Posted on 12/07/2009 7:29:26 PM PST by Chet 99
One of the owners of the two pit bulls shockingly is blaming the 70-year-old victim for the vicious attack she suffered Friday on a Bayonne street, a brutal assault that sent her to a hospital with critical injuries, says the manager of the shelter where the dogs are being kept.
The co-owner of the dogs, Jason Reid, showed up at the Associated Humane Society of Newark facility Saturday and told D.J. Infield, the manager and chief animal control officer, that Maria Zaldana, of Jersey City, must have provoked the dogs, Infield said today.
. . .
Zaldano was walking to Say It With Flowers on Broadway in Bayonne, where she works, when the dogs apparently escaped from a West 34th Street yard and mauled her at 9:11 in the morning Friday.
Zaldano suffered a partially torn scalp, numerous puncture wounds and the skin was torn from the left side of her face and her right knee and calf.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Put the owner down with the dog
It’s a rare twist we don’t see thrown out too often, blaming the victim as provacateur - in this case, a 70 year old walking down the street.
A couple of 16 year old male punks, well maybe that story may need more investigating. The last thing on a 70 year old’s mind is provoking a strange dog that they know they can’t fight and win.
IN NJ THEY WOULD OF BEEN PACKING.
Last week in Flora IL an 80+ yr old lady was attacked by a pit bull while the lady was in her own driveway with her 2 poodles. One poodle and the 80+ yr old lady died. IL has nothing on the books where they can charge the owner of the pit bull. The metal latch ring on the dog collar broke.
The pit bull was put to sleep by the owner.
It just makes me sick that this dear woman died this way because of some nasty pit bull.
Oh my gosh, I walk by there very frequently!
Just to add a bit of objectivity to the discussion:
http://dogsinthenews.com/stories/070301a.php
http://www.understand-a-bull.com/Articles/HeroicPitties/HeroicPitties.htm
http://dogsinthenews.com/issues/0104/articles/010426a.htm
http://www.zootoo.com/petnews/straydogsaveswomanchildheldatk-993
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2008/08/pit-bull-saves.html
http://network.bestfriends.org/1892/news.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMeKGeu81fw
And there are more where those came from.
I wonder who is gunna pay the bill ?...
My lab has proven several times now that she would attack a perp trying to harm any of us. She is a great guard dog and can become quite ferocious when she thinks there is a threat. As a puppy that didn’t yet jump in our pool on her own because she hadn’t yet figured out how to swim to the steps to get out, she ran and leapt into our pool to break my son’s hold on our daughter when the two of them were pretending that he was drowning her. Yet she is the most gentle dog and labs have the best record for not attacking innocent people. I would never own a Pit bull along with a few other breeds as it is just not worth the risk, especially when it comes to kids. We hear about pit bull attacks all the time. We almost never hear about a lab or a beagle or many other breeds attacking for no reason. It doesn’t seem likely that pit bulls are being mistreated any more than any other breeds are so it would seem that it’s something innate about them as to why they attack so much more often. A woman I know has a friend who accidently stepped on the tip of a pit bull’s foot and the dog took off half of her face. I’ve accidently stepped on my lab’s foot many times because she’s always right by me and she’s never shown any aggression towards us whatsoever.
.... and that justifies the mauling of a 70 year old woman?
Someone is abusing the banglist keyword. Please remove this from the list. Thank you.
“It just makes me sick that this dear woman died this way because of some nasty pit bull.”
Unfortunately, if it were that simple, we would have banned them and would not have dog bite fatalities. However, even in places that have banned dogs of this type, serious attacks have not decreased at all.
Places that have instituted responsible dog ownership laws have seen substantial decreases in all types of attacks (see Calgary). The people who own dogs and do not bother to ensure they cannot escape the yard or chain(maybe keep them inside the house where they belong) are the ones to blame here. The AVMA and the CDC agree with this, as do many dog behaviorists and veterinarians.
??? I have no idea to what you are referring. Please point out in my post where I spoke of justification. Thanks.
“Yet she is the most gentle dog and labs have the best record for not attacking innocent people.”
Actually, in some places they are the leader in dog bites. It depends on their popularity. Even “nice” breeds attack people, you just don’t hear about those stories because the media isn’t interested in being objective, instead being greedy enough to pick and choose the stories that make more money.
“It doesn’t seem likely that pit bulls are being mistreated any more than any other breeds are so it would seem that it’s something innate about them as to why they attack so much more often.”
