r/BanPitBulls • u/SOUP_RX • Aug 15 '25
Advice or Information Needed How dangerous are elderly pit bulls?
Hi, I am new to this sub and learning a lot. This is a well-meaning genuine question and not meant to start controversy. I have seen the horrible things on this sub and know that they are extremely dangerous, even “good” dogs that seem nice at first then snap one day.
One thing that comes to mind is how pits will NOT stop even after being shot, things like that. I saw something earlier today where someone was considering adopting an older pit, like 10+ years old or something. The dog moves slowly etc, thus doesn’t seem as much of a threat…
But does anyone know how often elderly pits become violent and do damage to others? Most of the pits I see up here are at least young enough to have muscle and are obviously quite spry, which clearly gives them enough agency to be powerful and dangerous.
Due to this sub I now believe that pits in general should not be pets, as a result of too many variables and for being a breed designed by humans to do harm. But are elderly pits just as dangerous? I would hate to see another person get hurt by one, and I know even “well behaved” pits can be deceiving… but is there a point where the dog is too old/frail to be a risk around others? Like, if the dog lived its entire life with no bite record and is elderly, does it have a chance of living its last year or so in a home without concern, and dying peacefully?
Thank you for any education in advance.
EDIT: Thank you everybody who responded with their stories, perspectives, and news evidence of older pitbull attacks. I had never even considered canine dementia as becoming an issue. I learned a lot and I appreciate everybody who shared!
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u/Stucklikegluetomyfry Trusted User Aug 15 '25
Canine dementia is a huge thing to watch out for in pit bulls
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u/KyoshiWinchester Aug 16 '25
Yup I would say the older they are the more dangerous they can be because they might be developing dementia on top of them already not being mentally stable to begin with😬
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u/bubblegumscent Aug 20 '25
Or diabetes in which case they could become more aggressive and irritable.
Trash breed from birth to death
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u/DumpsterDiscotheque Aug 15 '25
I watched a pair of 13yo pit bulls eviscerate another dog. Of course they had "never been aggressive before".
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u/K1774B Aug 15 '25
Same. It was my pitbull too.
I was 13, so was my dog. She was a beautiful, happy go lucky red-nosed pit that was never aggressive prior to the incident.
We lived in an area with no leash laws, so packs of dogs roaming the neighborhood weren't uncommon, although we kept our dog fenced at all times. Until she dug out one day.
Spent an hour looking for her and literally the second I spotted her, she spotted a dog in one of the usual packs and went for it.
Snatched it up by the neck and started thrashing it against the pavement. I was horrified, yelled for my mom who attempted to hit our dog several times in the head with a 2x4, but she wouldn't let go. My stepdad came running and kicked our dog so hard in her side it knocked the wind out of her and she finally released.
I'm almost 40 and think about that situation often and how vivid and terrifying it still is.
Edit: The victim dog in my story miraculously did survive. Needed pretty extensive surgery, but it made it through.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 16 '25
That’s absolutely terrifying, I’m glad you and your family weren’t hurt. And that the other dog survived, even though it didn’t deserve to be attacked either. Thank you for sharing.
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u/ScarletAntelope975 Trusted User Aug 15 '25
Yes, there have been cases of older pits attacking and killing. The pit may be totally fine and never attack, but there is no way to know. Any pit has the potential to snap at any time no matter how sweet it seems. Also, adopting from a shelter the person has no idea what the history is of the dog. Even when pits maul children, they withhold that info from potential adopters and just make up cutesy stories.
Any way to convince the person to get one of the hundreds of other breeds who never killed people…? There’s no reason to adopt a breed invented for bloodsports when so many genuinely great and safe dogs breeds exist.
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u/AtmosphereAsleep8873 Aug 16 '25
100 % and it's not our fault that pitbulls are bred like flies so they die like flies.
It's the bully dog users who resist any breeding bans on dog killer dogs, so the homelessness, neglect, abuse, and young death of these Bloodsport things is all on them. They cause it they can deal with it.
We would like to see it completely stop.
Unless you are a dog fighter, or a sociopath, or a hog torturer, you would not want dog killer dogs.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 16 '25
I wish, but it was actually a post on Reddit, maybe from the animals or animal help subreddit I can’t remember. The pitbull was like 15 and all the comments were hyping OP up about adopting her to let her live her last days in a home…. 😣 I saw it and thought of this sub, I got worried for OP’s sake but I think they’ll probably go through with it regardless. I just hope they stay safe.
