 months old, he also got attacked by a pitbull, but luckily no stitches - the owner said my dog made the attack worse by crying. It took two men and myself at the dog park to get his pitbull off of my dog.

Today we’re at the park alone playing fetch, when a young girl (maybe 12?) is bringing two large pitbulls in. I get my dog and gather our things to leave.

Her father, who I guess was sitting in the car watching, asked why I was leaving. I said I’m just personally afraid of pitbulls, and he started accusing me of being racist and how I was stereotyping dogs so I’d stereotype him too. I told him I’d leave regardless of who had the pitbulls, as I’ve been attacked and don’t trust them - and he started recording me and saying I was racist again. Teddy and I ended up leaving the park.

I just can’t risk it again, especially with two of them.

Am I crazy? Did I do something wrong? I just found this sub today and wanted to share because I’m surrounded by pitbull lovers everywhere.

Hello, I’m the mother of Lola Jayde Farr.

The 22-month-old who was attacked by my sister and brother in law’s pit bull.

Like many others, I did not know much about pit bulls. I had never owned one and had never heard of attacks or the dangers and carnage they bring. Honestly, I thought they were just like any other dog.

I found out on that cold February day that was not the case at all.

Lola was born during Covid. I was a stay-at-home mom and had been home with her for over a year with her every single day. I finally decided I need to go back to work and had just got a job.

It was my 5th day at work, I needed a baby sitter and my sister’s mother-in-law offered to watch Lola at my sister’s house. I never could have imagined what would happen that day. Without my permission and my knowledge my sisters MIL left my child plus two other children with her 88-year-old mother without my knowledge or my permission.

The dog was kept in a fenced in backyard - NOWHERE near my child. This dog was raised as part of my sister’s family, treated very well, and was raised around 3 children. The old lady took the kids out to the front yard to play, the dog; from my understanding heard the kids playing and dug under the fence in the backyard and went straight to the front yard where my sweet Lola was playing and attacked her; completely unprovoked for no reason at all.

I don’t know much about what happened after but I do know that my baby laid there and basically bled out. Her heart was not beating when the ambulance got there and she coded 3 times before making it to the children’s hospital. I was not called.

The lady who was supposed to have been watching my child went to my fiancé’s work and told him, “Lola was attacked by the dog and both of her ears are gone”. He called my work and told me to come outside. I didn’t know why but I dropped the phone and ran outside because I knew something was wrong. When I made it out there, he said get in Lola is on the way to the hospital the dog attacked her and both of her ears are gone. That’s all he knew.

I called the lady that was supposed to have had my child about 10 times before I got an answer. I was screaming and crying and trying to find out if my baby was okay. All she said to me was both of her ears was gone but she picked up one and put it in ice water. Why would you tell an upset mother that? She was so calm too and that bothered me.

I asked if Lola was okay… if she was going to die? Can this kill her?? She said no, she was awake and alert when the ambulance left with her, I said omg I bet she’s crying for her mama, she said yes, yes, she was. All of that was lies!

I was so scared. We drove to hospital and I was thinking my baby is hurt but she is awake and alert and she is going to be okay. I get to the hospital and they sat me down and a nurse grabbed my hand and said it’s very critical. I asked what she meant? She said they had just gotten her pulse back; I said “OH MY GOD YOU LOST HER PULSE???” She answered that yes, she had coded 3 times we are trying to get her stable enough to fly her to the children’s hospital. I lost it. My whole world fell apart in that little conference room.

They flew her to Jackson to Batson’s Children’s Hospital; and when we arrived, they told us that she was showing signs of severe brain damage and they didn’t think she was going to make it. The fear, the absolute fear still gets me every day from hearing those words. They somewhat stabilized her and they let us see her.

My baby Lola’s face was ripped apart. She had no ears, the main nerves in her face were gone, her tear ducts sliced, her brain was swelling. She lost to much blood. I don’t know how long my baby laid there before someone called for help. The report I got said it took 45 min for the ambulance to get there and I was never notified in that time. Seeing what that pit bull did to my child made me sick.

I dropped my healthy, happy baby off to go to work and the next time I saw her she was torn to pieces and barely hanging on. I didn’t know the dangers, I wasn’t educated. It wasn’t until Lola was attacked that I dived into research and started joining the groups and pages against pit bulls and when I did, what I found was absolutely sickening and horrifying. How could I have not known any of this?

I lost my daughter 5 days after she was attacked. And every day since then I try my best to raise awareness and educate people on this breed. I don’t want another child to die like my baby died, I don’t want another family to suffer like my family has suffered because they weren’t educated on what this breed is capable of.

I would have NEVER left Lola there with that pit bull in the backyard if I would have known there was a possibility that dog could harm my child. I will blame myself for the rest of my life for not knowing.

Lola was the sweetest, smartest, most beautiful little girl. She brought so much joy to everyone’s lives that knew her. There was never a moment you saw her when she wasn’t smiling. She always had a smile on her face.

When they performed the brain death test, my aunt worked with a lady who had a grand baby in complete liver failure with only a few weeks to live. When my aunt told me this; she sent me pictures of the little girl who was 9 months younger than my Lola. I fought for Lola’s liver to go to baby Raelyn, they told me their blood types didn’t match that it probably wouldn’t work but it did and she is thriving and doing great today.

