Posted on 01/14/2007 5:00:17 AM PST by Racehorse
Lori Jones heard her daughter's screams. She ran into the backyard and saw the pit bull on top of her daughter. It had bitten Amber in the stomach and was now attached to her neck. Frantic, Amber's mother tried to push the dog off. A man rushed to help and added the needed strength to get the dog away from both mother and daughter.
. . .
As they waited for the ambulance Lori Jones held her hands over the wounds in her daughter's neck and stomach. The dog continued to hover. Amber's father, Robert, drove from his job at the Hilton Palacio del Rio downtown to University Hospital, where Amber was airlifted.
Amber died just a couple hours later at about 6:30 p.m.
. . .
The family wants Amber's death to be a lesson to others about the dangers of dogs. But, they said, they had no reason to think this dog, whose name they did not know, would ever attack their daughter.
"She was in the back just like she had been 100 times before," Megan said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
Maybe parents are a lil' irresponsible when giving those lessons about approaching strange dogs.
Ban the breed, you say...all for the "good of the children", of course...
"For the good of the children"...now where have I heard THAT excuse used before??????????????
The one small sentence in this story that speaks VOLUMES is that the dog was almost always alone in the back yard. This tells me the owners never bothered socializing him. People like that make me sick.
Our little guy is just fine. I can't say enough good about our vet! He managed to pin the little guy's leg and hip back together and even then he wasn't sure we weren't going to have to have his back leg amputated. Thankfully Rufus came through with flying colors! He occasionally will lift the leg he had to have pinned together up but its habit and not because it hurts him or anything. I imagine when he gets older he'll have problems with arthritis. He can outrun the lab when we take them to the field across the street.
We adopted the lab after she showed up at our back door and no one called animal control for 10 days looking for her. As it turned out we realized (after several months) she'd lived for awhile next door but had been left behind when the couple divorced. She wasn't housebroken and hadn't had any training at all. She loved people but hadn't been taught not to jump up so we definitely had our work cut out for us.
When I think about how our labby had been cut off from people and how much she wants just to please us, it makes me so angry at the idiot neighbors who had her while she was a puppy. I can't even begin to understand why anyone would have a dog just to have it outside alone in the backyard. Dogs need to socialize, it's so obvious especially when you see how canines in the wild form packs.
"Reputation"?
Guilt by association?
Putting all in one class, huh? Ain't that what libbies like to do?
You're indulging in canine identity politics here, Sarge.
;-)
There are enough stories like this one, where some sweet old pit bull is "so nice" until one day it kills or maims someone. No mention in this story of the owners doing something wrong, other than purchasing a killer dog.
I am raising my son to NOT be afraid of dogs ... but its hard to do when two pit bulls are running around unhooked. THAT should be a felony.
Just keep them hooked up.
And what if that owner takes it out on YOU, Mr Tough Guy?
The damnthings should be shot on sight.
I mean that, really.
Dog of Peace bump
Sadly, that does count as the kind of attack some of us are complaining about here. I pray the child does recover.
"Police said the incident was unlike any they could remember in St. Mary's County, particularly with such a diminutive dog. Dachshunds have short legs and long bodies. Even the biggest of the breed weigh only 16 to 32 pounds, according to the Dachshund Club of America.They aren't typically aggressive, yet preparation is required to familiarize a dog with a new child, said Andra O'Connell, secretary of the New York-based club.
Otherwise, the animal -- which comes from a hunting breed -- feels like an overlooked older child, she said. "
Be that as it may, the story clicks with what I've observed with one of our dogs, a three year old mixed Dauschund/Chihuahua.
One of our nieces left a stuffed toy bear behind after her Christmas visit. The bear is probably about the size of the child in the story. The dog has never shown any interest in toys of any kind. But she will hunt for that bear and when she finds it she'll work till she's captured it, drag it through the house, shake it savagely, and act like she wants to rip it apart.
We thought it was cute.
After reading the linked story, the bear is now up on a high shelf in a closet with a closed door. After reading the story, I don't think I could watch Gretchen play with the bear without thinking of that unfortunate baby.
"Its not the breed, its how they're raised."
Thats half right, but some dogs no matter how well they're raised will still be human aggressive. some dogs CAN NOT be made human agressive and some can be trained either way and some are agressive no matter what you do. Staffs are the show breed that came from the "pitbull" "bulldog" (not english bulldog) people confuse the fact that staffordshire's come directly from pitbulls and that the name stffordshire is a place that pitbulls were raised. they also came from ireland and spain not just staffordshire england. Bottom line is ALL human agressive dogs should be put down.
some dogs can be human aggressive, but no "breed" is blanket aggressive.
To those here that think euthanizing every single pitbull is the answer, you are thinking very ignorantly and/or w/ emotion about an unrealistic approach.
Say a hispanic kid robbed a convenience store. Do you ban all hispanic kids from the town? Of course not. By far, all kids are great. The bad ones can be directly linked to crappy parents 99% of the time.
Same for bad dogs.
You are comparing the old "guns don't kill people, people kill people" analogy and the more recent "SUV" analogy to pit bulls, but it doesn't quite fit. Pit bulls don't just lay there in the yard until someone kicks them in the butt and makes them kill or maim a person. They seem to do to this of their own accord much more often than the "pitt bull defenders" want to admit. And when they do it the consequences are usually much more serious that when a mean cocker or dachshund does it.How many times do we have to hear the tearful parent or grandparent say "but she/he has always been such a sweet dog".
Every pit bull is dangerous. It's not the dog's fault, I will grant you, it's the way people have developed the breed, through both training and breeding for fierceness. While it is possible that an individual pit bull, well-trained, might be reasonably gentle, one can never have any confidence in the breed's good behavior. There are many, many breeds of dogs whose behavior is far more reliable.
I'll admit my reaction is somewhat emotional. I was badly bitten by a loose dog that approached me (not me approaching the dog) as a small child and bit me out of nowhere, and it was more than a decade before I could be comfortable around dogs, and 30 years before I could own one. I love dogs, but not dangerous breeds.
So, if I'm really relfecting on the questions, it seems to me that if the breed is not exterminated, then it needs to be a strict liability felony to let one loose (no matter how it got loose: you own one and it's up to you to secure it - no matter how hard you try to secure it, if it gets loose, you're liable -- it's a risk you assume when you decide to own one) and, if your loose pit bull injures another person or even an animal, you should be guilty simpliciter of a strict liability felony that puts them a way for several years, and be subject crippling civil liabilty up to taking everything they have. Again, assumption of risk - you have a dangerous animal, and if the animal causes harm, you pay and pay enough to give you and everyone else pause. In fact, I'd make anyone who wanted to own a pit bull read the penalties and sign a notarized statement that he understood his responsibilities and the liability if he failed to meet them.
ditter,
You know how we here at FR complain relentless about a slanted MSM? Well, guess what? They do the SAME thing about pit bulls.
I was on the danger dog board of my local county's animal control and BY FAR, the biters were not pit bulls. We definitely had some, don't get me wrong, but most were labs, chows, etc. (ie popular breeds). The media is very sensationalizing and your not going to hear of the other breeds being aggressive because it doesn't make for good headlines.
Most pit bull owners that have questionable pets keep them tied in the yard, they will NOT spay or neuter, they are neglectful or abusive because it makes their dogs meaner on purpose. I had a guy come in the vet where I worked that kept his dog in the trunk of his car and EVERY DAY he would tie it to the car door and drive 8 miles and make it run next to the car so it would be strong.
It truly makes me sick. But I assure you, if you meet a pitbull in a good family, you will love the dog.
Shoot. Shovel. Shut up.
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.