Trent,
Needless to say, my post wasn't a direct attack on you and if I offended you, please accept my apologies.

However, I would say that I disagree with what you said. I was in ER medicine for a few years and I'm married to a Physician, so your opinion on "frivolous lawsuits" doesn't hold much water with me as I see them in action on a near *monthly* basis. To you it's "propaganda", to the people that I socialize with, it's a constant threat with any merit behind it. I saw plenty of "stupid bets" made, despite your statement.



And as far as being sued for the dog event that I outlined, it's a fact that *anybody* can sue anyone for *anything*, true? Even if an idiot sues me without cause or any hope of winning ( with the help of a slimy attorney ) , I still have spend my hard earned dollars on legal aid to defend myself from a suit without merit - and the entire legal tactic there is to get me to settle because it'd be cheaper than defending the case, even if the case if totally bogus. And this is a *common* tactic used against Physicians.

For the record, I was never sued, but at one time I was the only provider in a fair sized ER that didn't have a case going against them.
So forgive me if I have a dim view of human nature sometimes, but I saw the worst part of it in action. Until a "Loser pays" system is put into place for civil cases, the legal system will be abused by slimy people ( assisted of course by said slimy attorney's )

Again, just my opinion - but my opinion is formed by my direct observations.

Will
if my child or my dog were somehow involved in a situation like this I would thank you endlessly for what ever action you deemed appropriate at the time to save the life of a child. I do believe that all you would be liable for is the loss or damage to the persons property, in this case the dog.
The best solution would have been for the officer to have emptied his clip into the dog and end the trouble before it had the chance to get worse.
Terry

Terry, We all know that most people would be thankful if someone helped in a situation like that.

But....it only takes one idiot that views a bad event as a virtual "lotto" to be used to profit at other people's expense. And those type of people are out there - and there's an entire profession that's in place to assist them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I don't even want to get involved in this conversation, but I have to say I agree with Will. I worked as a paralegal and saw the sliminess of attorneys first hand. Attorneys working with doctors to coach patients/clients to win their PI cases and more. Needless to say I don't work in that field anymore nor do I have any desire to. Are there honest attorneys? Sure, but they are few and far between and from what I've seen, the honest ones aren't making any money so they can't afford to hire any staff. I should have become a cop and saved a lot of money and time, but I didn't like the uniforms, they're too manly <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Live and learn. I went into it thinking the attorney jokes were stereotypes, I got out of it realizing they were true...

With regard to shooting a dog that's attacking; where I live, if a dog is attacking someone you have the right to shoot a shotgun to stop the attack. I don't see how anyone could sue successfully in that case, or who would bother to because it would cost them money and they would be sure to lose the case. Now if the shot hit an innocent bystander, they could probably win if they sued. But yes, you could sue anyone for anything and if you have money, you could adjourn the other side out of money. Common sleezy technique that I used to see often.

Will, I know it was not a direct attack on me as you are not shy about expressing yourself.

However our jury system is the best in the world and the medical profession is the most protected group in that system. I do not know about Georgia but in Texas to bring suit against a health care provider you have to drop 50 to 100 thousand dollers in experts fees (that is other doctors saying a doctor acted incomptent). Then you have to convice strangers (some of which have your opinion) that the healthcare provider acted negligently, then even if win you have damages capped at 250,000.

So if a mother of 4 small children who is a housewife is killed by a health care provider assuming she wins her family, husband parents children get to split 250,000 after attorneys fees, and expences which comes to about 5 bucks.

I guess we just run in different circles the people I know and who I talk are the victims of slimy/stupid doctors. Remember about 5% of the Doctors make up the vast majority of the malpractice. I see the same doctors over and over again. I would be willing to bet you have seen your share of incompetence by other medical personal most of which the victims family never learns about.

In any event the jury sorts it out and calls it right 90% of the time. The jury system may not be perfect but it sure beats the heck out of systems in other parts of the world.

P.S. I would love someone to try and sue me if I saved a kid from a dog. Heck they would not only open themselves up to a malcious prosecution suit they would also get the heck sanctioned out of them by the court.

By the way Texas does have a loser pays rule which only the defedants can invoke and they the defendants rarely do.

As this hardly has anything to do with the original post this will be my last word on the subject.

I'm with Matt....can't believe a crowd of people stood around and watched this happen doing nothing to help this child!!!! I would be angry beyond words! I am sure there are many nice APBTs, but.....how many attacks does this make now? I know of three around here that didn't make headline news, so I'm pretty sure there are more than we know. Believe me, if this happened to a child in my family the dog would be dead, even if it was my dog. It's just ashame the LEO only wounded the dog.

