Posted on 03/17/2009 6:14:34 AM PDT by marktwain
Kenneth Hale Jr. says his neighbor's Bull Mastiff ventured into his yard several times.
Last week, Hale's three year old daughter was playing in the yard and the dog charged toward her, so he got his gun and shot the dog.
Kenneth Hale says "I feel bad about it I didn't want to shoot the dog, I really didn't and I was hoping he would keep him over there, it was a beautiful dog, it's a bull Mastiff and that dog stands every bit of four feet tall on his back".
Thomas County investigators say Hale contacted them on more than one occasion about the dog.
The owner of the dog could not be reached for comment and authorities would not release his name.
I don't have a problem with that. Nor, I suspect, do you.
I thought that was odd too. I know a lot of mastiffs that grow up with children and are really good. That was a big bull mastiff. Usually the English are the biggest.
Well, I wasn’t there, and I have no idea what the man said or did not say.
But this is from the article:
>the dog charged toward her, so he got his gun
It reads like the gun was elsewhere when the dog started it’s charge.
“Hey! There’s a dog charging my little girl! I better go get my gun! Now, let’s see, it’s over here in my den. I’ll just get it down, easy does it. Let’s not panic. Where’s my ammo? Right here. Okay. Breathe steady. Loading. Loading. Loading. Okay. I think I’m ready. Now, let’s go back and assay the situation. Yup, that dog is still charging my daughter. Okay. Ready. Aim. Fire”
Yup. That dog must have charged from about half a mile. I have no problem with shooting a dog attacking my kid, but his story sounds strange. Make my day is right.
yes and maybe monkeys flew out of his @$$ too. You have to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a 3 year old child.
No problem at all. I like dogs, but I don’t like trespassers (especially trespassers who initiate violence).
Mastiff’s are prohibited by a good many homeowner insurance companies. It’s not the number of times these types of animals bite, it’s the damage they can do with just one bite.
Homeowners never understand this when they do the “But my dog wouldn’t hurt anyone”.
I had a guy who lied about having a pit bull until I found out he had been sued previously for his pit bull attacking neighbor children. This guy tied his dog out for a while and he got off and attacked some children who were playing in the culdesac. This man actually said it was the children’s fault because they were skateboarding and the noise aggrivated his dog.
I will never understand the logic sometimes.
Sad for the owners to lose a pet, but better a pet than a child.
I was thinking the same thing. If a dog charges my kid, my first priority would be to get my kid out of harm's way. Once the kid is safe there is no need to shoot the dog. It sounds to me like the dog got in his yard, he shot it and then made up the story about his kid.
I have big dogs, but they're either on a leash or locked in my fenced-in yard. If we have company over the dogs get locked up even though I'm 90% confident that they won't bite.
Huh? This sounds like a horrible overreaction.
After last Thursday night in a restaurant, it should be the first rule of parenthood, as well.
We have a gun by our door locked and loaded. With the safety on of course.
If I had a four foot dog next to me, I would have it there too.
We’ll probably never know, perhaps he was, perhaps he wasn’t.
Yeah, that’s how I read the article, but who knows. It also doesn’t sound like this was the first time so maybe he was fully prepared. Assuming this is legit, then I would have easily done the same to protect my kid.
I have to agree. And if the dog kept coming over; I think the father was waiting. Why in the world did he leave his 3 year old out in the yard unprotected if he knew about this dog? I smell set up. And why didn’t they introduce the dog to the family? It also seems odd that the owners of the dog would not make it secure especially if there was a child next door if they had been told. This doesn’t compute.
Do you have a 3yo in the house also?
Nope, but I have a 7 year old in the house. The gun is on a rack by the door. We live in the country and get coyotes and such.
Maybe I should change that to ‘first rule of everything’...
“hmmm....I don’t know about “got his gun”. Sounds more like his gun was sitting next to him (or in his lap) at the time the dog “charged” his daughter.
There’s no mention of the dog being vicious in the past, just that it wandered into his yard several times.”
A dog approaching a child is not the same as a dog “charging” a child. Was it snarling, or was its tail wagging? This guy has some explaining to do. Just because a dog wanders onto your property and is capable of killing your kid is no reason to shoot it.
Agreed. The dog is described as having "ventured into his yard several times" previously. Was the dog a positive danger then? Perhaps ... but you'd think the guy would have said so, and he didn't.
I suspect there's a whole lot more to the story -- bad blood between neighbors.
The article is probably correct, but stated poorly. There is a female Bull Mastiff that lives behind me (sweet girl and my male Dingo loves her). The top of her hear is above my elbow (I'm 5'9"). Her back is easily above my belt line. She is one big dog. That male could have easily been four foot from the ground to the top of his back.
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