Elderly Orange woman's arms amputated following pit bull mauling

mercury news ^ | 2-16-04 | N/A

[EggsAckley]

ORANGE, Calif. - A 91-year-old woman who was mauled by a pit bull remained in critical condition Monday with both arms amputated at the elbow, officials said.

Ruby Sharum was attacked late Friday night by a pit bull owned by her great-grandson and was being treated at UCI Medical Center. The pit bull, named Zion, was euthanized Saturday by county animal officials.

Next-door neighbor Shelbi Moore said Sharum's granddaughter pounded on her door, screaming that her grandmother was being attacked. Moore said she walked into her neighbor's kitchen after calling 911 and saw the pit bull hovering over the elderly woman with blood stains on the floor.

"I was terrified," Moore said. "I had always thought that dog might hurt somebody." Sharum and her granddaughter were putting away groceries about 10 p.m. Friday when the dog growled and then lunged at Sharum.

The pit bull's owner has another dog, a Rottweiler, that was impounded at a county facility until officials can determine if it took part in the attack, said Pat Markley, a spokeswoman for Orange County Animal Care Services.

The owner does not want the Rottweiler euthanized, Markley said. Moore said she had called Animal Care Services at least 10 times in the past year because she and her two young daughters feared Zion.

County animal-care workers checked on the dogs numerous times over the past six months due to reports that they were loose, barking or fighting with each other, Markley said.

A third dog that lived at the home, also a pit bull, was put to sleep a few weeks ago after being injured in a fight with Zion, Markley said. There were no prior records of any of the dogs biting a human before Friday's attack, Markley said.

"It's really an unfortunate, tragic incident," Markley said. "Pet owners need to watch their animal's temperament not just for their own family, but for their neighbors."

[tiamat]

Lefty is gonna say whatever Lefty finds it expediant to say!

Danes and Mastiffs are a different thing (I don't know MUCH about Mastiffs, but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt) I have known and liked several Danes.

I have problems with your analogy and here is why:

The gun is an inanimate object. It has no life, no volition, no soul of it's own. It just sits there on the table , unless or until someone decides to do something with it, either to defend their home from a robber, or to hold up a liquor store. The gun is inert. It is a tool.

A pit-bull is NOT inert. It has been deliberately bred to be stupidly agressive. It has a soul and a will and a nature. This stupidly aggressive tendancy has been NOTED by a certain clas/type of person, and therefor THEY find the pit's indesciminate bahavior desireable if not attractive.

There is a REASON we continue to hear story after story about pit-bull maulings. They are what they are, and they are not safe for neighborhoods with kids and old folks or ANYTHING that might show weakness.

Does this make the pit-bull evil?

No. It has been bred to be the way it is. It is no more evil than the gun is.

But it has volition and it is unpredictable.

And the people who WANT such a dog tend to be thugs and morons. They want the dog for protection, for "business reasons" , or to prove their machismo. these people tend to be undisciplined themselves They will invest little, if any, training and discipline ( other than strike commands) into the dog.


I do not know if you CAN train a pit to be trustworthy , but most of these morons only want the dog for appearance. Most will not try to actually civilize it.

And yet these same morons insist on having pits in the same living space with little old ladies and kids.

Our society haas seen to it that morons are here to stay. So eliminate their d@mn dogs to limit the damage.

[eleni121]

County animal-care workers checked on the dogs numerous times over the past six months due to reports that they were loose, barking or fighting with each other...

Letting dogs run loose seems to be a common trait among dog owners. When you say something to them, they get defensive and just as threatening as their dogs.

[DugwayDuke]

"And the people who WANT such a dog tend to be thugs and morons. They want the dog for protection, for "business reasons" , or to prove their machismo."

And the people who WANT a gun tend to be thugs and morons. They want the gun for protection, for "business reasons", or to prove their machismo.

"Our society haas seen to it that morons are here to stay. So eliminate their d@mn dogs to limit the damage."

Our society has seen to it that morons are here to stay. So eliminate their d@mn guns to limit the damage.

Exactly the same arguments and the same philosophy as the gun banners.

[tiamat]

Okay.

This is pointless.

You fail to see that you are comparing apples and oranges and I will not continue this.