This aggression problem with pits hasn't just started....back a long, long time ago <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> when I was a young child this same kind of crap happened, so this is nothing new! I don't have anything against pits or any breed for that matter but, when you keep hearing about the same thing with the same breed over and over something has to be done....educating owners doesn't seem to be the answer. Cause some folks are just ignorant idiots and that's really hard to change!

Something is being done, BSL. Not only is it wrong but apbt aren't the only ones on the list so are GSD's etc.

What else can be done? When you see someone with the wrong thought or Idea, attitude about a dogs behavior do you take a moment to inform them why that behavior shouldn't be aloud to be encouraged, whether you know that person or not. And I am not talking about going out of your way cuz you saw something across the street or field. There are how many members here on this board & they all knew everything about dogs B4 they registered? But we all can now point a finger and take pride in the fact that we aren't ignorant(anymore) All I am trying to say (and badly at that) is How do you know what you don't know!?

Debbie this isn't directed at you so please don't take it that way. But just a general running of the mouth. Just trying to stay inline with this forum and keep it to dog training. So in my everyday life If I can help train someone to be a better trainer and point them a direction where they can get that knowledge, wouldn't they then have a better trained dog? Better trained dogs and dog owners would lead to less dog bites and or attacks wouldn't ?

Now I ain't no lawyer, but with the method of how you do it aside. Would coming to the rescue or aid of someone fall under the good samaritan law?

The problem is *PEOPLE* people get these dogs APBT, GSD, Dobies, Rotts ect... and mixes and have no idea of what the dog needs or how to handle it. Not only that it is the general people who may not even have dogs. They hear about a child being attacted and blame the dog. Will is right, the danger in helping the kid being attacted comes more from the law suits later than the dog itself. THAT IS VERY WRONG !
I know I would have been in the middle of trying to help the kid, but I also know iF I'd hurt the dog I'd been suited. If that cop had killed the dog he'd probably be under some investigation for using to much force. Crazy isn't?

This is a little different, but a kid still got bit,and some people still got taken to court.
Some people in the town I live in have/had a 2 breeding Bull dogs. The people had an 8 foot wood fence and posted to stay out. The people where home and had let the dogs out with pup's to play in the yard, as they waited for some buyers.
Two STUPID kids, one 8 and one 10 climped a tree and jumped into the yard. These dogs had never bitten and where very nice dogs, but they had pups with them and dogs are still dogs. Before the people could get out the door the boys had KILLED one of the pups and the male, and female Bull dogs where charging them one boy the, older made it to the fence before the male bit him in the butt, the female had the 8 year old on the ground and had bit him sevral times.
Guess who got taken to court? Guess who got a hug fine? Guess who had their insur. raised? Guess who was ordered to put down the their female Bulldog? and the other was order to be removed from City limits. The litter only had 3 pups to start the 2 that lived though the attact from the kids could not be sold in this town do to having aggersive parents.
These people are friends of mine and though they did fight this they ran out of money. They no longer live here they even sold their home trying to pay for legal fees.

The boys? ..... they are now in their teens and still go into fenced yards to tease dogs. Cuz they can. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I certainly don't take it personally. This is really a frustrating thing for many of us!!! I, like most people do my best to educate people when I see things going wrong with a dog. Have even bought books for them. Believe me, there are people that just don't get it and don't want to make the effort to do any better. I've gotten cussed out and called a know it all being a good samaritan and I was being really, really nice and patient!

I know there are other breeds of dogs that are considered dangerous too, but within the last few years it has been predominately the pitbull that you hear about. It infuriates me to hear about a child being killed or mauled by a dog. It is totally uncalled for and there is no excuse other than stupidity. After all, it is also up to each of us to educate ourselves. We all found this website because we are trying to do better. Let's face it, there are those among us that are not interested in dog behavior they just want a dog "to guard the house" or "look tough" or a million other reasons. Sorry for the rant but as I said this is a frustrating topic for me. There just doesn't seem to be an easy answer for this problem and it's innocent children that are suffering the worst consequences.

With the exception of the bulldogs protecting their pups, any human aggresive pit bull needs to be culled. It is not a trait the breed can afford to pass on. Bulldogs IMO opinion are NOT like GSDs or Rotts or other protection breeds. Once their aggresion is activated it is not easily turned off, as a GSD can be outed. You should expect animal aggresion from these dogs, not all but a good many, human aggresion is a defective characteristic for these dogs, unless there are strong mitigating circumstances (such as the protecting of owners or pups). A well bred Pit really can't be counted on to even protect their owners, I know a woman that was "jumped" in fun by her friend (trying to scare her)and her dogs just sat there wagging their tails, like "this guy looks like fun", can you imagine a protection breed dog standing for this? The fact that the dogs that attacked the kids that killed their puppy coexisted harmoniously speaks to the hard work by the owners, but the bulldog that attacks humans for no reason needs to be destroyed period.