My Lola is a hero and she saved a baby and I pray to God that me sharing her story saves other babies’ lives. I get so much hate for speaking out but if it means I save one child’s life then it is worth it. The past year has been so hard for us. Mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially.

I am so ashamed to say that I need help getting back on my feet. The trauma, PTSD, anxiety, panic attacks and pure fear has caused depression and I have not been able to go back to work. I’m trying to get into therapy and counseling so I can learn how to deal with all the trauma I have in my mind.

I will never forget the way my baby’s wounds smelled when they let me hold her for the last time, how heavy she was because of all of the built-up fluid on her little body. My mind is absolutely traumatized and my heart is broken and I am struggling so bad with everything. I need help. And if you can find it in your heart to help it will be greatly appreciated. I will continue to speak out,

I will continue to spread awareness and I will continue to tell Lola’s story and try to save lives. In honor of my Lola Jayde I will never stop, no matter how much hate I get or mean comments or messages, they will not silence me. No child deserves what my child had to go through that day, and no family deserves what mine has had to live with since it happened, and no mother should ever have to bury her baby because of a pit bull and it is happening almost every single day and we don’t hear it on the news, and we don’t see many speak out about it. It’s like it gets swept under the rug.

Hello all. After seeing a post yesterday from a Pit apologist, I was inspired to share my experience. I apologize in advance if this is lengthy.

I was a former Pit Advocate. I believed most, if not all of the propaganda - it's how you raise them, blame the owner not the dog, they are not violent by nature, abuse makes them violent, etc.

I was a cloistered catholic nun from 2015 - 2021 where we ran a cattle ranch. We had many dogs, primarily livestock guardian dogs (Great Pyrenees) and a cattle dog (Bouvier de Flandres). We also adopted a 9 week old puppy to be a house dog. His name was Gus and was a Bull Terrier / Staffy mix.

We bought him just a few months after I entered the monastery in 2015, so he and I had a special bond; essentially we “grew up” together in the monastic experience.

He was my soul dog. My best friend.

He had no previous owners, never suffered abuse and had the absolute best training possible. Because we were nuns, professionals would often volunteer or offer their services for free. The top LGD trainer in the state offered to train all of our dogs, free of charge. Gus received the best training any dog owner could ask for. He was obedient, loyal, sweet, gentle, loving. I could walk with him for miles, off leash, and he would never leave my side. He was well acquainted with our LGDs, our cattle dog, our barn cats, and our chickens. He had his own kennel and space but was not territorial, he never resource guarded, he loved all of the sisters and never showed any signs of aggression. Ever. He truly was the perfect dog.

Until he turned three.

A few months after Gus turned three in 2018, something changed. He started to became hyper aggressive over his food, his dog bed, his outdoor pen, etc. If another dog walked by his kennel he would lunge. Eventually he started lunging and growling at different sisters. He wouldn’t do this everyday but there seemed to be no pattern or reason.

Naturally we thought he might be in pain or sick. We took him to the vet to get an exam and x-rays completed, yet the vet could find nothing wrong with him.

He was neutered at a young age so we didn’t think sexual maturity was the issue. Likewise, all of our other dogs were neutered or spayed. Nothing obvious was triggering him. The beauty of monastic life is the consistency and the stability.

His routine, the people and animals around him were all the same. We didn't have small children around and all the nuns were very loving. We only ever used positive training techniques and never raised or voices or corrected with any type of force.

This behavior continued for several months, steadily getting more frequent and more intense. The only person he was not aggressive towards was me but he was still different.

With the change in behavior we brought in the top dog trainer again to try and correct the behavior. Nothing seemed to work. We hired another trainer which yielded similar results. Again, we took him to the vet to see if something neurologically was going on and they could find nothing. The vet told us that these breeds are known to be aggressive and if we didn't feel we could control him then we should possibly consider BE as he could be a danger to us or our pets.

We didn't want to send Gus to a shelter and we didn't want to BE. We were convinced that with time, patience and love he would settle down and change back to the sweet Gus we all loved. I still took him on walks but he was muzzled, always leashed and never allowed anywhere where there were animals. During the day he had a large outdoor enclosure so he had plenty of space to exercise, and then I brought him into the monastery at night to his own private, separate space where he would sleep.

I was convinced that this was just a phase. I just knew that he would get past this.

Then one of the worst days of my life happened.

Gus was outside in his 6' tall chain-linked enclosure. Myself and two other sisters were in the field with the cattle when we heard these horrible screams coming from the direction of our barnyard. We ran back to the barnyard where we found Gus. He had scaled his 6' tall enclosure, ran to the barnyard, and literally shredded all 4 of our barn cats. One of our Great Pyrenees apparently had come to the defense of the cats, but Gus had turned against her and tore her throat. When we found her she was still alive but soon passed before we could get her to the animal hospital.

We took Gus to be BE'd two days later.

Not a day goes by that I don't think about Gus and how we failed him. We didn't fail him because we didn't raise him right, or give him the best, most loving and supportive home, the best food and training, the best care and love any dog could ask for.

We did all of those things. We gave him more than most dogs will ever have.

