Pitbull crisis

Two years ago I wrote a letter to the editor to the Newburyport News about the dangers of pitbull attacks, not only in this country but the world. My letter was based on research of these dangerous dogs and an attack on three innocent people going to their cars at the Seabrook, N.H., Shopping Plaza. The owner at that time told us that they had escaped but were good dogs. That owner’s explanation has been told numerous times and is a poor excuses for these dogs who attack, maul and kill. They have killed infants, children, adults, other dogs, cats and farm animals. Those are facts — and it happens every single day.

The pitbull owners who defend these dogs are not in touch with reality. All I ever hear is “it’s how they were raised.” This is a fallacy — it’s genetic and instinctive. For example, bloodhounds follow scents, retrievers retrieve, pointers point when they find the pheasant that has been shot down and pitbulls attack, maul and kill. They are not family dogs! They attack their owners as well.

These are some headlines taken from one day on dogsbite.org and around the internet: “5-year-old child nearly mauled to death by family pitbulls,” “12-year-old boy mauled by family pitbulls,” “Infant boy killed by pitbulls,” “82-year-old grandmother brutally attacked by 2 pitbulls,” the list goes on, and is just a minuscule sampling of what these dogs do. In 2019, there were 46 deaths from dogs and, of those, 39 were by pitbulls. From 2008 to 2015, dogs killed 471 Americans, pitbulls contributed to 311 of those deaths, or 66%.

In Oklahoma a few weeks ago, two loose pitbulls slaughtered 50 farm animals while the family was away and two pitbulls killed 29 cats in a shelter after they got loose. People can’t walk their dogs or let their dogs and cats out in their own yards, kids can’t ride their bikes or wait at a bus stop without fear that pitbulls will attack — because it happens all the time.

These attacks are a crisis that needs to be addressed now! Exterminate the breed or stop breeding them — otherwise the loss of innocent lives will never end. The local news in every town or city should be reporting these attacks every night to make others aware of these dangerous dogs.

— Larry Giantonio, Newburyport

Pelosi’s bad move

Nancy Pelosi has done a great disservice to all women regardless of party. Her behavior during and after the State of the Union address was disrespectful and unbecoming of our first female Speaker of the House. Try to imagine Paul Ryan, John Boehner or Newt Gingrich petulantly tearing up their copy of the address. I bet you can’t.

— Margaret Michaud, Marblehead

Trump victorious

Nancy Pelosi dirtied Donald Trump with impeachment because Donald Trump had dirtied Joe Biden. Pelosi lost on impeachment when Trump was acquitted on all charges and Biden lost in the first two primaries and is fading fast in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Trump has won over both Pelosi and Biden. There’s a metaphor in here somewhere.

— Paul Bloustein, Cincinnati, Ohio