5 year old savaged in dog attack

DOGS 1 - BAD GUY 0

'I won't kill my dogs' – owner of pitbulls that mauled an intruder to death

Hlube Radebe with his two dogs Sandy and Riddick,
who Radebe said saved his 80-year-old gran and aunt from being victims of crime.
The owners of two dogs that killed an armed intruder last Friday in Scottsville Extension in Pietermaritzburg will not euthanise the pitbulls.
The dogs, Sandy and Riddick, were in the back yard of the family’s home in the early hours of Friday when two men jumped over the back wall carrying house-breaking implements and a knife.
While one of the intruders escaped, the second was caught and killed by the dogs.
The family’s domestic worker discovered the intruder’s body later that morning.
The family said although they were traumatised, they feared that if it were not for their two dogs, the men might have broken into the house and hurt the family.
Hlube Radebe, the owner of the dogs, does not live at the house but said yesterday that the whole family had been at the house over the weekend to help wash the dogs and support each other.
“The dogs see me and the family as part of their pack. We cannot demonise them for this. It was also a new and traumatising experience for the dogs,” said Radebe.
“After the incident, the dogs were very quiet, not themselves.
“Sandy appears to have bounced back but Riddick still seems a little down. Otherwise they are fine.
“People must realise that before adopting any pet, they must read up on it first.
“I did a lot of research on their breed [pitbulls] and trained myself to be their owner before I got them.”
Radebe said that his grandmother (80), his aunt and their domestic worker were alone on the night the incident occurred.
His grandmother Nomusa Hlengwa, the owner of the house, is “upset knowing that a young black man has died”.
“She lived through apartheid and therefore sees all children as her own but is still thankful for the dogs and wants them to continue to stay at her house.”
Radebe thanked all those posting messages of support on social media. However, he emphasised that owning a pitbull was not for everyone.
“If you do not have time or love to give a dog, do not get one. The first year of their life is so important
and if they are not raised properly, that is when they can become aggressive,” he said.
Police are yet to identify the intruder or arrest the second man who escaped.
Alexandra police spokesperson Captain Kholeka Mhlongo said police would take fingerprints to see if they could identify the man as no one had come forward to formally identify him.

A wise young man

Unfortunately, the postings here on these threads are not “smears”. I wish that they were.

What is happening here is that when stories and statistics are posted on violent, deadly maulings of human beings by dogs, a particular breed-type, the pit bull dog, is committing carnage all out of proportion to its numbers.

The rate of attack against humans is at least ten times its numbers, and growing. The damage that they do is so horrific (bones broken, limbs pulled off, “degloving” injuries, skinned alive, eyes and jaws pulled off, genitalia bitten off, disemboweling, etc., for the last 30 years, escalating year-over-year, that it is time that the whole world know the statistics.

A very large part of the problem is that when victims or loved ones of these pit bull maulings speak up, they are then attack, insulted, called names, and even threatened in social media by “pit bull apologists” and those who make a lot of money off of these animals, from “dogfighters” to those who just enjoy owning an animal with which to intimidate other people.

I hope very much that my neighbor has a fully automatic 70 caliber Ruger AK-47 with a scope. It usually takes more than one shot to kill an attacking pit bull.

ALL DOG ATTACKS MATTER

Dogs seriously hurt in greyhound pack attack
AN OWNER has described the horrific moment a pack of greyhounds attacked two small dogs and left them fighting for their lives.
Barry Moran, 55, was left traumatised after the attack in which he also sustained bite injuries to his legs while trying to break up the melee.
Self-employed Mr Moran was walking his four Bichon Fries and his neighbour’s Jack Russell, while he was in hospital, through Two Tree Island, in Leigh.
He said: “It was about 7.30am and I was on the phone to my dad when I saw a woman walking four greyhounds.
“I got off the phone because I could almost sense something was going to happen.
“She couldn’t hold them and they started barking at my dogs and that’s when she lost control.
“They ran over and basically just started ripping my dogs apart.”
Mr Moran, who lives in Ramuz Drive, Westcliff, jumped in and began fighting the dogs off in a bid to stop the attack.
“My dog Oscar had the most severe injuries - his head was practically hanging off. It was horrific,” he added.
“My neighbour’s Jack Russell Tina had a seizure and went limp.”
Mr Moran put some of the dogs into his car to protect them but took Oscar to the nearby recycling centre to ask for help.
One witness, Keith Clark, described the incident as “dreadful” and said: “I witnessed Barry raising the alarm and asking for help from the guys working at the recycling centre.
“He had a blood-covered dog in his arms and said there was another very badly injured dog laying in the grass.
“This sort of thing shouldn’t be allowed to happen again and God forbid it could be a child next time who couldn’t fight off four large dogs at once.”
The recycling centre opened their gate and took Oscar in and Mr Moran went back to get Tina who he thought had died.
The dogs were taken to an emergency vets in Southend for further treatment. Tina was released later that day while Oscar was kept in for three days, leaving Mr Moran with a £6,000 vet bill.
“They are insured but it doesn’t cover dog-on-dog attacks unfortunately. I have had to borrow £2,000 already but I have no idea how to fund the rest.”
Mr Moran reported the incident to the police who are now investigating.
He added: “The dogs didn’t have muzzles on and the woman didn’t really seem concerned. She didn’t even say sorry.
But it could be a small child next time - it shouldn’t happen to anyone.
I have been pretty shaken up by it and I want to warn people.
I’ve just had a baby girl and usually take her out with me but she was still in bed this time.”
“If she had been with me, those dogs would have died because I would not have been able to get involved.”

State Farm takes the chance that because homeowners rarely switch insurers while they still own a property, they will retain the young first-time homeowners at least into their prime earning years — and on the whole, has been right.

Part of their calculation in attracting young working class first time homeowners has been, since at least circa 1950, that they are more likely to own dangerous dogs, and to have children, especially, who are injured by these dogs.

Other insurers often won’t cover this group at all, but State Farm does, in a manner that means their customers who have reached their prime earning years are subsidizing the high-risk insurees — but the older customers who are in effect paying the subsidies mostly don’t realize that they are, and don’t realize how much it is costing them.

Incidentally, this same reasoning applies to insurers that cover manufactured homes & trailers, whereas most won’t, and in the car insurance market, to those (including State Farm) that cover younger drivers.

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