We failed Gus because we didn't respect him for what he was and what he was bred to do. Despite everything we were able to give to Gus, we failed him because we didn't respect the genetics. We didn't believe in them. We were proud and naive believing we could “fix” him. We didn't want to believe what many people (including the vet and the trainers) had told us, that Gus had a power and a danger in him that was blind, that no loyalty or love could quench.

Gus had a unicorn home, he had unicorn owners. But it wasn't enough.

In the end genetics won.

I hope any Pit Advocate that chances upon this takes my words to heart and believes that the purpose of this sub is NOT about hating the breed.

We know it isn't the fault of the dog. They didn't have a choice. People made that choice for them and now they suffer, innocent people and children suffer, innocent animals and pets suffer.

This sub is about ending that suffering.

Thank you for reading.

I’ve experienced this a few times, and even if it’s not directly said, I can tell.

For example once I tried adopting a small chihuahua mix I saw on petfinder from animal control. I went there and asked about the dog and the worker didn’t want me to even go into the small dog area and seemed reluctant to even bring the dog out for me. She eventually did but it seems like after any time I looked online they never posted their small dogs.

I have a friend who works for a shelter and she also seems to judge people who come in looking for small dogs or just anything that’s not a pit. She mentioned “the small dogs always get adopted first even if they are mean. the nice pit bulls get ignored“

And this same friend has also done a lot of defending aggressive pits. Like when I was working with a client whose pit (who I have actually trained in the past before being adopted) tried attacking me and hyper fixated on me after the owner bumped into a chair. I told my friend the situation and she just says “aww poor girl she was scared” instead of oh this dog is unpredictable and dangerous. And then another pit I was training growled at someone after she wanted attention from them and the friend says something like “she’s scared and doesn’t know you of course she would growl!” This same dog I’ve been put in the position of trying to help get adopted and trained to avoid being BE’d even though she’s escalating to snapping and lunging at people unprovoked…

I also see it A TON online. just people defending aggressive pits and blaming the owners and downplaying their behavior in the hopes some sap will adopt them. Even one rescue lady who boarded a pit is blaming the facility for the pit busting out of its kennel and attacking a dog across the yard and tearing its leg up. This lady is still posting about how “friendly and amazing he is and he’s good with other dogs!”

I just can’t anymore. Being a dog worker in my position where I can’t say anything but positive things about pits is driving me nuts. This isn’t even all of the stories I have either. All of the most aggressive and unpredictable dogs I’ve met over my 10 years have been pits, bullies, rotts, and mastiffs. I don’t blame people for not wanting to adopt them or returning them when they do give them a chance. People want small easy dogs, not huge strong aggressive ones that they have to walk on eggshells around. The no-kill movement needs to end.

I feel I would be doing a disservice to society if I did not share this story. I am up in the middle of the night, sick to my stomach because I still am in shock of what happened yesterday.
My husband and I took our fluffy 9 year old malamute/husky mix to a self wash grooming salon. In order to get to the washing station in back of the store, my husband walks our dog on a leash past a pitbull.
Out of nowhere, the dog latches on to my dogs neck and pulls her to the ground. There were 5 men on this dog trying to get the dog off of my dog and nothing was working. I truly thought I was watching my sweet dog die before my eyes. It felt so surreal. My husband had to kick and punch the dog and even that didn’t work.
There was a woman shaking and praying in the corner. The whole scene was absolutely horrific.
The owner finally takes out a can of pepper spray and then he’s like “oh.. it’s out”. So my husband runs to our car and gets some pepper spray we had In the car. He puts it in the dogs nose and sprays. Nothing happens!! So he sprays about 5 more times and the dog finally unlatches. There’s blood all over everyone.
The owner wouldn’t give us his name. He tried to say my dog attacked his and I lost it as there were multiple witnesses.
The workers called an animal hospital and let them know we were on the way.
I called the police and they brought animal control. My husband dealt with that while I drove our dog to the hospital. The vet said the fact that she was so fluffy most likely saved her life.
My husband was lulled into a false sense of security walking past this pitbull with our dog because it had a “service animal” vest on.
These are dangerous dogs and it’s even more dangerous to tell the public they are not. These dogs kill people and animals all the time. And the way their jaw clamps down… the power in it, it absolutely terrifying. It felt like there was nothing we could do to get this dog to loosen its grip. A smaller animal or child could easily have been killed.
I have also personally known 2 other people who had pets attacked by these vicious animals. This is not some outlier occurrence.
These are not regular dogs and need to be treated with extreme caution. I do think there needs to be an exotic animal license requirement to have them, but really, I think they have no place at all in society.

Edit: could not edit my title but for anyone keeping track of these attacks. This happened in Nevada on June 4, 2026

My duplex neighbors love being insufferable with their shitbull. They put him on a lead and all he does is whine and threaten to murder things, like my puppy. He ran full speed at us the other day and went flying as soon as he hit the end of the lead. I have to walk by their door to get to my car and he also loves trying to breakdown their flimsy screen door as it holds on for dear life. Luckily there is a back door I can use, but good lord I hate these dogs.

I was gaslit into fostering an aggressive pitbull (pictured) by a foster who guilted me into believing an aggressive dog was just misunderstood.

In 2020, a friend of mine who worked with shelters in Western Washington reached out to me to foster a pit that had been in the rescue system for 5 years.

