Posted on 09/14/2006 4:14:20 AM PDT by Wristpin
MANATEE - A 6-year-old boy remained in a shocked state Saturday, one day after he was bit by a pit bull while retrieving his backpack from a neighbor's home.
Kevin Banks and his cousin were walking to a neighbor's home in Pride Park just after 7:30 a.m. Friday, when Banks was bit twice in the chest and nipped once in the face, according to his mother, Tiffany Jones.
The two ran back home, "crying at the top of their lungs," Jones said.
Banks, who attends Daughtrey Elementary, hasn't talked much since the attack.
"He won't say much more than two or three words," Jones said.
Banks was taken to a doctor's office and is taking antibiotics for the wounds. It won't be known until at least Tuesday if the pit bull, who was shot dead by a Manatee County sheriff's deputy, had rabies.
When deputies responded to the biting complaint, an officer tried to corner and capture the dog, but was bit on the left hand. The dog attempted to knock the deputy down and bite her on the chest and neck, but instead, ran away.
Additional deputies subsequently tried to capture the dog, chasing it into the Pine Bluff subdivision.
The dog ran over a footbridge and was shot by a deputy in the 300 block of 60th Avenue Drive West. The dog reacted by attacking the deputy, who fired again, striking the dog in the chest and left shoulder.
The dog again ran away, but was eventually cornered by the deputy who shot it, in the rear of a partially fenced yard in the 600 block of 60th Avenue Drive West.
The dog attacked the deputy, who shot the dog six more times.
But pit bulls are such harmless lovable fuzzballs.
Those kids are lucky to be alive.
Imagine that.
If the dog was smart it would have run into a mosque.
I have been told, repeatedly, that events such as this are rare.
If I ever have to shoot a pit bull, remind me not to use a pistol.
The Pit Bull-essers will be along shortly to evoke Martin Luther King on you. We should all go to jail if our dogs get loose to ensure fairness, equality and self esteem for all. They'll deny the higher consequences of a Pit Bull getting out despite them frequently having to be shot by Law Enforcement while rampaging.
Society will just have to accept the maulings.
There's just no point anymore. Those that have learned will grow, and those of you that choose to remain clueless will be the ones making it worse, not better. In case anyone here would like to learn, there are plenty of websites with unbiased facts about the breed, and to your surprise, they just might be the opposite of your opinion.
No one should let their dog roam around, period, no matter the breed, to that I agree. Pit bulls are strong dogs, but notice that whatever happened here wasn't that bad, because the kid ran home crying. Another person this week was severely mauled by a mixed breed dog, and it was shot three times. But obviously, news reports like those are waaaay under your radar, as they don't tend to get the media's attention like the pit bull.
Your spin is powerless in the face of the endless, outrageous conduct of the breed and their owners.
From yesterday:
Girl on way to catch bus is attacked by pit bull
http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/287784211691273.php
A search warrant was obtained to seize the pit bull.
YOUNGSTOWN — A neighbor used a baseball bat to beat away a pit bull that attacked a 13-year-old girl on her way to catch a school bus, police said.
The attack happened around 8:30 a.m. Thursday in the 700 block of Sherwood Avenue on the South Side.
Police said they found the West Rayen Avenue girl lying on the ground, bleeding from both ankles and her right arm/shoulder area. She was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center for treatment.
Harold Patterson, 32, of Sherwood Avenue, took the dog into his house and refused to release the animal to deputy dog wardens Dave Nelson and Sean Toohey, police said.
Nelson said Patterson, who claimed the dog was not his but a friend's, was issued misdemeanor citations charging him with failure to confine a vicious dog, no dog license and failure to have insurance for the animal. Depending on the victim's condition, the failure to confine charge could be elevated to a felony, the deputy dog warden said.
Search warrant
Thursday afternoon, Nelson said he obtained a search warrant from Municipal Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. to seize the dog from Patterson. Police returned to 753 Sherwood to get the animal. Once caught, the dog would be quarantined pending further action, such as tests for rabies if required, Nelson said.
Nelson, who spoke to the girl's mother at the hospital, learned that the teenager had been at a cousin's house and intended to take a bus from there to school. He said the girl had been bitten several times.
Reports show the girl is a seventh-grader at Hayes Middle School.
shot the dog with what, BBs?
We need to breed some Pit Cats to defend against Pit bull dogs. Too bad tigers and Felis catus can't breed.
that's enough for me. IMHO only stupid people own pit bulls.
