Coral Springs mother of two savaged by her 120-pound pet (dog)

South Florida Sun-Sentinel ^ | Posted August 19 2006 | By Robert Nolin, Sallie James and Jennifer Gollan

[RipSawyer]

Or he could have had more than one landscaping crew working, the business can be quite lucrative, some of the figures I have heard quoted make me want to load up my riding mower and set out.

[elfman2]

$800,000 homes in South Florida were $200,000 homes 6-7 years ago.

[Fawn]

Sorry--pasted the same article by mistake....

[stephenjohnbanker]

All day ?? : )

[Fawn]

Very true. My home tripled in 6 years.... Can't afford to move...taxes would kill me...and insurance(if I can find a company).

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Just as soon as I get him in my scope.

[RipSawyer]

"This is horrible," he said. "She was really beautiful."
...........................................................

The victim or the dog? Or is he trying to say that it wouldn't be so bad if an ugly woman were eaten alive? Later in the article the author says that the Presa Canario nearly went extinct but was kept alive by breeding with Mastiffs, this makes absolutely no sense, how can a breed of dog become extinct? A breed is simply a variation on a species produced by selective breeding, only species can become extinct. An expert breeder could probably produce and animal indistinguishable from the Canario without having a single specimen of the breed available for breeding.

[pnz1]

I had a German Shepherd as a child too, and he was very protective of our family. Now that we have a young one I'd like to have another dog that I know will be protective, but not attack the child? Is that possible?

[popdonnelly]

The Hound of the Baskervilles.

[RipSawyer]

I once owned a Rottweiler that weighed 120 pounds, he was magnificent and never offered to hurt a human being, he was even extremely protective of children. Having said that, let me add that I am older and wiser now and never intend to own another, even though I am six four and well over two hundred pounds that dog could probably have had me for breakfast in about one minute. The strength of a dog of that size and type must be witnessed to be believed.

[Comus]

I think the Federal regs on house sales have changed. Check with your accountant. Florida, well thats a different story.

[Graymatter]

Landscapers make real good money. I've helped make a few of them rich. :(

[goldstategop]

It should be destroyed promptly for taking a human life.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)

[houeto]

Now that we have a young one I'd like to have another dog that I know will be protective, but not attack the child? Is that possible?

Sure, get one of these.

[albee]

"The blackish gray dog, a leash still around its neck, reacted aggressively when officers entered the backyard, so they shot and killed it, Nicorvo said. The animal either fell or jumped into the pool and sank."

Methinks the cops threw it in the pool just to make sure the unruly beast was really dead!

[Moose4]

The problem's more the combination of the owner and the breed than just the breed itself. A dog like that Presa is going to take a HUGE amount of socialization, constant supervision, and careful handling. There are some people out there that can handle it and turn a Presa into a good pet, but probably not that many.

My in-laws own three Hungarian Kuvasz, which are European sheep guard dogs (not herd dogs). They're big (males go about 90-110 pounds), and while they're not known for aggressiveness like bull terriers or Presas, they're VERY oriented toward their "pack" and their territory--they've got 600 years of livestock-guard breeding in their veins. So they're very smart and independent, which makes them a challenge to train and socialize.

Their youngest, a 75-pound female, was a holy terror when they first got her. It's taken them FOUR YEARS to socialize that dog to the point where she's reasonably good to take on a walk without going after another animal, and where she won't go nuts on people when they come over to visit. She's accepted the whole extended family as part of her "pack" now, and she's the sweetest dog I've ever seen now...to us. And even then they are very careful with her--she never goes off-leash, she's always closely supervised, and when my wife and infant daughter went down to visit, there were always adults nearby--as in, within grabbing distance, or with a hand on her collar or fur--when the dog and the baby were in the same room. They're very skilled at handling Kuvasz. If Shari (the dog) had ended up with an inexperienced or incompetent family, I guarantee you she'd be dead right now, either at the hands of another dog, in front of a car, or euthanized.

You can make any dog into a mean dog. And you can make (virtually) any dog into a nice dog. The problems arise when people who don't know what they're doing get a high-maintenance, dominance-oriented dog like a Presa and the dog ends up being a 125-pound time bomb. The dog's being a dog. It's the owners that are the problem.

}:-)4

[Hildy]

It does takes a stimulus (just like a person with alcoholic genes isn't tempted by alcoholic till he drinks it for the first time) but it is a disaster waiting to happen.

That was an excellent analogy.

[Doc Savage]

Good!

[capt. norm]

Landscaper? $800,000 house? Maybe her boyfriend engaged in some enterprises in addition to landscaping? Just a thought.

Just what I was thinking. The dog was guarding a meth lab or some similar operation.

[LFOD]

We had neighbors like that once. They let their dogs (90+ lbs) run loose for three straight years until I killed one going after my wife.
You would have thought I killed one of their kinfolk.

Lesson? Kill the dog silently and dump it somewhere in the next county.