Parents for Dog Bite Awareness

Was having a great chat with Evan on Facebook about how a dog choice impacts your life for years so I wanted to highlight this:

A lot of the messages we receive asking for help reflect a similar pattern: they bought a pitbull as a young couple. Now they are ready to have a baby or already have a baby and the problems are starting. The same pattern is often found in pediatric fatality cases as the dogs existed first and then the babies arrived.

With the average pitbull living 10-14yrs, young adults are making a long term decision that impacts future life decisions they haven’t even considered yet such as job location, home ownership, and raising a family.

Even college or a first time job is often 3-5 years if you think about it. Heck, even enlisting in the military is generally 7 years.

So buying a dog as a young adult is a pretty long term choice in context.

And the dog they buy now might be an inappropriate fit for later. Income, energy levels, work schedules, childbearing, etc will all change the situation. Along with the dog’s needs changing as they age. This includes the interesting nuance around age 7 with a sudden increase in maulings.

Choosing now for the things you need later life is something fully developed adults struggle to anticipate, let alone younger people with brains still developing or people who don’t really know who they are or what they’re doing yet.

When you see young people having their zeal and emotions preyed on to get them to sign the line on that paperwork, I hope you now see two things:

1. It’s a form of exploitation.
2. We need to reach people before they make their choices.

Thanks for reading,
JL #dba editor ©

Navy Smith, killed in 2023 by the rescue pit her parents brought home before pregnancy.

The parents owned Bella Blue for at least 6yrs before having the baby Bella killed.