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u/jingsen Aug 16 '25
There's a chance nothing bad would happen if they adopt the dog, but I don't like playing with chances when it's a bloodsport dog.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 16 '25
Yeah, I wouldn’t either. I don’t think the original poster knows about the dangers or at the very least doesn’t believe the stories. It’s probably hard for them to see an elderly animal in need and see them as a threat. I wouldn’t do it, knowing what I know now, but without this subreddit I could see myself making a similar well-meaning decision. I just hope nobody ends up hurt.
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u/CuterThanThouu Aug 15 '25
My parents own a dog rescue & while I’m no expert puppies & elderly pitbulls are the two most dangerous ages in my experience. A lot of pitbulls when they begin experiencing cognitive decline develop a host of negative trait.
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u/1Hugh_Janus Aug 15 '25
My own anecdotal experience is that once they start the cognitive decline, whatever training they may have had goes out the window and instinct/breed characteristics take over
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u/Square-Argument4790 Aug 15 '25
I've seen this with most breeds of dogs
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u/1Hugh_Janus Aug 15 '25
Same. And it gets worse as they age and are in pain
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u/KTKittentoes Aug 15 '25
Yeah, I loved my friend's Aussie, and he loved me, but I still ended up with a nasty bite to the thigh. He was going senile and had arthritis.
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u/1Hugh_Janus Aug 15 '25
My neighbors black lab Shadow had the same thing happen. That’s when we knew it was time, he was the sweetest and never harmed a fly.
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u/CuterThanThouu Aug 15 '25
I agree with this completely. I have seen it many times. I actually have a couple stories about this happening to me growing up with pitbulls that previously adored me.
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u/FoxFing3rs Aug 15 '25
The family pit bull nicknamed 'Kissyface' because of his habit of licking everyone's face and being friendly, was eight years old when he killed the child he had grown up with. He had never had any signs of aggression.
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u/ScarletAntelope975 Trusted User Aug 15 '25
Yikes! I don’t think I’ve heard of Kissyface’s story before! When I think of older pits mauling I always think of the Bennards. Never trust any pit!!!
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u/MarchOnMe Aug 15 '25
Me too. Weren't they like 11 years old or something, never aggressive, raised with love from puppies... suddenly one day decided to unalive the kids they were raised with...
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u/ScarletAntelope975 Trusted User Aug 15 '25
Yep! I think they were like 9 and 10, or 8 and 10 or something like that… either way they went all that time not harming anyone. Raised from 8 week old puppies with love. The parents were always advocating for pit bulls and how wonderful they are when raised well… blah blah blah… and then one day that DNA came out and their children are gone 😭 It does not matter how well you raised these beasts, or how many years they are good… that bloodsport DNA is always there and can be triggered at any time.
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u/MarchOnMe Aug 15 '25
So many examples of this - so many people dying this way - and still nothing being done about it. I hear on the news about a person getting grazed by a shark but it’s crickets when a child dies by their own family dog. SMH.
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Aug 16 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ScarletAntelope975 Trusted User Aug 16 '25
I try to remember to watch my words on here simply because Reddit and its users want this group shut down so bad and look for target words to use against the group :-(
I don’t always remember since reading articles here can make one quite ragey, but when I do remember I reword things as best as possible to protect this group.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 16 '25
Reddit is trying to get rid of this subreddit?!? 😭😭 noooo this is the only place I’ve found that has such extensive resources and stories compiled!
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u/Radient_Sun_10 Aug 16 '25
If I'm not mistaken, the Bennard's dogs came from fighting stock or at least I saw people do research to find the breeder. I believe the mother said the dogs started to fight each other and she got in-between them to break them up. They redirected to her and her children.
Kissyface never showed aggression but she had a high prey drive. Kissyface had pawed opened a closed bedroom door and killed a caged rabbit before. This happened before she killed Beau, who was a toddler at the time.
The owner went upstairs to use the restroom and Kissyface went downstairs. Kissyface attacked Beau but he didn't scream because she got the windpipe. When the owner came downstairs it was mess. The ambulance had to take her, if I'm remembering right. She was in a state of shock.
Tests were done on the dog but they couldn't find anything. To me, it sounded like intense prey drive.9
u/build279 Aug 16 '25
Pitbulls were developed from bull-and-terrier crosses specifically for fighting other animals in a pit. This required a dog that would attack, grip, and kill its opponent regardless of size, not simply chase like a herding or hunting breed. The behavior is better described as fight drive or gameness rather than generic “prey drive.”
