Posted on 11/01/2009 2:12:05 PM PST by marktwain
ELK, Wash. - The owner of a miniature horse says he was forced to shoot and kill three pit bulls that were mauling his animal.
Thursday, the horse's owner told the Pend Oreille County Sheriff's Office the three dogs had come onto this property, off Juanita Lane and started attacking his horse.
The man fired several warning shots to try and scare the dogs and when the warning shots did not work, the man turned his aim to the dogs, shooting all three.
Two of the dogs died on the scene and the third ran off only to die later at a veterinarian's office.
While trying to get in touch with Justin Howell, the dogs' owner, a deputy discovered marijuana growing on Howell's property.
Howell told deputies he had Medicinal Marijuana Certificate and was growing marijuana for his own personal use, however an investigation found he had more than allowed for medicinal use under state law.
Howell was arrested for Manufacturing Marijuana and cited for dog at large.
The miniature horse suffered severe injuries and is being treated by a veterinarian.
breed.
Works for me!
I freaking HATE this breed of animal and wish they were exterminated.
Agreed. They are hard wired headcases.
As for the ‘owner’ - these were allowed to run as a feral pack, in addition to being inherently defective.
Good for the shooter.
In Michigan you can shoot any dog on your property if you have hoofed animals...had a neighbor shot his neighbors dog in the turkey pen, killing his turkeys...it cost his insurance company 2000 dollars....turkeys don’t have hoofs..The police will tell you to shoot, shovel and shut up. Keeps your property and your family safe from a nit wit that lets their dogs run.........
Three for three. A good start!
Nazi. :-P
That said, six years ago I shot two wolf hybrids after warning the owner twice that he had better keep them away from my horses. His reply both times was "you better not shoot my dogs." I had animal control at the house when I called him to come pick up the two carcases. I haven't heard a peep from him since.
“chime in pitbull defenders.
I freaking HATE this bread of animal and wish they were exterminated.”
Does it not even matter that the dogs were irresponsibly owned, allowed to run loose IN A PACK, while their owner smoked his sorry life away? How exactly does this keep getting put on the dogs? How many stories in a row have there been on here with dogs that have been either chained up or allowed to run loose? You should be hating the idiots who think it’s ok to be so irresponsible, not the dogs that have no choice. If the owner was so great at keeping his dogs restrained, I bet he was wonderful at socializing them, getting them vaccinated, and training them. I’ll even bet he calls them loved family pets, although anyone with a brain can see that is not the case.
“Agreed. They are hard wired headcases.
As for the owner - these were allowed to run as a feral pack, in addition to being inherently defective.”
How many of these “head cases” on the news have been responsibly owned? Do you know what percentage of them actually attack compared to their population? What are you basing these claims on? I am curious because you seem to have the opposite view of many experts. If you have any proof of this (news stories or google hits don’t count as research) I would be very interested in seeing it.
Pretty much every county and parish animal control office can verify a higher statistical incidence of bite cases from pit bulls than any other breed.
“Responsible ownership” begs the question. Cobras are ‘safe’ when kept ‘responsibly’. So are violent offenders for that matter.
Another good reason for owning a gun.
Keyword Chet99?
“Pretty much every county and parish animal control office can verify a higher statistical incidence of bite cases from pit bulls than any other breed.”
Do you mean in your area, or all over? I’m asking because in certain areas, yes, pit bulls have a higher incidence of bites, but other areas have labs, cocker spaniels, dalmatians, and GSD as their number one biters. It really does depend on the area. In larger cities and low-income areas, pit bull bites tend to be higher. In rural areas, labs and border collies represent the majority. There are exceptions, but the vast majority of bite cases involve dogs that are running loose or chained up, and intact, regardless of the breed. This information can be seen at the CDC’s website.
There are an estimated 13 thousand dog attacks every day in the U.S., and you can bet that the pit bull bites make the news almost every time. Where are all the other dogs? They aren’t considered newsworthy, and this phrase comes from a reporter who used it to describe a mixed breed dog attack on a police officer. The officer, upset that his story was not getting attention, called back a month later and said the dog was a pit bull to see what would happen. Several news stations contacted him to do a story.
Don’t forget that pit bull-type dogs are one of the most popular breeds right now, also. In some shelters, they represent as much as 60% of the population of dogs, and according to the UKC, they are the #2 most popular right now. They aren’t even the biggest registering body for the breed. The ADBA registers many more than that. The most popular “tough” dog always ends up in the spotlight until another breed comes along to intrigue the growing thug population. Dogs that are responsibly owned, no matter the breed, are many times safer than intact dogs on chains, dogs in packs, and dogs running loose.
