Man Disfigured By Pit Bull Attack

OILDALE, Calif. -- An Oildale man is recovering in the hospital after being attacked by two pit bulls. The attack happened around dusk Thursday night at a home in the 500 block of Wisteria Street.

Family members who witnessed the attacked told ABC 23 that 29 year-old Luis Luque was attacked unprovoked by two pit bulls. According to Luque's girlfriend, he had been to that home many times before to talk to the residents who live there and nothing ever happened with the dogs.

"He just walked up to the door and knocked. They opened the door and one of the dogs went after his leg. Luis knocked off the dog from his leg, and that's when the other pit attacked his face and I started to scream," said Victoria Flye.

Dr. Vip Dev, a local plastic and reconstructive surgeon got the call to do the emergency surgery late Thursday. Luque had extensive reconstructive surgery done to his face, nose and lips as a result of the attack.

The attacked happened in front of Flye and Luque's daughter who said they are now dealing with the emotional scars. What makes matters worse for the family is that they don't have medical insurance.

Dev said he is not going to charge the family for his services to repair Luque's face, which would have cost more than $10,000.

Notice that the golden retriever attack had the same disastrous ingredients as many pit bull attack stories: dog running loose with no owner in sight, and dog with a bite history attacking again.

Irresponsible ownership is the reason the golden attacked, not genetics, and this is an important detail. In the right hands, this dog could have been a fine family pet, but unfortunately, it wasn’t. It is a lot easier to find an irresponsible dog owner with a “bad” breed. That doesn’t mean that you can’t mess up a “good” breed with the same type of treatment. The problem is that there are a lot more young, ignorant, or criminal pit bull owners than there are golden owners.

Most goldens don’t have to spend their lives on chains, half-starved, or allowed to roam wherever they please. Goldens aren’t trained to dislike strangers, beaten through kennel walls to encourage aggressive behavior, or forced to prove their worth/gameness by being thrown in to fight with a more aggressive dog. They aren’t purchased as a form of intimidation or gang pride. They aren’t a desirable breed with those that would normally end up with a vicious dog, so they mostly aren’t going to BE vicious. The biggest difference between golden retrievers and pit bulls is the owners.

>>>Notice that the golden retriever attack had the same disastrous ingredients as many pit bull attack stories: dog running loose with no owner in sight, and dog with a bite history attacking again.<<<

True, but even if we blame everything on the owner, the fact remains that the victim of the bad Golden Retriever owner escaped with relatively minor injuries.

While Pit Bulls are certainly more aggressive than most dogs, that is not the main danger. The real danger is that they are so powerful and relentless, that when they do attack, very serious injuries and even deaths are all too often the result.

Also, I don’t buy that MOST Pit Bulls who attack are horribly abused or trained to hate people. Many seem to simply be family pets often, but not always, poorly trained and/or sociliazed, but not abused or trained to be vicious.

The average dog, with a mediocre to somewhat poor owner is generally not a lethal threat. A Pit Bull with a relatively good, but not oustanding, experienced, assertive, conscientious owner is a serious threat to the community.

Finally, the fact that so many bad owners are drawn to Pit Bulls, is a strong argument for breed specific legislation that falls short of banning, such as very high licensing fees, mandatory liability insurance, fencing requirements, strict liablility for bites, and requiring Pit Bulls (and a few other dangerous breeds) to be obedience trained and pass obedience and behavior tests.

Pit Bull owners who fail to meet these standards would have their dogs confiscated and be hit with large fines. This would get the riff raff out of Pit Bull ownership in a hurry and would protect both the community and the breeds.

To a certain extent, I agree with what you have said. I believe that ALL dog owners should have to have their dogs temperament tested, and I think it’s a great idea that they are also insured. Responsible ownership laws could include these factors as well as additional requirements, such as licensing, spaying/neutering, and leash and anti-tethering laws. I do not think that addressing a single breed will help, because history has shown that doing so gives people a false sense of security as well as not reducing attack numbers (even serious ones). There are places that already have laws on the books very similar to what you have proposed, but they have not seen the success they were hoping for.

“While Pit Bulls are certainly more aggressive than most dogs, that is not the main danger. The real danger is that they are so powerful and relentless, that when they do attack, very serious injuries and even deaths are all too often the result.”<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

You would think so based on what the media reports, but don’t forget that every day in this country, several thousand people end up in the hospital due to dog bites, and only a fraction of those are from pit bulls, many of which are reported on the news. The rest of those attacks don’t make it to the news, even though they are sometimes worse than the pit bull attacks that are published. I know for a fact that when I was attacked, my injuries were worse than those reported on several stories that made it to this very site! No reporters came knocking, though, because the dogs involved were not interesting enough.

There are just as many single bite or nipping incidents involving pit bulls compared to other breeds. The thing is, you won’t see them in the news, and if you do, often times, the bite incident is sensationalized to the point that it appears an attack took place when really nothing happened. I will try to find some examples for you, because I know when I recently went through the last 30 pit bull stories on here, I found at least two that didn’t involve a single injury, yet the titles implied otherwise.

“Also, I don’t buy that MOST Pit Bulls who attack are horribly abused or trained to hate people. Many seem to simply be family pets often, but not always, poorly trained and/or sociliazed, but not abused or trained to be vicious.”<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<,,

Some may not be horribly abused, but something as simple as socialization is something every dog owner should do, regardless of the breed. Not only that, but you don’t have to intentionally mess with a dog to ruin it. Leaving it alone for long periods of time may not qualify as overtly abusive, but doing this to a dog is the equivalent of putting a person in solitary confinement. It does things to the mind, and they aren’t going to behave normally when interacting with others. I think it may be more of a challenge to handle strong dogs that need jobs, but I don’t see any reason to single one breed out when there are several that, like the pit bull, need firm, knowledgeable handling, and it is still up to the owner to know what they are getting into before they get the dog. The problem is popularity with the wrong people (meaning criminals, young people, lazy people, and those who mean well but were unprepared for the responsibility). Taking this breed out of the equation will not result in declines in either attacks or fatalities, because there will always be something else the bad owners will get a hold of and neglect.

That’s why decades ago when German Shepherds became popular and infamous as dangerous monsters, the average number of fatalities was not much less than it is now, and when they went out of style, they were replaced by dobies and rotties, and again, the numbers remained about the same. Unless you want to get rid of all dogs, you can’t eliminate dog bites or fatalities. Even the smallest dogs have taken lives, and it seems the majority of deaths are totally preventable tragedies involving small children or babies that are unattended.

There are lots of bad owners with pit bulls right now. There are pit bulls whose owners have done everything they could think of to get the dogs to be vicious, and still the dogs are not. There are dog owners that feel they have done everything they should have to be responsible, yet their dogs still bite. Dogs are as individual as we are, and the environment is the biggest factor in their behavior. Genetics may play a small part, but again, this is the responsibility of the breeder to ensure the dogs being bred are of correct temperament, and up to the owner of each dog to do the right thing if the dog exhibits dangerous or unstable behavior. The problem exists because far too few people do what they are supposed to, when they are supposed to. The “wait and see” attitude, or “it won’t happen to me” logic is exactly why no matter what breed has been popular over the years, the total number of fatalities has remained the same.

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