I was limited to that area due to the way the dog was positioned and safety factors. That caused the dog to drop the other dog , however, he was mobile. The other neighbor put either 6 or 7 9mm rounds into him, through his ribcage. That finally dropped him. I suspect his rounds probably hit his lungs. Your mileage may vary.
Hundreds of examples of Pit dysfunction here:
http://www.olathepsc.org/c/opsc/attacks2006.aspx
Looks like Law Enforcement is having to blow away these sweet babies on almost a daily basis.
Apparently you missed the recent story about the mail carrier who'se fingers were bitten off by a purebred lab. All dogs can do it. So you personally experienced one incident after being ok with it, along with hearing the news going crazy over the new fad monster dog.
That is your education on the subject, so no offense intended, but unfortunately, this is not a single breed problem. If it was, the four million attacks that happen every year would only be from pit bulls, rotties, dobies, and chows. The largest percentage of bites come from labs, dalmations, and cocker spaniels. But they don't get the same attention because 1)The news generally won't report it if it isn't the current dog to hate and 2)Even if it is reported, the same incident caused by a lab is somehow excused away, with some lame statement like how it's so uncharacteristic of the breed.
If you look at the breed standard for these dogs, it is also uncharacteristic for them to be aggressive toward humans. They were never bred for that, but to the contrary. Yes, you have idiots now breeding them for those traits, but for the most part, the breed as a whole is not any worse than any other.
Something else that needs repeating is the fact that right now pit bull type dogs are either the first or second most popular dog, coming in at around 10% of the entire population of dog breeds. That trend seems to coincide with the amount of dog bites reported, because there are simply more of them. The same thing happened when Rotties, Dobies, and GSD were the most popular. If you look back, you will see the same pattern of hysterical news reporting and calls for bans. Pit bull type dogs actually have a smaller percentage of attacks than many other breeds (around one to three percent), but if you will notice many of the news stories popping up are of the same incident, with slightly different wording, minor details are changed, and sometimes even the breed of dog differs depending on who writes the article and who was interviewed.
Recently there have been quite a few reports published about "pit bulls" that have turned out not only to be overexaggerated, but not even close to pit bulls. One recently was supposedly a pit bull/mastiff mix, but as you read further down, it became just a pit bull, but then it never was corrected when the Animal Control officer was told (and agreed) by the owner of the dog that it was a boxer mastiff mix. One I read just today described how a pit bull attacked a mini horse, but was described as black with a little brown on the face and legs. Umm...that's a Rottweiler or a doberman. Not a pit bull. But don't tell them that, because it won't matter anyway.
I was at work the other day reading a book about pits in agility and weight pulls when a coworker told me how disgusted he was with the breed. He went on and on about how his brother has one and it's always biting people that come over to his house. Of course, I told him his brother should have the dog euthanized because it sounds like someone will wind up getting really hurt, possibly killed. He went on to say that the dog was a great guard dog, and that's when I stopped and asked him what it looked like (pit bulls, when properly bred, make horrible guard dogs because they love everyone, and right now are the most stolen breed of dog). He said it was 130 lbs and black with brown. I showed him a pic of a rottie and he said that was it. Hm.
I am not saying that I am an expert, but I have spent years dealing with this breed, reading every book I can get a hold of, both for and against, reading every study published, volunteering at animal shelters, working at vet clinics, and doing pr for humane societies to help promote responsible pet ownership. I feel that I am more than well-versed on this topic, and after many years of fearing the breed, have come to understand that much of the problem is the owner and society's need for carnage in the news.
I currently have two American Pit Bull Terriers. One of them is certified as a Canine Good Citizen, which is pretty hard for any dog to get. The other will get hers as soon as she is old enough to be tested. I take my dogs everywhere with me (on leash, of course) and they are better behaved than the vast majority of the dogs I see. One of them is dog aggressive, but I have never had issue with her attacking other dogs. She can sit next to her doggy enemy and not even look it's way as long as she is told to pay attention to me (not that I put her next to dogs she doesn't like, but I have trained her to mind her own business and watch me). That is responsible ownership.
I think as soon as society stops trying to make lazy owners get poodles and actually make them responsible for the dogs they already have, we might make some progress. As for the four million attacks every year, pit bulls represent a miniscule, negligable percentage of those, and this issue alone needs to be addressed. It is not okay for any dog to attack a person, so all the other breeds attacking people, although not making headlines right now, are just as big a problem and need smart, decisive owners with a zero tolerance attitude. Dogs are not people and should not be treated as such. They need boundaries and rules, and they need socialization and excellent containment, no matter the breed. But this is just a dream because no one wants to be held accountable for their actions anymore.
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