Cobras are wild animals and will bite if given the chance, and cannot be trained as they do not possess reasoning skills. Pit bulls are domesticated dogs, and all dogs are capable of biting. They are no more likely to bite than any other breed when raised responsibly. They are not supernaturally strong, they are not bipolar, they are not blood-thirsty, and they are not born mean. These are all things people say about them that don’t have the capacity for rational thought. The dogs have the same lineage as boxers, bulldogs, and boston terriers, among others, all of which used to do the dirty work but don’t get the same kind of attention from thugs and the media. I think it’s because of the name, but who knows.
There are lots and lots of people who get the dogs for the wrong reasons and try their hardest to make them vicious. It is a testament to the stability of the breed that of the millions alive right now, only 0.00004% of them have attacked. Of those, almost 100% had been chained, running loose, in a pack, in a breeding pair, or had a record with animal control.
The pit bull is a defective breed. You will note that there is zero interest in pit bulls as sentry or security dogs. This is because the pit bull, while sufficiently aggressive, is of lackluster intelligence and is unreliable and treacherous. In short, a defective breed.
Where there are no pit bulls, as you point out, there will not be pit bull bite cases. That is a very astute observation. As a breed, however, their attacks are out of proportion to their numbers but also in severity. Most domesticated dogs are content to “win” their fight. Pit bulls on the other hand continue to worry and maim a defeated or even unconscious target. They cannot escape being what they are - they were bred for savage combat and nothing else. Some people are like this too, thus my analogy to criminals whose behavior is similarly resistant to ‘rehabilitation’, although any number of people will advocate their normalcy as well.
I mentioned the idiocy of feral animals as pets because keeping pitbulls and mixed coyote/wolf + canine mixes is comparable for foolishness.
In any event, where there is a defect without any substantial prospect of rehabilitation, termination or eradication is the solution.
Actually, the reason pit bulls aren’t used for those jobs is because they are not, nor were they ever, a guardian breed. They do not possess the naturally suspicious attitude other dogs that have been bred for guarding have. They are the most stolen dog because of this. Their intelligence is not near the top of the list, but they are not at the bottom. They are considered smarter than boxers, which have been used as police dogs historically.
“Where there are no pit bulls, as you point out, there will not be pit bull bite cases. That is a very astute observation. As a breed, however, their attacks are out of proportion to their numbers but also in severity”
Let me rephrase what I said. Dogs in low-income areas are more prone to be dangerous because of the lack of educated, responsible ownership. Because pit bulls are cheap and easy to get, they are the most popular for these areas. They are also popular in other places, but they are kept inside and cared for, and many of these dogs are rescues or well-bred purebreds. The dogs on the poor side of town are generally purchased from a byb or at a Wal-Mart parking lot as a theft deterrent or a lawn-ornament/macho thing. That is why attacks almost always happen in these areas.
Their attacks are absolutely not out of proportion, according to estimates on their population combined with health records. They have an extremely low percentage of attacks compared to their population. I am not sure where you are getting your facts, but there’s a lot of great information out there from unbiased, respectable sources. The severity of their attacks range from zero injuries to death, just like many other breeds (over 56 breeds have killed). Just like other dogs, sometimes their “attack” is just a single nip that, if it had been from a lab, would have been disregarded. I have seen news stories of pit bull “attacks” where not a single person was bitten or even scratched! I’ve also seen a recent story whose headline read pit bull, but the story was about a rottweiler! They do not attack at a higher rate than other breeds. They are, however, over-represented in media reports, which are also responsible for misidentification of breeds and skewing of facts.
By the way, many of our most popular breeds were once used for dirty jobs. Any terrier was a vermin killer back then, dachshunds hunted badgers, boxers and boston terriers were fighting dogs, bulldogs were bullbaiters, mastiffs were people, lion, insert anything else here killers, etc. And pit bulls were bred to fight other animals, but never, never, never people. As for fighting unconscious animals and dogs that have submitted, yes, that was something that happened in the ring, with trained, conditioned dogs. The vast majority of dogs bred to fight were culled for being “cold”, or unwilling to fight/giving up too soon. Dogmen would say it was pretty random. Dogs from champion parents would be useless in the ring, and some pups from “cold” parents would be the best fighters. This means that it had much more to do with the training/environment than the breeding, and still does today. Otherwise, we would have five to ten million people killed every year by dogs instead of 25-30.
“The man fired several warning shots to try and scare the dogs and when the warning shots did not work, the man turned his aim to the dogs, shooting all three. “
It’s unfortunate that he fired the warning shots. His horse might not have been so significantly injured if he had just shot the dogs instead of screwing around.
What other breed of dog kills people every year, here in America?
“What other breed of dog kills people every year, here in America?”
This is a short list of the CDC’s list of dogs:
Great Dane, Coonhound, Saint Bernard, Chespeake Bay Retriever, Labrador Retriever, Doberman Pinscher, Chow Chow, Malamute, Akita, Bulldog, Mastiff, Boxer, Collie, West Highland White Terrier, Pomeranian, Dachshund, Cocker Spaniel, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Australian Shepherd, Border Collie
How many people are killed every year by those dogs? I am going to ask for your source if you say more than one.
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.