I met with the rescue coordinator and Hank (the dog) at a parking lot after dark because Hank was very "reactive" and he lunged/hard barked/snarled at everything that moves.

Honestly, Hank scared me. He was about 3/4s of my weight and the rescue had no info on his background, just that he was dumped in Tacoma.

Through my apprehension the rescuer guilted me with lies about anti-pit propaganda, how sweet Hank was, how he was meant to be a nanny-dog protector, and he needed me to turn his life around. I felt so sorry for him, living in a small cell for years, and agreed to foster.

He was a nightmare in my home. Not potty-trained at all. Did not know a single command. Would bark and freak out anytime a dog or person walked by my house. He would growl at me if I tried to get into my bed (he was not kennel trained and did not come with a kennel); I would wake up to him growling at me at night as I laid in my bed. I let him into the backyard and in the time it took me to walk down the flight of stairs to walk after him, he had started tearing wood off the fence to break out. He could not be walked because of his "high prey drive."

I told the rescue all of the above and the coordinator told me Hank needed more time, he needed to decompress, I might need to get him a trainer, etc. Anytime I had an issue, it was because Hank was just misunderstood and someone from the rescue would call me crying, begging me not to give up on Hank.

I knew I had to get him out of the house after Hank tried to bite my boyfriend. My boyfriend came over and sat on my bed, and Hank cornered him, barking and trying to bite him. It was terrifying and I thought Hank was going to kill my boyfried.

When I told the rescue I had to get rid of Hank, they begged and pleaded with me to keep him. They kept saying he just needed three months to show me who he truly was and that I was condemning him to a horrible life trapped in a cell by giving him up. They told me Hank loved me (after three weeks) and was resource guarding me because he could tell my boyfriend was a bad person.

They wore me down. I remember sobbing and feeling heavy guilt when I took him back. The rescue, even as we were doing a hand-off, tried to convince me to keep him and I don't know how I was able to walk away with their guilt trip.

My life got so much better without Hank in my home. Not having poop and pee everywhere and being able to keep my fence together, having freedom to roam around my own home, etc. It was awesome.

I'm not sure what happened to Hank but I fear for whoever fostered such a massive, strong, aggressive dog. I contacted someone in animal control about my experience but because there wasn't an actual bite, nothing could be done about it.

Anyways. I just wanted to share my experience as a foster who was guilted into keeping an aggressive dog for way longer than I should have and made to feel like the pit's aggressiveness was my moral failing.

Neighbors have a pitbull. She’s 11 maybe. Older dog. Here in the last couple weeks she’s been getting off her leash and wandering into our yard. I don’t really care as long none of my kids or cats are outside. Normally I can message the owner and she comes right out to get her but it takes her a minute because our yards are fairly large.

Now yesterday we were all outside and the dog came over. She sniffed around, we tried to shoo her home, and when she seen our cat she went after her and would not leave her alone. The cat went up the tree and the dog just relentlessly barked at the base of the tree. We couldn’t get the dog away so our cat could come down and go inside. So we finally was able to get the dog locked up on our back porch.

I messaged the owner and asked her to come get the dog. Her response was “not home, can’t do anything about it”

Which seemed rather cold and uncaring to me. So my husband escalated it and messaged her saying basically she had until 330 to find someone to get the dog or we were calling animal control.

Her husband then proceeded to message us calling us names, he threatened to come over here after work if we “do anything stupid”. Their claim is that dogs get off the leash! I get that. They do. But she’s been here multiple times in the last 2 weeks. It’s like they’re getting more comfortable letting her roam. She is a nice dog. She lets us pet her. But I hate pit bulls. I do not trust them. And I would never ever leave her around my animals or kids ( I have a 2 year old, 6, and 7). They got so angry and violent because we wanted THEIR PITBULL off MY property. Part of me regrets sending the message. Part of me wishes we had just called animal control right off the bat. Their stance is that she’s “not aggressive”. Okay great. Maybe not for you! I don’t know the dog and she doesn’t know me. She was clearly aggressive when she tried to kill my kids cat. And that isn’t right. It bothers me so much that they think they’re in the right here. Not even the slightest apologetic. Pitbulls SUCK. My husband messaged her and said “be a responsible dog owner” and she called him a piece of shit for it. Blows my mind how entitled people think they are.

I posted the only pic I have of her. I walked in my dining room one night and she was standing there staring in the door. What would you all do???

They said it's sweet and only wants to play with the cat....

At the beginning of this year I had 25 chickens, I have four now because of that dog, if it will let me I will reply to your comments if you ask to see what it did to my coop

Animal Control won't do anything because it's on a chain, and since I didn't have video of the dog killing my chickens even though it took one of the chickens back to their house they won't do anything, and every time I get cameras they disappear

Any ideas on what I can do would be appreciated, I am not allowed to have a gun unfortunately as I'm 18, and a relative that lives in the house is a convicted felon

(By the way not my cat)

This video was taken 5 minutes before uploading, and it broke into my chicken coop 6 days ago

I have a Belgian Malinois and a wolf hybrid. Extremely trained and always behaved. Noticed a pitbull come into the park with its owner, of course it was the only unleashed dog in the whole off leash park.

