Pit Bull Attacks

by Ed Frawley

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As a breed I personally like Pit Bulls.

When properly raised, when pack structure has been established, when they have been obedience trained and socialized they are great family pets. Unfortunately there are many people in our society who ignore these very important responsibilities and the results are often catastrophic. This article is intended as a warning to Pit Bull owners who refuse to be responsible pet owners.

I should also point out that this is not just a Pit Bull issue. Similar problems can evolve in many breeds of dogs.

I have never owned a Pit but over the years I have been around a lot of them. In the past 35 years I have seen some very nice Pit Bullat training seminars that I have attended or sponsored. Many are really cool dogs. Unfortunately many others become rank dangerous animals mostly because their owners have never established pack structure with their dogs.

This is a breed of dog that requires a solid foundation in pack structure. When irresponsible owners ignore pack behavior, rank drive issues and obedience training their dogs often become dangerous animals.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined U.S. dog-attack fatalities from 1979 to 1998. During that period, dogs killed more than 300 Americans, and pit bulls, either purebred or crossbred, accounted for 76 of the deaths, the most of any breed. Purebred or crossbred Rottweillers were responsible for 44 deaths, the second highest. The CDC concluded that Rottweillers and pit bulls were responsible for 67 percent of fatal attacks.

I breed German Shepherds and Malinois, for various reasons I don't believe "everyone who wants a dog" should own one of our dogs, the same does for PB. The purpose for writing and maintaining this article is to hopefully convince potential owners to think before they buy a PB. This is not a breed to jump into without a game plan. If you are not sure of you want to do the training then don't get a Pit Bull.

As a general rule PBs that attack humans are not born with the instinct to kill a human. They get that way because their owners fail them. They get that way because owners:

1- DON'T ESTABLISH PACK STRUCTURE

2- THEY DON'T TRAIN THEIR DOGS

3- THEY DON'T CONTROL THE ENVIRONMENT THE DOGS ARE ALLOWED

4- THEY DON'T PROPERLY SOCIALIZE THEIR DOGS

As a working breed, PBs were originally bred as fighting dogs. With most working breeds the majority of the dogs that are sold today have had the working ability bred out of them. Unfortunately because of ass holes like Michael Vick, this is not the case with PBs. But with this said that does not mean that PB's cannot be molded into safe well mannered family pets - they can be.

DVD'S that will help solve these problems:

If you have a PB I strongly recommend that you get the DVD's I did titled ESTABLISHING PACK STRUCTURE WITH THE FAMILY PET and BASIC DOG OBEDIENCE. If you own a PB that is already showing signs of dominance and aggression I recommend that you get the DVD I did titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS

I find it interesting how so many Pit Bull breeders (and PB owners) read this web page and then send me nasty nasty emails. These people would rather stick their head in a hole an ignore the problems their breed face.

Pit Bull Articles

This following articles are a complication of PB attacks that are recorded in the media starting in Feb 2007.

Woman Dies In Deltona Dog Attack

DELTONA, Fla. -- A woman visiting Central Florida from Texas was attacked and killed by a dog on Friday. Authorities identified the woman as Mary Diana Bernal, WESH 2 News reported.Rudy Bernal, the woman's husband, said he was shocked.

"He was dragging her, and all her scalp was hanging by her side. He wouldn't turn her loose. He would let her go and attack her again," Bernal said. "I saw police shoot the dog with a stun gun. That's the only way they could cut him loose."Family members said the pit bull attacked and killed Diana, then turned on her sister who was trying to help."When she went to help my wife," Bernal said, "the dog turned on her and tore off all her thumbs.

She was on the ground wrestling with the dog to get him loose."Eliasar Macias, the dog's owner, said he was horrified that his sister-in-law was killed and his wife was injured by the dog."My dog never had any problems. He was a real friendly dog until now," Macias said. Animal Control took the dog to the Halifax Humane Society, and officials said they plan to destroy it after Macias agrees to surrender the animal. Officials said there are other animals in the home, and while investigation continues, the house will be cleared of all animals.

Pit Bull attacks toddler
2-year-old may lose sight in eye

05/19/2007

HESPERIA - A newly purchased pit bull attacked a 2-year-old boy, crushing the bone around his eye, breaking his jaw in two places and inflicting numerous puncture wounds.

The toddler, , wandered out the back door of the family's A Avenue home at 4 p.m. Thursday. He moved around to the side of the house, where he was attacked by the dog.

The family bought the adult male pit bull last month as a companion for the family's female pit bull.

"They don't have any reason to believe the child provoked the dog in any way," said Cindy Beavers, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. "The parents heard something going on and found the dog attacking the child."

Pit bulls were responsible for nearly one-third of the 238 fatal dog attacks in the United States during a 20-year study by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Children are the most vulnerable of victims - 42 percent of dog-bite injuries were inflicted on kids younger than age 14.

Both pit bulls from the Hesperia home will remain quarantined until an investigation is complete. The dogs' fate was unknown Friday.

Deputies found a chain that may have kept the dog tied up, but it
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was unclear why the dog attacked the boy.

His parents immediately drove him to Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville. He was transferred to Loma Linda University Center late Thursday.

The boy has a crushed left orbital, which is the bone surrounding the eye, two jaw fractures and multiple bite and puncture wounds. All from the neck up. Doctors fear they will be unable to save the sight in the injured eye.

"Because they're dealing with a young child who doesn't have a strong immune system, injuries coupled with infection makes it really a life-threatening situation," Beavers said.

About 4.7million people are bitten every year by dogs, resulting in about 12 fatalities a year, according to federal statistics. Between 500,000 and 800,000 dog bites require medical treatment annually.

Pit bulls are ranked as the most dangerous breed and are blamed for 76 deaths in a federal study from 1979-1998. who likely will lose his sight in that eye Medical

Pit-bull attacks in San Bernardino County

MARCH 2006: TWENTYNINE PALMS - Four pit-bull mixes escape from a fenced yard and attack a 15-year-old boy walking by. He had huge chunks of skin ripped away and required two surgeries to reattach the skin.

FEBRUARY 2005: YUCAIPA - A woman walking near Seventh Street Park is attacked from behind by a pit bull. She scares it away by throwing dirt in its eyes before it can bite her.

AUGUST 2004: LOMA LINDA - A 6-year-old boy wanders into a woman's home. Her pit bull attacks him, biting him on his head, back, stomach and arm.

AUGUST 2003: A police officer shoots and kills a pit bull that severely mauls a 72-year-old woman after escaping from its yard. The woman suffers serious bites on her left leg.

DECEMBER 2001: FONTANA - A pit bull attacks a boy who is riding his skateboard down the sidewalk. When a man tries to intervene, the pit bull turns on him. Both victims suffer major injuries.

JUNE 2000: SAN BERNARDINO - A 5-year-old boy is walking to school with his older brother when a pit bull attacks him, breaking the right side of his jaw.

APRIL 2000: NEWBERRY SPRINGS - A 10-year-old boy dies after a pit bull attacks him while he walks down the road with a friend.

Houston boy gets more than 200 stitches after pit bull bite

July 2, 2007, 2:43PM

A 6-year-old Houston boy spent three hours in surgery Sunday after being bitten in the face by a pit bull, his father said today.

"They stopped counting (stitches) at about 200," Brandon Palomo said, referring to repairs surgeons did on the face of his son, Logan Palomo, between noon and about 3 p.m. Sunday.

Logan was visiting his mother at her northwest Harris County home  late Saturday when the dog bit him two or three times in the face, the father said.

The boy was listed in good condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital-The Medical Center today, a spokeswoman said.

The incident occurred in the 7300 block of Legacy Pines Drive off of Barker Cypress Road, said Sgt. Dana Wolfe of the Harris County Sheriff's Department.

Harris County Animal Control officials went to the residence after deputies responded to the call but did not take the dog into custody because it is not a stray, Wolfe said.

The dog belong's to a male roommate of the mother's boyfriend, Wolfe said. Because the man was not charged with any crime, Wolfe declined to release the dog owner's name.

The mother's account of the incident correlated with the father's, according to sheriff's reports.

Wolfe said the mother told deputies that the boy was playing with the dog when it bit him.

Logan's father said he understands the dog is to be checked for rabies.

Logan suffered one or more bites on the left side of his face and at least one on the right side at about 11:45 p.m. Saturday, his father said.

The left-side wound "looked like a puzzle piece missing" from his son's face, said Palomo, 26, a landscaping worker.

On the right side, the dog's teeth pierced Logan's face mainly above the eyebrow, narrowly missing a tear duct, the father said.

Although the wounds were "gory" and required stitches in layers to repair, Logan was lucky, the father said.

"All these lacerations are around the eyes and nothing happened to the eyeballs," the father said.

There was little or no bone damage as well, he said.

Palomo said his son told him he was heading for bed and was trying to hug the dog good-night when it suddenly bit him.

The dog "rapidly chomped on him two or three times," Palomo said, his son told him. "It happened real fast."

He and his son live with Palomo's grandfather in the 1100 block of Louise in Houston's Heights area, the father said.

Palomo said he and Logan's mother are still married but have been separated for about three years.

Father charged in dog attack

Police say they warned Bath man to watch boy around pit bull

Man Saves Neighbor From Vicious Dog Attack

7/21/2007 7:37 PM

A Tulsa man will be honored this week for saving another man's life. Back in April, Michael Cook came to the rescue when a pitbull attacked his neighbor. The News On 6’s Chris Wright reports Cook will receive the Citizen Appreciation Award from Tulsa police on Tuesday, an honor his neighbor says he more than deserves.

Marvin Battle walks with a cane these days, but says considering what happen to him on April 25th, he can live with the limp.

"I can't bend my leg. I have to go through physical therapy,” said Battle. “I've been on a lot of pain medications. I have panic attacks and I have nightmares."

Those nightmares stem from a vicious pitbull attack. Cook was walking his 6-year-old Chow Chow, Xena, and his 2-year-old Pomeranian, Jazzy, when he says the pitbull came out of nowhere.

"I turned around to go back to the house, and the dog knocked me down,” Battle said. The pitbull killed the Pomeranian, injured the Chow, and then turned its attention to Battle.

"I'm fighting for my life here. If someone doesn't come help me or if this dog doesn't stop, I'm going to be killed. So all I'm thinking is saving my life,” Battle said.

Michael Cook heard all the commotion, grabbed his gun, and came outside. He says the only thing he'd ever shot at before was a target, and the margin for error was thin. Fortunately, the pitbull looked up for a split second, and Cook pulled the trigger.

"So I bent down to try and shoot the dog from the side. When I did, that's when he raised up, and I shot him in the head,” Cook said.