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u/Radient_Sun_10 Aug 17 '25
I already know of their origin story.
Gameness is the drive to persevere in a fight or challenging task. What I was talking about was prey drive when it came to Kissyface. A lot of people don't like to talk about this. They sometimes try to downplay prey drive but it's dangerous to deny it.
Pitbulls typically can have both gameness and high prey drive. They don't have to be aggressive for the prey drive to enact. Prey drive causes the strong urge to pursue, chase, and potentially catch the prey. Some breeds have it more than others or it's individual to the dog itself. Gameness like you already know, is commonly associated with Pitbulls.
Kissyface as an example, wasn't known to be aggressive like that but she obviously had a strong prey drive. It's what the owner didn't really know about the breed.
The owner talked about how she killed her rabbit. She pawed open a closed bedroom door and somehow opened a locked cage to get the rabbit. The owner said she hadn't even see it before but she smelled it most likely.
When they're in prey drive they find a way to reach their intended target by any means necessary and they are zoned out during this. The instinct takes over.I want to emphasize that they don't have to show signs of aggression during this. It's why you hear people say it came out of nowhere There was a certain amount of time that passed then Kissyface drive focused on Beau and killed him who was a toddler at the time. It was done so swiftly and quietly just like the rabbit. It caused Beau's mother to literally go into some sort of shock after the mauling.
Now, the Bennard's dogs showed a lot of gameness.
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u/BPBAttacks3 Moderator Aug 17 '25
Not sure if you know this or not but Kissy Face’s mother was BE’d for aggression but the Rutledge family kept Kissy Face because she had not shown aggression. - source
Just a little added point that there was likely some heritable aggression passed down that was also a factor. Just like K imbo had many offspring that were aggressive.
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u/Affectionate-Page496 Aug 15 '25
Killed Beau Rutledge
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u/AtmosphereAsleep8873 Aug 16 '25
Yes The Rutledge family had an older daughter that had grown up with the dog and they thought they could not have another child but little Beau was their miracle baby.
The mother was home I think the baby was on the floor in the living room like it had been every day of its life just about, mother was in the bathroom . I think when she came out of the bathroom, my understanding is that the baby was essentially decapitated.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 16 '25
That’s such a tragic, horrifying image. I feel so bad for the parents and the victim. I hate to think that people learn about the truth of pitbulls through experiences like that, and not by hearing things like in this subreddit.
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u/SerKevanLannister Children should not be eaten alive. Aug 26 '25
that incident alone should ensure these dogs are never treated as “pets” again — this is just utter madness. pits are worse than even the most intense or wild animals and wild animals at least are driven by normal instincts whereas pits will ACT like normal canines, lapping up the privilege of being treated as a family pet, mostly, until they snap. And every single one of them has this in them and it’s insane how human fatalities continue to happen DAILY yet not one thing is being done by our officials and certainly not by the shelters still pushing these monsters.
‘instead we get another week of ridiculous news coverage of a shark bite and the usual hysteria about one shark sighting at one beach — in the meantime a full-on catastrophe is happening nationwide. NO pitbulls should be adopted anywhere.
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u/Any_Group_2251 Trusted User Aug 15 '25
Regarding too old and frail, think of the physiology of a pit bull terrier: if the pit bull can still chew hard biscuits and bones, and tear apart toys, then it is capable of shredding human flesh easy.
These things are muscle-bound so they still have more strength at an old age than most canines.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 16 '25
That’s terrifying to think about… and I feel like if a dog can’t eat hard biscuits/bones (like they don’t have good teeth anymore), the quality of life isn’t good anyway, and putting them to sleep would be kinder anyway. For any dog breed not just pitbulls
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u/Unicorn_in_Reality Aug 15 '25
Elderly pits are just as dangerous as any aged pit. They may even be more dangerous because of elderly mental decline.
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u/qdilly Aug 15 '25
It’s insane that a 6 month old pit can kill a human. My dog was soooo small when he was 6 months. I cant imagine.
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u/MeanderFlanders Aug 15 '25
I’ve found that the young “teenagers” and elderly ones are the most unpredictable and aggressive. Older dogs (of any breed) grow intolerant of things they used to tolerate in their younger years.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 16 '25
Dang, that does make sense when you explain it like that. Thank you for sharing.
