Weekly Roundup - Labor Day Weekend 2008

I missed the weekly roundup last week.  I had a couple of projects with my real job that had to be worked on -- so this week we have a double dose of stories.  I'm going to dive right in, and just hit the highlights.  The weather is beautiful this weekend in KC and I have some outside time planned with the pups.

Dog attacks

A Beach Grove, British Columbia woman and here Sheltie were attackedby a Bull-Mastiff-type dog in Tsawwassen earlier this month.

A woman in San Antonio and her dog were attacked by two 'pit bulls'.  Apparently neighbors had called police "repeatedly" about the dogs but officials had done nothing about the problem. It just seems that more and more of these problems could be solved before-hand if animal control departments were taking care of these problems when they initially hear about them.

An 11 year old boy inFort Smith Arkansas was hospitalized with serious injurieswhen a Mastiff/Golden Retriever cross jumped a fence and attacked him while he and his brother were swimming.  The boy's injuries were bad enough that EMTs originally thought his lung was partially exposed but it turned out to only be deep muscle tissue. 

A Ville Platte, LA woman, Luna Mc Daniels was seriously attacked by three pit bulls. The 83 year old woman remains in critical condition at the hospital.  No word on what caused the attack.

An 8 year old Ft. Worth, TX girl was attackedby a Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix that had been CHAINED to a pole in the backyard and somehow got loose.

A Petersborough, Ontario boywas attacked in the face and on the torso by  a young border collie/golden retriever mix.  The dog was left alone outside the store and it is believed the 4 year old boy was attempting to play with the dog at the time -- although the boy was left unattended with the dog so no one is quite certain. Of course Ontario is a province that passed a ban on 'pit bull' to prevent dog bites from happening -- how's that working for ya?

A four year old Oconee County (SC) boy was attacked by what the newspaper is reporting to be a 'pit bull'. However, the newspaper later says the dog weighed 125 lbs, which means it was something other than a 'pit bull' as most 'pit bulls' are around 45-65 lbs dogs.  Later reports changed to calling the attacker a "dog".  The dog was initially bought by the owner for use for protection, which would tell you that they encouraged the dog to be aggressive (which almost never turns out good). 

An 18 month old boy was injuredin Aberdeen, MD when he wandered outside of his daycare facility and was attacked in the yard by the dog that lived at the daycare. A lot was made about this attack and whether or not the daycare workers were negligent because they owned a pit bull at a daycare facility, and yet, they never made much of the fact that the people allowed the young boy to walk outside by himself with no supervision.  Follow up reports indicate that the child will have a full recovery.

Police shot an killed a Bull Mastiffin Dedham, MA that attacked a woman.

A 4-year old, Lansdale, PA boy was seriously hurt when he was attacked by a neighbor's German Shepherd. The boy was trying to take a ball out of the dog's mouth when the dog attacked the boy. This is yet another reason to not allow young children to be around dogs unsupervised and to teach them how to behave around dogs.

The headlines of course screams out "pit bull bites child" --  a Minot, ND toddler was bitten when the young toddler wandered up to the newborn puppies.  Dogs can be very protective of their newborn puppies, and letting a child wander up to them unattended is a recipe for something bad to happen.  Of course, they now want to "look at" their pet policies when this was 100% human error.

The UK is calling for a stricter dangerous dog law following the fatal mauling of a 13 month old boy in the country. The UK Dangerous Dogs Act that bans four breeds of dogs continues to provide no safety from attacks from the public.

A 70 year old man in Chili , NY was seriously attacked by three 'pit bull' type dogs that somehow escaped the home. No word on how the dogs escaped, or what prompted the attack by the dogs.

Cities and Legislation

Canton, OH is considering adding American Bulldogs to their breed specific legislation.   In July of 2007, the city council passed a law automatically making all 'pit bulls' declared as vicious dogs.  However, after two attacks by American Bulldogs this year, the city is now looking at adding American Bulldogs to the list.  First off, this shows that the original legislation is not working. Secondly, it should show all dog owners that they should fight against BSL, because it usually doesn't stop with just 'pit bulls'.

The one board member  of Rantoul Village, IL wants to wants to ban pit bulls, rottweilers and Dobermans from the community after an inspector found 19 pit bulls in one home in the community. The mayor opposes the ordinance, and Illinois state says its against the law to pass this type of ordinance .  So it's doubtful that Chuck Smith's clearly horribly researched ordinance will go anywhere - but thanks for wasn't our time Chuck. 

