They're powerful, have a reputation for aggression, and are something of a status symbol.
Dog Warden Tom Skeldon says they're also a big problem in Toledo and Lucas County.
'They' are pit bulls.
The number of pit bulls seized for violating dog laws in Lucas County has increased steadily since 1997 and last year made up 34 percent of the canines at the county pound.
Mr. Skeldon says the dogs rank highest in the county when it comes to biting people.
The county ranks second in Ohio behind Franklin County in the number of pit bulls seized, and State Rep. Tyrone Yates (D., Cincinnati) said the dogs are a problem throughout Ohio.
Mr. Yates sponsored a bill earlier this year to ban Ohioans from owning pit bulls but since has softened his stance•on what he calls the pit bull problem.
"I think it's a striking issue," he said. "These dogs seem to be status symbols in some inner-city neighborhoods of young people and young adults. They have proven to be a problem and a menace in many of the neighborhoods I represent in Cincinnati and have been for some years."
Lucas County Deputy Dog Warden John Simon, who has been working with dogs in the county for 22 years, said he has been getting more calls about pit bulls than ever.
"Toledo police are being more stringent in their enforcement," he said. "They're more aware of who's got pit bulls and they're more likely to call us. There's a lot of publicity on TV, so neighbors are more likely to call us."
Toledo police Deputy Chief Don Kenney said pit bulls are the breed of choice for drug dealers who use the dogs to deter police and others from finding drugs they've hidden in local houses.
Despite the number of dogs shot by police and reported by the media recently, the deputy chief said police avoid shooting a dog unless it poses an immediate threat.
"When a dog is charging an officer, we have no other means available," he said. "We don't expect our officers to wait until they have a dog's jaws clamped into their flesh."
As state and local lawmakers work to pass laws to keep the pit bull population under control, pit bull owners say breed-specific laws unfairly label pit bulls as vicious even if a dog hasn't attacked a person or another dog.
For a dog of any other breed to be considered "vicious" under Ohio law, it has to kill another dog or cause injury to a person.
Under Ohio law, people owning "vicious" dogs must pay more for liability insurance and keep their animal confined in a locked, fenced yard or a secure enclosure with a roof.
In Toledo, residents may own only one pit bull, which must have a leash and be muzzled when in a public place.
Toledo resident Emmanuel Rodriguez shook his head in frustration last week at the Lucas County dog pound when an employee told him he couldn't take his pit bull, Bo Stank, home because of the city's laws applying to vicious dogs.
"My dog's the friendliest dog in the world," he said angrily. But the employee told Mr. Rodriguez he must pay a $100 fine and an additional $100 to have Bo neutered if he wants his dog back, because of a recently passed Toledo City Council ordinance.
"You have until July 24 to pay all your fees," a pound employee told him. "You need to know if you don't pay by then, your dog will be euthanized."
Mr. Rodriguez's pit bull was seized by county dog catchers after it was seen running loose without a collar near children on July 6 near Asbury Park in West Toledo.
Witnesses said Bo returned home without incident. But when police arrived, they said Bo approached them in an aggressive manner and one officer threatened to shoot the dog.
Mr. Rodriguez said Bo never has bitten anyone.
"He was only out for 10 minutes," Mr. Rodriguez told Karla Hamlin, a Lucas County deputy dog warden.
"It only takes a minute for somebody to get hurt," she responded.
Dr. Gail Golab, director of animal welfare for the American Veterinarian Medical Association, called Mr. Rodriguez irresponsible for not confining his dog properly. But she said breed-specific laws are a "knee-jerk" reaction by lawmakers who don't address the real issue.
"[The veterinarian association does] not believe that the breeds considered to be pit bulls are inherently vicious," she said. "It's not so much nature as it is nurture. It's about teaching dogs how to behave around people and teaching people how to behave around dogs."
Dr. Golab said dog-bite statistics that suggest pit bulls bite most often are not necessarily accurate. They are hard to properly formulate, she said, because it's hard for some people to identify what breed bit them and the only bites that typically get recorded are ones reported in the media, to lawyers, or police.
The breed of dog that supposedly bites the most has changed over time, and there's a correlation with the breed's popularity, she said.
"If you were to look back 20 years ago, you'd see German shepherds were responsible for the most dog injuries," she said. "Five years later, you saw pit bulls. At other times you saw Rottweilers at the top spot, and still other times you saw Doberman pinschers."
Many experts have a hard time determining what a pit bull is.
