Posted on 02/02/2010 7:39:02 PM PST by metmom
FONTANA, Calif. — Authorities say a pack of escaped dogs mauled three young siblings in California, leaving a 5-year-old girl in critical condition.
Police Sgt. Jeff Deckers says the dogs — a mastiff and four pit-bull mixes — escaped a Fontana backyard Monday afternoon and attacked a mother walking with her four children.
Deckers says the mastiff pulled the girl from her mother's hand and shook her violently. She has a punctured lung, broken ribs and bites and is on a ventilator.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
wing
Not again. Here goes the whole pit bull argument again. I am so very scared of these dogs and I don’t know why. I have known 2 and they were dedicated and lovable pets of friends and I could never feel safe around them. Publicity like this does not help.
I heard this story on the news today. Very sad. I don’t know how these dogs were able to get out of the fence but whoever who are the dogs owners should be held responsible for the injuries those poor children received. The 5 year old is the most critical. Praying for a quick recovery. They were on their way to the park
Things are going to get VERY nasty as society continues to break down, unemployment continues to rise, and these dogs can no longer be fed, contained, or neutered.
They will be tough competitors in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
They are not even friendly looking dogs.
I believe it’s precisely those stories about pits which are lovable pets who turn on their owners children which is what gives you that fear. If it were a matter of one or two isolated incidents, that would be one thing, but it’s not.
The other thing that disturbs me about these pits turning on their owners children is that most dogs are VERY protective about children, even ones not part of their family.
My relatives has a male dachshund who was watching over my baby sister as she was sleeping. When my mother went over to adjust her clothing, the dog snarled at her. My mother was shocked that the dog would be so protective of a child that he would react that way to the child’s own mother.
I don’t trust a breed which would attack a child.
At that point, I see a whole lot of them getting shot, along with their irresponsible owners.
There was a thread recently about feral beagles terrorizing a town as well.
Towns need to start to become very serious about dealing with this kind of problem. The taxpayers should not have to fear going outside on their own property and to be told by the government, which is supposed to represent them, that they can’t protect themselves, and then refuse to do anything about it either.
We put down a beloved pet this past summer, an English Pointer, who for unknown reasons had gone psychotic. It was a matter of public and personal safety.
He attacked neighbors, neighborhood kids, mauled the dogs of neighbors, and then he turned on us.
Could have been a brain tumor, could have been due to a stroke; whatever the reason it was very sad. He was only five years old.
My condolences.
However, you did the right thing. It’s not worth the risk that he could have eventually killed or seriously maimed someone.
Dachshunds have taken at least two children’s lives since the CDC started collecting numbers. No breed is safe from irresponsible ownership or parenting for that matter.
Notice that many of these stories involve dogs that are either running loose or chained up. When the owners say the dogs are family pets, (who would admit they neglected the dog or knew something was wrong with it?)I like to check with animal control, because often there is already a record of the dogs either running loose or being neglected in some way. Sometimes, there are even previous bites reported, yet the owners kept the dogs and changed nothing.
The vast majority of these attacks could be prevented just by using a little common sense and being responsible, not by banning a breed. Places that have banned pit bulls have shown no decrease in serious attacks because the real problem was never the breed, but the owners. Both Denver, Colorado and the UK are in this boat together. In fact, the UK has had a big increase in their attack numbers. Places that create and enforce laws that target the owners (Calgary is an excellent example of this) have seen decreases in their serious attacks.
Please consider these facts, and if you like I can provide you with sources to read. It’s a shame that so many people are taking the minority as a representation of the entire breed, but hopefully if enough people can see that places have successfully managed the situation without banning breeds, more cities will adopt similar practices.
I don’t doubt that responsible pet ownership would make a significant dent in any kind of attacks. Animals are animals and need to be trained and monitored.
I wish they’d go after the owners more, by all means, but in cases like this, it’s too late for the animals. I don’t think that any animal which has reached this stage of aggressiveness can ever really be rehabilitated, or more importantly, trusted, again. These kind are the ones that absolutely need to be destroyed.
“I wish they’d go after the owners more, by all means, but in cases like this, it’s too late for the animals. I don’t think that any animal which has reached this stage of aggressiveness can ever really be rehabilitated, or more importantly, trusted, again. These kind are the ones that absolutely need to be destroyed.”
I agree with this absolutely. If my dog ever bit someone, unless it was to defend from an attack, I would have her euthanized. I don’t think we should keep human aggressive dogs alive when so many good dogs are dying in shelters. However, if the laws focused on prevention/responsible ownership, I believe we would have a significant reduction in attacks, as Calgary has shown is possible. Most aggression cases are not due to genetic flaws (only a handful of defects express themselves this way, for example rage syndrome, which affects many breeds including spaniels), but due to lack of socialization, training, and neutering. So many things can be prevented if people are vigilant early on in training bad behaviors out of their dogs and showing them they don’t need to be the alpha to survive in the pack.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.