The pitbull was killed, and Battle, though injured severely, was alive. He says he owes his life to his neighbor, and the two, who did not know each other before the attack, have become friends.

"It was terrible. Had my neighbor Mike not come out and shot the dog, it would have killed me,” Battle said.

"I think we're becoming pretty good friends,” Cook said. “Turns out we have a lot more in common than I thought we did. Marvin's a good guy."

Cook spent a week in the hospital recovering from his injuries. No one knows exactly who owned the pitbull. Battle believes it belonged to his neighbors, who have several other pitbulls.

We talked to those neighbors Saturday, and they say the dog was not theirs.

Pack of pit bulls mauls man during early morning Deer field attack

Posted March 2 2007, 12:50 PM EST

Family Dog Leaves Boy In Critical Condition

By MIKE WELLS The Tampa Tribune
Published: Mar 2, 2007

PLANT CITY - For Ian Keo's family, a near-fatal dog attack was made all the more heart-wrenching because the dog that mauled the toddler was a family pet.

The 2-year-old remains in critical care at Tampa General Hospital, and his family is in anguish. The 2-year-old's grandmother, Kelley Ashley, said the incident Wednesday night will haunt her for the rest of her life because it might leave the child with lifelong scars.

"He's tough, he's fine, but I may have disfigured my baby's face," she said Thursday.
Ian suffered facial fractures, an eye injury and trauma to his neck and head, Hillsborough County sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway said.

The pit bull mix that mauled the toddler was euthanized Thursday morning.

The attack happened at 6 p.m. Wednesday as the child's great-grandmother, Willa Tick, 69, walked him outside with her to feed the family's dog, Callaway said. They live at 3408 Juanita Drive.
The child apparently tripped on the dog's chain, and the animal attacked him, Callaway said. Tick wrestled with the dog to get Ian to safety.

As of early Thursday, the boy remained in critical condition at Tampa General. The family has asked the hospital not to release details about his condition.

Hillsborough County Animal Services Investigator Dennis McCollough made the decision to euthanize the dog, he said.

The dog became aggressive because it was chained to a tree, it wasn't neutered and there was food involved, he said.

"Those are things we know that contribute to animal attacks," he said.

This year, 211 dog bites were reported in Hillsborough County. Fifty-six involved pit bulls or pit mixes, McCollough said.

"That's the animal of choice in our community," he said, and because there are so many pit bulls in the county "you're going to hear more and more stories about them."

Animal Services spokeswoman Marti Ryan said most dog-bite victims are the elderly and children. She cautioned adults never to leave children unattended with dogs.

"Any dog can bite - even the family pet," Ryan said.

Pit bulls attack girls leaving bus stop

Feb. 23, 2007, 12:32AM

Harris County sheriff's deputies shot and killed a pair of pit bulls that attacked two girls on their way home from school in north Harris County on Thursday afternoon, dragging one of them down the street as she screamed for help.

Although the two dogs had owners, authorities have not determined whether any charges will be filed. It's an incident that state legislators will likely point to as they continue to press this legislative session for stiffer penalties against owners who violate leash laws, allowing dangerous dogs to roam free.

Late Thursday, a 7-year-old girl remained hospitalized at Northeast Memorial Hospital, where her condition was unknown. She is expected to recover, authorities said.

Twelve-year-old Ruth Lopez, who was treated at the same hospital and released, said the dogs didn't attack at first.

Ruth said she was walking home from her school bus stop about 4 p.m. when the two pit bulls approached her in the 3900 block of Cypress Knee Lane. She said she froze as the black and white dogs approached, hoping they would leave her alone. They passed her, but when Lopez turned around to see if they had left, they were following her.

"They started chasing me and I started screaming," Ruth said. "I dropped my backpack and the white one got in front of me and I tripped, and the black one got behind me and grabbed my ankle with his teeth. I was crying and screaming."

She said a neighbor tried to beat the dogs away with a stick, but the dogs attacked him as well. Ruth and the neighbor then ran to a nearby truck and climbed into the bed.

Meanwhile, someone had called an ambulance, Ruth said. Five or 10 minutes after it arrived, the dogs attacked the 7-year-old girl farther down the street, dragging her along the sidewalk as neighbors and paramedics rushed to her aid.

The dogs finally released the girl and escaped into a nearby wooded area, where they were shot and killed by the deputies, who were searching for them in the brush.

"They pretty much do what they have to do to protect people," said Lt. John Martin, sheriff's spokesman.
After the attack, Carlos Lopez, Ruth's father, said pit bulls should be banned in Harris County.

"I know it's a nice-looking dog, but it's not a pet. My daughter was lucky," said Lopez, who said he had a pit bull puppy three years ago but gave it away because it was too aggressive.

Tougher penalties sought

A spate of pit bull attacks has compelled state lawmakers to introduce bills imposing stiffer penalties for owners of pit bulls that attack people.

Senate Bill 405, introduced by Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, will require tighter control of dogs.
Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, has introduced legislation to give Harris County the power to ban dangerous pets. He also is pushing another bill that allows the state's four largest counties — Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Bexar — to regulate animal sales by roadsides and in parking lots in unincorporated areas.

Other lawmakers are pushing bills aimed at increasing criminal penalties for owners whose dogs cause serious bodily injury or death.

It's currently a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

The owner of a dog that kills someone unprovoked could be charged with a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison under House Bill 1355 by Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown. Serious injury could draw a third-degree felony charge, punishable by two to 10 years. The owner would have to be criminally negligent or know that the dog was dangerous and fail to properly secure it.

Under a bill by Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, a fatal dog attack could mean a third-degree felony charge for the owner, and a serious-injury attack would be a state jail felony carrying a sentence of up to two years.
In Conroe, the City Council recently passed a dangerous-dog ordinance designed to protect residents from dogs running at large in the community.

The ordinance requires dangerous dogs to be spayed or neutered, micro chipped, handled on a leash by a capable person older than 18, and kept in an enclosure with 8-foot walls, a concrete floor and a roof.
The new law also carries fines of up to $500 per offense.

The proposed legislation was spurred by the attack of a 10-year-old San Antonio girl who died after being attacked by her neighbor's dog while trying to help the animal after it had gotten its collar caught on a chain-link fence.

Last Thanksgiving, a 4-year-old Houston boy was killed after he was attacked by two pit bulls. Pedro "Pitchy" Rios Jr. died after being injured by the dogs outside his home in east Harris County.

The boy and his 2-year-old brother, Peter, were playing outside when the pit bulls attacked. The younger boy managed to run away.

Pedro's mother, Rosa Isela Rios, intervened but was unable to save her son.

Dog attack sends woman to hospital
Naperville police say more charges possible

February 26, 2007

Naperville police are considering filing criminal charges against a woman following an incident, in which the dog she was walking allegedly attacked and mauled two smaller dogs and repeatedly bit their owner and a good samaritan.

DuPage County Animal Care and Control officers as of Friday had not decided the fate of the 5-year-old male mixed American Staffordshire terrier implicated in a melee that sent the owner of the smaller dogs to a hospital, police Lt. Dave Hoffman said.

The confrontation occurred at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 15, as Naperville resident Bonnie S. Toye was walking the terrier.

Hoffman said the alleged attack occurred on the 100 block of East Bailey Road, in the city's southeast side.
The police report indicated the dog began snarling and lunging after it apparently caught sight of a 44-year-old neighborhood woman walking her two pet Cairn terriers on the same sidewalk.

The owner of the Cairn terriers was repeatedly bitten by Toye's dog as she tried to rescue her pets. A passerby, a 57-year-old man, also was bitten several times after he came to the woman's aid, Hoffman said.

The man declined emergency medical treatment, but the owner of the Cairn terriers was taken by ambulance to Edward Hospital in Naperville. Hoffman said he did not know the severity of the woman's injuries or whether or not she remained hospitalized Friday.

Toye also was bitten during the fracas but not seriously injured, Hoffman said. She ultimately brought the dog under control and returned it to its owner's home not far from the scene, he said.

Toye, 48, was issued a municipal public nuisance citation, although Hoffman said additional charges "may be pending."

Dog kills dog, injures woman in attack

February 23, 2007

EFFORT — An 82-year-old woman was slightly hurt and her Yorkshire terrier was killed in a vicious dog attack Thursday morning in Chestnuthill Township.

Frances Andrews was walking Peppy, her 8-year-old Yorkie, along Deer Trail Drive in the Birches III development shortly after 10 a.m., when a neighbor's pit bull mix rushed at them and attacked Peppy.

Andrews picked Peppy up, cradled him in her arms and tried to protect him from the assault, but the aggressor dog managed to pry Peppy loose from Andrews' grasp.

Peppy was killed in the attack. Andrews was bitten three times, but was not seriously hurt.

"The dog must have gotten hold of Peppy's collar," a shaken but composed Andrews said Thursday night. "I'm lucky he did not tear me up."

Andrews, a widow who has lived in the Birches for 22 years, praised her neighbors in the close-knit community for helping her get through one of the worst days of her life.

"They were all so great today," she said.

One of those neighbors took Andrews to the Geisinger Medical Center in Mount Pocono to be sure she was OK.

The owner of the attacker dog, a woman who lives near Andrews, tried to call the dog back home during the incident, but did not leave her house to try to help, Andrews said.

"What I don't understand is why she didn't run to get her dog instead of just calling it," she said.

Once the attack ended with Peppy dead, the woman came outside, apologized and took her dog back in the house.

She did not stick around to speak with authorities, however, saying she had to take a family member to a pressing medical appointment, according to Andrews.

State police responded and sat in the woman's driveway, waiting for her to come home. They summoned Monroe County Dog Warden George Nixon, who impounded the dog.

The dog that killed Peppy had caused trouble in the neighborhood before, said both Andrews and her neighbor and friend Judy Delp.

"It chased me in my own yard about five days ago; I had to pick up Peppy and run back in the house," Andrews said.

Some residents of the neighborhood would not let their dogs out of their own yards for fear of the dog that killed Peppy, Delp said.

Andrews and Delp both said they heard the attacker dog was put down Thursday evening, but Nixon, the dog warden, could not be reached to confirm it.

Andrews, who had no other pets, said it will take a long time to recover from her loss.

"After I lost my husband that dog meant the world to me," she said

Dog owner may face prison stretch

28 February 2007

THE owner of a dangerous dog which attacked a young boy could face a prison sentence as he is already on a suspended sentence for assault.

On Monday at Huntingdon Magistrates' Court, Michael Feehily, 38, of Norfolk Road, Huntingdon, changed his plea to guilty despite having denied since September a charge of having an out of control dog.

The charge follows the dog's attack on four-year-old George Brown in August of last year.

