Posted on 08/17/2012 4:09:51 AM PDT by from occupied ga
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The DeKalb County medical examiner says a woman found dead in her home was killed by at least one of her five dogs.
Twenty-three-year-old Rebecca Carey spent her life rescuing animals, taking several into her home to keep them from ending up at animal control.
Carey’s best friend, Jackie Cira, went to Carey’s home when she did not show up for work on Sunday.
“There was a lot of blood,” Cira said. “And when first got there, it looked like she had fallen and hit her head.”
The DeKalb County medical examiner ruled Carey’s death was the result of dog bites.
Animal control took custody of the five dogs in the home – two pit bulls, two presas and a boxer mix.
Any dog that has bitten a person goes into a special isolation lockup at animal control.
Cira said she knows Carey’s dogs, and actually owned one of them, a therapy dog, at one time.
“Any dog she came into contact with, she brought out the best in,” Cira said.
Cira said she wanted the dogs she knew to be gentle to be spared punishment.
“I don’t know who did what, but I can say with certainty who did not,” Cira said.
Animal control’s interim director Tim Medlin told Channel 2’s Jeff Dore that the county can’t risk putting a killer dog with a family, and they have all been put down.
“We didn’t know which dog did which. I can’t be wrong. Not just myself, no one can be wrong in putting out a dog that possibly had to do with these type of injuries. I will not put another person at that kind of risk,” Medlin said.
Carey’s family declined to speak with Dore, but they issued the following statement:
"Rebecca Carey of Decatur was 23 years old and an avid animal lover. Since the second grade when she read the book Throw Away Pets she vowed to be a voice for all animals. She attended Georgia Perimeter College and worked at a veterinary clinic. Upon placing her first abandoned animal in a permanent loving home in 2003, she volunteered countless hours with rescue networks and animal shelters. There she did what she loved the most: rescuing animals from untenable situations to find them safe, loving homes."
I forgot about that incident - thanks for reminding me.
The pits are aggressive only if they have been raised that way.
I don't agree with this. PBs head the list of breeds responsible for fatal attacks. They can't ALL be raised to be agressive. Question to PB lovers out there: if you can breed a dog for size, color, coat, appearance, etc. why do you think that they CAN'T be bred for agressive behavior?
Interesting information about the lion/tiger crossbreeds. Feline species certainly aren’t nicer than canine ones, as a generalization, but almost nobody keeps a cat big enough to hurt him.
Did you know that the average Cougar consumes 20-30 pounds of meat per day? They can also jump straight up 18 feet. How could anybody think that they were safe with one of those watching them sleep?
That’s a good observation. I don’t like to call an animal “vicious,” because they have no moral cognition, but some are simply very dangerous. It’s unfortunate that people don’t use better sense, and avoid acquiring or breeding so many dogs that end up as problems.
We have a retired greyhound. She sleeps a lot, on her back with her feet all up in the air. I suppose it could be dangerous, if someone tripped over her and was knocked unconscious and the catz were hungry ...
No, I did not remember that, although I wrote a report on them in junior high, iirc. Nice kitty ...
I’ve had cats for 57 of my 62yrs; none big enough to kill and eat me.
My golden is dangerous like that too. I probably should be responsible and put a sign and cones around her. :)
Personality traits can certainly be bred for. It’s more difficult than breeding for physical appearance, you usually get tendencies that then have to be guided into the behaviors you want (depending on the behavior/trait you are breeding for).
I suspect (and what I have read backs this up, plus looking through shelter dogs available also backs it up) that there are several reasons there are so many PB types involved in the attacks you read about.
First, they CAN do a lot of damage if they attack so they are more likely to make the news.
Second the media (which most who post on these threads usually don’t have much respect for) love a good scary mean dog bites man story and this is the scary breed of the day. I remember when it was rotties and before that german shepherds.
Third they are easy to misidentify, lots of people cannot tell the difference in a pit bull and a boxer or any large short muzzled mix breed (and neither can lots of shelter employees for that matter).
Fourth BAD PEOPLE took a liking to the breed and have bred and owned them for completely reprehensible reasons. I think you and I agree there 100%.
Fifth the shelters are FULL of them so I think it’s very likely that many rescued dogs are pit bull type and pit bull mixes so I think it greatly increases the chances that they will be involved in bites just by virtue of numbers -they are popular.
And no, I don’t have a pit bull. I have a golden retriever.
Same here. My parents had a 22-pounder for several years, but she eventually died from obesity-related causes. She was fat when they got her from the adoption agency.
Most pit bulls that are agressive, are not necessarily “bad dogs.” I have seen incidences of German sheperds, rotweilers, Dobermans, and other medium to large breeds of dog who have bitten, maimed and/or killed people.
PBs that are bred to fight, are only aggressive to other dogs because they associate humans with food and affection.
