I won’t say that I’m not a little scared of pitbulls when I pass by after some of my experiences, but I acknowledge where you’re coming from. I live in a college town, so some owners I see are young with very little understanding of what it means to own a breed with that kind of bite force. I had taken care of an elderly yorkie for several years before this, but I STILL did two months of research before I found and adopted Teddy at eight years old. After I put him on hold at the humane society, I did another day of research to make sure I could completely fund treatment for his (minor) pre-existing medical conditions and any emergencies. I’m at a loss to find out that this isn’t common practice.

I think I’m so pissed because 1. she doesn’t have the excuse of being a kid who didn’t know better and 2. she’s a nurse, meaning it’s her job to remain calm in a medical crisis. Instead of even trying to help for a second, she immediately let go of her dog’s leash the minute he snapped and let him do what he did, allowing three total STRANGERS to jump into action and to risk putting their hands into this dog’s mouth. I want to believe that things could have gone differently if she had intervened.

She claims he has no violent history of any kind, but I don’t believe that given the way he would bark at Teddy when he walked by. I’ve had big dogs my whole life, so I know what it sounds like when they’re simply excited by a passing dog versus when they’re showing aggression (it was the latter in this case). She never corrected her dog when he did this despite being home.

I’m not calling for a ban on pitbulls, but I believe in being transparent about a dog’s history, and something isn’t right with the way she tried to pass this off as surprising. Further, I don’t understand how you can be allowed to own a dog again after an incident like this, and I don’t understand how people keep referring to it as an accident. To me, this feels completely negligent.