Feehily's partner, Toni Badcock, 30, has already served a prison sentence for similar charges relating to the same American bulldog, as she was at home without Feehily when the dog twice attacked children.

Following the second attack, George Brown had to undergo four hours of surgery and have 200 stitches after the dog seized him by the face. He had been playing with friends and his sister in Norfolk Road near his home. Another child, aged seven, also needed hospital treatment.

Following the attack the dog, Buddy, was destroyed. The animal had been re-homed with Feehily 11 months earlier from Wood Green Animal Shelters in Godmanchester.

Feehily was told he would have to appear at Peterborough Crown Court, at a date yet to be set, because his suspended sentence for assault causing actual bodily harm imposed on September 14, 2005 was still running.

In October, Ms Badcock, a mother of young children, was sentenced to nine months in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of being in charge of an out of control dog.

Dog owner sentenced to jail, fines for dog attack

The victim, Colona resident Rocci Mascari, said it's a start.

The defendant, Kurt Davis, left the downtown Geneseo courtroom Wednesday visibly upset.
Mr. Davis, the owner of three pit bull terriers that ran onto Mr. Mascari's property June 30 and tore apart his 14-year-old German shepherd, was sentenced to 120 days in the Henry County Jail and placed on 18 months of conditional discharge by Judge Dana McReynolds.

Mr. Davis was also ordered to pay $1,494 to the county for housing his pit bulls after they attacked Mr. Mascari's dog, and fined $1,000.

"This is where the buck stops," Mr. Mascari said afterwards. "Next time, it could be a kid that's attacked."
Judge McReynolds found Mr. Davis guilty of reckless conduct, a Class A misdemeanor.

Assistant Henry County state's attorney James Cosby had asked for the maximum penalty of 364 days in jail, 30 months probation and a $2,500 fine.

In his closing arguments, Mr. Cosby said this isn't the first time Mr. Davis has had problems with his dogs. He said a similar incident happened in Bureau County, where Mr. Davis was placed on probation.
"That didn't get his attention," Mr. Cosby told the judge.

Mr. Cosby said Mr. Davis moved from Rock Island County due to dog problems, under the stipulation that if he left the county wouldn't press charges against him.

"Our patience is up," Mr. Cosby said. "He's not a responsible (dog) owner."

Mr. Mascari testified that Mr. Davis' dogs ran onto his property and mauled his dog so severely that she had to be euthanized. Testimony indicated Mr. Davis had five pit bull terriers loose with him while on his mother's property, which is adjacent to Mr. Mascari's.

Mr. Davis did not testify Wednesday, but his attorney, John McGehee, called several witnesses on his behalf.
Those witnesses testified the dogs in question were friendly with them and never harmed anyone.
Mr. Davis had no comment after Wednesday's hearing.

Judge McReynolds said if Mr. Davis pays all his fines and costs by March 30, his sentence will be reduced to 60 days in jail. Of that, he would serve 30 days with day-for-day credit, assuming he has no problems at the jail.

Mr. Mascari has a pending civil lawsuit against Mr. Davis and his mother, Judy Davis.

Child seriously injured in dog attack

Victim: Dog attack was unprovoked
Boy remains hospitalized with torn calf muscles

3-7-07

An attack by wild dogs left a man needing more than 2000 stitches. Robert Wall, 28, was bitten 182 times on the head, arms and legs by four pit bulls and a chow in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

Pit bull attack breeds fear

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Pit bull vs. poodle.

And the poodle was on a chain.

Guess which one won?

Monday afternoon, a loose pit bull ripped into the throat of Ruby, a 12-year-old poodle mix. Owner Patsy Downs, 61, had to put Ruby down the next day.

Still shaken, Downs grimaces and spits out, "They don't never have that dog on a leash."

That's not uncommon in Peoria, especially with pit bulls and especially on the South End. Moreover, Downs and her family say the neighborhood is so lousy with pit bulls that some residents stay inside.

"The neighbors say they can't put their kids out because of the dogs," Downs says.

Ruby, a spunky ball of fluff, served as something of a watchdog for Downs. The dog would bark like crazy whenever anyone would come near Downs' small rental home at 3035 W. Meidroth St.

From the cement stoop stretches a chain leash. Downs typically would put Ruby on the leash and watch as the pooch would do her business. That's what they did Monday afternoon.

But a pit bull appeared out of nowhere, dashed into the yard and snapped its jaws around Ruby's throat. The poodle fell prone and still, as if playing dead. The pit bull didn't attack again, but stayed next to Ruby, barking.

Downs called for help, and an animal-control officer arrived from the Peoria Animal Welfare Shelter. The officer captured the pit bull and took it to the pound.

Meanwhile, Downs and her family took Ruby to a veterinary hospital. Its neck had been crushed badly, making breathing difficult. The vet jabbed a tracheostomy tube into the dog's throat to allow breathing, then sent Ruby home with Downs to monitor the pooch's condition.

But the next day, Ruby's breathing grew worse, prompting another trip to the hospital. The vet said the prognosis looked bad.

Downs cradled Ruby in her arms one last time.

"I told her, 'It'll be all right,'" Downs says. "And I petted her."

Then she turned over the dog to be put out of its misery.

Says Downs' daughter Mary Jordan, "This was a family dog. It shouldn't have happened."

Meantime, PAWS contacted the owner of the pit bull, Angela Sierra, 3032 W. Seibold St., who recently had moved into the house behind Downs. Sierra's backyard is ringed by a chain-link fence, but Downs and her family say the pit bull - like many others - roamed the neighborhood off-leash.

Ruby's medical treatment and euthanization cost $636. Downs could ask Sierra to pay, but Downs isn't too hopeful - as Sierra has not so much as offered an apology for the dog attack.

I couldn't reach Sierra for comment. This matter apparently marks her first run-in with PAWS.

Sierra must decide what she wants done with her pet. To get it back, she would have to pay a $105 reclamation fee and a $125 fine, plus agree to get the animal spayed.

Until two years ago, Peoria city ordinances allowed PAWS to declare an attacking dog "vicious" and order it put down. But a 2005 state law now takes precedence. A dog can be deemed vicious and then euthanized only if a person is seriously hurt, or killed.

But in the case of a dog-on-dog attack, the offending animal - such as pit bull who bit Ruby - can be declared only "dangerous," bringing only penalties like fines. Only after three canine attacks can a dog be deemed vicious.

Downs isn't alone in her apprehension over roaming pit bulls. A block away on Seibold Street, an elderly woman recalls talking to a neighbor outside two weeks ago. She had been cradling her year-old miniature schnauzer when she saw two pit bulls run toward her. She panicked and ran, in the process dropping the dog.

"The pit bulls, they grabbed each end and pulled her apart," the woman says.

She didn't bother calling PAWS. Instead, she just buried her dog in her backyard.

PAWS director Lauren Malmberg has heard endless pit-bull horror stories. She doesn't doubt that an entire neighborhood could be gripped with fear.

"They should be," she says.

Though any type of dog can attack, pit bulls are bred to be aggressive, she says. They are a popular breed, especially on the South End, where many young men buy and breed the dogs as a statement of power.

Each year, PAWS handles about 450 dog-bite calls and 3,500 dogs. About 40 percent of those dogs are pit pulls. In fact, of the shelter's 26 stray cages, about half typically are filled with pit bulls on any given day.

Some get picked up. But most don't because the owners never show up. Because of their criminal past, many owners shy away from showing identification to any law enforcement, even dog catchers. So they instead leave the dog at PAWS and buy a new pit bull elsewhere - and often lose the replacement, as well.

"It's amazing how quickly these people go through these dogs," Malmberg says.

Schoolboy loses lip in dog attack

Skin from John's leg was grafted onto his lip in a two-hour operation A nine-year-old boy's top lip was ripped off when his pet dog tried to snatch a biscuit out of his mouth. John Henderson needed a skin graft after the Staffordshire bull cross Simba attacked him at his home in North Shields, North Tyneside. Parents Russell and Muriel have had the dog, which the family raised from a puppy, destroyed and have given away another Staffordshire bull terrier. John must now wait six weeks before the extent of the damage is known. Mrs Henderson said she would never have another dog in the house following the incident on 4 March. She said: "It was horrible - our worst nightmare. I was in the kitchen with John and he asked if he could have a biscuit. "He was stroking Simba, who was on the bench, then the dog went for it as John was eating it. Skin graft "The dog bit his lip and held on to it. He was just hanging on, and that is when he pulled the skin away. "John was screaming and was trying to feel his mouth." The schoolboy underwent a two-hour skin graft from his leg at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, and his mother believes he will need at least two more operations. Staffordshire bull terriers are not one of the breeds subject to ownership or breeding restrictions under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.

Island dog attack results in fine, probationary period

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

DAUPHIN ISLAND -- A dog owner was fined $500 Monday and told that his pit bull must go for six months on good behavior, following the December attack of a man who was taking an afternoon walk.
Bowen Allen pleaded guilty in Dauphin Island Municipal Court to charges of keeping dangerous animals, failing to inoculate them for rabies and allowing them to roam loose.

Shortly after the Dec. 9 attack, a police officer shot both of Allen's dogs when they rushed him. He was trying to contain the dogs in a nearby neighborhood until an animal control officer could arrive.

Allen's boxer was killed, but the pit bull survived. Because of its wounds, the dog's right rear leg was later amputated.

Monday's courtroom result didn't please the victim, Charles Bridges, 64, who was attacked in front of his Buchanan Street home as he began to take an afternoon walk. He suffered several nasty bites to his legs in the attack, but none of the injuries were debilitating.

"They're going to have a child mauled down here if they don't get the animal ordinance they need," Bridges said.

"On three legs or four," he said, referring to the pit bull, "that's a dangerous animal."

Bridges said he wants the remaining dog destroyed. But the town's animal control ordinance doesn't give Municipal Judge James Lackey the power to euthanize animals deemed to be dangerous, according to the town's prosecuting attorney, Jay Ross.

The Town Council last week discussed toughening up its animal control ordinance, but no action was taken.
Allen and members of his family who were present at Monday's court proceeding declined a Press-Register reporter's requests for comment.

Permitting one's pet to roam loose is a class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500 and/or up to three months in jail.

On that charge, Lackey gave Allen a 6-month probationary period.

For the other two offenses, Allen was fined $250 apiece, plus court costs, bringing the total amount owed to $900.

3/16/2007 3:42:49 PM

On March 11 at about 4 p.m. Steve Davies was walking his 20-week-old black Labrador in the park at the corner of Nutmeg and Jackson in Murrieta. Unprovoked, two pit bulls attacked his puppy, biting its back legs, he said.

