Posted on 07/09/2004 2:10:42 PM PDT by Shermy
Eighty-eight year old Mabel Wong was still in critical condition in John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek on Monday. She's been there since a week ago last Saturday, battling for her life, after a horrible mauling by a neighbor's pit bull near her Concord home.
In the aftermath, people wondered how it could happen. What did this little elderly lady do to trigger such an attack? The answer is simple and blunt. Nothing.
"This lady had interacted with this dog hundreds of times,'' said Lt. Abe Gamez of Contra Costa Animal Services. "She was just trying to get from one place to another.''
Whenever there is an account of a mauling by a pit bull, there is a howl of protest from those who love the breed. There are no bad dogs, just bad owners, they say. Or they ask how the media reporting the incident knew the dog was a pit bull. Pit bulls, they insist, are no more inherently dangerous than any other breed of dog.
That's not true.
"What I usually say is that it is not uncommon to spend thousands of dollars breeding a good hunting dog,'' says Gamez. "With a good hunting dog, that is not something you teach -- he's got it in his genes. The pit bull is bred for fighting.''
"You can't make a German shepherd stop herding,'' says Merritt Clifton, editor of the Washington-based Animal People magazine. "You can't make a Chihuahua stop barking.''
It is at this point that everyone starts yelling at each other and pointing fingers. My pit bull, someone says, plays with my children every day. He's the cutest, most affectionate pet we've ever had. Pits are no more aggressive or dangerous than beagles.
That's not true.
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(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I should mention that Salty is a Boston terrier, and at the time weighed maybe 20 pounds. (Now he's up to 27, the porker.)
/me Hugs his 220 pound Rottweiler.
That's why God invented crates and doggie tranks.
We're blessed in that Heidi will use her little teefs to take food from people, then readjust her grip on it once she has it. I can hold a piece of turkey pepperoni in my teeth and she'll gently take it before scarfing it down.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20040709/lo_kprc/2281231
""Owners of a pit bull are prepared Friday to turn their pet over to the city for quarantine after it mauled a postal carrier in the Heights Thursday, police told News2Houston.
The postal worker was delivering mail in the 1100 block of 15½ Street around 11 a.m. when the dog got through an open gate and attacked, according to investigators.
A passing driver saw the attack and managed to distract the dog by honking the vehicle's horn.
Postal officials said the driver's action saved the mail carrier's life.
The postal worker was transported to Ben Taub Hospital in serious condition.""
The dog's owners were cited.
The dog mauled an 88 year old woman
Yeah, well...
There is something about the folks who buy the nasty dogs (pit bulls, rottweilers, Presa Canarias in particular) that just convinces me that I should be ready for anything from them.
Maybe it's the fact that the last guy in my neighborhood who owned a pit bull also liked to zip around in his chassis & suspension lifted truck, darting towards kids riding their bikes...
A committee of aggrieved parents (including myself) went over to the guy's house and casually suggested that he was a bad fit with the neighborhood, and that maybe he should move out to Lakeside with the other scumbags.
I have to say this is true. I took one of my daughter's bf's dogs puppies. The mother is part pit and part bull mastiff. I actually kept her for them years ago while they looked for a place that would allow dogs. She was a sweetheart with humans, but would try and eat other dogs. Growl? Hell no, all you saw was teeth coming at you. With humans, she was such a good dog.
The idiots rescued a full blooded pit from the middle of the road, and he impregnated the dog. She had ten pups. This little stinker bit me when I pulled him out of the flower bed at 9 weeks of age, then tried to bite my 9 year old while she was trying to play tag. Skippy lasted a week here. The idiots are still angry with me for making them take back the dog.
I think pitbulls need to be euthanized.
"...You can't make a German shepherd stop herding..."
No crap. My GSD will even walk behind me, with his head down, pushing at the back of my legs. Drives me nuts! (of course that is when he is not bringing me a ball to throw).
How many border collies does it take to change a light bulb?
That's why God invented Doggie coffins.
how many?
We had a 15" (actually he was a bit over 16") beagle who weight between 35 and 40 lbs. As gentle as could be with the kids, but fiercely protective of them as well. He sure liked to get loose and run, though...and no rabbit was safe within a mile. Best dog we ever had.
SFGate is on the excerpt-only list.
Just one - and he'll get to it after he finishes rewiring the house.
Okay, just what the heck is a "Presa Canarias"? It sounds like a bird.
Just one...
And he'll repair any wiring that isn't up to code while he's at it.
I've owned several pit bulls. Now I have a Presa Canario. Never had a problem.
$710.96... The price of freedom.
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