Posted on 11/21/2008 7:50:03 PM PST by Carling
HAPPY VALLEY -- Jayda Kempas, a 7-year-old who loves to play with Barbie dolls, was twirling on a tire swing and giggling with a friend when Titan leapt up and locked onto her left leg.
The 90-pound pit bull mix yanked, and they both tumbled to the ground.
Jayda's father, Steven Hehr, was smoking a Marlboro outside his friend's home in Happy Valley when he heard screams from the backyard. Titan, who was new to the home, usually stayed in the garage. But this time he had been left outside.
Catching the first glimpse of his daughter, Hehr knew it was bad.
"The dog was out to kill," Hehr said of Wednesday's attack. "It was life and death."
Hehr, a sergeant with the Oregon National Guard who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, didn't have time to think. He ran over and tackled the dog, then tried to pry the jaws open with his hands. At first, Titan wouldn't let go, so Hehr tried to calm him, telling him he was a good boy.
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Happy Valley... oh the irony.
Waiting patiently for the pit bulls are unfairly maligned crowd.
IMHO, anybody with children should NOT have a pit bull or pit bull mix.
Flame proof PJs donned. Have at me.
Not a pitbull fan however, an untrained dog of any large breed is a danger to just about anyone. Especially a child.
Thumbs through the dogs eyes.
He didn’t have a pit bull. He was at a friend’s house who was boarding a pit bull mix.
Yeh. That’s why I always keep a muzzle on my yellow lab.
Here I am... My parents have a very lovely pit bull terrier who, despite not being raised with children, is fabulous with them. Does that mean I leave my kids around her unattended? No. I wouldn't leave my kids unattended w/ANY dog. But I think a lot of the problem is with breeding and how they are raised. My grandma's poodle is much more scary than my mom's pit.
A child should never be out of reach. If you have a defenseless child unattended, anything could happen. The dog should never have been unsupervised either but the parent was negligent. I don’t care what brand of cigarette he was smoking, he still could have been next to his daughter and been doing his duty.
A sad thing all around. Prayers for the child & all involved.
Yep
A child should never be out of reach
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You wanna clarify that?
A sharp knife works much better, pulled hard from ear to ear.
The most vicious dog I ever had was a terrier-shepherd mix. He bit people back in the day when people didn’t sue. (They all deserved it- each case was with criminal behavior- so I never got rid of him.)
The problem with pits is, they are being used for status symbols by people who never should have a dog in the first place.
That said, once one of the fighting breeds decides to fight, they are hard to disengage. I have akita mixes that when they were young had several major battles.
One fight they locked onto one another and I actually hit them with a small door- several times. It was like fanning them with a piece of paper. I don’t think they ever felt it. I also emptied a can of pepper spray into their eyes. Nothing. After the fight they noticed, but during, it was as if everything except their fight drive was turned off.
Eventually we sorted out the dominance stuff. They realized it wasn’t tolerated, and I keep close tabs on them. They haven’t fought in years. The interesting thing is, the other part is lab. You could just as easy say they are “lab mixes”. But I can understand where people come up with the story that these dogs don’t feel pain.
Jayda’s father, Steven Hehr, was smoking a Marlboro
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What’s the danger here ????
The cigarette or the vicious dog ????
But I have children and my neighbors have a pitbull, which they even deliberately let loose because “a dog needs to run.”
(No, the police won’t do anything about it.)
So, I agree with your advice, but it doesn’t help everybody else’s kids.
Steven Hehr rescued his daughter, Jayda Kempas, from a dog attack.
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