When Davies picked up his puppy, a boxer joined the fray and bit at the Labrador. Davies said that at that point he held his dog above his head while the other three dogs lunged at him.

The puppy needed stitches in both legs and a drain in one due to a damaged muscle. Davies himself suffered puncture wounds to both his hands and arms. He is asking anyone who witnessed the attack to contact him, as he wishes to find the owners of the pit bulls and the boxer.

Second Day Of Testimony Begins In Dog Attack Trial

Grandma charged over dog attack

The grandmother of a five-year-old girl who was mauled to death by a dog has been charged with her death. Ellie Lawrenson from Merseyside, was attacked by a pit bull dog which was owned by her uncle. She was staying with her grandmother Jacqueline Simpson at the time of the attack on New Year's Eve 2006. Police have also charged her uncle Kiel Simpson with having a pit bull, which is a breed of dog banned under law because they are considered dangerous. Jacqueline Simpson has been charged with manslaughter. Manslaughter is when a person didn't necessarily mean to kill somebody, but could be responsible for the death. She suffered serious injuries trying to save Ellie from the dog during the attack.

Teen Saves Boy From Dog Attack

Woman Hospitalized After Dog Attack

Armed with only a fireplace shovel and stern voice, Poulsbo resident Jerry Sage confronted a 3-year-old chocolate-colored pit bull attacking his neighbor Tuesday morning. the pit bull. The two dogs left their owner’s yard through an open gate, according to police reports.

"I didn’t even think," Sage said of his actions. "It all happened so fast."

Terry Stump, a contractor working on a site next to the house where the dogs live, was outside when he heard a woman screaming for help.

He got in his car to look for the woman. When he drove onto the street, he saw the pit bull walking away while Sage stood over the woman, protecting her from the dog.

"One of my neighbors did a very heroic thing," Stump said about Sage. "I could hear the lady yelling; it was just awful. If he hadn’t gotten there when he did, I don’t know what would’ve happened."

Sage attempted to stop the woman’s bleeding by applying a sweater to the wounds on her foot and arms. Stump described the woman as "incoherent," saying that her "eyes were up in her head."

The pit bull had tried to pull the woman into its owner’s yard. A thin pool of blood remained in the driveway hours after the attack. The Poulsbo Fire Department arrived and took the woman to Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton where she received stitches for the bite wounds. As of Tuesday evening, she was in fair condition and was expected to stay overnight at the hospital, Harrison spokeswoman Patti Hart said.

Poulsbo Police reports show that around 10:45 a.m., the pit bull and Great Dane got out of their owners’ yard, which is fenced-in and holds a sign reading "I can make it to the gate in 3 seconds. Can you?" The victim’s home is to the right of the house, while Sage and his wife live across the street.

In an attempt to get the Great Dane to return to its owner’s home, the victim threw biscuits into the yard, a strategy police said she’d learned from neighbors if the dog ever got out. The pit bull also went through the gate before attacking the woman.

This isn’t the first time the dog has attacked someone in the neighborhood, Poulsbo Police Sgt. Bill Playter confirmed.

An animal control officer from the Kitsap Humane Society took custody of the pit bull after the incident. The dog will be quarantined for 10 days, which is normal procedure, said Ben Duenas, an animal control officer.

The dog’s owner decline to comment, but according to Stump, she was very upset and is a "responsible pet owner."

NZ woman dies after dog attack

A 56-year-old New Zealand woman has died after being savaged by two dogs as she went for a morning walk this morning, police said.

It was not known what prompted the attack and the dogs have since been destroyed.

Virginia Ohlson suffered injuries to her lower limbs when she was mauled by the dogs in the central North Island town of Murupara.

Nearby residents heard the attack and raced to the woman's aid, but she died while being rushed to hospital in an ambulance.

Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Loper said the owner of the dogs - one believed to be a pit bull and the other a Staffordshire cross - was devastated by the attack and was cooperating fully with police.

"A decision as to what charges the owner of the dogs will face will not be made until after the investigation has been completed," he said.

"It is not clear what sparked the attack."

He said the cause of death was not yet known.

"A postmortem examination will be conducted later today. However, it is unclear when the result of that examination will be known," he added.

Ohlson lived in Murupara and regularly walked past the property where the dogs stayed.

Fatal Dog Attack On Woman Leads To Charges

56-year-old Virginia Ohlson died after being attacked by a pitbull as she was out for a walk near her home, and now criminal charges could soon follow

56-year-old Virginia Ohlson died after being attacked by a pitbull as she was out for a walk near her home, and now criminal charges could soon follow.

Neighbors heard the vicious attack and tried to get help there as soon as possible by calling ambulances to the scene. Virginia was alive when they arrived and was treated for cuts, supposedly to the lower leg. She died in the ambulance though on the way to the hospital, the Rotorua Hospital.

The cause of death was shock and trauma.

The owner is working with police and the pitbull has been killed. This comes as a ban is being pushed to ban pitbulls in New Zealand.

Dogs though was being defended in this matter with groups such as The Kennel Club saying that the owners are responsible, not the dogs, for the offenses.

The owner of the dog could no face some serious charges for the
attack.

Dog attack injures woman in St. Paul

Pit Bull Disfigures 3-Year-Old Girl's Face

Girl's Parents Want Dog Put Down

INDIANAPOLIS -- A 3-year-old girl is recovering from her injuries after she was bitten in the face by a neighbor's pit bull in the Mars Hill area of Indianapolis Saturday. Rayv in Crawford has been at Methodist Hospital since the attack. Her parents told 6News' Julie Pursley that she was playing with another child in the neighbor's yard when the dog bit her.

We allowed our 15-year-old son to walk her down there and play in the yard with the baby," said Carl Crawford, Rayvin's father. "The babies were playing with a ball. She missed the ball and the dog attacked the baby."Rayvin Crawford was carried home and taken to a hospital, where she underwent surgery and was given more than 200 stitches."Her face was ripped apart," said Rene Robinson, the girl's mother."Why these people would let the dog out in the yard with these children playing, I don't know," Crawford said.The 2-year-old male pit bull was taken to Animal Care and Control. Rayvin's parents want the dog put down, but authorities said the owner wants the dog back and that its fate will be up to a judge."A lot of other things could happen. The dog could be placed somewhere else or it could be euthanized, just depending on how the judge feels about this case," said Media Wilson, of Animal Care and Control. Rayvin's parents said doctors told them the girl might need more surgeries."We don't know if she's smiling. We don't know if she's sad. There's no emotion," said Rene Robinson, Rayvin's mother. "She's not my … she's not the same."6News tried to contact the dog's owner, but was unable to reach that person. Pursley said the owner now faces about $700 in fines.

Man Injured In Pit Bull Attack

Neighbors Have Mixed Feelings About Dogs, Owners

INDIANAPOLIS -- Just days after a 3-year-old girl was mauled by a pit bull, another dog attack has injured a 61-year-old man.Ed Stanley said he was checking around an investment property he had just bought in the 800 block of Gray Road when two pit bulls charged, trapping him in a corner."The smaller dog was working this leg and he got me -- several bites here," Stanley said.

Neighbors called for help as the dogs tore at Stanley's flesh."It seemed like it was about 10 hours fighting them off, but it was probably about two or three minutes," Stanley said.As Stanley bled, officers fire shots at one of the pit bulls. The dog went down, but then got up and ran."(They) shot the dog three times and he was still running. Eventually, it took a man with a shotgun to bring him down," Stanley said.The other pit bull got away. A neighbor who didn't want to be identified said vicious dogs run loose in the area. She owns a pit bull, but said she treats her animal with care."It's according to how you raise them," the woman said."They're (pit bulls) getting a bad rap," said Mark Miller, another neighbor. "There are some bad owners, but it's the owners, not the dog. Put the owners in jail."Another neighbor, Gary Sayer, said he worries about his granddaughter being outside with dogs running loose."She's our pride and joy. So, we don't want anything to happen to her," Sayer said. Stanley said he just doesn't want what happened to him to happen to others."I think if you've got them … just have a big fence, a big, strong fence," Stanley said.The dogs' owners have not been found.

Dog Bite Prison Term Upheld

LITTLE ROCK — The state Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a Sebastian County judge’s decision to revoke the suspension of a Fort Smith man’s sentence after the man’s dog bit a woman.

Circuit Judge James Marschewski ruled last June that Dustin McKinney had committed the offense of third-degree battery when his pit bull, Snugs, escaped from his yard and bit Sharon Sicard on the leg as she was passing his house on April 8, 2006.

Sicard was treated at an emergency room and referred to a plastic surgeon. Marschewski revoked McKinney’s suspended sentence for theft by threat, residential burglary and theft of property and reinstated McKinney’s original three-year prison term.

According to testimony at the revocation hearing, McKinney owned three dogs that were rarely on chains. The dogs had escaped from McKinney’s yard before and had sometimes bitten people, witnesses testified.

Snugs had shown a propensity to harm people and therefore could be considered a deadly weapon, Marschewski found. The judge concluded that McKinney should have been aware of the substantial and unjustified risk of harm in allowing Snugs to escape from his yard, which was surrounded by a 3-foot fence that Snugs was able to leap.

Marschewski sentenced McKinney to three years in prison.

Snugs and her six puppies were ordered destroyed in a separate hearing. Prosecutor Steve Tabor said the puppies likely had been imprinted with their mother’s aggressive tendencies.

McKinney admitted Snugs had been involved in at least one other biting incident, but on appeal he argued it was unclear whether other incidents described in testimony involved Snugs or one of his other dogs.

The Court of Appeals rejected McKinney’s claim of insufficient evidence.

“The preponderance of the evidence ... supports the circuit court’s conclusion that McKinney committed third-degree battery by negligently causing Sicard’s physical injury with a deadly weapon — his dog Snugs,” Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. wrote in the court’s unanimous opinion.

7-year-old stable after dog attack

NORTHPORT - A 7-year-old boy attacked by a neighbor's pit bull in Northport was in stable condition at DCH Regional Medical Center, his mother said.

Kristin Townsend said her son, Koby, was attacked Thursday and has bite wounds on his left shoulder and biceps. She expected him to remain in the hospital at least through the weekend. Koby had just finished his first-grade year at Walker Elementary School

Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Sgt. Andy Norris said the attack happened shortly after two pit bulls escaped from their pens during feeding at about 6:15 p.m.

Norris said a neighbor managed to pry the pit bull off of Koby, but then the dog turned and bit him as well before the dog's owner finally restrained the dog. Townsend said several neighbors who were volunteer firefighters kept Koby stabilized by giving him oxygen and applying pressure to his wounds until the ambulance arrived and took him to DCH.