American Falls, ID had a meeting where they discussed changes to their dangerous dog ordinance including banning certain types of dogs. According to some of the dozens of residents who attended the meeting, the city sounds like they're not doing a very good job of dealing with stray/off-leash dogs and that that is where a lot of their problems are coming from.

Greenwood, MS passed a law with harsh restrictions on pit bull owners, including high liability insurance costs, expensive enclosures for dogs that are outside to be sure they are poorly socialized, muzzling to be sure they are not able to be exercised appropriately, restrictions on how close to churches and schools they can be walked, a limit of no more than 3 pit bulls per home, mandatory sterilization and a few other things.  The law was passed following an attack where a pit bull that was Left chained to a tree in its back yard broke free and attacked a woman.

Brookside, AL is considering an ordinance that would place restrictions on 'pit bulls' following attacks that led to the deaths of two cats in the community.  Their next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 9.

Fremont, NE is looking at potential restrictions on 'pit bulls' following a weekend where 3 dog bites were reported over one weekend -- bringing the total number of dog bites in the city up to 21 for the year.  No word on if any of the attacks were actually by the types of dogs that they seek restrictions on.

Hazel Park, MI passed a law is putting restrictions on owners of pit bull type dogs.

A Jordan, MN couple is being forced to choose which of their 3 dogs they must get rid of as the city recently passed a new law that permits people from owning more than two dogs.  The people were responsible owners and had all three dogs registered with the city, and now the city is coming after them and asking them to get rid of one of the dogs. Be sure to watch the video and check out the owner's website where they try to save the dogs.  I can't even begin to express how jacked up this is.

Miscellaneous

A two year old female 'pit bull/boxer mix" is credited with saving the lives of six abandoned kittens.  The dog found the kittens hiding in some bushes.  The kittens ended up up for adoption.

The wife of a Cleveland city councilman wanted taxpayers to pay for the examination of her dogthat was exiled from the city due to the city's law banning pit bulls. The city exiled her dog by claiming it was a pit bull, and Shirley Coats wanted the city to pay for an expert to travel to Alabama to determine if the dog really was a 'pit bull'.  However, somehow the judge ruled that Coats would have to pay for the trip. I still can't understand why the burden of proof of guilt is on the accuser in all cases except for when it comes to 'pit bulls'. 

This writer is challenging the policy by the Jackson County, MI animal shelter on not adopting out pit bulls from the shelter as it's only killing innocent dogs.

I have a few other stories that I'm going to post under different headlines later in the weekend because I believe they deserve their own space.

Enjoy the nice weekend.

Comments

[david]

Thanks for your ongoing efforts to publicize the health and safety threats that dogs are. Often, people talk about 'irresponsible' dog owners, but the fact is that most humans simply cannot be trusted with a dog. Moreover, dogs are animals and cannot be trusted in public places (not all dogs, buyt enough that policy must be made to minimize dog ownership and significant punishment must be made for their owners).

thanks again

[Brent]

Actually David, I hope people take away quite the opposite. The reality is that there are 75 million dogs that live in this country. The other reality is that the vast majority of them will never been a problem and will live quietly as loyal companions. The best number out there says that about 350,000 bites each year require medical attention - -and of those, the VAST majority are minor. That means that less than a 1/2 of a percent of all dogs are involved in some type of bite at all -- and of those, about 80% are just minor. So statistically your comment couldn't be more false. Most people ARE able to be trusted with dogs.

There have also been several studies that have even indicated that owning a pet can prolong life by bringing down blood pressure, stress and other things that lead to health problems. I think dog ownership is a fabulous thing...and most people are perfectly capable of owning a dog. However, there are always some people who will cause a problems. Like most things, we shouldn't let the actions of a few dictate bad policies that have negative consequences on the many.

[MichelleD]

Dogs are not health and public safety threats PEOPLE ARE. David, are you willing to give up your car? Because cars kill almost 50 THOUSAND people a year...scratch that, BAD DRIVERS use their cars to kill 50 THOUSAND people a year?

Does make you think...after all the critisism given to certain pit bull sites for their inflamatory language maybe highlighting these incidents is just feeding the machine. Once again, the millions of responsible pet owners aren't making the news.

[yanhong]

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