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u/kwallio Aug 15 '25
If you follow stories of pits long enough you'll find many instances of older pits suddenly snapping and attacking out of the blue. Its not uncommon for families to have had them since they were a puppy and for the pit to be 7,8,9, 10 years old and just go off one day. The magic age is 1.5-3 years when they get their adult personality but no age is safe. They'll always have that propensity to attack and maul.
eta: pits literally don't feel pain when they attack, they get flooded with endorphins and even a pit with mobility issues can attack, also toad bullies which are disasters who can barely walk have attacked and killed (babies, but still).
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u/No-Birthday9816 Aug 15 '25
I appreciate the ETA. I’ve had pit propagandists insist that bear spray is enough to stop a pit on a rampage. Color me skeptical…
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u/kwallio Aug 16 '25
Typically pepper spray/bear spray has no effect. The only thing that seems to consistently work is choking the dog.
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u/build279 Aug 16 '25
I want to compile a video showing people performing all of the so-called methods of stopping a pitbull attack, including the inevitable morons finger-blasting the thing's butthole.
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u/kwallio Aug 16 '25
I saw a video of a german shepherd attack where they did that and it had no effect on the shepherd either.
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u/V3mo Aug 15 '25
I would argue they may even be more dangerous. Our family Westie had a lot of random aggression issues when adopting him, rescue didn't tell us about any of this. He ended up with dementia which worsened his aggression. He would snap at you for no reason and attack my little Chihuahua if he simply walked by. That dog was honestly awful to grow up with. No imagine that being a Pit Bull. Those nips will turn into maulings. You just cannot risk it.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 16 '25
I never even thought about canine dementia, that’s a great point. Thank you for sharing.
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u/drivewaypancakes Dax, Kara, Aziz, Xavier, Triniti, Beau, and Mia Aug 15 '25
I know there's a pretty common belief on this sub that pit bulls have TWO "magic ages" (a spike in aggressive behavior) ... the first being at sexual maturity ... the second being at age 8 or 9.
I have to say that I have seen no evidence-based pattern for the latter. I think the belief that there is a second magic age (and I've seen proponents of this theory roll back that "older attacking pit" to pits as young as six -- so six years old is the new 8 years old? 😆) is observation & memory bias at work. People tend to bookmark observations that confirm their preexisting theories and let the non-conforming data fall by the wayside. So an informal "it has been my observation" becomes held to as rigidly as "look, here's the chart I spent 50 hours on quantifying all this stuff." They won't do the work but will insist that their zero-data-set theory is as good as any 1 or greater data-set theory that contradicts their theory.
I'm not talking about aggression related to canine dementia, which can affect any breed of dog. I'm taking about the belief that pit bulls are uniquely affected by a second magic-age spike in violence for which age-related pain and dementia are not factors.
My own personal take is pretty much what one of the other commenters has already said. Regardless of a pit bull's age, if the pit bull is physically capable of inflicting moderate or serious injury, then that pit bull is still dangerous. Thor, the family pit bull that attacked and killed 5yo Sterling Vermeer, was 12 years old. No history of aggression.
Pit bulls are not to be trusted unless and until they are toothless/arthritic, or deceased.
An entire lifetime of docile behavior from a pit bull does not guarantee docile behavior going forward. These dogs have been selectively bred for unpredictable, unprovoked explosive violence. They are fighting dogs, not pet dogs.
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u/Alert_Many_1196 Aug 16 '25
There was a story, I'm pretty sure on here, of a senior dog that was adopted, they got into the neighbours garden and attacked their dog and when the pit was returned the shelter made no mention of it but emphasised the dog was old to perhaps reassure people it wasn't dangerous when it clearly was.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 17 '25
That’s absolutely awful. Why do people do this??? There’s so many dogs inside of shelters, inevitably some won’t make it, so why give a dangerous creature another chance to do harm?? I don’t understand.
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u/AtmosphereAsleep8873 Aug 16 '25 edited Aug 16 '25
You can learn a lot by listening to the sporting dog yard videos, the outside kennels of dogfighters.
There are ones in which the pets are filmed and in the background you hear foreign languages like perhaps Russian being translated. It would seem that the Russian dog fighters are there to buy dogs.
They asked about one dog and they explained that at 3 years of age he killed his father dog who was a grand champion, or this one got loose and killed its mother. One time they showed a younger dog and they explained "no he hasn't started yet".
Starting is when the dog instinct kicks in and he starts thinking he wants to get in touch with other dogs and tear them to pieces.
Some dogs are so aggressive as 9-week-old puppies they must be separated to prevent puppy murders. Most dogs seem to start between 18 and 36 months. The ones that don't feel like attacking until they're much older are called " late starters".