"I'm scared this will happen again," Townsend told The Tuscaloosa News for a story Saturday. "Koby's never been bitten before, but one of his friends was bitten by one of the pit bulls in their yard a little more than six months ago." The dog that attacked Koby has been quarantined at a veterinarian clinic where it will stay for a minimum of 10 days, as is the procedure for dog bite cases.

The case remains under investigation.

Indianapolis girl has surgery after dog attack

May 25, 2007

Dogs Attack Santa Maria Mailman

"May 25, 2007 10:18 AM EST"

SANTA MARIA

A Santa Maria woman's dogs break loose attacking a mailman.

But one of Santa Maria's finest comes to the rescue.

The second dog attack in a week's time on the Central Coast sends a mail carrier to the hospital.

It happened just after noon Thursday on the 1700 block of north Lincoln in Santa Maria.

Last Thursday, two Nipomo children were attacked by an American bull dog.

Thursday, a mail carrier was savagely bitten by three pit bull mixes.

Sandra Moreno-Tannan was in the backyard feeding her three dogs, Bebe, Bubba, and Baby when the animals started to get agitated.

"They smelled the mailman and as they do, dogs for some reason don't like mailman. I don't know why. They got out," said Sandra Moreno-Tannan

The pit-bull lab mixes chased the mail-carrier down the street biting his arms and legs.

Corporal Jack Dunn of the Santa Maria Police Department was patrolling in the area and noticed the dogs attacking the postman.

Dunn immediately drove his car in the direction of the dogs and jumped out scaring them away.

The dogs were removed by animal control for observation.

Tannan isn't sure if she wants them back.  

"Bebe is my husband's dog and he's sentenced to six to nine years to life in prison, so he probably won't be coming home to take care of her. She's just too big to handle. I can't walk her, she's too heavy," said Moreno-Tannan.

Tannan said she was more upset about the dogs injuring the mailman than them being taken away.

"Soldiers die everyday, firemen get burned, postman get bit. I don't know why dogs do it. But I feel really bad for him and his family and I hope he recovers soon," said Moreno-Tannan. 

The victim, Eddie Canales, was taken to Marian Medical Center, treated and released with stitches to his arms and legs.

Action News spoke with Eddie Canales on the phone.

He is recovering at home.

He is a dog-owner himself but hopes "the ones that attacked him are destroyed."

Police have determined the incident was an accident as the dogs were restrained in the backyard and broke loose.

Chesterfield Officer Injured In Dog Attack

May 29, 2007

A Chesterfield County police officer is recovering after being attacked by two pitbulls early Tuesday morning.

According to police, it happened around 3 a.m. Tuesday near the intersection of China Berry and Marbrett Drive. Authorities say the officer was on a routine patrol when the dogs attacked.

The officer suffered minor injuries during the incident. Responding officers were forced to shot the dogs, according to investigators.

Charges considered after dog attack

May 30, 2007

Bite victim still in hospital nearly a week after attack

Lodi officials want dog destroyed and owner barred from ownership

An elderly Lodi man remains hospitalized nearly a week after a dog bit him Saturday, and city officials want the dog killed.

In court papers filed Thursday, Deputy City Attorney Janice Magdich asked that a judge declare the 3-year-old pit bull vicious and order it destroyed, and also asked that the owner be barred from owning dogs for three years.

The dog's owner, Sonja Gabales, did not immediately return a telephone message.

"I kind of feel sorry for them, but that dog is too dangerous," said Donald Morita, who is on strict bed-rest due to a fractured spine he suffered after the dog bit and knocked him over.

The black and white dog, Brutus, twice bit people last year and was also impounded three times in 2006 for running at -large, Magdich wrote in court papers.

It is only the fifth time the city has taken such action involving dogs in the seven years Stephen Schwabauer said he has worked as city attorney and previously as deputy city attorney. In four of those, the owner relinquished the dog. The fifth case went to trial and a judge ultimately ordered that the dog be destroyed.

On Saturday, according to a police report filed with the court papers, Morita walked up to Gabales' door in the 500 block of South Rose Street.

Morita, 85, intended to ask Gabales to keep the dog in her house while workers repaired a fence Gabales shares with Morita's sister. He was paying for the fence repairs because the dog regularly jumped the fence into his sister's yard, Morita said Thursday.

He had gotten halfway up the walkway when the 70-pound dog burst through an unlatched screen door, knocked Morita to the ground and bit his arm.

Morita remains in the hospital, where he has undergone surgery to reattach tendons and muscles in his arm and he needed 25 staples. He has a broken vertebra and a concussion.

Brutus, who is properly registered and vaccinated, is known to animal control officers and even bit Animal Services Officer Jennifer Bender in December, leaving tooth marks but not breaking the skin. The dog also bit a bicyclist last year, though the victim did not want to file a complaint.

At Bender's request, Gabales took the dog to the animal shelter to be quarantined, common procedure after a dog bite. Gabales told the officer that the dog is very protective of her daughter, and acknowledged that her screen door does not latch, Bender wrote in a report.

That acknowledgment, along with the dog's history, prompted city officials to file the court papers, citing Gabales' "apparent indifference to the need to secure her dog."

Gabales' case is being handled through a court process with a judge, rather than an administrative hearing, due to the "severity of the attack," Magdich said.

In a case last year, for instance, the city moved to have half a dozen pit bulls declared vicious after they were among 19 dogs seized from a Lodi home. That matter was handled administratively because the dogs displayed vicious behavior but had not attacked anyone, Magdich said.

Gabales' matter is set for a hearing June 11 in Lodi court.

An open letter to pit bull-defenders

You strut along the road with your four-legged magnum by your side.

Leashed, thank goodness.

But menacing nonetheless.

Your pit bull - complete with studded collar - does not impress.

It does not scream macho or gangsta.

All it says is "I'm stubborn enough to own a dog that is inclined to attack and sometimes requires a pry bar because its jaws lock so tight on its prey. I can't afford homeowners insurance because of this risky dog. No neighborhood will allow me in. And I owe thousands in animal-control fines."

That is how pit bull owners should be perceived.

Unfortunately, it's quite the opposite.

Pit bulls were already glorified by rappers. Now the suspicion that Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is a heavyweight in the dog fighting world and possibly linked to as many as 55 pit bulls found at his home only fuels the cool dog perception.

Watch pit bull breeders cash in on No. 7.

Despite the deadly costs.

Of course, not all pit bull breeders and owners are involved in dog fighting. But even those of you that aren't need to realize what kind of risk you're taking by having this breed in your home.

Over Memorial Day weekend, a 3-year-old boy was mauled to death on Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah.

Few details have been publicized because the Army is less than forthcoming about the case to the Savannah Morning News.

What is known is a pit bull, pit bull mixed breed and a small terrier breed were seen standing over the toddler.

Chances are the response from pit bull defenders will be: "Blame the deed, not the breed." And "Don't condemn a dog for what's usually the fault of the owner. You're looking at the wrong end of the leash.''

Or "It's the fault of the kid's mom for not teaching him to stay away from unfamiliar dogs.''

With all those excuses, what you fail to realize is a child died a terrible death, one of the worst imaginable.

Pit-bull breeders and owners, stop breeding and buying these animals.

Having a certain type of pet is not worth jeopardizing other lives.

Just look at this mere sampling of pit-bull attacks nationwide in May.

In Missouri, a grandfather pulled a neighbor's pit bull off his screaming granddaughter. An Alabama 7-year-old suffered bite wounds on his left shoulder and bicep from a neighbor's pit bull.

An Ohio couple taking their 2-year-old daughter for walk in a stroller witnessed a neighbor's pit bull go straight for the little girl's face, biting her there several times.

After a pit bull nearly took an Indiana girl's arm off, the Indianapolis mayor called for countywide pit bull ban.

Why breed such a dog? Why put children at such risk?

Cody Fox was 11 when he was mauled by pit bulls in 1998 in central Northern California. Unlike the toddler at Hunter, Cody survived. His ear and arm were partially torn off.

I was working at a newspaper in Redding at the time of the attack and interviewed Cody and his mom.

The dogs dragged him to the ground as Cody walked near his home in rural Tehama County.

The district attorney successfully rallied, with support of the community, for statewide dog-attack legislation. It allows prosecutors to charge dog owners with a misdemeanor or a felony if their animal attacks someone, depending on the severity of the injury and whether the owner knew the dog had a propensity for violence.

The legislation became known as Cody's Law.

If only a similar outcry will be voiced here to make breeding and owning pit bulls as difficult as possible, both financially and socially.

Banning the breed won't work. Determining a dog's breed with certainty is too difficult and a strain on already tightly-stretched animal control.

Instead, neighbors need to report vicious dogs and abusive or neglectful owners and demand compliance to fencing and leash laws. Problem behaviors of dogs and owners often precede attacks and could trigger preemptive steps.

You pit bull breeders and owners should face hefty fines and jail time when your dog attacks as well as high home or renters' insurance rates just for owning such animals.

Without action, other pit bulls will attack.

Next time it could be yours.

If you encounter a vicious dog or experience a vicious dog attack, call 911. A police report is required. Your police department will then determine if Animal Control needs to be notified.

Charges Expected in Pit Bull Attack

6/4/07

Dog held in attack in Poplarville

POPLARVILLE — A vicious dog attack in Poplarville two weeks ago has left one woman maimed and the fate of a dog in question.

Michelle Johnson was attacked in her yard by what she called a pit bulldog on Tuesday, May 22. As a result, she received 36 stitches in her arm.

Johnson said she was standing in her yard speaking to some neighborhood children when the attack happened.

“I didn’t see (the dog) coming. He grabbed my arm and tore the meat clean off, then got the pocket of my jeans. Then he went back after my arm again,” said Johnson.

After finally getting the dog off her, Johnson met her husband in the driveway, and they went to the emergency room, where she received 36 stitches on the back of her left arm.

The dog, “Grub Tub,” belongs to Patrick Hart, son of Keith and Cynthia Hart, the Harts said. The dog was kept in a fenced yard at Keith Hart’s residence on North Main Street, they said.

Keith and Cynthia Hart say this is the first time the dog has attacked anyone unprovoked, but did acknowledge that the dog bit a person who came into their yard one night after midnight unannounced. Keith Hart is unsure why the dog attacked Johnson, but said that his children were taking a neighbor’s dog home and that the pit bull may have thought the children were threatened by the other dog.

Keith Hart says no matter why the dog attacked Johnson, he is terribly sorry for the incident and will help pay for Johnson’s medical bills.

“If we get the dog back, he would go on a chain on a permanent basis, but I doubt we will get him back,” Cynthia Hart said. “I don’t really want him put to sleep. I understand he is violent, but we raised him from a puppy.”

