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When dogs attack, owners can go to prison (Pit bulls kill child - Owners get 7 years)
WFAA-TV ^ | 1/19/2009 | JIM DOUGLAS

Posted on 04/06/2009 7:39:41 AM PDT by stinkerpot65

The scene was so gruesome that even seasoned emergency responders broke down and cried.

"They were never agressive; never seen them agressive," Watson said. "Never bit no one."

"I'm scared," Watson said. "I've got three kids who are going to be without a mom to be there for them."

Watson was sentenced to seven years in prison; that's part of the reason she can't stop crying.

(Excerpt) Read more at wfaa.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: dogs; pitbull; rdo
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To: palmer
“I'm sure all the owners said they were loving owners too.”

I'm sure they did. I don't really remember. It's been so many years since I've prosecuted. Our current city attorney has the same complaints about pit bulls. They really are dangerous animals. Those that have been abused are more dangerous, but even those with loving owners in some instances will maul people, even kill people. Most maulings do not result in a fatality, but if a pit bull tears into it's going to do some damage. And it can be a nice dog that seems to just love people and then out of nowhere tear some kid's hand off, or his face.

They're just not a good breed to have anywhere where they might encounter innocent strangers, and it's certainly not a good idea to let them roam around the neighborhood. But people will do that, and sometimes dogs will get out through a loose board in a fence, or crawl under it. I have a little terrier I can't keep in the backyard because she'll always find a way out. She destroyed my lattice work fence. She bolted on me this morning when I was walking out the front door and she's done that before where I couldn't find her for hours. Most pit bulls are good dogs that never hurt anyone, but there just is no breed capable of causing so much damage that is as likely to attack people as a pit bull. And even if people are responsible their dogs can get loose and really hurt people. Again, most deaths from maulings are caused by pit bulls even though they aren't even in the top 50 most popular breeds. They're just dangerous dogs and I wish people would just stop buying them. If there were no pit bulls we'd have far fewer people being killed or seriously injured by dogs. Not that there is a huge epidemic of that, but it's always a tragedy when it does happen and the breed most likely to do it is the pit bull.

161 posted on 04/06/2009 1:45:32 PM PDT by merican
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To: Sherman Logan
You are dead wrong, they were not bred to kill, they were bred to fight other dogs. The fact is that any Pit Bull (or variation thereof) that showed aggression towards a human being was immediately put down.

Because a person had to be capable of entering the ring to separate the two dogs, aggression towards human beings was bred out of them.

They are, however both an aggressive breed and a powerful breed with a very high tolerance for pain, which gives them the potential to become very dangerous.

What has happened is that, like many other breeds-Cocker Spaniels, Doberman Pinschers, and any other extremely popular breed-over breeding occurrs leading to (as was stated before) genetic damage.

What was once a reliably stable breed has become more unpredictable. Only in this case, unlike Cocker Spaniels (which are more prone to bite than most breeds), Pit Bulls can quickly inflict great harm or death. Thus ownership of the breed becomes a matter of exercising trememdous responsibility and care.
162 posted on 04/06/2009 1:53:56 PM PDT by Sudetenland (Victory in 2012...but first Victory in 2010!!!)
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To: old and cranky; familyop; Chet 99