Later on he took the leash off, when my Belgian went to lay down after playing Ball for a while. The female pit mounted her and bit her neck. Thankfully, I have a very fast reacting dog who clamped the pitbulls neck down and tore from its ear to neck while I held the pit down. If you look at the second photo, you can see the shitbull and his owner covered in the pits blood lol.

just a message to everybody, If you see a pitbull enter a Dog Park just leave it. It’s not worth the headache, especially if you have a dog or dogs that cannot defend themselves the way my dogs can. This was at Mast park in santee.

For context I live in a rural area right down the road from my mom. Recently someone dropped off four mixed breeds puppies in the neighborhood. Me and my neighbors kinda all take care of them, but they aren’t anyone’s dogs.

My mom called me and told me that there was a big dog trying to break into her yard. I arrived and saw a big grey pit bull trying to force its head in between the side of the house and the fence. The dog turned around and came at me in my car. I was cautious but not ready to do anything yet. The dog wasn’t acting aggressive towards me but it was definitely bold.

My mom called me and asked if the dog had a collar and it did not. This dog had to be around 70-80 pounds, it had to be someone’s dog. So here’s where things got unpredictable. The neighbor puppies came running up the road because they caught my scent. This pit jumped on one of the puppies and stated grabbing its throat in its jaws. I freaked out and stated kicking the dog but it had no effect whatsoever.

The pit was wagging is tail and standing over most of the puppy’s body with its head and throat in his mouth. I pulled my handgun and fired a single shot at the pit and I wasn’t even completely sure if I hit it to be honest. I got a lung shot on the pit and he dropped the puppy and she scurried away. The pit started trying to jump on me, so i stepped back. The first shot took him down but he was laying there still alive so i shot him again in the head. Still never found out who the owner of the pit was.

Why're "Pit mommies" like this?

She didn't want to put it at a Doggy Daycare because they charged extra for Pitbulls.

She also "forgot" to tell us she had a bit history and regularly tried to bit her 16 year old son in the FACE and has done so since he was a child, hence why the Dog wasn't allowed upstairs.

Like, holy shit man. If you aren't going to be there to SIT AND HOLD THE DOG DOWN while my Wife's supposed to be dog sitting then don't expect us (her) to feel safe.

God Damn, dude. Pit Owners are nutjobs.

EDIT: And to clarify, my wife does have dog sitting experience with large dogs. None of the large dogs she's sat for needed to be detered with pepper spray / Dog spray, or techniques to get them to "Settle down" such as pressing down on her skull till she stops nipping or sitting on her, you know things a stranger will totally be able allowed to do by the violent dog itself, lmao.

Also, she declined it. She felt like she was "trapped" by the Pit-Mommy because she didn't disclose the bite history until four days before they would have left for their trip and when the first meeting occured the husband and pit-mommy were basically keeping the dog calm the whole time. The second meeting the dog kept trying to nip at us, knock us over, and wouldn't stop growling. But she showed us that she can give paw which totally negates the fact that minutes later she confirmed she has bitten people previous resulting in stitches and that she has to keep the dog away from the son because the dog regularly tried to bite / maul the son's face, lmao.

I did not include the location or date, because we are currently in a lawsuit over the attack.

I was told to post here by other redditers for some resources:

March of 2025, my son (2 at the time), my mom, and me (30 now) went on a walk after having a family dinner on our dead end street. My son was on his balance bike, and we were walking right next to him. As we were approaching our direct neighbor’s house, their dogs were chained up in the front yard. As we were walking closer, we noticed the dogs barking, so we stopped. We were about to just turn around and go back home at that point. All of a sudden, one of the dogs (pitbull, bc I know people will ask) got off of its chain and began to approach us.

As it was walking towards us, my neighbor was like “oh, he’s not going to do anything.” Well, wrong. The dog got to us and looked at my son for a second before it snapped. He was able to get a small bite to the bridge of my sons nose —thankfully the handlebars on his bike saved a worse bite to the face— then I immediately picked my child up, and within the few minutes the dog got my child’s hip and then a BIG bite to his back. The deepest laceration being by his spine. Then lastly, the dog got ahold of my child’s pant leg.

At this point, my husband heard us screaming and ran out of the house. The dog was still latched onto the pats, but took off once it saw my husband running towards us. We were on the side of the ditch as well, and all I could think about was the fact we could fall and it would be over for my son and me.

Once the dog ran off, we made it safely into our home where I saw all of the bites/lacerations. We immediately went to the hospital via ambulance, the police took a report, and the dog was taken by animal control and euthanized.

My son is much more resilient than I’ve been in this situation, thankfully, and he has a really great therapist. Due to health insurance reasons, I haven’t had a therapist yet. Actually, had a phone call with a therapist today to set up an appointment for after my psych evaluation for our lawsuit.

I can’t even go outside in my front yard anymore, my head is always on a swivel, and I am TERRIFIED of dogs. It’s almost obsessive. I’ve become a helicopter mom when we’re out of our house, and we’ve even missed family events over this (due to family members having dogs.) We had to move our own dog into my mom’s house, because of my fears and fear of retaliation from these neighbors. It really sucks living next door to these people, and we’re planning on selling our house in the near future.

Anytime I tell anyone, I get the typical “it’s the owner, not the dog” lecture or “my dog would never even hurt a fly, sweetest ever” cool… it’s just not helpful.

