Posted on 07/28/2006 5:09:06 AM PDT by ShadowDancer
71-Year-Old Mauled To Death While Gardening
Neighbor's Dog Jumps Fence
POSTED: 7:10 am EDT July 28, 2006
UPDATED: 7:28 am EDT July 28, 2006
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A 71-year-old woman died Thursday when she was attacked by a pit bull in Kansas City, Kan., officials said.
Jimmie May McConnell was in her garden about 11:30 a.m. when the dog jumped the fence and attacked her.
Firefighters had to hit the dog with an ax and a pole to get it off McConnell, officials said.
"The dog was still on the victim," Assistant Fire Chief Craig Duke said.
McConnell was taken to the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Neighbors said McConnell was so badly injured they could hardly recognize her when she was pulled from the garden.
Residents said the dog belonged to a neighbor.
Animal control officers tranquilized the pit bull and took the animal into custody. A second pit bull at the house was tranquilized and removed Thursday afternoon, KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Mo., reported.
"It gets out once in a while and runs around. I was out here once, and it came up and I petted it," neighbor Preston Williams said.
"I think they need to get rid of all of them dogs. Don't need them killing human beings," said the Rev. John Boykin, a neighbor of McConnell's.
"I'm in shock, and I'm angry," said Gayle McConnell, the victim's niece. "It's been said that pit bulls can be dangerous, but people seem to believe it can't happen to them. It certainly can. I just wish people would heed the warning and do what they need to do."
Friends of McConnell said she was well-liked in the neighborhood and had lived in the area a long time.
"She was a nice lady," Williams said.
Gayle McConnell said her aunt was a great cook and an awesome singer, and her death is an enormous loss to the family.
McConnell leaves behind six children. McConnell was a school crossing guard and was a foster parent for several years.
Pit bulls are banned in Wyandotte County, Kan., where the attack took place.
Police said they have not been able to contact the dog's owner. Officials said they are investigating the case as a homicide.
Several recent pit bull attacks in nearby Independence, Mo., have injured three men. A pit bull was also recently shot to death in Independence when it charged a police officer.
Toddler Dies After Dog Attack In Texas
A toddler in South Texas has died after being mauled by at least one of the family's pit bulls.
The Hidalgo County, Texas, sheriff's department identified the victim as 3-year-old Mariah Puga, of Hargill, Texas.
Investigators said as many as three dogs may have been involved in Monday night's attack, when the child was in the yard.
Puga died early Tuesday at a hospital.
Officials said the two pit bulls and a rottweiler were quarantined.
Authorities also said one of the pit bulls had her puppies with her in the yard.
Woman Serious After Dog Attack
A 26-year-old Davidson County, N.C., woman is in serious condition after she was attacked by two pit bull dogs.
Police in Lexington said they found Kelly Lynn Bell lying in a ditch Thursday with several severe dog bites on her body. She was taken to a hospital for surgery.
Authorities are holding the dogs while they investigate the incident, and no charges have been filed yet.
I agree with you on that. Pit bulls are terriers and terrier types are notoriously stubborn and strong willed. With a pit bull, the largest of the terrier types, you have a very strong and powerful animal with that stubborness. That's why it's very important to make sure these animals are well trained and properly socialized. Sadly, many dog owners, not just pit bull owners, don't do that.
Actually this would be a good choice for anyone whose dog causes substantive injury to someone, regardless of the breed. Pit bulls are by no means the only guilty breeds when it comes to putting people in the ER.
Actually, their long history (as a type, not a breed) proves how effective and important genetics is. They went from bull fighter, to dog fighter, to amiable house-sitter, to people (or perhaps, everything) fighter.
I know I have been apparently supporting the anti-PB side. I'm not fond of their reputation. But in fact, I am absolutely dead-set against breed (or type) bans. Primarily because people are too stupid to know what is and isn't a PB or any other breed. Also because I'm against telling people what they cannot have (but I do not think owners should automatically be held purely responsible: "death penalty", "jail for 10 years" garbage; again, I point to genetics and the fact that you can NEVER FULLY control a separately sensient, mobile living being).
http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html#Thedogsmostlikelytobite
"Studies indicate that pit bull-type dogs were involved in approximately a third of human DBRF (i.e., dog bite related fatalities) reported during the 12-year period from 1981 through1992, and Rottweilers were responsible for about half of human DBRF reported during the 4 years from 1993 through 1996."
Rottweillers are #1 for fatalities, pit bulls-types (a grouping of multiple breeds) are #2.
I'm afraid these days the pits are more than just highly focused - they are aggressive. Combined with the high terrier focus (obsession) is really dangerous.
It's genetics.
Breed it out of the dog, and these problems will go away. Neglect the genetics, and no matter how much strong (yet nice) ownership, they won't go away. Only be whittled down a bit.
BTW, the Airedale is the tallest terrier, and was used as some of the 1st police dogs and war dogs. How do they compare to an average pit weight (which, BTW, is many breeds)?
I am likewise against "jail time" or any other absurd punishments (death penalty) for owners who by nature, can never, ever, have FULL control over a sensient, mobile being.
So, when your Golden Retriever kills someone, you will be willing to go to jail for it?
In my case, I would lose my job automatically and could never get a defense-related job ever again. Which cuts out about half my options. Because of something my dog whom I thought was perfectly trained and friendly went berserk. (BTW, you never know if even things like a brain tumor make the dog go loony. How should you be punished for that? Don't laugh; it does happen.)