Poplarville Police Chief Charles Fazende said the dog has been placed under quarantine at the Poplarville Animal Shelter since the Friday following the attack, but the mandatory quarantine of 10 days ended Monday.

The reason it took several days to pick up the dog is because the city’s animal control officer quit prior to the attack, and other police officers have been responding to animal calls, Fazende said. The police chief said the officers that are taking over animal control responsibilities are not always aware of animal control laws when they are on a call.

“They did not have all the information as to what they could and couldn’t do,” Fazende said.

Fazende said he is still consulting with City Attorney Martin Smith as to what action can be taken about the dog since the mandatory quarantine has ended. Fazende does not want to release the dog, because he believes the dog is a dangerous animal.

“The dog is not going back to the owner until we make a determination in the best interest of the town,” Fazende said. “That’s why we are taking this slow, to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Pit Bull Owner Fined $2500 For Attack On Couple

Jun 5, 2007 8:18 PM EST

Woman arrested in dog attack

Three pit bulls mauled woman -

BILOXI --Police said Tuesday they have made an arrest in the case of a woman attacked by three pit bulls last week on Haise Street.

Rosemary Henderson, 41, of Haise Street, was arrested Monday and charged with three counts of violating the city's leash laws and three counts of failure to control a vicious animal for the attack that left Teresa Roxanne Touchet in Biloxi Regional Medical Center with serious injuries Thursday. By Tuesday, Touchet had been released from the hospital.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined U.S. dog-attack fatalities from 1979 to 1998. During that period, dogs killed more than 300 Americans, and pit bulls, either purebred or crossbred, accounted for 76 of the deaths, the most of any breed. Purebred or crossbred Rottweilers were responsible for 44 deaths, the second highest. The CDC concluded that Rottweilers and pit bulls were responsible for 67 percent of fatal attacks. A large number of the attacks were by dogs whose breed was unknown. But many pro-pit bull groups contend the CDC study was flawed.

Some experts worry that the practice of dog fighting, along with using the dogs to guard sites of illegal activity, have helped them become the most abused and misunderstood of all breeds. Long Beach and Jackson County are considering dangerous-dog ordinances.

The dogs that allegedly attacked Touchet were picked up by animal control and they have been taken to the Humane Society. One man came to Touchet's aid and pulled her into his car to get her away from the dogs. Another man chased the dogs away with a stick.

2 girls recovering after separate pit bull attacks

St. Paul / In one case, a pit bull partially severed the muscles in an 11-year-old's forearm. In another, a 5-year-old was bitten and knocked to the ground. And both dogs had reportedly bitten people in the past.

After surviving a vicious dog attack three days before, 11-year-old Jamie Khottavongsa sat around with friends on the steps of her St. Paul house Monday, exchanging horror stories.

"My dog did that," said Denareo Hamilton, 10, pointing to a crescent-shaped scar on his arm. "My finger almost came off."

"They get mean," said Nathan Stevens, 11.

Whose wounds were the worst?

"Mine," the usually shy Jamie piped up.

"Hers," Nathan and Denareo agreed.

In separate pit bull attacks in St. Paul late last week, Jamie and 5-year-old Brianna Senn were bitten. In both cases, the dogs had reportedly bitten people in the past.

St. Paul licensing inspectors declared Baby Girl, the 3-year-old female pit bull that attacked Brianna on the East Side, "potentially dangerous" last summer after it bit an adult, said Christine Rozek, deputy director of the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections.

Moomoo, a 3-year-old male pit bull and the dog that attacked Jamie in the Frogtown neighborhood, reportedly bit a woman in January. Licensing inspectors reviewed the case to determine whether the dog should be given a "potentially dangerous" designation, but that label wasn't applied because the bite couldn't be confirmed, Rozek said.

Juanito Cordero, Moomoo's owner, said the dog only bit the woman's jacket.

In Friday's attack, the muscles on Jamie's left forearm were partially severed after Moomoo bit down to the bone, family members said. On her other arm are

Early Friday evening, just before sunset, she was driving a small motor scooter with a neighbor - an 8-year-old girl - riding on the back.

"I pushed the girl off and told her to run," Jamie said. "And then it attacked me."

The dog, which came from neighboring 354 Edmund Ave., lunged at her face, and she protected it with her forearm. The dog then backed off for a second, and Jamie felt a wash of relief - for a moment.

This is the view of Jamie Khottavongsa's left arm, prior to her surgery, showing one of the wounds she suffered after being attacked by a pit bull near her home Friday in St. Paul.

"It came back in and attacked my other arm," she said.

On Saturday afternoon, Brianna was playing a few houses down from her grandmother's home when a pit bull broke off a chain in the back yard at 1836 E. Nebraska Ave., ran around front and out through an open gate, said Kristina Eide, Brianna's mother.

The dog, Baby Girl, approached Eide's 7-year-old son, but he kicked the dog in the face, Eide said. The dog then bit Brianna on the side of her back and knocked her to the ground, causing her to scrape her knees and face, Eide said.

"My daughter screamed like a blood-curdling scream," said Eide, who was inside her mother's home. "I heard it. I knew something was wrong."

Paramedics took Brianna to Children's Hospital and Clinics in St. Paul, Eide said. Brianna's wound was treated, and she was given a rabies shot (she will have to get four additional shots) and released from the hospital, Eide said.

Saturday was supposed to be Brianna's birthday party, which she was celebrating with two of her siblings who have close birth dates, but it was rescheduled to Sunday because of the attack, Eide said. Brianna's activities were limited because she was sore, Eide said.

Eide said she believes pit bulls and their owners need to be monitored better.

"They need to make sure they're not being brought up to be violent or vicious, and that they know how to take care of the animal," she said.

Animal control took custody of both dogs after the attacks. Moomoo's owner signed a waiver Monday that will allow the dog to be killed. Officials are waiting for word from Baby Girl's owners about whether they will sign a waiver, said Bill Stephenson, St. Paul Animal Control supervisor.

Cordero likely will be given a citation, and animal control officers are reviewing the case involving Baby Girl to determine whether the dog's owner can be cited, Stephenson said. There is conflicting information about whether Baby Girl was in a gated yard or ran out, he said.

The Nebraska Avenue home where Baby Girl came from is owned by Armando Abla-Reyes, according to Ramsey County property records. Abla-Reyes, a St. Paul police officer, doesn't live at the home and apparently rents it out, Brianna's grandmother said.

Baby Girl bit an adult last June, and animal control officers cited Lilian Rayes because the dog didn't have a city license or proof of rabies vaccination, Stephenson said. The name on the citation was spelled Rayes, but Stephenson said the proper spelling may be "Reyes."Another person owned Baby Girl, but Rayes reported that she kept the dog at her home, Stephenson said.

It's not clear whether Rayes and Abla-Reyes are related. Neither could be reached for comment Monday.

Cordero said he thought of Moomoo as a son and that it pained him to sign the waiver.

"I did what I thought was best because I knew what happened was wrong," he said.

Cordero said he is torn about whether people should be permitted to own pit bulls. He said he didn't raise his to be a fighter, but they "have a mind of their own."

"They're the most beautiful dogs, but they are vicious," he said. "The one thing I'd like to say to all pit bull owners is, 'You better have a license, and you better have its rabies shots.'"

Man Shot After Dog Dispute

Michael Haynes

Teen suffers dog bite injury

Story created Jul 17, 2007 -

MASON CITY - A Britt teenager was released Tuesday from Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa after being attacked by a pit bull terrier early Monday.

Brittany K. Olson, 17, was allegedly bitten in the face and neck by a pit bull owned by Charlie Kropf, 19, of Mason City, police said.

The incident occurred around 1:19 a.m. near First Street and North Adams Avenue.

Olson was apparently trying to pet the dog when she was attacked, Mason City Police Captain Mike McKelvey said. Kropf was holding the dog's leash.

Brand Olson said her daughter had three layers of stitches in her cheek and more stitches inside her bottom lip.

One puncture wound was 1 1/2 inches deep on Brittany's neck, her mother said.

Kropf was given a vicious animal citation and released to appear in court. The dog will be confined 10 days to verify it does not have rabies.

If Kropf pleads not guilty in court, a court date will be set for him. If he pleads guilty and the dog is deemed vicious, a judge could order that it be euthanized.

Mason City Neighborhood Specialist Pat Otto said she will speak with City Attorney Tom Meyer about holding the dog throughout the court process.

“It's unfortunate that the 17-year-old has to have any type of surgery,” McKelvey said. “Accidents do happen, but it's for the courts to decide if it's vicious or not.”

Olson's father, Curt Olson, said his daughter underwent plastic surgery.

He said she was out with friends when the attack occurred.

"I just don't want the dog to hurt anyone else," Brandy Olson said.

Dog Bite Victim May Need Rabies Shots

Florida Boy Suffers Dog Bites From Pit Bull

A five-year-old boy was severely bitten by a pit bull on Tuesday and needed more than 250 stitches to repair the damage. The dog bite attack happened at the neighbor's home in Polk County.

"He has multiple bites to the head and various different punctures through the lower region of his body," Barker said. "He's also bit through his arms and his legs. He's in good condition right now. He is doing well--he's one strong little kid."

Animal control investigators aren't sure why the dog attacked, but say it is now in quarantine and will eventually be put down.

The child had a three-inch long bite on his scalp and bites to his arms, legs, and face. He is being treated at St. Joseph's Hospital.

Metro Atlanta no stranger to dog fighting

08/05/07

Cy Bunton moved into his south DeKalb neighborhood less than two months ago and he's already turned down two requests to fight his pit bulls.

One man stopped him at the bank after spotting the elaborate dog tattoos on his thick forearms.

"He said 'Hey man, you play with dogs?' " said Bunton, who keeps pit bulls. " 'You want to roll?' "

Another time, someone approached the 30-year-old construction worker right in front of his house. "It's everywhere," Bunton said.

High-rolling dogfights like those Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is accused of staging are a known fixture of the rural South.

But a lower-dollar version of the illegal blood sport — one that's every bit as vicious — is playing out across the metro area. And it's fueled, animal advocates charge, by Georgia's relatively lax dog fighting laws.

Some weeks, as many as six pit bulls bearing what appear to be fighting injuries land in the Fulton County animal shelter. In DeKalb, animal control officers can count on four or five complaints a week of people encouraging pit bulls to tear into each other for pride or cash.

"The big thing is we have a lot of street fighting," said Kevin Hearst, a DeKalb animal control officer.

Across Georgia, fights range from spontaneous matches on the street to semi-organized betting in metro county parks to the elusive operations of rural professionals, authorities say. The rules of the game differ, but fighters all prize one quality: secrecy.