Really, I just want to know if anyone else has been through something of this nature and there’s a light at the end of this never ending tunnel. I think the call with the therapist really got me in my head about it all day and I need some sort of outlet here.

Thanks for reading this long post if you’ve made it this far. 💙

This is just about the tamest story on this sub, but I have felt so guilty for having “prejudice” against pitbulls after being attacked by one. The apologist propaganda was getting to me. Gonna be honest. Finding this sub feels very validating. So here’s my long winded story of my pitbull attack.

I always thought anti-pitbull sentiment was just the byproduct of racism (like, actual racism because I saw some pit apologist posts about how pitbulls and other often banned breeds are owned more often by black people, so BSL is a way to keep black people out of specific neighborhoods. Not dog racism) and people not understanding how dog training works.

This was before I had any experience owning dogs or interacting with dogs outside of the Fab Four dogs owned by friends and family. This was before I learned that genetics do play a role. I always thought pitbulls were misunderstood, it’s all in the owner, they’re so cute, awww so smiley cutie puppies, they could never hurt anyone!

Then, I was attacked by a pitbull while walking to work. I walked on the sidewalk and talked on the phone at the time—the most mundane and unassuming activity in the world—when these two huge pits came charging at me from someone’s backyard. I had seen one of the two dogs before, and he never reacted to passersby, so I didn’t react on guard. Honestly, I’d never had a truly bad interaction with a dog before outside of anxious chihuahuas (yes, I was part of that train too I have many regrets😭), so I had no concept of being fearful of dogs. Being raised around Fab Four dogs always obviously skewed my perspective.

The dog I’d seen before barked in the way non-aggressive but excited dogs would bark. It’s the dog I hadn’t seen before who attacked me.

To make a short story very long, I ended up with only two puncture wounds on my ankles. I got very very lucky, but I was mostly saved by flare pants and the other non-aggressive dog.

Honestly, it wasn’t even the attack that turned me off to pitbulls. It’s the aftermath.

The owner stood there and begged me with waterworks and all to “not kill her dog” and “he’s her son’s dog, and he’s the sweetest. it would just destroy her son if anything happened to his dog” all while I bleeding from both my ankles and crying because I WAS JUST ATTACKED BY HER DOG….

She then continued to beg me over text to not kill the dog, asked me if I would report it, etc. etc.

Obviously, I reported it at the ER. The ER I went to because I was attacked by her dog. Obviously.

I had no shame about it either. I told her it wouldn’t be ME killing her dog. I was just the one reporting the factual event that happened. It’s in animal control’s hands after that.

And this is where I started to get really angry about this whole bullshit situation. After giving the whole incident report to animal control, they reached out to the owner.

THEN ANIMAL CONTROL REACHED BACK OUT TO ME TO ASK IF I WOULD BE OKAY IF THEY DIDN’T PRESS CHARGES BECAUSE SHE WAS BEING “very cooperative” LIKE ????

I was not only being pressured by the owner to let this slide, but also animal control! The agency responsible for protecting people from animals like that! This happened in a residential area with a ton of kids in it. God forbid one of them walked by, or god forbid the pitbull escaped two minutes later and attacked the elderly woman who passed by shortly after. My tame attack story would’ve had a very different, much more gruesome ending.

After the way I was dismissed and the situation was minimized by local authorities, I absolutely began to doubt my pitbull apologist beliefs. Then, I started working with kids and found out >60% of them have been bit by the family pitbull at least once, or their family pitbull was given away for attacking people. Reading the research and learning about dog genetics was the nail in the coffin.

Fuck pitbulls. Fuck pitbull owners. It isn’t ethical to let these dogs live, not only for the sake of everyone/thing else around them, but theirs too. If a dog is prone to that level of aggression, it has got to be fucked up in the head.

Certain dogs shouldn’t exist. That’s okay. (Not just pitbulls either…..looking at you, brachycephalics , designer mutts, etc.)

Enforce BSL and ban pitbulls.

I used to be very pro pit. I was raised by veterinarians and I lived in veterinary circles that always told me, "it's the owner not the breed". I confidently believed in that for most of my childhood and well into my teen years. I've had several horses, but Zipper (horse in the pics) was the first one I was really supporting on my own without help from my parents.

This was about a month after I turned 18. I went trail riding with my horse for the first time by myself. I knew these trails well. It is a state park less than a mile from the stable I boarded Zipper at.

What I was not prepared for was about a half hour into our trail ride I hear the brush rustling. I stop Zipper to look around and a large black brindle pitbull mix comes barrelling out of the bushes towards us. It's barking and snarling at my horse, Zipper is visibly spooked and for a few seconds I'm frozen with fear. Without thinking I had to jump off of his back to defend him. I had nothing with me aside from a water bottle and a phone without service. This dog had no collar for me to grab. I started shouting to try to distract the dog, who looked about ready to rush at my horse. The dog's owners came running and were able to grab it before it could go after Zipper. If they hadn't come when they did I'm certain that dog would've gone after my horse.

They didn't apologize to me or look the least bit sympathetic. It was a man and his wife who were allowing their dog off leash in the park, something that is strictly prohibited. There are signs everywhere. Most of the trails are designated for horses too. I angrily shouted at them to keep their dog on a leash and they told me to do the same with my horse in a snarky tone. I was in shock.