Nope, they're talking about totally different time periods. In that short period, Rotts were #1. PB types were #1 for more years before that. And that ends at '96. Long time ago.
It seems to me you made a pretty good argument against any form of dog ownership. If you can't control it don't own it. Or to put it another way, if you can't do the time don't do the crime. If you want to have a dog, you should be willing to accept the responsibility for all any any damage the dog does. Your dog, your responsibility.
If you don't like the liability, then get a cat or a goldfish (or both and watch the cat watch the goldfish).
I hope you don't take too much offense at this
but whenever I hear someone refer to dogs as 'evil',
I consider they have gone off the deep end.
I have previously posted on this thread about a Sheltie I owned who went crazy and had to be put down. There has to be some owner responsibility for the dog's actions though. The owner who has a big dog has to have some respect for the possibility that big old sweet Muffy could turn.
I walk my dog twice a day. In the mornings in my neighborhood I see many people who open the front door and leave their dogs out -- to poop, run and get into trash cans of the neighbors. I also see menacing breeds loose and generally I get away as fast as I can.
I know the danger and I always carry a knife and sometimes pepper spray. People are stupid and the combination of stupid people and stupid dogs is a lethal combination.
Ridiculous. Absurd. Then we should never own ANY animal (because it isn't just aggression which can kill). They are independent, senscient and mobile beings.
You can NEVER have FULL CONTROL, EVER, over any animal. They are NOT inanimate objects, as knives in the drawer or guns in the closet. They not only think for themselves, they move for themselves, too.
Hence, it is also absurd for you to expect anyone, including yourself, to be FULLY liable for whatever an independent creature does. Somewhat liable? Yes. Expecting jail ipso facto for EVERY person who has a dog attack someone? No. Maybe, depending on the details. Maybe. But NOT ipso facto. It is UNFAIR. It is wrong.
I got your story. If your Sheltie mauled a kid, would you have been willing to go to jail, even for 1 month?
Your Sheltie had a genetic defect, no doubt. Then there are dogs who get brain tumors and the like, and it literally ruins their brains and makes them do things they never did before. These people should go to jail?
These are extreme examples. But they can happen.
If anything, it depends on the exact situation. If the dog was clearly made to be an aggressor, maybe the person should get jail. If the person was even "nice" or maybe just negligent, knew the dog was troublesome, maybe.
But even that last possibility is leading to trouble. Things get too complex, when dealing with an independent being. How can anyone judge just how good an owner the person was? I don't even trust people to judge what a "pit bull" is. But the absolutist idea of putting everyone in jail whose dog causes a death, even, is unfair and wrong. It is as absurd, maybe moreso, as the idea of jailing every person for causing a car accident that killed someone.
It does show some interesting social trends. Personally, I think there that pits are the choice animal for unsavory characters and the dogs absorb that unsavoriness and it reflects in their behavior. That combination leads to tragic circumstances for that line of animals.
It's still genetics. They have at least bred a strain(s) of pit-bull type(s) that are naturally hypersensitive and aggressive.
It's perfectly possible for there to be very different lines. And in this case, the "ghetto" (if that's really where it predominates) line is making most of the nastiness and consequent trouble, undoubtedly, but also tainting all the PB lines in the process. I'm very aware of "different lines" of the allegedly same breed. Don't get me going on German Shepherds! (And yes, I worry about breed bans partly because of this - I know we will be next. Just like the Catholic priest. ;-) )
Pits typically are in the 30-90 lb range and are of medium height. They are very muscular in the chest and are very strong. But they don't have the endurance a lot of other dog breeds have. There are a lot breeds associated with the term pit bull: Staffordshire terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshier bull terriers, American Bull dogs, English bull dogs, Dogo Argentino, Cane Corso, American Pit Bull terriers. Actually defining what is a 'pit bull' is very, very difficult because there is no specific standard and a lot of breeds have characteristics that many people relate to as 'pit bull' characteristics.
A lot of the young guys I serve with in the navy have pits. For them the dog is nothing more than an accessory, much like a gold chain, 24" rims on their cars and Nike trainers. They don't know the first thing about these animals and our sometimes 12-14 hour work days keep them away from home for a while, --not to mention sea deployments. Most of these guys live in apartments where the dogs have no place to run.
A lot of these guys have infants and small children at home.
I'm waiting for the inevitable Red Cross message to arrive with the news that Petty Officer so-and-so needs to return home because his dog ate his kid.
A tragedy waiting to happen.
And think of it this way. How on earth are you going to get the meanest, nastiest male to mate with the meanest, nastiest female? They want to kill each other, not make puppies. That's a pretty unnatural breeding that would be improbable in nature.
And just from my own experience volunteering in shelters, a lot of the dogs there are 1 year old pit-types with 0 training. The owners typically didn't do anything, the dog grows up undisciplined and winds up in a shelter because the owners couldn't handle it. I've helped get some of these dogs to the point where they had a measure of manners and the dogs loved the training and attention.
He looks trained and relaxed, which, of course, is how he wants to be.
An out-of-control dog is a miserable dog, all around.
He's my 'buddy'. I'm retired with health issues so don't get out and about much. He's content laying in "Hans' Hideaway" just under the desk while I'm on the PC. But he sure loves to be outside, too. The birds just drive him crazy.
Again, he's the best, friendliest, dog we've ever owned. A true companion in every sense of the word.
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