Posted on 04/04/2009 10:19:16 AM PDT by Chet 99
Fed up with pit bulls, a Saginaw man sets out to trap them
by Dean Bohn
The Saginaw News
Saturday April 04, 2009, 8:01 AM
Tracy D. Albert said he's had enough of pit bulls.
So he's setting out traps to catch them and is offering a $50 reward for the name of the owner who brought pit bulls into his yard and urged them to attack his cat.
He said he wants to prosecute them "after I talk to their mommy and daddy about what they've been doing."
Albert said his family's 13-year-old cat, "Lucky," was sunning itself outside about 7 p.m. Tuesday when two muscular males, 17 to 19 years old, brought their leashed pit bulls into his yard and sicced them on his cat.
"When I came out of the house, I see one dog had my cat by the belly, so I kicked the dog so hard he flipped on his back," said Albert, 46, who lives on Saginaw's West Side.
"(The owner of the dog) didn't like it, so I kicked his dog seven or eight more times, just to show him who was in control. By that time the dog (ran between the owner's legs) and almost tripped him. He and I went face-to-face, but then some friends of his came over and flanked him. He left, walking north on Hamilton. Now I'm looking for him. I'm offering a $50 bill for a good name."
Albert said he's tired of seeing pit bulls running wild in his neighborhood two or three times a day.
"I set out a cougar trap and put in a coyote scent," he said. "It's a live trap, but I'll be turning them over to the Animal Shelter. They've agreed to take any I trap. I've been a nuisance trapper since I was a kid."
Albert said he put out the trap -- and the word of his bounty -- Wednesday. By mid-day Thursday, pit bull traffic was almost non-existent, he said.
"Word got out, and they're all keeping them locked down," he said.
Pit bulls have come under closer public scrutiny since March 5, when three pit bulls attacked and injured Bridgetta Hadley, 42, of Saginaw and Duane VanLanHam, 48, who lives across South 23rd Street in Buena Vista Township.
Hadley had nerve damage and wounds that required 20 stitches to close. VanLanHam had one surgery and is expecting five more.
A trial date is not yet set for the dogs' owners, Anthony D. Hunt of Saginaw and Shamorrow S. Amos of Buena Vista Township.
Saginaw County Chief District Judge M. Randall Jurrens ordered Hunt and Amos to stand trial in Circuit Court on six counts of possessing dangerous animals causing serious injury at South 23rd and Perkins in Buena Vista Township.
A conviction could lead to a sentence of up to four years in prison, $2,000 in fines and 500 hours of community service.
Court records indicate that Hunt, 33, lives at 2302 S. Niagara, No. 1, and Amos, 24, lives at 628 S. 23rd.
Two of the pit bulls remain under the care of the Saginaw County Animal Care Center. Buena Vista Township Police Officer Jason Hendricks shot and killed the third dog.
Since the incident, more people are reporting pit bull sightings.
For the 59 days from Jan. 1 to Feb. 28, dispatchers handled 90 "vicious dogs in progress" calls, said Tom McIntyre, 911 director. That's about 1.5 calls per day.
In the 20 days between March 1 and 20, dispatchers received 68 vicious dog calls -- about 3.4 a day.
That trap should include a shotgun.
To be used on the pit bull’s owner.
ping.
Good on him. I wonder if his cat survived.
In my neighborhood our animal control officers will loan us a humane trap to catch loose dogs because the officers cannot.
Put some dog food (wet) in it, spread a little newspaper on the cage floor because a dog will back off of something that feels different, old chunks of chicken work well too.
I like pits, but any PBT should not be running loose and is fair game if it is. Or any aggressive dog, for that matter. I back this guy’s efforts.
I cannot believe that someone sicced their dog on the man’s cat in his yard. I don’t like cats, but that was wrong. The perpetrator should be brought to justice.
What, does he use old ladies and helpless three-year-olds as bait?
Shoot shovel and shut up works also.
Used a smaller version of that kind of trap on rats in my barn. Caught quite a few. Once I found just a rat tail in a trap, another time just a leg. They do chew off body parts to get free..Never did catch a tail less on or a three legged one.....
How easy is it to raise a pit bull to be non-agressive?
“...but then some friends of his came over and flanked him...”
12 gauge. Never leave home without it.
As satisfying as kicking the sh*t out of a pit bull might be, putting a couple rifled slugs through it will make the owner haul ass, too.
Yep. I’m tired of trash getting pitbulls as an extension of their own violent tendencies. They use them like a weapon, as this story shows. The two little white trash punks wanted to use their dogs to see them kill this guys cat which was in HIS OWN YARD. I have a story like this one in the article. Some rednecks a few houses up from my 60 year old mother got a pitbull and lets him run loose. The other day he ran up on my mother’s porch as she was exiting with her two small dogs. BOTH her dogs were on leashes, because there is a leash law in her county. Nothing happened, because she was able to pull her dogs back inside the house and shut the door as the pitbull was running up her front porch steps. She went to the owner ( a teenager), and told him what happened.
He said he won’t let the dog run loose again. We’ll see.
My mom now carries pepper spray to take her dogs out in her own yard.
I told her to call the police the next time the dog comes in her yard, and animal control. I’m sick of owners like this.
He’s actually more humane than I would be. These beasts ought to be poisoned. and their dogs, too.
Its not. These dogs have been raised for generations to fight to the death in a pit. It will not be bred out of them easily.
No matter what owners say these dogs can not be trusted.
Many states are starting to require extra homeowner insurance riders to cover the dogs, if you are not a home owner they are requiring special insurance policies, some as high as 100K.
That’s not enough to replace a human life.
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