Rarely do authorities catch dog fighting in the act, forcing them to make cases with circumstantial evidence, such as injuries and conditioning equipment.

Absent scars, however, owners can counter that they use the equipment to train the dogs only for weight-pulling competitions or shows.

Bona fide dog fighting — as opposed to animal cruelty or neglect — is hard to prove, officers say.

Consider:

• Tony Self, of Stone Mountain, and a business partner were arrested in Illinois two weeks ago after police searched their van and found starved and dehydrated pit bulls lying in urine and feces.

After investigating, police charged the two men with felony dog fighting and aggravated animal cruelty, alleging they were part of a dog fighting ring that stretched from Texas to Chicago to Georgia and beyond.

Self's home sits on the Gwinnett side of the county line. Last week, Officer Hearst surveyed the 35-year-old's backyard from the DeKalb side, counting 10 muscular dogs chained beside dog houses. Some were hitched to buried vehicle axles.

Most were pit bulls. Self's wife Sherri said the couple keeps 20 dogs that they raise for shows and competitions.

Her husband, she said, was hired to drive the van and believed he was transporting family pets and show dogs "That's all he knew, that's all he did," she said.

• In south DeKalb in April, a resident called to report dogs fighting in a neighbor's yard, animal services records say.

Four pit bulls were seized from a home, along with a treadmill and an apparatus called a spring pole that allows dogs to dangle from tree limbs to strengthen their jaw muscles. Such equipment is often used by dog fighters, an incident report noted.

One dog had "hit marks" — bites often associated with fighting — and another had an old broken leg, the report said. The four dogs and five puppies born at the shelter were euthanized.

Police didn't charge the dogs' owner, Jennifer McDonald, with dog fighting She was cited for violating a county animal cruelty ordinance and failure to obtain rabies shots for all the dogs.

Reached last week, she said she and her 9-year-old son trained the dogs for strength competitions. She disputed that the dogs had any so-called "hit marks" and said she didn't fight the dogs. It was unfair, she said, that the judge found her guilty of cruelty.

• Last September, police searching for a suspected marijuana grower in south Fulton County stumbled upon what looked like, to police, a yard for training pit bulls.

Animal control officers seized 22 pit bulls and two German shepherds. All the pit bulls had either bite wounds or scars, said Fulton Animal Services Executive Director Susan Feingold.

The dogs were also suffering from neglect, said Lt. Reed Pollard of the Tri Cities Narcotics Task Force.

"Some were in really bad shape," he said.

Dog treadmills, hooks for weighing dogs and medicine to treat wounds were also found at the site.

The resident, Marc Younger, was later arrested on marijuana and firearms charges. The Fulton District Attorney's office has been gathering evidence to re-indict Younger and include dog fighting charges, said spokeswoman Lyn Vaughn.

Younger could not be reached for comment.

Opposition to tougher laws

State Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) and animal protection advocates have pushed unsuccessfully for three years to strengthen the state's felony dog fighting law. Objections arose from hunters and owners who train dogs for strength competitions.

Rogers' proposed legislation would make it easier to prosecute dog fighting by spelling out in detail what's illegal beyond staging an actual dogfight. It would make teaching dogs to fight, owning or breeding dogs to be used in fights, or transporting dogs for fighting a violation of state law, for instance.

It would also make it a felony to attend a dogfight. Now, there's no penalty.

"Our law is just weak right now," said Allison Cauthen, an attorney on the board of Georgia Legal Professionals for Animals.

Supporters of the legislation — which includes language to protect hunters and dog show enthusiasts — plan to try again next session.

It's a common misconception that law enforcement needs to catch fighters in the act to charge someone with it, Cauthen said.

Many law enforcement officers aren't trained to recognize the signs of dog fighting and collect evidence to support the charge, she said. The crime hasn't always been a priority for police agencies, she added.

Georgia arrest data show 271 people were charged with dog fighting between 1995 and 2006, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Eight people convicted of the charge were sentenced to prison time, and 107 received only probation, analysis of Department of Corrections data shows.

Still others have received sentences equal to the time they served in county jails awaiting their day in court, such as a Lithonia man who pleaded guilty to dog fighting and aggravated animal cruelty in Cobb County in June.

Leon Cecil Conley was jailed after Cobb police found him and 15 pit bulls at a house in Mableton in January 2006.

Most of the dogs had logging chains on them. Police found injuries on some dogs that a veterinarian said suggested fighting, along with training equipment, said assistant district attorney Jason Saliba.

Conley served 12 months in county jail. He could not be reached for comment.

Richard Rice, Georgia State Director of the Humane Society of the United States, said Southern states surrounding Georgia — including South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee — have strengthened their animal control laws in recent years.

Links to drugs, guns, gangs

The face of dog fighting has evolved, animal advocates say. Once the dominion of enthusiasts who staged matches off country roads for big purses, it's now firmly planted in the underworld of drugs, gangs, weapons and status.

Young men fight their dogs for a small wager or simply for bragging rights.

"They say 'Do you want to bump?'?" Officer Hearst said. "That's the street name for fighting."

Late at night, fighting venues include county parks, empty school yards, business parks and warehouses, Hearst said. He's even heard that Fulton fighters are using self-storage units.

Combating the problem isn't just a matter of strengthening the law, advocates and animal control workers say, it's also about resources.

DeKalb has four certified animal cruelty investigators, but Hearst said he is the only one doing the job at the moment.

He's one of just a handful of people in the metro area with on-the-ground knowledge of local dog fighting He roams the county checking out tips, talking to sources and handing out violations when ordinances are broken.

But, he said, the volume of work is so great that he's often left checking up on reports that are three or four days old.

"We are so understaffed," he said. "It's overwhelming."

Tiffany Phillips, an animal control officer in Clayton County, said the shelter takes in pit bulls with severe wounds about once a week, but officers have little time to investigate.

"We don't really have the manpower to go casing neighborhoods," she said. "I wish we did."

'The most horrific thing'

Pit bulls are loyal, loving pets when raised right, animal experts and owners say.

But owners who treat them poorly and use them to intimidate others have given them a bad reputation. Few families will take them in, and some shelters don't even try to adopt them out, euthanize them instead.

"I would say probably 95 percent of our pits go down," said Beth Vesco, a veterinarian and director of DeKalb Animal Services and Enforcement. "Which is very sad."

Neglected pit bulls are a more overwhelming problem for the Fulton animal shelter than dogs with a clear history of fighting, said executive director Feingold.

A full third of all dogs taken in so far this year were pit bulls and close pit-bull mixes, she said.

Many were so aggressive that they were confined to a 28-run barn the shelter created just to house dangerous dogs.

Yet so-called backyard breeders keep producing more, said Gail Harris, director of the Homeless Pets Foundation.

When her group holds adoptions at local Petsmart, they sometimes see people in the parking lot trying to sell pit bull puppies.

"The biggest thing is that we have to stop that," Harris said. "They're breeding them constantly so they can sell them so they can fight them. It's the most horrific thing."

Dad charged with manslaughter
in dog attack on 7-year-old son

MINNEAPOLIS

The father of a 7-year-old boy who was fatally mauled by a pit bull was charged with manslaughter on Wednesday.

While Zachary King Sr., 30, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, the state's sentencing guidelines would call for probation if he's convicted of second-degree manslaughter since he doesn't have a criminal record, prosecutors said.

Zachary King Jr. died Aug. 16. His family speculated the boy had gone down in the basement of their home to get a puppy. Police said the male pit bull tied up there, which had previously bitten the boy and at least two adults, went for the boy's throat.

The father got a gun and killed the dog, and was injured by the dog himself, but the boy was pronounced dead at a hospital of severe blood loss and asphyxia. The autopsy revealed that the dog bit the boy with such force it severed a vertebra.

The criminal complaint alleged that the father "knowing his dog had a vicious propensity, failed to properly confine his dog and such failure caused the death" of his son.

Zach Jr. had a scar on his lip from a previous attack by the same dog, the complaint said.

One of the other people bitten by the dog named Face was a man installing a neighbor's fence. He sued the family and was paid over $22,000 in a settlement.

Zachary King Sr. told WCCO-TV he feels what happened was a tragic accident, not a crime. He said losing a child is the ultimate punishment for any parent.

"It's a tragedy in our family," he said. "I just lost my only son and now they're trying to press charges against me like I killed my son or something? It's not right."

King suggested that the recent outrage about Atlanta Falcons star Michael Vick's dog fighting case is why prosecutors are being tough on him.

"Just because Michael Vick and all this pit bull stuff going on ... they want to make a big issue over it. I don't know what's going on," he said.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said his office struggled with whether to charge King. But he said the facts of the case precisely meet the requirements of the law: that an animal must be properly confined when it has a history of attacking people.

"It's also a message to all those who have pit bulls out there. If they've got them chained up and they've got kids running around, they don't mix," Freeman said.

Mother Stashes Baby
In Trash Can During Dog Attack

A Fremont woman is recovering from severe injuries to her arms after a pit bull terrier attacked her in her own garage, forcing her to stash her baby in a garbage can for protection.

Thirty-two-year-old Angela Silva received 50 staples and countless stitches as a result of Tuesday's attack.

She says her neighbor's dog wandered into her open garage and lunged at her and her four-month-old son.

After she put the child in a plastic garbage bin, the 80-pound pit bull terrier continued pursuing the baby, knocking over the bin as she fought it off with her arms.

Two men across the street eventually came to her aid and chased away the dog.

Authorities say the owner of the pit bull had received a warning about the dog in May after it bit another neighbor.

Police are still looking for the dog.

Stray pit bull bites animal control officer

Jim Payne

Three pit bull attacks come in one morning

Police shoot two after they turn on their pregnant owner; two cats killed in separate incidents

In the fourth known dog attack involving pit bulls in the Gaithersburg area in the last two months, a vicious dog-on-human attack last week sent a pregnant woman to the hospital and left two dogs dead.

The attack occurred just before 10:30 a.m. on a wooded path in The Downs neighborhood of East Village, according to police.

The 28-year-old woman — who is ‘‘six or seven months” pregnant — was walking the two pit bulls and a German shepherd when a woman walking a pug approached from the other direction, said Officer Diane Tillery, community services officer for the 6th District Police station.

The two mixed-breed pit bulls became agitated and attacked each other. When their owner tried to intervene, one of them turned on her and attacked.

The dog’s jaws clamped on her arm, the pregnant woman ‘‘hit the dog on its head” and managed to tear herself free, then sat on the sidewalk clutching her bloody arm, Tillery said.

The other woman ran to the nearest house and called police.

The dogs were still fighting when the police officer arrived, said police spokeswoman Officer Melanie Hadley. After checking on the woman, the officer fired three shots, killing both dogs.

