It's fall. The weather has cooled and the stress of the summer heat is less for puppies that are left outside too much. Thus, my number of newspaper reported incidences are lower this week. That's a good thing. Still no shortage of ingorant people out there though.
Labrador bites child in Overland Park, KS
The neighbor's quote (the neighbor is the "expert witness" in this case) is pricesless:
"I do not expect that out of a lab," said one neighbor. "I know labs, I know dogs, always been a friendly dog. Always came on command if he called the dog. I'm just totally shocked."
At this point I'd like to note that Labs are the #1 biting dog in Overland Park -- amassing 21 dog bites in Overland Park over the past 4 years. During that time they had 17 by "terriers", 13 by German Shepherds or GS mixes, "pit bulls" which they banned last year, had 10. And before anyone says that it's only because labs are the most popular breed in Overland Park (which they are) Labs still had the highest bite/per registered dog in the city. If I have these numbers at my fingertips, why can't a news source actually report somthing?
Are pit bulls safe?
This question got posed by the Sioux City Journal after a pit bull bit a 6 year old up there last weekend. Note that there are no references to other attacks, jus that maybe they're not safe after one attack. Very frustrating. At least the animal control officer seems level-headed:
"To say all bully dogs are aggressive, I don't think is fair to the breed. Any dog can be a dangerous animal, whether it is a small dog or a large dog, depending on how it is raised. It is up to the owner to be responsible -- having the license, the rabies tag and enclosures appropriate for the type of dog they have, so they don't go off and run loose."
3 year old attacked by family dog
The dog is described as a "mixed breed" that the family had raised since it was a puppy. No other questions apparently were asked as if "what breed was it" would have gotten to the root of the problem. No info on why a "family dog" would all of a sudden attack a youngster...
And people wonder why dogs get a bad rap and newspapers get accused of bad reporting
This is a story by the Independence Examiner on the French Mastiff Attack that happened in Buckner last week. This story shows what's wrong with "journalism" these days. Here's how the creative writer journalist describes the attack:
Then, Steve McBee saw it. Faintly growling, drool frothing. Kristi McBee looked at its collar. She looked for a chain. Nothing. Then, it burst forth with the velocity of a cannonball.
The dog bit.
And it wasn't about to let go.
The dog landed on the ground and began to tug, throwing its head from side to side - tossing Kristi McBee around as if she were made of straw.
Steve McBee knew he had to intervene, and he did. He pried back the dog's jaws, offering his left wrist in lieu of his wife's forearm. The dog accepted, then it released and dug its jaws into his calf. Then it let go again.
By this time, Steve McBee was bloody and beat down, or so the dog thought. The dog backed up and sprung for his jugular, but Steve McBee was able to fend the dog away with his left hand.
The dog clenched its jaws as tight as a vice.
Yes, French Mastiffs attack with the velocity of cannonballs and jaws as tight as vices. I'm sure I'll read this again somewhere as a reason to ban them some day.
Pit Bull/Wrong address hamper Florida Firefighters
A 55 year old man died in a house fire this week in Leesburg, FL. Firefighters first showed up at the wrong address, and then the man's pit bull was trying to protect his dying owner. It's a really sweet/sad tail when you think about this dog -- scared because of the fire and scared because his owner is in danger trying to do what it can to protect his owner. It's a shame the way this article paints the dog as such a violent deterant, when most any dog would have acted the same way.
Pit bulls to be an issue in mayor's race
The Richmond, IN newspaper thinks that the next mayoral race should be determined by who supports a pit bull ban in the city. The author thinks that because some pit bulls are used by urban youths in dog fighting, and protection of their drug possessions, that the city should ban pit bulls. "Idiot" is the only term i can think of to describe someone who thinks that a dog law will have any affect on people who are already involved in felonous activities like dog fighting and drug trafficking. Yeah, I'm sure the "pit bull ban" will stop 'em.
Baltimore County to look into pit bull restrictions
They have had a couple of attacks this year but only have 14 animal control officers for a city with nearly 700,000 people (experts recommended that Kansas City would need 26 or so for it's population of 500,000 to do an adequate job of responding to calls.
I'll also note, that Prince George's County that is mentioned as having pit bull restrictions just had a major attack last week by a Cane Corso. Their head of animal control said they had seen a lot more of them since their ban went into place...proving that bans do nothing but allow irresponsible owners to just change breeds of dogs.
Baltimore has a lot of problems...and BSL is certainly not one of the solutions to them. This editorial offers a solution that would have a far better impact...muzzling and restraining public officials.
The State of Ohio Supreme Court Refuses to hear appeal in Tellings case
Not suprisingly, they refused to re-look at their decision in the Toledo vs Tellings Case. It's really unfortunate that they based their decision off of witness testimoney when the witness made up half of his "statistics."
Indianapolis Animal Control Officer bitten by pit bull
Not sure why this is "news", but I guess since it's a pit bull, it must be...
"Pit bull presence growing; most agree that behavior is man-made"
This is a pretty good article covering the different sides of the "pit bull" controversy. Interestingly, Galesburg, IL has seen a significant increase in the number of "pit bulls" -- an increase of 281 pit bulls in the past 4 years and a 50% decrease in the number of dog bites over the past 2 years...showing that there is no correlation between "number of pit bulls" and "number of bites".
Interesting study shows dogs have innate connection with humans
I don't have much for commentary on this one, but I thought it was interesting that dogs were able to get the connection between human interactions more quickly than monkeys.
"By this time, Steve McBee was bloody and beat down, or so the dog thought."
Yep, the dog figured he had old Steve in the bag, until...
I call this the Beagle Boys school of journalism...
Thanks for the laugh..demented, but a laugh...
Posted by: Caveat | October 01, 2007 at 09:18 PM