The veterinarian association, which along with the American Kennel Club and the United Kennel Club set the standards for dog breeds in the United States, says the term pit bull does not refer to a specific breed of dog. It's a generic label that refers to several breeds.
They include relatively short, yet muscular members of the terrier group as well as the larger mastiff group, which historically has been crossbred with certain terriers to create larger pit bull breeds such as the Italian Cane Corso and the Spanish Perro de Presa Canario.
The only pit bull breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club are the American Staffordshire terrier, the Staffordshire bull terrier, and the smaller bull terrier. These three breeds were popular in England during the early 19th century and were historically bred for dogfighting and a spectator sport known as bull-baiting in which dogs were placed in pits to attack and kill bulls for the entertainment of bloodthirsty spectators.
Kennel club spokesman Daisy Okas said pit bulls registered with the group are pedigreed dogs bred for good temperament and make wonderful pets.
She said dogs of every breed, pedigreed or not, consist of individual animals with individual circumstances.
"There are people who breed for poor temperament, but that's a people problem, not a dog problem," she said.
The United Kennel Club recognizes another pit bull breed called the American pit bull terrier as its second most widely registered breed. There are also a variety of pit bull mixed breeds.
Dr. Golab said each of these breeds has its own distinct physical and behavioral characteristics and each individual dog is different as well.
"The pit bull dog will have very strong musculature," she said. "They have the tendency to bite onto something and not want to let go because that was the way they were trained."
The American Kennel Club and United Kennel Club said dogs registered among their pit bull breeds have been bred selectively for decades, if not centuries, based partly on their pleasant temperament toward people.
Dog breeders chose puppies that interacted best with people to breed and create more well-socialized pit bulls.
Even pit bulls that are bred for dogfights are usually socialized to be aggressive toward other dogs, not people.
But Mr. Skeldon said many pit bulls have been bred selectively to be relentless attackers, even if they're in pain, or face death.
He said it's that reputation for strong aggression or "gameness" that make the pit bull a popular status symbol for young men in Toledo and other metropolitan areas.
But that same aggression that was developed from hundreds of years of breeding and programming for fighting against other dogs gives pit bulls a strong, sometimes overpowering urge to attack, even when they're unprovoked, which makes them too dangerous to keep as pets, Mr. Skeldon said. "The majority of the pit bulls that do grave bodily harm to people have never bitten anybody before," he said.
But pit bulls weren't the only dogs bred for bloodsport combat.
Molosser breeds, which are the ancestor of the giant mastiff group of dogs that includes the bull mastiff and St. Bernard, were used by Romans both in combat and gladiator sports.
Mastiffs were used to kill lions, bears, even people for the entertainment of others in ancient Rome and latter-day Europe.
Even the smaller British bulldog was used to kill animals for entertainment, but none of those breeds carries the "genetic" stigma of pit bulls.
Mr. Skeldon admits there are larger, more powerful dogs than traditional pit bull breeds but says they are the ones still genetically bred to attack and kill things and fight for sport.
"They have more than earned their vicious reputation," he said. "They go from being cute and cuddly puppies to being adult pit bulls who do what they are bred to do. People bond with that puppy and think, 'If we treat him right, he's never going to get us in any trouble.' Then the neighbor kid gets in a confrontation with their dog and it takes his face off."
Although Mr. Yates said it doesn't look like state lawmakers will ban pit bulls anytime soon, Oregon resident Cyril Kudlica says it would take more than that for him to get rid of Vendetta, the 10-year-old female pit bull that his late son, Cyril, Jr., adopted as a puppy before he was killed in 1999 by a drunken driver.
Mr. Kudlica used a chew toy to play tug of war with Vendetta while his 2-year-old niece petted the dog and his wife, Candy, watched. "I was nervous at first when my son got her," Mrs. Kudlica admitted. "We thought about getting rid of her when my son died."
But Mrs. Kudlica said Vendetta became important to her because it belonged to her son.
Her family debated having Vendetta euthanized when veterinarians informed them of a life-threatening infection that would cost about $700 to treat.
"I couldn't put her to sleep knowing that was something [my son] wanted," she said.
Mr. Kudlica said Vendetta never has attacked anyone but accidentally bit him once, drawing blood, when he was playing tug of war with her. "As soon as she bit down and felt my hand, she let go," he said.
The couple said pit bulls can make good, loving pets despite their reputation. "I think Vendetta's a good dog. Don't penalize all of them because some of them are bad ones," Mrs. Kudlica said.
Contact Chauncey Alcorn at:
calcorn@theblade.com
or 419-724-6168.
First Published July 13, 2008, 11:12 a.m.
