More on the Buckner, MO Dog Attack

It appears that some people just aren't meant to be dog owners....

I mentioned this story on Monday night, and here's a quick followup.  According to the Independence Examiner, the dog's owner, Christopher Ownbey (39) is facing misdeameanor charges for the attack and could face $1000 in fines and up to one year in jail.

Meanwhile, this doesn't appear as if it's the first time the dog has bitten someone.  In September of 2005, a "French Mastiff" owned by a Jessica Ownbey attacked a 67 year old woman named Joyce Shelley.   In a small, unicorporated area of Jackson County near Buckner, with the owner's last names being the same, that most likely the dog is the same dog...meaning the dog, and the owners, have a track record of violence. 

There is little excuse for laws that allow people's dogs to attack more than once.

Meanwhile, KMBC has responded that their errant reporting of it being a pit bull was an honest mistake because it is what they were told it was.  A) this explains why they showed up to cover the story in the first place and B) this is why media reports on breeds of dogs are not accurate -- if people can't tell a 125 lbs (or 200 lbs according to our more up to date hypebolic "news" casts) French Mastiff from a pit bull, we've got some real breed ID issues going on.

In another bit of "coincidence", it turns out that Steve and Kristi McBee, who were the victims in the attack, are also good friends with Alan Hill -- who was the victim in the major dog attack in Independence last year.  Hill even makes a guest appearance in the video footage.

It's a weird story and again demonstrating why we need effective laws that target anydogs, regardless of breed, that has shown signs of being dangerous.  We also need to target dog owners whose dogs are repeat offenders to prevent them from owning other dogs (or in this case, the same dog) that may become dangerous). 

This is a bad situation...and an attack that sadly could have been completely prevented had a good, generic, dangerous dog law been in place and enforced.

Comments

[MDog]

Hmmm, I wonder if Alan Hill will now try to get French Mastiffs banned, or if this will be a learning experience for him that irresponsible owner behaviors need to be targeted to prevent dog attacks.

[morgan]

That would be to much to ask!
Its amazing how many people out there, no matter how much proof you have that it is not the breed they still think that pit bulls were brought here by the devil him self!
We have a rough road to travel as pit bull owners!

[MDog]

One more thing ... I read the story on the first attack by this dog on the 67-year-old woman and it is truly stunning the lack of responsibility the owner took for her dog's actions. First, she says that her dog went after the victim's dog, as if that were perfectly acceptable. Then she blames the attack on the victim and her husband, because they hit the attacking dog with walking sticks to get it off their dog:

Jeraldine Ownbey owns the mastiff.
"He went after the dog," she said.
Ownbey said her dog smelled the beagle and went after it. She said what made her dog bite Shelley was them beating the dog with their walking sticks ... She said if the Shelleys had backed away from her dog it would not have bit her.

It doesn't surprise me that this woman and her husband failed to protect the public from their dog, if that's the kind of unapologetic attitude they have. How much do you want to bet that they'll blame the latest victims, too. Maybe they shouldn't have gone past their house ... or if they just hadn't been jogging her dog wouldn't have attacked them. Sheesh.

[Michelled]

MDog - do you remember the Nick Fabish incident? The woman locked her kid in the basement while she was because her dog was so vicious and the kid came upstairs for some reason and was attacked and killed. The MOTHER blamed the kid and said "typical Nicky, didn't listen" about her OWN CHILD! Some people shouldn't be allowed dogs or children...

[MDog]

Yes, I do remember that. I guess we shouldn't be so surprised that these people take no responsibility aftewards since it's almost always grossly irresponsible (human) behavior that leads to these attacks in the first place.