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Call it an oppositional-defiant streak.

I remember a case, when I was on the city of Corbin’s Code Enforcement Board, where someone we had cited for property maintenance violations was so enraged that they threatened to paint a bunch of commodes pink and sit them on the edge of their property, by the roadway, as a form of protest.

It’s a case of doing something just because you can, and because it will irritate others. It’s juvenile and silly, but common.

Weekly I read stories about pit bull dogs attacking, maiming and killing people. This is nothing new. Year after year, statistics show them to be a super aggressive breed of dog.

The most recent story in the news about a pit bull attack came out of Texas. A woman was attacked and killed by her two pet pit bull terriers. Believe it or not, the dogs were already in quarantine from a previous attack. She didn’t take the hint. She was at the animal hospital to care of them, and walk them, when they murdered her.

I’m sure she was absolutely convinced they were her loving fur babies, right up until they were literally eating her alive.

Every time stories like this surface — and it is often — the arguments defending these animals are all the same. “They were just raised wrong.” “It’s the owner, not the breed.” “I’ve had X number of pit bulls in my home for years and they are so sweet and loving and blah, blah, blah.” It’s hard to discount people’s personal experiences.

But what is really happening, often, is that people are dead set on owning a pit bull simply to show you … me … THE WORLD … that they can, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. It can’t be anything else. They aren’t a particularly beautiful or stately breed. I’ve never heard anyone say: “I want a cudly, sweet pet for a companion. I’m getting a pitbull!” Many municipalities are banning them because they are dangerous and a menace to the community. They are a huge insurance risk. Many folks have, rightly, determined that owning one of these dogs is chancy, at best. The margin for error with them is small. Yet, they are everywhere. Just super popular.

I think it’s sort of like telling your defiant daughter she can’t date that boy … you know, the one with face tatoos. Parental disapproval makes him more desirable.

I’ve covered many dog bite stories in my 22 years at the News Journal. Of the ones I can remember, nearly all of them involved pit bulls. One was a Rottweiler.

We’ve had numerous cases in Kentucky recently of pitbull attacks. One was right nearby in McCreary County. If my theory is incorrect, then I want a reasonable explanation for why this type of dog is so attractive to so many. There are literally hundreds, probably thousands of, breeds to choose from. Mutts are good too.

Why a pit bull?