Marine Corps bans pit bulls, Rottweilers at Camp Pendleton, other bases

The Marine Corps is moving to ban dogs with aggressive temperaments from Camp Pendleton and other bases under a policy developed after a 3-year-old boy at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was fatally bitten by a pit bull.

The banned breeds are pit bulls, Rottweilers and wolf hybrids.

Families moving into base housing are no longer allowed to bring those breeds. Families already in housing can keep their dogs until Sept. 30, 2012, but only if they receive a "good-dog" waiver.

In Camp Pendleton housing units, there are 190 pit bulls and 30 Rottweilers, according to officials. The base has more than 7,300 housing units for families.

No dogs are allowed in barracks or enlisted or bachelor officer quarters. All dogs -- and cats -- in family housing must be registered. No family is allowed more than two pets.

Camp Pendleton has yet to determine how dogs will be evaluated to see if they qualify for a waiver.

At three Marine bases in South Carolina, 83 of 85 dogs from the targeted breeds qualified for waivers after passing a test by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: A Rottweiler owned by civilians. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[o omar]

Now devil nuetred , not DEVIL DOG'S

[wtf?]

How about a ban on idiot dog owners instead? Power breeds need ample socialization, if you don't train your dog properly, your dog becomes a liability and its the human's fault, not the dog's. I hope the military will one day understand the importance of training (ironic much?) and make a rule requiring owner/dog training classes and behavior tests instead of discriminating against power breeds.

[Ted]

Here come the silly pitbull apologists again, ever defending their dogs and pointing out that they're really a gentle breed. Uh-huh. Funny thing is, no matter how supposedly gentle these animals are, take a look at the kind of people who get them: Single guys who have some desperate need to prove their masculinity with a dog that has the reputation for being a tough, vicious dog. If they're families, they're generally poor, trashy families, again, wanting to put on a sad little thug-like display to impress (or intimidate) the neighbors. Bottom line, they're getting the dogs for their vicious reputation, and then falling all over themselves defending their gentle nature. You can't have it both ways.

[Nathanael Hawthorne]

I'm still waiting for those idiot dog owners to raise a line of killer poodles.

[Toby]

How do you ban "Pit Bulls"? It's a slang word for 3 different pure breeds of dogs and 6 to 8 types of mixed dogs (a popular mixed breed called a "pit Bull" is a Mastiff/Boxer mix).

Are they seriously going to ban mix breeds of non-aggressive dogs because of the way they look?

And let me point one thing out, one of the most dangerous dogs there are, is an aggressive Poodle.

Poodles are apart of the Gun Dog group. They were specifically breed to kill anything that didn't die from the gun shot...and they were breed not to be scared of loud noises (your best defense from an aggressive dog).

This is why, that when you talk to people who know about dog breeds and dog breeding they all say...you can't go by the breed, you HAVE TO go by the dog....which is almost always influenced by the DOG OWNER.

it's a very simple way to deal with it if you think about it.

[Gene Snyder]

The moonbats have infiltrated the military...will it never end?

[Michael J. Love]

Years and years of raising Rottweillers and never a problem, like tens of thousands other Rottweiller owners. The issue is not the dog--but the owner. This ban conveys the wrong message that the Rottweiller breed is inherently dangerous. It's a large, athletic dog with a strong prey drive but capable of being highly restrained and disciplined with the proper dog owner. Wouldn't the more responsible tact for the Corps to take is to institute mandatory owner training for those keeping dogs on the post?

[Owl Creek]

And here come the animal-haters again, spewing invectives and lies.

[Edwin Batist]

You hit the nail on the head, Ted.

[dread4u]

What is this word coming to? The devil dogs banning dogs? I hope the Marine Corps's Moscot has a good dog waiver or he won't be welcomed on base. Read my lips, until 2012 your days are numbered. I will most certainly go home and tell my beloved pitbull (Monster) the bad news.

[danove]

Next to Mutts, Rottweilers are the best dogs ever. Just sayin'.

[Richard Mahoney]

Ted has put it better than I ever could.

I love dogs - I have two beautiful, pedigree Labrador retrievers, brothers from the same litter, castrated at six months because I bought them only to be home companions, not to make a bob from, after relentless emotional blackmail from my daughter who had begged me from the day she uttered her first words to get her a dog.

Complete strangers come up to me and tell me that I have most beautiful, best behaved dogs they have ever come across. Truth is - it’s not me. It's the breed. I tell everyone who compliments me on my labs: if you can't train a Labrador then you have no business keeping a dog.

Funny thing is that almost all the Rottweilers, and almost all the terriers on my beach (not just Pit Bull terriers), are really badly behaved. Their owners scream at their dogs - their dogs take no notice. Their dogs attack other dogs, including mine. Bertie still has the scar on his right back leg from where a full-grown ( intact of course) male staffy chased after Bertie when Bertie was less than six months old, caught him and mauled him badly. My young son threw himself on top of Bertie to protect him . The staffy's owner thought it was a great laugh. It was the only time I wasn't there to look after my labs.

