Posted on 02/10/2005 10:01:53 PM PST by ambrose
Pit bull attacks children at school
11:25 PM CST on Thursday, February 10, 2005
By SHELTON GREEN / KVUE News
Two children were hospitalized but will be OK after a pit bull attacked them Thursday at a north Austin elementary school. Animal control says the victims were standing and playing with the dog after school and that the dog attacked the children when they began running away.
The dog was suffocated by adults holding it down after the attack.
The animal had a history with the Town Lake Animal Shelter.
In January, animal control picked up the dog after it escaped from its owner's yard.
"We had no history of aggression on this dog. The dog was very friendly when we picked him up and no history of aggression and no aggression while he was in the shelter," said Dorinda Pulliam, director of the Town Lake Animal Shelter.
The dog stayed there for two days until his owner picked him up.
"It didn't appear from reading the bite reports that this dog just came charging up on the school property and started attacking kids. It looked like the kids were standing around with the dog interacting with it when something happened," Pulliam said.
Witness Adam Samudio said the children were trying to run from the dog.
Dozens of children were heading home from Barrington Elementary and witnessed the attack.
The youngsters suffered what the animal shelter called moderate bites and were taken to Children's Hospital.
The pit bull was not on a leash, which is a violation of the city's leash laws.
And animal control workers want to warn parents and their kids to not approach or pet any strange dog at any time.
The shelter sent a sample to be tested to see if the pit bull had rabies.
They'll have results in the next couple of days. There's no word if the dog's owner is going to be charged with anything.
I'll say it first-
BAN PITBULLS
it's for the children.
woof.
We were just having a discussion about this yesterday. This seems to be getting more and more common. In the search for the next "thrill" I think alot of gangsta wannabee's are getting these attack dogs, and frankly, they can't handle them. The things need to be banned.
Charge, Try, and Incarcerate the dog's owners (plus bust 'em for the drugs).
it's for the village.
A couple of days per week I have a 90 minute commute to one of my offices and often listen to the local Austin country music station (KVET) talk show. These two guys (Sammy & Bob) were discussing that the local Fox station as well as the Austin American Communist, I mean Austin American Statesman did not mention that the attack was by a pit bull, but rather by just a 'dog'. Why do they hide the identity of this visious animal?
Fox News transcript (can't copy the link): A North Austin man is being hailed as a hero this morning.
He ran to the rescue of a group of kids being attacked by a dog, at Barrington Elementary.
Tim Vela was working outside his garage when he heard children screaming at the school, less than a block away.
A dog was attacking a group of children.
The dog died as Vela and two other men tried to stop it from biting a young girl.
The whole thing started when a group of students tried playing with the dog after school.
Animal control officials say the dog got aggressive and started biting the kids, when one of them turned to leave.
"I ran up to the school and I saw the kid and the dog had her by the back of the head. I don't know if it was the hair, but somebody grabbed it and I grabbed a belt and wrapped it around him. The dog didn't make it in the end," says Vela.
Two kids were taken to Children's Hospital.
Animal control is testing the dog for rabies.
Results should be back in about 2 days.
I think I'll stick with my two labs :)
I'm not sure a complete ban is appropriate, but requiring a BIG liability insurance policy is. That would effectively illegalize ownership by the unstable, chronically unemployed lowlifes who currently own nearly all of the vicious dogs (pit bulls and other breeds). Even the ones who have a bundle of money from dealing drugs still wouldn't be able to get a policy, because insurers would have a lot of other requirements, like securely fenced yard, no criminal history, no history of pet-related law violations, etc.
First off I would like to say you have a BEAUTIFUL PIT BULL. As an owner, it really angers me to hear people say they are a horrible breed. You will never know untill you own one. They are one of the smartest and loyal breeds out there. I have a blue/dirty white boy male who weighs in at 75lbs. He is only 8 months old. Although this story shows an example on the agression, they are only doing what they have been taught. As of the moment, Deuce, my pit, is laying down playing with my daschound puppy Teddy. He has never been taught to be agressive except for when he is told. Deuce loves to go to the dog park and play with other dogs. I have never had a problem with his aggression. It is all in how the owners raise them. Its the bad owners who give the pit bulls bad names. Shoot them instead of the dogs.
I,and probablly some others who own pit bulls that come to this site, would greatly appriciate it if you would stop being so hippocritical. Saying that everyone who owns pit's is a part of some underground drug dealing, or saying that we are unemployed lowlifes is a big accusation to be making. This is an opinion board, so how do you know we are all envolved in dealing drugs? I'd like a SOLID answer...like maybe facts envolved. And just because we raise pit bulls makes us bad people? Do us all a big favor and stop being so hippocritical. Obviously, you don't like pit bulls. Therefore, how would you know what we do in our free time, seeing as how you definatly sound like you have never even touched a pit.?
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