S'okay!

[Gritty]

(next door neighbor) Moore said she had called Animal Care Services at least 10 times in the past year because she and her two young daughters feared Zion.

Nobody should be surprised this happened, least of all the owner or his grandmother.

Rather than hang around and feed his now armless grandmother, I'd bet any money this punk will now take off and look for some place "more convienient" to live.

Hopefully, it will be a jail cell.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

LOL!!

Ouch!

[Wordsmith]

Quite true. It is also true that the reason certain pit bulls are a threat is only and precisely because of irresponsible behavior on the part of their owner. Dogs don't go off "by accident", and the vast majority of pit bulls in this country are no more of a threat "by nature" than rotts, dobermans, filas, or german shepherds. We need to target the OWNERS, and the individual problem DOGS, rather than the whole BREED. I personally think it is sloppy thinking to say, just eliminate the breed. Just like its sloppy thinking to say, just eliminate guns. In both cases, society needs to act by intelligently addressing each particular case as it arises.

[Wordsmith]

Yep, the problem here is that the owner deliberately turned this dog in to a WEAPON. Its no different than if he had been making a bomb in the basement, that accidently went off and wounded his grandma.

[kanawa]

It has been deliberately bred to be stupidly agressive

Reputable breeders do not breed for aggression. Reputable owners do not want stupidly aggressive dogs.

Go after the morons and keep your hands off my loving and friendly dog.

www.realpitbull.com

[tiamat]

Sadly, most people, and too many breeders, are not like you and your dog!

[scan58]

Hmmmm...I wonder if you live across from my daughter? ;-) She has a beautiful and friendly brindle pit that was getting out from holes dug under the fence. The dog (a female named Stajia) is friendly but also very protective.
My daughter recently has gotten an electric barrier to eliminate this problem.

[Wordsmith]

QUICK, KILL IT! (Of course, the Marines for whom this pit is a mascot may complain.)

[Wordsmith]

How dare people leave children unsupervised with this pit bull!

[tiamat]

THAT pit had not been bred for several generations to simply detonate.

Way back when , they wre safer.

I would not trust one around my daughter.

[kanawa]

Sadly, most people, and too many breeders, are not like you and your dog!

You seem like a nice lady and I don't mean to give you a hard time.

Different people have different experiences. Myself I know of no one that uses these dogs for macho-enhancing/drug-dealing reasons and I personally know no unethical breeders. Maybe your experience is different. I'm not saying these people don't exist. They obviously do. But to paint a whole breed as stupidly aggressive and a majority of owners as unethical based on a small sample of your experiences or worse on ATTENTION GRABBING HEADLINES does a disservice to a naturally people-friendly breed and their responsible owners. Let's focus on the bad guys.

Please before you condemn a breed to extinction take some time to research a bit about them. The link I posted above makes an excellent start.

[Wordsmith]

Someone interested in buying a pit bull terrier that is as safe as any other dog can simply buy from a reputable breeder, who can document the dog's parentage back through dogs that have never been bred for dogfighting.

[kanawa]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

WS,

I used to agree. No more. A license should be required that has some proof of obedience training for ALL aggressive dogs.

I speak as one who was attacked by a pit bull - supposedly friendly.

When keeping any aggressive animal, there ought to be a mininum of a 6 foot fence requirement, muzzle when walked, and a license of at least 10 weeks of obedience training before one year of age.

ampu

[tiamat]

I try to be a nice lady and I thank you.

Unfortunantly, I have spent too much time living in Detroit and Willow Run, and so have seen MANY pit bulls and have had little good shown.

I do not think that I am simply reacting. I have seen these dogs and who uses them and for what purposes. I have heard that there are some "good" pits, but I have never seen any.

In our old neighborhood, it was always, "that kind of dog" and "that sort of person", and the two went in tandem, and everyone knew it. And folks who cared kept their kids away. And the police visited regularly.

The news was rampant, and maulings happened several times with people and dogs that I had direct experiance of.


So I judge based on what I have seen for many years.

Thank you.

[R. Scott]

Not only are Pit Bull Terriers occasionally unfriendly, they’re ugly as sin.
But beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.