July 20, 2005 (Sent directly to facilitor; then posted to group today)
PLEASE Respond: I'm desperate for info on this subject. I know you get allot of questions and email. I read LOTS and LOTS of them and just didn't find anything exactly like this. I hope you will respond or even direct me to the link of an answer you've already done which I may have missed on this exact type of situation, as I am literally having nightmares over this situation and what logical common sense tells me COULD happen here. I just cannot find info on the net that tells me conclusively that if a dog bites & kills other dogs would it be more apt to bit and kill a human, especially a young child?

I just got back from visiting my brother & his beautiful family including wife and 2 daughters, ages 2 & 4 on the Florida Gulf Coast (they are only 10 miles from St. Marks where Hurricane Dennis just hit!) My brother is an animal lover who has a yard & house full of pets. Doves, chickens, roosters, pheasants, geese, ducks, cats, lizards, snakes, tarantulas, gerbils, mice, turtles, fish, you name it! AND of course, DOGS! 7 of them. He does have 3 of them separated for various reasons, one is inside due to a flea allergy, one female is old, etc. He NEVER mentioned anything about preventing a "Pack issue" however which I have learned about the possible dangers from on your site.

He got a male pit bull/ rottweiler/ bull mastiff mix dog about a year ago, who someone was getting rid of because it had killed 2 other smaller male dogs. This dog, Sinbad, is huge & strong. A few months ago, they inherited 2 other smaller dogs, one male & one female, when my brother's wife's mother died. After only a few days there, Sinbad viciously attacked & killed the smaller male dog, a $500 beautiful Pekinese type. My brother insists there is no danger to his little children and he allows this dog to be in the yard with them without absolute close supervision. In fact, I am angry with my brother, because he didn't tell me this story until HOURS after we were there visiting, all the while, my sons, ages 4 & 11, were outside playing with his two small daughters, in the midst of this dog and the others! I said to my brother, "How can you be SURE that this dog will never attack your little girls?" (of course, I had discreetly brought in the children and put them busy with other indoor activities right away after I heard this story) He says, "because Sinbad was RAISED with a small girl child and had NEVER shown aggressive behavior towards children at all." I pointed out that my young child, almost age 5, was a small male, and perhaps "Bad", as he calls the dog, might attack him in a male dominance scenario. My brother thought I was just ignorant, and maybe I am, as I am not a dog lover and I do have dog fear as I witnessed a dog attack on a young boy years ago by two German Sheppard's who got loose while I was walking home from school (they were protecting their drug-dealer owner's home it turns out) I was traumatized by the event, I admit. My brother admits that Sinbad was trained to be aggressive & a protector, and, in fact, my brother has a tire hung from a rope off a tree limb, which he tells Bad to get and bad aggressively attacks the tire and holds on and bites it until my brother tells him to stop. He says if he didn't tell him to stop, Bad would do it until his gums bled. He says Sinbad easily jumps the 4 foot fence no problem if he sees something out in the street he doesn't like. Bad plays dead when my brother pretends to shoot a gun at him with his hand. The whole damn situation scares me to death and I don't plan on visiting their family there again. We'll have to meet elsewhere.

Am I just truly ignorant of dog facts or could this be a potentially dangerous or even fatal situation for my brothers 2 little girls, other visitors or even passers-by? Very scared I'll get a frantic call about a tragedy any time. My sister-n-law worries, too, but seems to trust my brothers instincts. She was so mortified to look out her window and find Bad killing her mom's dog, a final piece she had left of her mother. My brother doesn't keep Bad chained or locked up in a kennel at all. I feel he is risking his kids lives and also risked my sons' safety that day as well, by not telling me this initially. What should I do in your vast experience?
Thank you SOOOOO much!
Tiffany Eavers

Ed has several articles about aggression posted on this site. Have your brother read them, although he sounds immune to logic.

And no amount of our posting is going to change his mind if he hasn't seen the danger already, so all the drama and our posting just won't help here.
And I'm closing the thread due to that fact.

If you're truely worried for people's safety, the internet is not the place to get advice.