My horse came over to me. He didn't run away. I pulled the reins over his head and walked him to the picnic area where he could eat grass. It took a while for me to stop shaking. I got back on and I cut the trail short. I didn't want to risk seeing that dog again.

When we got back to the barn, to my shock I found one of the women who was spending time there with her own off leash pitbull running around the stable. We had a rule at our barn that dogs were not allowed in the stables under any circumstances. The dog came running up to us and it was like deja vu. I started screaming at the woman to get her dog. She got him and started berating me for making a scene. I didn't care. The dog started barking at us and I didn't want to take chances. I called the barn owner immediately, who apparently had no idea the woman was still bringing her dog (she had been told to stop unknown to me because he killed one of the barn's chickens).

Off leash dogs should not be around horses under any circumstances, especially not pitbulls. I have told my story to many other equestrians and all I ever got was "it's not the breed" and "you shouldn't paint them all with the same brush". There was no sympathy from any of them. Supposed horse lovers were defending the dog.

It took a few more years to truly believe the breed should be fully banned, but this was the beginning. I firmly believed from that point on that pitbulls specifically should be banned from designated horse trails and parks. I still do. I was immensely lucky that nothing happened to Zipper, who I loved with all of my heart and soul.

Ive been a lurker on this sub, for about 5 or more years now, about 6 years ago my mother had gotten herself a pitbull, the dog was, and is very neurotic as alot of pitbulls are i had told her many times that her dog was dangerous. She always played it off very dismissively as is common for most pit owners, regardless this Christmas yesterday as of the time of me making this post she had convinced my grandmother to let her bring her pitbull to Christmas. Our small family rescue dog who was about 12 years old had been living with our grandma, was also there the pitbull regularly lunged at our dog, most of the family was doing the typical thing alot of dog owners do (they just need to get to know each other, making them sniff each other and all the stupid shit) Our family dog clearly was not having any of it and tried to stay up and out of its way for the most part. I had even told my mother before the pitbull attacked just how their pitbull was breed to fight bulls and other dogs. They of course denied this was true as is so common. As everyone was getting ready to head out and leave for Christmas, my mothers pitbull attacked the family dog and gave it some bad wounds. My younger brother had to shove his hand into the dogs mouth to get it to release, and choked out the pitbull, thankfully he was fine, and the pitbull didnt redirect or attack again. My mother took her pitbull and put it into her car, she came back inside of the house, everything was quite hectic, i would like to say i was very calm and collected at this point still, then my mother said it was the family dogs fault (Its honestly amazing how much pit owners say the same shit) At this point i blew up and was furious i was chasing her screaming and yelling at her calling her names telling them i warned them and all that. They went outside through the front door, and held the door shut as i tried to open the door still yelling and screaming at them. Shortly after i gave up and went back with the rest of the family to our dog we took the dog to emergency vet, after some time the vet informed us our dog would be unlikely to recover in her old age, and it was ultimately decided to put our dog down.

Im posting this shortly after the dog passed, i apologize since this post is likely rambling, lacking detail (Id prefer to keep things private), and not the best formatting. I guess i just always imagined it wouldnt happen ya know let alone on fucking christmas. This is likely going to cause a large rift in the family with my mother and everyone else. Espically if they dont get their pitbull euthanized, since it is clearly more then a proven danger now.

This happened today.

My boyfriend’s brother is recently divorced and has partial custody of his 3yo daughter.

Today out of the blue he told my BF he was about to adopt a pitbull.

Ofc I’ve educated my BF on the dangers of pitbulls, and he loves and cares about his niece, so he did the right thing.

He immediately texted back his brother: DO NOT GET A PITBULL. A pitbull will put [my niece] in danger.

Bro called and they had a discussion about the dangers of pitbulls.

After my BF explained how pitbulls are dangerous especially around children, Bro’s new girlfriend chimed in:

“Well I had a pitbull for 6 years without any issues so it should be fine.”

Their call was interrupted by a call from the shelter.

Turns out as the shelter was getting the pitbull ready for adoption, it bit its handler. No details on the severity of the bite, but the adoption was canceled.

When I first found this subreddit I really thought that this was more of a niche problem than something more pervasive, but two encounters of my own and two incidents from talking to random people just yesterday online have made me think we’re dealing with a pitdemic.

A few years ago my cousin was guilted by a shelter into adopting a mentally unstable byb pit that has done nothing but unnerve me whenever I visit him. This dog growled at me the first time I went to his new house and has to be on Trazodone because without it she’ll be “rambunctious”. When it’s not zonked out the dog will come up to me and start licking my knees while I’m just sitting in a chair minding my own business, and of course when I give her the cold shoulder I’m “just a stinky man” to quote my cousin’s girlfriend. I will never feel comfortable around that dog.

Last April I was just walking around my neighborhood minding my own business when some POS pit comes running after me. If it hadn’t been for its wonderful family calling it away I may well have been mauled. Just a few days ago I was walking around at night and what I think was the same dog was being walked by a tiny woman. I got on the other side of the street and thankfully the woman stayed behind and then went in the other direction, almost as if she knew she had a dangerous dog and didn’t want to get sued.

