LA: Another Gun Owner Stops Attack by Multiple Pit Bulls

Gun Watch ^ | 27 July, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

It was only  a week ago that Dennis Williams saved a neighbor that was being attacked by ferocious Pitt Bulls.   He retrieved a pistol when baseball bats were not enough, and killed one dog before the others ran off.   He used a .22 revolver.   Now, in Louisiana, on the north side of Lake Ponchartrain,  a very similar incident has occurred.  A young woman was attacked along a walking trail by two Pitt Bulls.   A neighbor heard the screams, just at Dennis Williams did.  He brought a 9mm pistol, killed one of the attacking Pitts, and severely wounded the other.  From nola.com:

Two pit bulls were shot on a walking trail near Slidell after they attacked a woman and her miniature collie Wednesday morning, authorities said. The woman was taken to a hospital with bite wounds to her left arm and left leg, and her dog was transported to a local veterinary clinic to be treated for its wounds.

(snip)

 A neighbor who heard the woman screaming responded and fired a shot from a 9 mm pistol, killing one of the pit bulls and injuring the other. The wounded dog fled, the Sheriff's Office said.

The owner of the Pitt Bulls was given a misdemeanor summons  for violation of the leash law.

In both circumstances, the people attacked were walking their own dogs.  Pitt Bulls are often more aggressive toward other dogs than they are to people, but when people defend their pets, the Pitts may turn on them.   Neighbors who have weapons and who know how to use them may be one of the reasons that fatal dog attacks number less than 20 per year, in spite of total attacks that require treatment numbering in the hundreds of thousands.   From dogbites.org:

The breeds that the CDC considers highest risk are pit bulls, Rottweilers, German shepherds, huskies, Alaskan malamutes, Doberman pinschers, chows, Great Danes, St. Bernards and Akitas.

While I have not seen any studies on packs of dogs, my experience is that dogs are most aggressive when running loose in a group.  At that point they seem to express a "pack" mindset, much like "mob rule".

Without a human to restrain them, they revert to pack hunting instincts.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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[marktwain]

Hundreds of thousands of attacks require hospitalization, but there are less than 20 fatalities a year.

I wonder how many times firearms are used to prevent fatalities?

[rfreedom4u]

I’ll bet the statistics of people being injured or killed by roaming packs of “youths” is higher.

[Vendome]

My dogs will sit on command/demand or return to the house upon “Up!”.

Command I had when I lived in a three story home.

When walking or playing outside and it was time to go home “Up!” Came out of my mouth.

Made sense and stuck.

They know what it means.

“UP!”:

In the car

In the house

Up stairs

Up a hill or objects they aren’t familiar with.

Plus, it has the added benefit of being a command the other dumb humans, in the house, can remember.

[Resolute Conservative]

These stupid zombie shows play up the human dangers, but nobody ever talks about what happens to the millions of dogs in this country that will pack up if humans have a drastic and quick population shrinking event. Detroit had a problem a while back with pack dogs roaming the streets as people fled the town and left the dogs.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Packs of dogs have long been a menace. I knew of a man who in the 1940s, was elected as mayor of a small town in Indiana on the sole platform of personally shooting the pack dogs that menaced the town. And true to his word, he used his rifle, and did.

In South America, there have long been itinerant dog killers who traveled from town to town with a cart with two empty barrels in it. As part of his fee, the town provides a large amount of discarded meat and entrails, and poison.

A day or two beforehand, he posts signs that all owned dogs must be kept inside on a particular night. Then after soaking the meat and entrails in a barrel with water and poison, in the evening he leaves piles of it around town.

Before dawn, he collects up any uneaten meat, and dead dogs, burying them away from the town, where other animals will not dig them up.

The US has long had an efficient culling of stray dogs, but it is stretched beyond its means, and if animal control services end because of economic downturn, dangerous packs would begin to appear overnight.

It would no longer be a question of defending yourself against a pack of strays, but of shooting at them on sight.

[headstamp 2]

Slidell sounds like a real dump after reading the police reports.

[truth_seeker]

In the mid 1970s we lived next door to a guy with a Doberman.

I asked him if their reputation was true. He said generally no, it was exaggerated. But he also said that if they ever turned on their owner, they should be put down.

I say now, if a big dog repeatedly goes after other dogs, or people, put it down-regardless of breed.

The problem is people that unleash dangerous dogs.

[MWFsFreedom]

Yes, Slidell is a total dump.

[Bigg Red]

Dean needs a proofreader!

[super7man]

Gee, it was so weird. They’ve never done that before. Weird.

http://dogbitelaw.com/dog-bite-statistics/the-breeds-most-likely-to-kill.html

[marktwain]

Yes, editing tends to be quite helpful.

[ViLaLuz]

Slidell used to be nice until Katrina.

[ViLaLuz]

good thing the shooter wasn’t a cop... Then this would be a bad thing

[headstamp 2]

“Slidell used to be nice until Katrina.”

That’s a shame.