7 year old boy killed in dog attack in Minneapolis

The article headline describes the dog as a "family pit bull" -- however, the dog was chained up in the basement of the home at the time of the attack.  One has to question the idea of a "family dog" that is left chained up inside the home, away from the rest of the "family".

No doubt that this story will add fuel to the fire as a Minnesota legislator was looking at a state-wide law restricting pit bull type dogs.  Of course, the dogs' breed will be the highlight here...not the fact that it was left chained up in the basement.

The article from the Star Tribune also mentions a study that states that 75% of dog attacks are to people who actually know the dog and most likely on the dog's property.  This means that popular ideas of mandatory muzzling when outside the home, or extra insurance area really not going to help that many people.

The only thing that helps is being sure that the dogs are well cared for, well trained, and well socialized...and until we start focusing on those issues, we'll continue to read these types of stories.

Comments

[Michelled]

Nick Fabish anyone?

[Tony]

A chained up dog in a basement. Wouldn't that be grounds for cruelty though too? Look, take away the fact that I'm a dog owner and just an average joe and I would have to say "well what did they fucking expect to happen!"

[Brent]

Yes Michelle, it sounds more and more like the Fabish case with every story I read.

And yeah, Tony, it's almost exactly what I would have expected to happen.

[krislars]

ha! that was going to be my post Michelle, but you got to it first...took the words right out of my mouth!

I fear that this will be the straw that breaks the proverbial 'politician who wants to make a name for themselves via BSL's back...just like the Faibish case was to Newsome and Speier's CA SB861.

[Semavi Lady]

Good comments.

Here's something that probably needs to be linked to --Just taking out one of the pertinent parts:

"Recently, some organizations and politicians are now found keeping "track" of Pit bull related fatalities as found reported in the media. These running logs or tabulations on the breeds involved in attacks are then used as evidence of "breed aggression".

The most obvious flaw with this "method" of addressing canine aggression is that these individuals / organizations have predetermined aggression to be the result of breed. When evidence is found (i.e. a Pit bull involved in an attack) that supports their predetermined belief, no future investigation is done on these incidents.

This approach at addressing canine aggression can be dangerous, because it either ignores or refuses to acknowledge the very real canine and human behaviors that have played a direct role in cases of canine aggression and teaches us nothing about the prevention of dog attacks."

Source- National Canine Research Council
http://www.nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/canineaggression.asp

[Becky]

To Semavi Lady:

You address one of my favorite points. Unfortunately extremely few organizations and NO politicians are even qualified to properly scientifically gather and use statistics. That's what mathematicians and statisticians (?) are for. It is a field of study for experts, not politicians.

As all of you point out, in studies like this there are dozens more influences than anyone other than an expert can consider.

Afterall, we are looking at an animal, people, chains, basements, training, upbringing, neglect, possibly abuse, possibly actions on the part of the child, errors and slants on the part of the media, etc etc etc. There is absolutely NO way that compiling media stories will produce ANY kind of useful, valuable or valid statistics.

Unfortunately, they are permitted to publish whatever rubbish they come up with and the GP remains uninformed. Very serious crimes, in my opinion.

[Brent]

Semavi Lady,

You are oh, so correct. Many people seem so content to dismiss attacks like this as "it was a pit bull, so that's why it attacked."

Until people quit looking at "breed" and start looking at actual causes of these types of attacks, we will continue to see the same types of headlines...