Where are you getting your information? Because I can tell you pit bulls are way more often mistreated than any other breed I can think of. How many other breeds are chained their whole lives, harried to the point of insanity, burned alive, drug by cars, beaten with baseball bats, starved, fed gun powder, have their ears cut off with scissors, left do treat their own mange or die from it, put in pits to fight whatever other animal can be found, or killed for not “performing”?
There is a lot of misinformation circulating about this breed, and it has created an epidemic of fear. Did you know that the average number of deaths and dog attacks has not risen since the breed became popular? The same amount of dogs are attacking, just different breeds. This tends to happen when a breed of dog becomes popular with the wrong kind of people, but it doesn’t mean the breed itself is bad. Consider this: there are anywhere from 5 to 10 million pit bulls in the U.S. today. There are on average 17-35 deaths each year from all dogs. There are 13 thousand attacks reported every day, and the vast majority of the ones involving pit bulls are aired on several news stations when they happen, leaving thousands of other serious attacks that are pretty much ignored. Rationality would say that if the dogs aren’t increasing the attacks or deaths and other breeds are taking lives and causing serious damage, it really isn’t a breed problem at all. Here’s another fact for you, if you are even still reading: The CDC has shown that far more important than the breed of dog, the way it is treated has everything to do with its potential for dangerous behavior. The majority of dog bite fatalities, regardless of breed, had one thing in common, which was irresponsible ownership.
On a side note, just this morning my house was burglarized. They took a lot of electronics, and tried to take the television, but it must have been too big because we found it face down in our yard. Our killer pit bull, “Pumpkin”, must have helped them load their car. They had plenty of time to unplug all the electronics, go through all my drawers upstairs, move my lawnmower and car covers to a more convenient place so they could walk the tv through the garage without tripping, and let my cats outside.
I read your entire post, and you make a lot of good points. I do want to see any dog abused or mistreated, regardless of breed. Even if the media is being unfair and reporting in a way that distorts the truth about this breed, I also have just heard too many anecdotal cases. Cases in which the owner or owners were very good to the pit bull, treated it like a baby, and one day it just snapped. Like the latest where the owners swore up and down that their dog was a gentle teddy bear and took off half the woman’s face because she accidently stepped on its foot. I’ve had dogs all of my life. Some breeds are more aggressive and temperamental I am convinced. I’ve observed it in my own life. I come from a family of dog lovers. I am one myself. No dogs in our family have ever been mistreated, neglected, or abused in any way. In fact, it can be sickening how the dogs are sometimes treated better than other people in our family. Yet, we’ve had dog bites. My husband we bit badly by our husky and I was bit as a kid from our shepherd. None of us have ever or will ever take a chance with pit bulls, Rotweilers or dobermans. Labs are by far my favorite. I’d say they’re the best dogs ever! Smart, loyal, good watch dogs yet I’ve never even heard of a lab attacking their owner unless it was abused.
Meant to type “I do NOT want to see any dog abused”.
I’ve heard quite a few stories about labs and other breeds that bit for “no reason”, but of course people assume with breeds like those that something must have provoked them. I’ve seen my mother make excuse after excuse for her lab, and that dog was just trouble. It didn’t help that she was always getting loose (my mother thought she was a great dog owner, lol), so we suffered our fair share of angry neighbors.
I think many times people aren’t willing to look objectively at their own pets, much like their children. If my dog ever bit a human, I would have her euthanized, but I know plenty of people that would swear up and down that their dog didn’t mean to do it, or it was scared, etc. and that the dog was well cared for. I don’t really see anyone admitting they could have done better to prevent an attack, though. Admitting responsibility is something rarely seen anymore, especially considering the amount of lawsuits involving dog bites.
Not to mention, people getting bit by a strong dog like a pit bull or rottweiler don’t tend to make those same excuses (except in rare cases like this one, but this guy was clueless! You just don’t let your dogs run around like that and expect not to be blamed!)instead chalking it up to the breed as something to be expected. It’s sad that there is such a bias, yet there is no science to prove that a breed of dog is any more dangerous than another (there are studies that show the opposite, though if you are interested in seeing them). I guess the media is pretty good at their job, because they’re making money every time they use the words “pit bull” in a story.
Oh, wow. I just saw the video, and lo and behold, it’s a breeding pair of dogs. Boy, this owner is just looking worse and worse. Intact dogs in a pack, especially a breeding pair, are way more likely to act aggressively. This guy was a textbook case of owner irresponsibility. Sad.
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