My sister has a jack-rat, people moved in next door to her that breed pits. The pits have come over and under the fence into her yards and attacked her dog once, but she was able to stop it before too much damage was done. There is nothing she can do about it. So now, my sister owned her house first, but can’t even let her little dog in it’s own backyard because of the idiots next door.
~~~
Same krapolla goin’ on here,,,

Thug puppy-mill next door,,,Section 8 house,,,welfare,,,

Walking my yorkie in my backyard has now become a

“Search and Destroy” mission,,,If that ain’t enough,,,

The ass-clown that lives in the house next to them now

has 2-3,,,I guess we’ll have !TWO! puppy-mills now,,,

One of them got out not 30 min. ago and ran into my yard

while I was workin’ on the house,,,

I gave the owner a good cussin’,,,

I guess I’ll have to carry the gun as well as the tools!!!


163 posted on 04/06/2009 2:00:07 PM PDT by 1COUNTER-MORTER-68 (THROWING ANOTHER BULLET-RIDDLED TV IN THE PILE OUT BACK~~~~~)
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To: dhm914

Huh-I’d say the same thing about parents and kids.


164 posted on 04/06/2009 2:00:28 PM PDT by Sudetenland (Victory in 2012...but first Victory in 2010!!!)
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To: oldenuff2no
What business is it of yours what kind of dog someone owns? Do you agree with "selective" gun bans as well? Maybe we should ban all "assault rifles." In one day assault rifles killed more people than Pit Bulls killed in a year.

We live in a free society. One of the prices we pay for that privilege is the risk that at any time we might be killed by some nut...or in this case some nut's dog.

We have ways to punish those who break the law but those punishments never raise the dead. The murdered remain murdered. Again it is the price we pay for freedom.

It is not your's nor the government's business what breed of dog someone owns unless that dog injures someone. Then the law should step in and inflict punishment on the law breaker as it has in this case.

You want to live in a controlled society, go live in England or France...see how you like living in slavery to the state.
165 posted on 04/06/2009 2:11:36 PM PDT by Sudetenland (Victory in 2012...but first Victory in 2010!!!)
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To: palmer

Well said. This type of hysteria is more typical of what I would expect to see on DU or DailyK, not on FreeRepublic.


166 posted on 04/06/2009 2:14:29 PM PDT by Sudetenland (Victory in 2012...but first Victory in 2010!!!)
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To: Always Right

It’s amazing the ignorance that one can find even here on what the Constitution does or does not say...Frightening really.


167 posted on 04/06/2009 2:17:06 PM PDT by Sudetenland (Victory in 2012...but first Victory in 2010!!!)
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To: gleeaikin
Perhaps owners of larger breeds should be required to take a licensing test indicating knowledge of law, and dog care and that of other critters. They should also perhaps be required to have some kind of liability insurance.
...and you would exercise this control exactly how? By penalizing those dog owners who already exercise due diligence while those who are negligent will ignore the law, just as they would ignore laws against the ownership of firearms.
168 posted on 04/06/2009 2:23:35 PM PDT by Sudetenland (Victory in 2012...but first Victory in 2010!!!)
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To: mom4melody

” Bred properly, trained properly and treated properly, they are wonderful pets full of love and loyality.”

Read my post #20. Be very careful. Daisy was bred from AKC champs. Cared for lovingly, and one day, under completely normal situations, snapped. Good luck.


169 posted on 04/06/2009 2:25:32 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

That was back in ‘72/73.


170 posted on 04/06/2009 2:29:58 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: Sudetenland

They were bred to kill other dogs. I should have been more clear. I did not mean to imply they were bred to kill people.

I’m not sure I’d call it genetic damage, but certainly when one breeds only for appearance the working aspects of any breed deteriorates rapidly.

BTW, many of the rather imprecisely defined “pit bulls” of today are indeed bred for - and trained - to be aggressive towards people. Just presumably not their master.


171 posted on 04/06/2009 2:33:24 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Everyone has a right to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.)
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To: joe fonebone

Hi Joe...my 2 dogs don’t know they could kill anybody. But they do know I could kill them.....:O) goat granny.


172 posted on 04/06/2009 2:40:12 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: ontap
How can you not say they are a special case.
The only thing that is special about them is the fact that they are the current breed of choice of the idiots.
173 posted on 04/06/2009 2:45:39 PM PDT by jdege
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To: douginthearmy
Freedom! Freedom necessitates this breed...or don't you believe in freedom. Liberty! Liberty necessitates this breed.

Judging from your name, you do believe in these principles, so at what point do you decide when government should strip a citizen of their inherent rights.

Semi-automatic AK's are deadly. They were created for one reason...to kill people...maybe we should ban them entirely "there is nothing on this great planet which necessitates" AK-47's. "There is no reason for their existence other than to make otherwise inferior feeling persons feel superior."

You must be a gun-grabber as well as a Pit Bull hater.
174 posted on 04/06/2009 2:48:27 PM PDT by Sudetenland (Victory in 2012...but first Victory in 2010!!!)
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To: joe fonebone

Next time use a heavier shovel...Or steel rake, tines down...stay safe...goat granny


175 posted on 04/06/2009 2:48:29 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: goat granny
much of what you say is true, but a dog biting someone is a little different than a dog that is bred to kill someone.

Pit Bulls were bred for dog fighting, not for killing people. They were bred to fight other dogs. They were most definitely not bred to attack people. They were bred and trained to allow their handlers to walk step into the middle of a fight, and to break it up, without turning their aggression on the handler. Which is something that very few dogs will allow.

We do have breeds that were specifically created for attacking people. The Mastiff and the Great Dane. But we've seen zilch about killer Mastiffs or killer Great Danes. Why? It's not because these dogs can't be dangerous. Both would be far more dangerous than a Pit Bull, if they were raised the way these dangerous Pit Bulls are. But Mastiffs and Danes aren't popular among the idiots who think that having a tough, mean dog is a sign of manhood.

176 posted on 04/06/2009 2:54:36 PM PDT by jdege
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To: goat granny
Apparently you know nothing of the breed but what you have read in the (highly reliable) mainstream media.

Pit Bulls are not bred to kill...that is a lie born of ignorance. Pit Bulls were and are bred to fight - not to kill. Try informing yourself before you make such assertions.
177 posted on 04/06/2009 2:54:39 PM PDT by Sudetenland (Victory in 2012...but first Victory in 2010!!!)
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To: Sherman Logan
Still wrong. They were bred to subdue, not to kill. They were never bred to kill. Win or lose many dogs lived long fighting careers. They were rarely killed in the ring unless the owner chose to because his dog was irreparably injured by another dog. They were "put down" if they continually lost in the ring, but dog deaths in dog fights were quite rare. The dogs being bred today by those less than human creatures who continue to fight them have been genetically damaged.

If I was the judge, Michael Vick would never play football again. He would also not be walking free until he served every day of his sentence.
178 posted on 04/06/2009 3:00:21 PM PDT by Sudetenland (Victory in 2012...but first Victory in 2010!!!)
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To: brytlea

OK, according to that 15 fatalities in TX. How many pits in TX? It’s got to be a huge number. I think this is proof that the vast majority even of pits are not out there killing folks. But hey, that doesn’t make a good story.


I guess it is how you look at things and what ones perspective is...

You could take your above senario and substitute illegals for pits and I suspect the same statement would be valid. I don’t condone murder by illegals and I don’t condone killings by pits. They both are wrong and we should stopped.


179 posted on 04/06/2009 3:00:26 PM PDT by deport
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To: jdege
Some of what you say may be true, but a dog trained and bred to kill would not necessarily distinguish between different prey..To a pit, everything is possible prey.. The breed is beautiful, but I wouldn't want to get near one running loose...Not with a gun..
180 posted on 04/06/2009 3:01:00 PM PDT by goat granny
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