Man Strangles Rabid Pit Bull

Local6 News ^ | 9-5 | Local6 News

[ambrose]

local6.com

Man Strangles Rabid Pit Bull

Four Adults, Two Children Undergo Rabies Treatments

POSTED: 2:06 p.m. EDT September 5, 2003

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Will Stewart says he didn't have a choice in strangling a 6-month-old pit bull-mix puppy.

The puppy that wasn't known to be aggressive suddenly turned violent last week. The dog bit or scratched four adults and two children in an Indian Trail neighborhood and was later found to be rabid.

Stewart says the dog, Jake, went crazy. He says after the dog bit the children and his wife, he had to act.

He called the dog, which he thinks weighed between 50 and 60 pounds, and pinned him to the ground. Stewart says he couldn't wait for animal control to arrive, so he strangled the dog as he and the dog's owner held him down.

The Stewarts, the couple who owned Jake and their two children -- all of whom Jake bit or scratched -- have begun the painful and expensive treatment for rabies. Stewart says his first treatment involved seven shots, and he has four more appointments for additional shots.

Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[ambrose]

"The Dog of Peace"

[martin_fierro]

Cheese'n'crackers!

It's been pitbullapalooza around here lately.

[ambrose]

We should have a Pitbullathon!

[DCBryan1]

We should have a Pitbullathon!

Oooh ohhh! Lemme go get my skeet gun....and some 00 buck.

PULL!

[diamond6]

I would much rather see this kind of story then "6 year old killed by Pitbull". I say again, send them all to South
Korean restaurants.

[Cheapskate]

I wouldn't want to get into a scrap with a guy that can strangle a pit bull.
It sounds downright painful to me.

[rmmcdaniell]

It's been pitbullapalooza around here lately.

Perhaps the initial salvo by media liberals on their latest target?

With the frequency of killer dog related articles recently, I expect legislation to ban/regulate the violent dog breeds will be introduced soon to some goverment body.

[Central Scrutiniser]

I don't like pitbulls, its usually not the dog, its the breeder and owner. Tonite I was at the dogpark, early because my 30 lb Irish Terrier can be a bit testy with certain breeds of dogs (usually ones 4X bigger!) and I don't like having to constantly bail him out of his bravery. Well about 10 dogs in the park, and in walks a pitbull with an owner that wasn't too savoury.

So my dog and the bull find each other and exchange friendly greetings, then they both start growling, rather than deal with the oncoming melee, I plucked my guy and got the hell out of there.

They are not usually well bred dogs, and while that ain't the dog's fault, its a shame, because we don't need vicious dogs like the Pit Bull or the Presa Canario.

[Squantos]

Martha Stewart says we should shoot pibulls with .44 bulldogs ! Perazzis , Krieghofs ect ect would be snobbish .........:o)

Heck..... I'd use a friggin grenade against that cuddly little thang. The Pitbull not Martha.

Stay safe !

[ambrose]

A pitbull is no more a "pet" than a lion or tiger. They belong caged in a zoo..

[kuma]

So now it's the dogs fault he had rabies? Eeesh. Ya know if you were for say enforcing the current ban on dog fighting and training dogs to fight I'd be behind you 100% but now you are using rabid animals as an example. ~_~

[kuma]

Am I the only one who read the article long enough to find out the dog had rabies???

[ZChief]

I always gravitate to articles about pitbulls due to a personal experience. My son, six years old at the time, was the victim of pitbull attack. It was a bolt out of the blue when, absolutely with out provocation, the dog attacked him one day as he was waiting for his mother to come outside to go on a walk.

It was a young pitbull, thankfully, whose owner was a college boy renting a house with other college boys down the road from us. We never knew the dog existed. In fairness, they had six other pitbulls chained with anchor chains (they were the heaviest chains I have ever seen) semi concealed in their back yard. It came out later that they were boarding most of the other dogs for a resident of a nearby large city (read into that what you will). Some asserted that the boarded dogs were for fighting, but I suspect they were intended for sale in the lower class neighborhoods of that city.