[Ray Harmon]

Ted,
Evidently you did not read the article and you have never been on a Marine Corps Base.
First, single Marines cannot have animals in the barracks period there is no leniency or compromise on that, period. Second, we don’t have poor trashy families on a Marine Corps Base. That may be the case in your neighborhood, but the Corps has strict regulations concerning the upkeep of base housing. I’m also sure that in your neighborhood you have your trashy, poor thugs, but thugs don’t last very long in the Corps, they are weeded out and sent packing pretty quickly. We do in fact have poor Marines, that is because it takes a special breed of MAN to volunteer to be away from his friends and family and to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, for low pay and constantly eroding veterans benefits, while loudmouth wing-nut libtards like you spout your mouth off about a class of individuals that you seem to know absolutely nothing about.
Best advice for you is stay in your lane, and out of the Marine Corps Lane.
Ray Harmon
First Sergeant
USMC (Retired)

[Jeff]

Stubby, the American Pit bull war hero is probably rolling in his doggy-grave. There are idiots out there that will always give something a bad name. If you've ever had a pit bull you love them to death, and if you've never had one you're scared to death of them.

[JewelD]

Look at the stats for Pitbulls, Rotts and wolf crosses vs. the less aggressive breeds. You never hear about Labs attacking toddlers.

Speaks for itself.

[lk]

Why Rottweillers? It's a big dog, and they can be aggressive, but unlike pit bulls they do not bite their owners.

Pit bull was bread to be a fighting dog, not a pet. I can see why they do not belong on the Marine base.

Rottweillers on the other hand, is a guard dogs, and it does not make sense why they put them in the same category as pit bulls.

[0811]

T0 1st Sgt Ray Harmon :

Right on Top - well said. Give 'em hell.

Semper Fi ...

0811
'66-'69

[Torsten Stett]

The Marine Corps should ban tattoos. How many guys have we seen that think they can fight because their bodies are lathered with slop/crap pictures of junk and garbage. Meanwhile they can barely throw a punch or do a pull-up.

[JeanneB]

This is plain stupid myopic thinking.
I was attacked by a COLLIE when I was 3 years old and had my forehead and chin ripped off. When a dog goes nuts it has absolutely NOTHING to do with ''breed'', and in many cases it has a great deal to do with how the animal was raised by its owner/s. There are plenty of gentle pit bulls out there, raised kindly, and often in children households. Typical military pigeon hole everyone, everything bollocks!

[Eileen]

Am I the only one that noticed that 83 of the 85 targeted breeds passed the SPCA test and received a waiver in South Carolina. I adopted a female rottweiler a little over a year ago and she has been at the top of her AKC obedience class ever since. The class is taught by highly experienced trainers who also train police and bomb sniffing dogs. The other dog at the top of the obedience class is my veterinarian's rescued pit bull.

You can see pictures of my dog in training at www.carrel.org if you don't believe me. And no, I don't own a big dog as some sort of power trip. I have acreage with coyotes etc. and I don't need to own a dog that will simply become an orderve.

All owners have a responsibility to train their dogs properly. Owners of rottweilers, pitt bulls, and wolf hybrids have an even higher standard of responsibility. This is why I adopted my rottweiler, and why, I am sure, my vet adopted her pitt bull. We knew they needed responsible owners and we fit the bill. And to the gentleman who owns the black labs, my neighbor recently adopted a black lab who has come onto my property and tried to attack my rottweiler. The dog is being trained and I am working with my neighbor to assist him with properly socializing and training his lab. This, in my opinion, is the correct way to handle a problem dog in the neighborhood.

Think of all of the responsible owners in military housing. Are we saying Marines are responsible enough to handle ammunition and shoot guns, but they can't handle their own dogs. Good grief. The military should require ALL dogs be tested for basic obedience and temperament. A total ban on certain breeds is arbitrary and completely unfair to the military families who own well-mannered dogs within these breeds.

[Joshua Tootell]

This is about as idiotic as banning Muslims from the military for the 9/11 attacks.

Knee-jerk reaction from ignorant people. Breed-bans are the same thing as racism. A judgment on a group based on a perception, not fact.

I am also glad to know that the Marine Corp turned their back on a dog who's remains are in the Smithsonian, who saved countless lives in the trenches of WWI, and met three different presidents in office.

Just like black people in WWII; good enough to fight on the front lines, not good enough to drink from the same water fountain. I am so glad we have advanced as a society so far.

[Jason]

Did you know that 150 people a year die from falling coconuts? That means you are about 10 times more likely to die from a vicious coconut tree. If a that tree kills more people then why are there no bans on coconut trees? We need to eradicate these trees NOW in order to save lives.