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

[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.

[Patriotic Pittie Owner]

After hundreds of years and thousands upon thousands of Rotties and Pitties on the base, there is one death. Yet one guy walks into another facility and kills dozens of people with a gun in a matter of minutes. You're more likely to get killed on base by a fellow officer than their dog.

[Chelsea Herring]

I just recently married a PFC in the Marine Corps, we are planning to move on or near a military base once he is done with all of his training. Allthough i am completly taken back by the ban on power breeds and think it is completly ridiculous i'am still considering all my opitions. I have a 10 year old American Staffordshire Terrier that i have had since she was 3 yrs old. She was raised by a young single male, that took immaculate care of her! She has never once attacked anyone and has been raised around all kinds of chilldren her whole life. I can not actually beileve the Marine Corps is banning power breeds, what about chesty the BULL DOG??? And Stubby the PITBULL that saved tons of lives in WWI, in all honesty i think the Marine Corps masscot should be a Pitbull! You will NEVER EVER find a more loyal and faithfull breed of dog than a PITBULL & after all i do believe that is what the Marine Corps is all about Semper Fidelis? Military families sacrafice so much and have so many changes in and out of our lives and now they are trying to tell us we can not have a pet that we have bonded with and has been there through all the hard times. I do not have any children of my own but i do know families that do, think of how their young children feel having to let their dog/best friend go when they allready have to say bye to their daddy's and mommy's, how do you explain that to them? The only thing that has been there consistently through all the moves and all the tears, and now they can't have it anymore. One last thing TED YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT, and all you dumb ass ppl that honestly think the Marine Corps allow trashy ppl in the Corps, come on now were not the army we don't accept just anyone you have to be THE BEST OF THE BEST!

[MM]

Pitbulls were bred to be bull baiters, not attack humans.
One death should not ban all pitbull type dogs and rottweilers. In my line of work, working with all different breeds of dogs in training/dog daycare/veterinary settings I have been bit by the Golden Retriever the very most, I was bit 3 times on the hand by a Golden and it required stitches etc. Do I beleive they should be banned? no. Its really horrible that people ban dog breeds. Its the way its raised/controlled not the breed. If the owner of a Rott or Pitt does not socialize/train etc the dog it can be dangerous.

[lars van ness]

How interesting that I came across this article while researching wolves and wolf hybrids on Wikipedia. I did infact get a wolf hybrid--Mackenzie Valley Wolf/Belgian Shepherd--from the Camp Pendleton game wardens office in 1981 whle I was stationed there. A female, she was the best dog I ever had. I had to put her down when she was 12 years old because she had absolutely no fear of moving cars and had been hit three times so her hips were completely shot and she was in constant pain. Perhaps because the way she was so well socialized she adored children and was a fine family pet, very loyal and very protective. However she was a hunter and and could never be broken of her affinity for attacking small wild animals or smaller dogs, so she required constant supervision. But when I lived in bear country in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado as a hunting guide for several years I couldn't have asked for a better companion. Too many times when lost or disoriented in the woods or forests of Colorado and upstate New York I could rely on her homing instincts to guide me and my party back to camp. Her behavior and gentle demeanor put to lie everthing I had ever heard or been told concerning the unpredictability of wolf hybrids in particular and dogs in general.

[erika]

Listen ted, first off you should not talk about a society that you are obviously quick to judge. I have been raised with pit bulls, rottweilers, you name it and not ones has any of these dogs turned on us. It is in outrage that people insist on giving these beautiful dogs such bad reputations. I have a three year old who by chance was a round a pit bull we saved from an abuse passed and he did nothing but love and protect her and it is because of this ban we had to give up our wonderful dog. If you look at the statistics the most aggressive dog found thus far are chow chows, and may I add that chihuahuas and old english sheepdogs are on this list as well. You don't have to respect nor love these breeds but you should help encourage the great strides being made to stop this cycle of aggressiveness.