‘‘She asked [him] to put the dogs down,” Tillery said.

Montgomery County Police Animal Services Division was on its way with a Taser, Tillery said, but the officer ‘‘couldn’t wait,” because of the severity of the situation. A Fire and Rescue crew arrived at 10:40 a.m. and the Animal Services officer arrived at 10:50 a.m., Hadley said.

In trying to break up animal attacks, Animal Services officers employ a variety of non-lethal gear, including snares, catch poles and pepper spray, said Steve Bartlett, field services supervisor for the department. Six of the county’s nine Animal Control officers are trained to use Tasers.

‘‘In every case, Montgomery County police are seeking to use the least force possible. But when someone’s life is in danger, and potentially an officer’s life is in danger, it’s certainly an authorized use of force,” said police spokeswoman Lucille Baur.

The pregnant woman was taken to a hospital with ‘‘severe bite injuries to her arm and scratches to her cheek,” according to a police statement.

Other attacks

In two separate attacks earlier that morning, two cats died as a pit bull and a cocker spaniel ran loose in a Gaithersburg neighborhood a few hundred yards from Gaithersburg Elementary and Gaithersburg Middle schools.

Gaithersburg Animal Control has attributed both deadly cat attacks on a 2-year-old pit bull named Princess, which lived with the cocker spaniel nearby, said director Lisa Holland.

A city Animal Control officer seized the cocker spaniel, but the pit bull got away before eventually returning home, Holland said.

The owners of both dogs were fined $100 for having their dogs on the loose.

City Manager David B. Humpton ordered Princess permanently banned from Gaithersburg, Holland said, because of the danger it posed.

‘‘I’ve been here 20 years, we’ve banned maybe six dogs,” she said, two of which were pit bulls.

In that time, Humpton has ordered two dogs euthanized — a German shepherd four years ago and a mixed breed Chow-Labrador Retriever 12 years ago. Both were because of ‘‘severe attacks” on people, Holland said.

As of Tuesday, Princess the pit bull remained at the Montgomery County Animal Shelter.

‘‘We don’t know what’s going to happen with it,” said a receptionist who did not want to give her name.

Horse attacked by dogs: This quarterhorse Zack, ridden by owner Lisa Adams in better times, was euthanized Sunday due to serious injuries it had suffered from a dog attack in Smith Valley.

A horse was put down in Smith Valley as a result of injuries suffered.

from an attack by neighbors' pitbulls and the horse owner would like to inform residents of this situation and perhaps save an animal's life.

Lisa Adams of Smith Valley said three or four pit bulls attacked her quarter horse gelding "Zack" Sunday morning and inflicted wounds so severe the equine had to be euthanized.

Adams, who helplessly watched her horse, a barrel racer, being attacked by the dogs of neighbors who had just moved into a rental next door, said it will take a while to overcome this attack. She was struck in the head by her horse as they tried to tend to it after the attack and was briefly hospitalized, while a neighbor, kicked by the horse trying to chase off the dogs, also received medical treatment.

In fact Adams was very appreciative of the help she received from neighbors, including three who first responded to her initial cries after seeing the dogs attacking her horse, and others who provided aid later. One brought her stock trailer to take the horse to the veterinarian in Carson Valley while another neighbor sat in the back with the wounded horse.

"The people (who live) around us, I can't thank enough"» They were all so helpful," Lisa said.

The two registered owners of the dogs, the new neighbors, were issued a citation by Lyon County Animal Services, cited for a violation of NRS 68.370, which says permitting dog to chase, worry, injure or kill domestic animals on open range or private property is unlawful, a misdemeanor offense.

However, Ted Bolzle, Animal Services Supervisor, said another citation must be issued as her officer signed this citation, but since she didn't witness the attack the victim must sign it.

A responding Lyon County Sheriff's officer, Deputy Brad Pope, took the initial report until the Animal Services officer, Noni Higley, who was on the other side of the county (only one officer on duty on Sunday), arrived.

The incident began about 7:30 a.m. Sunday in the neighborhood between Day Lane and Artist View in Smith Valley as Mrs. Adams got up and saw a neighbor who had apparently moved in the day before let four dogs out of a small fenced kennel. She said she couldn't tell what kind of dogs they were but admitted she was a little concerned seeing a neighbor with dogs. Her husband Steve, a LCSO deputy, had already left for work.

Lisa Adams then walked to the other side of the house and noticed her 26-year-old mare, who can barely move, walking in circles, dust kicked up.

She ran outside and heard noise in the other horse's stall (a third horse the Adams own is on the other side of their five-acre property). She saw an apparent owner crouched down with one dog to the side and three pit bulls in the stall.

So she ran inside to call 911, Mrs. Adams related, and apparently was screaming for help so the three neighbors arrived. Two tried to get the dogs away from the horse, but one was kicked and injured in the leg, so the other and Mrs. Adams dragged her out of the stall.

"Thank God the dogs didn't turn on her," she said.

Eventually, Adams went into her home to get a pistol and shot one of the dogs, although it survived, as Bolzle said it was a superficial wound. However, Adams said the other dogs then left her horse alone.

Three of the dogs were surrendered by the owners to Animal Services, Bolzle said, while the fourth, who they said wasn't involved (though Adams said she saw blood on it) and has a litter of pups, remained at the home. The three dogs were subsequently euthanized by Animal Services.

At that point Adams said she went to the horse she's owned for four years, and on which she's competed in barrel racing, to try to stop the bleeding. In the meantime, the horse in severe pain struck her in the head, and she also later felt chest pains from the stress, resulting in hospital trip.

Lisa Adams said there was a lot going on during this time and it seemed it "happened so fast" but it also seemed "to be in slow motion."

"It was a horrific thing," she said "I hope to help someone else from having it happen," she said of her reason for telling this story, which received coverage Sunday from a Reno television station.

"I'm hoping somehow, someway, people will be more cautious (with dogs)."

Of the dogs, she said, "They shredded a 1,200 pound horse."

She noted the horse had part of its face torn off and injuries to its neck and chest and left front leg was seriously damaged, almost completely detached and eventually was the reason a large animal surgeon recommended the horse be put down.

Adams said just about everyone in the neighborhood has domestic animals and she doesn't understand why someone would bring dogs like that there.

"Woman Killed In Pit Bull Mauling"

A 21-year-old Knox County woman has died after she was mauled by her roommate’s pit bulls.

Police said Jennifer Lowe was attacked by the two dogs Monday afternoon.

She was taken by helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center where she died after surgery.

She had severe bites to her face and arm, officials said.

.into the woods.

The dogs belonged to Charles Smallwood.  He and his brother shared the home with Lowe.

Knox County Animal Control had been aware of the dogs since June, when neighbors complained of the dogs.

After the dogs attacked another dog in August, Smallwood was cited for allowing the dogs to run freely.

He was ordered to keep the dogs in a fully enclosed pen or leashed outside the pen.

Friday, however, animal control officers found Smallwood "had them in the front yard without a leash."

When deputies arrived, they shot and killed one of the dogs.  The other dog was shot too, but made it...

DA: No charges against pit bull owner in mauling death

Charges will not be filed against a West Knox County man whose pit bulls attacked and killed his 21-year-old roommate this week, the Knox County District Attorney General's Office said this afternoon.

For Charles Smallwood to be charged with a crime, there would need to be proof that "there was some kind of criminal intent in this case" but no such evidence has surfaced, according to John Gill, special counsel to District Attorney Randy Nichols.

"I don't see any charges," Gill said. "There would have to be some knowledge of the dangerousness of the dogs and reckless disregard ... or some intention to release dangerous dogs into the community and neither one of those exists there."

Smallwood, who owned the two pit bulls that mauled and killed Jennifer Lowe, said Tuesday he was concerned he would be charged criminally for something he deemed "an accident" that no one could foresee. He couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

"I don't know what happened, but I think there was a fight and she tried to step in between and they turned on her," Charles Smallwood said Tuesday afternoon.

Smallwood said he owned the two dogs, Mafia Lee and Passion Maria, for about three years since they were puppies. Knox County animal control officials said they had responded to complaints about Smallwood's dogs, but Smallwood disputed other reports that the dogs were dangerous, saying the two dogs had never attacked anyone or any other dog.

"I've never in my life owned a vicious dog," the 25-year-old man said. He never trained the dogs to fight, he said.

Both dogs were shot by Knox County Sheriff's Office deputies when they responded to Lowe's trailer on Sam Lee Road near Hardin Valley. One of the dogs died at the scene; KCSO deputies found the other dog, Passion Maria, lying wounded under the trailer Tuesday afternoon, spokeswoman Martha Dooley said.

Lowe died at the University of Tennessee Medical Center several hours after she was airlifted to the hospital. Officials said she had suffered severe injuries to her face and one arm in the attack.

More details as they develop online and in tomorrow's News Sentinel.

Boy attacked by pit bull still in critical condition

The 1-year-old boy who was mauled by a pit bull on Thanksgiving Day remained in critical condition Friday at a Wesley Medical Center.

The boy underwent a complex surgery Thursday to reattach a piece of his scalp, about 8 inches by 4 inches, on the back of his head, according to Wesley officials.

Police said the boy and his mother, in her 20s, were at her boyfriend's apartment in the Brookwood Apartments, 1770 S. Rock Road, when the dog attacked. The boyfriend was at work at the time.

The woman took her son to Wesley, which notified police at about 10:30 a.m.

The boy also suffered bite wounds on his cheeks and puncture wounds on his buttocks, police said, and the mother was bitten on the arm when she tried to pull the dog off her son.

SoCal woman mauled to death by pit bulls

BARSTOW, Calif. - A pack of pit bulls surrounded a woman and mauled her to death, authorities said Wednesday.

Police found Kelly Caldwell, 45, lying in the street around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, and took her to a hospital, where she later died, the San Bernardino County sheriff's department said.

After the mauling, the dogs ran to a nearby house. Deputies shot one dog to death when it returned to the scene and acted aggressively as paramedics were trying to save Caldwell's life, authorities said.

A second dog was shot to death Wednesday morning when it, too, returned. Deputies said it became aggressive as an animal control officer tried to capture it.

Authorities said at least one dog belonged to a neighbor.

Investigators collected DNA samples from the dogs. An autopsy will be performed on Caldwell and necropsies on the dogs to determine which one attacked Caldwell, sheriff's Sgt. Richard Ells said.

Detectives also are looking into whether the dogs' owners knew whether the animals had any history of violence. If the dogs were dangerous and the owners knew it, they could face criminal charges, Ells said.

Naytahwaush man injured in dog attack

Friday, January 04, 2008