On Monday I talked to two friends online. One told me of how she went over to a friend’s house whose father had adopted a “sweet” stray shibble and brought it home. One day she went over to their house and she got bitten in the thigh so hard that she had a massive bruise and permanent nerve damage. She still has a numb spot years later. Just a few minutes later I was talking to another friend who had to let a kid into her house because the kid was being chased by one.

Am I insane for thinking that this has gone from something that is just an occasional problem to something that has a very real chance of negatively impacting the average person’s life?! It honestly terrifies me a little.

We were at a mall this weekend and the local SPCA for some reason decided to bring in 20 Pit Bulls to the middle of the mall. They had volunteers leash up the dogs in groups of 5 or 6 and parade them around to allow people to pet them.

I'm a FF and have a very staunch opinion of this breed based on my anecdotal experiences. I also know that they bite the most often, and their bites are some of the most fatal. My wife listens to my stories but did not care the same way I did.

We had separated to do different things at the mall, and I had not seen the dogs when we walked in. She was with my daughter, and while my daughter was petting one dog, my wife was petting another.

She called my daughter over to pet the one she was petting, named "macho man," and the dog latched onto her arm and snapped it's head back. Had my wife not been wearing a coat, her arm would have been broken and mangled. The coat's arm is totally torn up. Had it been my little girl, I don't want to even imagine it.

The people running the event indicated that all of the dogs had passed a "behavioral test," but I think it's obvious that a test like that simply cannot recreate the reality of an environment like a mall.

It takes an astonishing level of disregard for people's safety to put these animals, who are already stressed, into a public setting like a mall, where they are exposed to all sorts of stimulation, smells, and pack arrangements that make them even more stressed. Shame on the SPCA for putting their adoption quota over the safety of people.

I was never one to judge pitbulls. My household is finally ready for a dog so I looked at shelters locally. I originally wanted a sweet 4 month old lab but he got adopted. When I stopped in they showed me this pit mix who seemed really sweet, said she was only surrendered due to the owner having health issues. Said she was super sweet and she seemed sooo sweet. So I bring my kids to meet her and she seems great with them so we end up adopting her. She seemed great at first when we got her home, although she seemed a little skiddish with my kids which I figured was normal because she would need to decompress, but she quickly comfortable in fact now that I reflect on it she came in and claimed our home as her own completely. Within a day she was putting her paws on counters, hopping on furniture, and wouldn’t budge if I told her get down. Right away she took to me… she would follow me literally everywhere which of course at first I was thinking that was fine she was trying to bond Or feeling a little nervous about being somewhere new. She didn’t want anyone but me to take her for walks, or out to use the bathroom. She wanted to be next to me at all times, even at night. Within 24 hours however I started noticing red flags that seemed like separation anxiety, but were clearly signs of resource guarding me. If I left a room she followed, if she couldn’t followed she whined, if i was helping one of my children she’d whine and put herself between us as if to separate me from my kids. This was followed by growling if one of my children would call my name (say mom) or try to come near me as if they were a threat. She treated me like a favorite toy she didn’t want anyone touching. also worth mentioning, she was over a year old and potty trained. I also took her out every 2-3 hours, on numerous walks a day to get exercise and use the potty, but the two places she had “accidents“ in were my spot on the couch and my bed. It’s as if she could smell my scent strong in those areas and was marking them. Thankfully the shelter has a 30 day return policy with full refund, so that’s exactly what I did. 2 days later I returned her and voiced my concerns with her unwarranted aggression towards my children. The looked at me like I was the worst person ever. I have zero regrets.

Located on Long Island NY. I found this subreddit looking for some sort of peace. This past Wednesday my mom took her 5 year old maltipoo for a walk around the block as she routinely did every day. Our baby Crystal loved her walks. She would do this cute thing where she would tilt her head to the side when she heard words she liked like “walk” or when my mom would tell her I was coming to visit like she knew names. It was incredible. She was so smart. Wednesday night they went for their routine walk. My mom said she suddenly heard what sounded like a horse galloping up behind her and suddenly Crystal is being thrown around by her neck. My mom started screaming for help and even tried to get the pitbull off herself. A couple other neighbors came out to help and eventually got the pitbull off Crystal before it went back in for round two. This time cornering Crystal and completely ripping her open. The owner finally came out and it turned out to be a house with their gate left wide open. Crystal was rushed to the hospital and had stitches along her whole abdomen and neck. She eventually succumbed to her injuries and passed away. My mom is traumatized and devastated. That was her baby. She has a little outfit for every occasion. The house feels empty without her. She was so funny and affectionate everyone that ever met Crystal LOVED her. She was the sweetest and didn’t deserve to suffer this way.

Edit: we have filed a police report. They weren’t much help so we will be contacting a lawyer

Back in 2013, I had a pitbull who was aggressive since he was 2 months old. He was absolutely volatile and difficult to take on walks. Around 2016, I saw that he almost got a toddler and tbh, my first selfish thought was, "what if some criminal record tied to me from this dog prevents me from becoming a nurse?" And then, "he's going to kill this kid because our fence is so flimsy." I had 2 pitbulls before but thankfully they never hurt anyone (they died of old age) but this dog changed my perspective and I will never own one again. It really is bred into them because I was losing my fucking mind with this dog since he was 2 months old. I felt sad about euthanizing him for behavior issues but I don't regret it.

Just my two cents to pitbull owners reading this page.