Too bad it's illegal to have one as a pet.
Posted on 09/14/2007 12:47:14 PM PDT by Michael_Michaelangelo
SEATTLE -- A neighborhood is reeling after two pit bulls viciously attacked a man and his 2-year-old dog.
Bob Walston said he and his dog, Maggie, were taken by surprise by the pit bulls while they were out walking on Tuesday morning. He said there was no owner in sight.
"Those pits we're going so fast, and they just grabbed Maggie. And I started screaming, 'help help, someone help' as loud as I could," he said.
Bob grabbed Maggie to try to save her, but he said the pit bulls refused to give up, biting him as he tried to get away.
"Bob comes rushing through the door, and he's bloody from head to toe," said Lillian Walston, his wife.
Bob got away in time, but it was too late for Maggie, who died shortly after the attack.
Now her dog toys sit, untouched, as flowers from the neighbors crowd the Walstons' counter.
Bob and Lillian are still trying to say goodbye to Maggie, who has been laid to rest in the backyard. Even though they're filled with sadness over Maggie's death, the couple says the attack could have been much worse.
"We were lucky in that it wasn't one of the grandchildren that were killed. These were two fierce dogs. They would have mauled our grandchildren to death," Lillian said.
Following the attack, neighbors caught one pit bull immediately and the Seattle Animal Shelter picked up the other one on Wednesday. Bob and other witnesses identified the dogs, but the pit bulls' likely fate does little to ease the Walstons' new fears.
"It changed our whole life. It'll never be the same," Lillian said.
But Don Jordan with the shelter said measures will be taken to prevent future tragedies.
"The city is going to make every effort to make sure that these animals are not returned into the neighborhood and are, in fact, destroyed," he said.
The owners of the quarantined dogs face fines of up to $1,000 for letting his pit bulls run loose.
Please enlighten us on the “usual spin”.
Yes, yes, what about the children?
People need to be responsible, for both their dogs in their kids. If you own a large breed dog and it escapes and kills someone, it's your fault. And if your kid goes wondering onto someone else's private property unknown to them and gets killed by the family dog, it's the parents' fault, not the dog owner.
Banning is hardly ever the solution.
Too bad it's illegal to have one as a pet.
“If on the same day in a small town a pit bull kills someone and a bullmastiff kills someone, the media is going to talk about the pit bull-related death. That’s the way it is. Kind of like when the media drummed up “shark attack” fear a few years ago in a year that shark attacks were way down but the media had nothing better to talk about.”
_________________________________________
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1896379/posts
Thanks for further proving my point about media-made fear.
Should be about five years in jail and a $100,000.00 fine.
Wrong, having an unfenced dangerous animal is the same under tort law as having an unfenced pool. You cannot expect kids to make adult decisions.
And this is why the law is an ass. If a kid goes onto someone else's property unknown to the owner, and the dog kills that kid, or the kid falls and drowns in a pool, or jumps on a trampoline and falls off and hurts himself, it's the kid's and the parents of that kid's fault.
Have always believed in the old saying that good fences make good neighbors.
One was a woman sleeping when the pitbulls came into her house and attcked and killed a dog and injured her and her dog in Tacoma, WA area. Then two pitbulls are still on the loose near Seattle in a rural area that killed about 6 of a farmer’s sheep. He said they just went for the jugular on them. This area was notorious for meth labs, and still has drug problems, so hence the need to keep “guard” dogs. I say quit breeding such potentially dangerous dog breeds.
Maybe... especially after the last couple threads we've seen here.
Media made fear? This isn't global warming we're talking about.
Two people are dead and you're talking like it's alarmism? How ridiculous. It's no wonder pitbull owners and defenders have no credibility.
How many people are killed each year by pit bulls? About the same as people killed each year by falling coconuts?
I'll never give up fighting ignorance.
That's news to me. Pit bull-type dogs have been around for a long time. They certainly weren't bred to kill people.
Also, do you not think that irrespnsible owners of pit bulls are at fault?
There's a rumor floating around that the pit bull loving mod isn't a mod at FR any more.
These dogs have an inbred uncertainty that should give people pause before they bring that puppy home.
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.