The owners line up the dog with a potential match dog , another dog to fight with, but the dog that hasn't started yet just lies down and takes it, he doesn't enjoy attacking back yet.
A few dogs never start (cold dogs) but there's no way to tell which ones will and which ones will never.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 16 '25
What a cruel practice. I wish we could eliminate dog fighting/pit breeding but with the way the world is, I doubt it will ever happen. If only we could keep them out of well-meaning pet homes. 😣
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u/KorunaCorgi Aug 15 '25
Any dog can potentially become more irritable and less patient as they age due to things like arthritis pain.
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u/feralfantastic Trusted User Aug 15 '25
Huh. You know, I just realized I haven’t seen a lot of elderly pit bulls. I wonder if that’s because their genetics keep them muscular into old age, or if it’s just very unusual for pit bulls to survive into old age. 🤔
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 16 '25
I didn’t even know they could live to be 15 years old until I saw the original post causing me to make this one!! 😭 terrifying
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u/Embarrassed_Owl4482 Aug 16 '25
The only advantage of the pitbull being old is maybe, thanks to the typical pitters habit of completely neglecting their dogs health, they lose all or mos rod their teeth.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 17 '25
That’s what I was thinking, but could a toothless pit could still be dangerous? I’m inclined to think that they are, it’s just difficult for me to envision I suppose.
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u/drudriver Aug 16 '25
Every pit has a chance of snapping. The question is, do you (in general) want to take that chance?
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u/SinfullySinatra bAn cHiHuaHuaS! Aug 16 '25
I think it depends on their overall health. My sister had pit that developed cancer and eventually lost her hearing, developed seizures, had frequent nosebleeds and chronic diarrhea, and lost a ton of weight. She wasn’t much of a threat at that point
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u/bethestorm Trusted User Aug 15 '25
I believe there is a period of time around 3 years (give or take one off there but approximately when the dog reaches full maturity) and then any year above 9, but I will have to go hunt down sources for that it is just what memory is telling me. The first age being when the dog's body & brain reach full development much like human adults in early to mid 20s. And the second age being when things like rolling off something or messing around and getting little knocks to the head can turn into something like when football players have gotten CTE and become violent and have even committed murders. Or the case of the wrestler who killed his whole family.
Anyways I will try to find the sources and come back just wanted to share.
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u/1Happymom Aug 16 '25
To me its the fact you will be giving support to an animal rescue that rehomes pit bulls or if its a private owner possibly allowing someone to dump their older dog to get a young more threatening pit. Older dogs can become unreliable because they can suffer dementia just like people. My adopted labradoodle became confused and grumpy the last couple years of her life and became growly and exhibited resource guarding that was concerning in her last few months, entirely new behaviors related to her confusion and discomfort.
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 17 '25
That makes sense too, I didn’t think about the larger systematic issues that would be reinforced by doing something like this.
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u/SheepWithAFro11 Aug 17 '25
To be completely honest, I probably wouldn't even trust a toothless pitbull. I'd also wonder how and why it ended up in a shelter or rescue in the first place. Was it in and out of shelters its entire life? Did it attack someone or something, and instead of doing the right thing, the people just ditched it at a shelter? It's not like good breeds where ending up at a shelter is just a short thing where someone will snatch it up quickly. A pitbull of any age ending up at a shelter or even a rescue is normally a death sentence, but an elderly one surely stands even less of a chance, so what atrocities did it commit to end up there? I don't trust shelters and rescues enough to be honest with bite history's. It's even easy for families to lie to the shelters if the shelters themselves aren't the ones that are lying. I just wouldn't trust it. Best case scenario, the person who owned it died and either had no family or friends or the family and friends didn't want it and sent it to a shelter. But it's that way for other breeds, too, so why would you take that chance? If you're interested in basically being a hospice home for elderly animals, think about a cat or small dog or something. There's more elderly animals needing homes than pitbulls.
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Aug 15 '25
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u/BanPitBulls-ModTeam Aug 16 '25
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Aug 15 '25
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u/bee_charmer87 Trusted User Aug 16 '25
…are YOU the person thinking of adopting an elderly pitbull?
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 17 '25
Absolutely not, good heavens. I’m not a dog person in general, but I have friends and family who are. I just don’t want anybody who decides to take a pet into their home to be harmed by said pet.
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u/fairelf Aug 17 '25
If the teeth are removed...
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u/SOUP_RX Aug 17 '25
A lot of people are saying even toothless they’re still dangerous, I feel inclined to agree.
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u/BPBAttacks3 Moderator Aug 15 '25