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 ...
Ditto! Well said
Should this apply to children also?
I agree, cats killing songbirds can be a problem. Mine are good now and only kill mice (and not nearly enough of those). They just watch rabbits (it would be nice if they at least chased them). They don’t pay much attention to birds although it was different when they were younger and mostly indoors. Lost a couple finches then, not a lot but still disturbing.
The main reason people get these dogs is to project an image of aggressiveness. That plus a love for ugliness.
Have you ever noticed pit bull owners are usually about as ugly relative to the human population as Pit Bulls are to the canine population? Some kind of psycho "community of the ugly" going on.
I don't like this approach; regulations like this tend to creep into other areas. The seven year sentences given to the negligent owners in this case should be made known to the public. Allow the people themselves to decide if they can take on the responsibility, knowing that they may be facing the same music if they can't.
If you want to own a gun that's great. If you want to own a gun that's always loaded, has no safety and randomly fires, you are an IDIOT who deserves everything the judge throws at you. All dogs bite, not all dogs kill.
Children do not own dogs. Their parents own the dogs.
I wouldn't have a problem banning pit bulls either. You bring up the firearms analogy. I'd say that a Pomeranian is like a BB gun, or maybe one of those toy store guns that shoots little rubber BBs. A pit bull is more like a heavy machine gun. They're just extremely dangerous animals. I'm sure a lot of them are very sweet, but even a nice dog can snap and attack someone, and pit bulls can easily kill someone. Pit bulls are responsible for most dog maulings resulting in fatalities. Most of the maulings I see coming through the courts involve pit bulls. They're just very dangerous animals and people shouldn't be keeping them at their homes, just like people shouldn't have lions and tigers at their homes.
I feel bad for this couple who are going to prison. This is just a tragedy all around. A little boy lost his life in a horrific manner and now these too are going to prison for several years and we have several children left behind with no parents. I don't know all the particulars here, but it may very well be that this animal had a good nature and was never aggressive with people until this incident. They shouldn't have let the dog run around but this law will also apply to people who have animals that escape. I'm not really comfortable locking people up in prison for a long time for simple negligence or pure accidents. Personally I think it would be better to just ban sales of this breed and require owners to get all existing pit bulls fixed. We'd have a lot fewer deaths and horrible injuries due to dogs mauling people.
Can you lock children in a cage? When you line up with an army of straw men, you may be fighting for the wrong side.
Life can still be lived to the fullest without having a dog for a pet. My children beg me all the time for one, but the answer is still no — not even a tiny little one. They almost killed the turtle out of neglect (even though this breed should live to the age of 35+).
If it pees, poops and eats, I might as well adopt it (I adopted four siblings) — adopt a real human being, however — not the four-footed kind.
Insurance companies do take individual and owner into account but a corvette is going to cost you more than a Saturn period. If you already have a claim against your homeowners for a dog related liability, I doubt you could get Homeowners insurance. what would the individuals risk factor be that an insurance company could use to assess dog owners? Tattoos, gang membership, area they live in? Most things that would be discriminatory in nature. So you are left with dog size and breed history. I have two mutts myself, a 102 pound lab/bluehealer mix and a mostly ridgeback 75 pound rescue dog. They are well trained. have a kennel run inside a fenced yard and know the neighbors and neighbors dogs socially. Still, they are something we have to pay attention to whenever the gas reader, postman etc show up. we have a hyperactive 5 year old, redundancy I reckon, that will be visiting and we have already talked about the plan for introducing the ridgeback to her as he is more aggressive than the lab. I personally would not want a dog I didn’t trust but they are dogs and you can only trust them so far. If my mutt bit someone, I would be saying, Oh you provoked him. I’d just be paying the med bills and hope that was as far as it went.
The 2nd is not about owning BB guns. It's not about hunting or fishing either, it's about owning weapons that kill people. In answer to the Pomeranian, there's an anecdote above about one ripping some kid apart.
Ah, I knew if I threw that out there I would get this response. I know, there have been documented cases of Poopsie the Pomeranian killing an infant. While it is possible for my Cocker Spaniel to kill an infant, the odds are really high that it won't happen, and I am also intelligent enough to realize that my dog may possibly be harmful to an infant, so I never leave an infant unsupervised around them.
Never.
So, the odds of Poopsie killing someone? Pretty darn hard to calculate. You would have a much better chance of winning the powerball twice. The odds of a Pit or other larger aggressive breed killing someone? Let's just say that they're a lot higher.
Since the odds are higher that someone will be killed by slipping on my front steps than by my dogs, that is a risk that I am willing to take. If for some reason my animals did kill or harm someone, I would be willing to accept responsibility for it. Why? Because it would mean that I was negligent in my responsibilities.
If a person is willing to accept full responsibility for any animal that they own, which includes doing 20 to life for murder , then I say go for it.
No matter how much I hear about their temperaments being tied to the way they were raised, I still find them unpredictable. And that would rule them out as a pet choice for me. But having said that, I would *never* allow my little boy to go to the home of kids whose parents kept 1 pit bull, much less 4.
I don't like pit bulls, but being an idiot isn't a crime. Here's a short list of things idiots do. Should they also be prosecuted for murder?
Trouble is, labeling someone as an idiot is subjective, and punishing someone for it is a slippery slope.
This kid who was murdered by the four pit bulls was NOT anywhere near the property of the dog owners. The pits were unleashed and allow to roam free all over the adjoyning farmland. This little boy was on his OWN farm land when attacked. I agree, the terminology in the law should exclude the words “unprovoked attack” before prosecuting anyone. If you own it, and have a constitutional right to your freedom, then you bear all the responsibilities as well.
Three hots and a cot, in prison. Good luck. Hopefully the children will have a good foster home.
adjoining...sorry
These idiot bullet points you make are completely off-point to the discussion about holding pitbull owners responsible. A dangerous animal is the same as owning a weapon. Do we have a right to bear arms? Silly question — of COURSE we do. But if someone dies at our hands because we’re stupid about handling the weapon, should we go to prison?
Of course...silly question...the only debate is how long, and it needs to equal the gravity of the injury / life that was taken. A seven year sentence means less than two years will actually be served. Not enough time at all...IMHO.
I picture it more as a Venn diagram with a large intersecting set.
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