This is indeed tragic
and not to minimize it
but I wonder if the pit Bulls she owned were rescue dogs that had been trained to fight?
I wish we know what triggered it
It doesn’t take much to trigger it for that type of dog. Maybe she tripped and fell down and the dog went for her.
An old black lady who lives next door to me has chicken-wire cages in her backyard where her grandson raises pit bulls, no doubt for dog fighting. He keeps some adult dogs chained there and takes the puppies away to sell once they are weaned. The dogs stink and make the next two backyards stink (including mine, which I can’t even use now). They also bark their heads off.
The little old lady - unsteady and half-blind - goes out there when they start barking (I believe she is also responsible for feeding them) and I know that if one of them were ever to slip its chain or get out, she’d be torn apart in seconds.
People have complained to animal control, but they don’t do anything because he keeps only the legal limit of dogs (4) on a permanent basis, and evidently running a breeding operation out of your backyard is not illegal. And of course, the neighbors are scared to keep complaining, because somehow their identity seems to get back to him when they make a complaint and they’re afraid of retribution if he is forced to get rid of the dogs.
I’m sure this goes on all over the country.
I am one hundred percent OPPOSED to breed banning. But just as Australian shepherds hardly need to be trained to herd livestock (their training is more to teach them to follow human direction), pit bulls hardly need training to fight. Can you imagine how valuable the dogs we call "pit bulls" (whatever they are, but I know one when I see one -- little eyes, a bit dim looking in the brains department, very short hair and tendency to pinkish skin, huge jaws and neck) when well trained were to families pioneering farms and ranches? Dogs do well when they're used to do the job they were bred to do. Dogs need jobs -- they have dignity. When you take a job bred to do a guardian/protector's job and to fight to the death, and plant him in the role as a "little buddy" to humanity ... it disrespects his dignity, breed, and being.
It's the same thing as getting an Australian shepherd and keeping it as a city dog in a small condo. Without a job and cramped up in small quarters, the dog, highly intelligent and hyper, goes insane. There are better breeds for the pretty serious job of being a human companion and at least barking alarm. If you're going to have a big dog, make sure you walk or run a lot, and give it the jobs it was bred to take care of.