Some dogs are loyal and protective to a fault...these are the ones that attack and often kill. There ARE warning signs, however, and owners who ignore the signs are the very ones who claim the “dog was a real sweetie, until he suddenly went berserk.”
Behavior can be bred in or bred out, depending on the breeder and the type of dog in question. Each dog, just like people, should be judged on its own merit and not that of a few stories that make the news.
I never said they couldn’t be bred for aggressive behavior. ANY dog can be aggressive, especially one who has been abused. And if a person likes that kind of dog, they can be sure that they will make the dog that way.
Dogs, like people, are born innocent.
I am so glad that you were able to save your dog.
The idiots across the street to me just got a pit bull and I am scared out of my mind. They let it out in the front yard and then the family goes back into the house. No chain, no leash, no fence. I can’t go to my car or walk my dog when that land shark is out there.
I am fortunate that I live in a small city just outside Houston. We have our own Police force, and they frequently patrol the streets. A loose pit-bull would not be allowed here. The one that attacked my dog had escaped from its backyard fence while the owner was at work. As my dog and I were crossing the street and stepping up on a curb, it was heading for us at the full gallop. I later found that it had cornered a woman in her garage of the house I was about to cross in front of. I had no sooner shot the dog and holstered my weapon when a policewoman drove up. She had seen the whole thing because she was responding to the call about a loose dog from the people in the house where the woman was trapped.
This attack shows how violent these dogs can be. There was no confrontation between my dog and the pit-bull. I just remember stepping up on the curb, and the pit was suddenly there. It was like it had instantly materialized. It would be like if someone had silently stalked me from behind and then attacked without warning. BTW, the cuddly-wuddly pit-bull was named Precious.
I know I would be prepared to shoot the one your neighbor has if it attacked.
Rescue dogs are wonderful if they’re the right breed.
I have two and they’re fine. One is an Eskimo Spitz mix and the other a Bichon Frise I got from a puppy mill rescue. He was an older dog; one of the breeder dogs. Harmless....just barks a lot.
This breed is banned almost every where outside this country. Horrible breed for people who just want a pet. They’re killers....of full grown people. Pitbulls have mauled people and definitely killed kids but these dogs can easily kill a full grown man in a couple of minutes.
that is a pic of a Presa Canario not a Pitbull. I will say I have been around friendly PB, but Presa Canario is another level of wicked. Beyond anything a PB can do.
We're just never going to agree on this. Some animals are far more likely to attack than others, and there's ample evidence that PBs fall into this category.
The two most dangerous animals on the North American continent are the the grizzly bear and the bison. Their aggressive nature is genetic. Either one raised by people is just as dangerous as one in the wild.
Likewise the large number of PB attacks tell me that this breed is more aggressive than most others. Of the 88 dog bite fatalities in the last three years 59% were committed by pit bulls. To support the hypothesis that it is how they were raised, not only do you have to assume that a far larger fraction of PB owners train their dogs to be vicious, but you also have to assume that virtually none of the other MILLIONS of dog owners EVER train their dogs to be vicious. Occam's razor leaves us with the conclusion that AS A BREED, pbs are much more dangerous than other breeds
| Breed | Normalized Risk | Maulings/fatalities | Pct of dog pop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rottweiler | 160333 | 481 | 0.003 |
| Wolf hybrid | 84000 | 84 | 0.001 |
| PB | 59697 | 1970 | 0.033 |
| Presa | 38000 | 76 | 0.002 |
| Husky | 3300 | 66 | 0.02 |
Personally even if I wanted a pet, I'd avoid all of these breeds
It seems to me that a little personal initiative and extra effort could have saved a few dogs' lives.
I'm no big sap or anything, but this guy who endorsed arbitrary euthanizing without even an attempt to ascertain the facts just seems lazy to me.
P.S. As I was posting this, I just saw a devastating anti-0bama TV ad down here in Florida. It portrayed 0bama for being detached from reality on the economy and having to resort to hateful scare tactics as the Democrats (the party of Perjury and Obstruction of Justice, parenthetically) and their President are currently doing.
The ad was by some kind of PAC I guess, not the Romney campaign. It started by saying that unemployment was up was again and then it showed 0bama's "shovel ready" quip, along with the "private sector is doing fine" clip, as well as the "our plan worked" clip, and so on.
It's a DEVASTATING ad against 0bama. I just don't see how the American people could possibly be so stupid or guilt-ridden as to re-elect this BAD President.
0bama should really have no chance at all this November. We just have to pray that enough of the American people awaken to the obvious reality that 0bama is Jimmy Carter x 10 on Marxist steroids...
I've heard that German Shepherds are up there on the list, too, and I can personally recall a couple of incidents down here in Florida where German Shepherd police dogs have attacked the wrong person (in other words not the suspect being targeted.)
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