The dog was apparently going for the throat in the attack as my son attempted to get back into the house. The dog managed to tear off most of his left ear which was destroyed and required several plastic surgeries to reconstruct. It bit him in the face but not as terribly as the ear.

It latched on to his shoulder and was trying to pull him off the porch when my wife and his older sister got outside to try to help. They kicked and beat it with a broom handle to no avail. We were blessed when my wife thought to pull his free arm out of his denim jacket and to pull him. The trapped arm slid out of the jacket and the dog fell off the porch. They stumbled backward into the house.

The terror continued as the dog attacked the front door trying to get in. Scared my family to death as this part happened. The dog then started circling the house as if to find a way in.

When the paramedics arrived the dog charged at them forcing them on top of their vehicle.

It required the arrival of a state trooper, before my son could get medical help, who was able to get off three shots into the dog as it charged him upon spotting him when coming around from the back of the house.

The dog ran back to its home where it was tracked by animal control who also responded. They shot the dog six more times before they felt safe enough to enter the fenced yard to retrieve the body for rabies testing.

The boys that owned the dog apparently skipped town as quick as they could. Several weeks later, after my son got out of the hospital, the father of one of the boys called to express the sorrow of the boys and their desire to apologize.

This is where it got interesting. The boys came to our house along with their girlfriends. They were as subdued as you can get and near tears. They apologized as humbly as you can get. After we accepted their apologies they all expressed amazement that the dog had turned violent. The boys along with their girl friends insisted that they treated that particular dog as a pet, even as a child, playing with it and giving it lots of attention. They openly admitted that they bought it because of the macho image, even though they expected it to behave like a house dog. When they all wondered out loud that they couldn't believe this could have possibly happened a most awkward pause occurred (my wife and I were thinking "you jerks it happened!) I spoke up and calmly said "well it did". After a couple of minutes and final apologies they all left.

My son is 15 today and not much worse for the wear. His reconstructed ear is somewhat disfigured and no other scars are visible. He has a healthy regard for dogs but has no apparent deep seated fear of them.

What did we ultimately do about the incident you ask? Outside of developing a strong desire to gut one of these creatures with my always present sharpened pocket knife, I must leave that to your imagination.

Did you know a lawyer can be your friend?

My sincere advice to those living near homes with pitbulls is to always and everytime report any appearance of dog law violations (ie. loose off a leash). Find out what your dog laws are and formally, in writing, put the owners on notice of any violations that you report, especially if they enter your property. Speculate out loud the costs of lawsuits. Do anything within the law to make the owner think twice about contiuing to keep one of these animals. Maybe, at the very least, the owner will effectively secure it.

If you own one these or another breed with similar traits (the ability to lock on with tremendous force) I would ask you are you confident that you can live with yourself if the unthinkable actually happened? Think carefully, I have come across several accounts where the owners insisted that the attacking dogs were properly treated and cared for. Is the prospect of a nightmare worth it?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Y'know - its not like the pitbull advocates have really thought about the inbred characteristics of the bite of these animals. Their jaws are construted and muscled to have a grip much stronger than other dogs, even much larger dogs.

Here is another secret - while a shepherd or a dobe is wolflike - everyhere and tearing, the pitbull bites, holds and grinds to the bone - working in via jaw action as it was bred to do. I can't even hardly consider the thing to be a dog in the normal sense of the word. They're overly sensitive to pain, not very bright, and are bombs waiting to go off.

The fact is, this is a very dangerous and vicious breed, not particularly doglike, and they need regulation like any wild zoo animal.

[ambrose]

A pitbull is no more a domesticated pet than a lion or tiger. Kill 'em all.

[ambrose]

did your son develop any dog phobias as a result of this attack?

[Central Scrutiniser]

The folks who I got my dog from, and who he will be studding with also breed Am. Staffordshire Terriers. Dogs that look like pits, but are not psycho. The Amstafs are much more tightly bred and are pretty level headed dogs.

My dog can be a real bastard around other dogs, but he will lose, however, around humans, he is the most mellow and friendly dog you'd ever meet. Its the Irish in him.