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Monday, September 3, 2007

A Little Good News for Pit Bulls

posted by on September 3 at 12:45 PM

From the PI:

Four members of a family required hospital treatment after being attacked by a dog after it broke loose from its chain in their yard, the Yakima County sheriff’s office said….

Two of the victims were girls ages 2 and 3. The youngest was sent to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for stitches from a plastic surgeon. The other girl, her mother and a grandfather were treated at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital for bite wounds, a nursing supervisor said.

The sheriff’s office said in a news release that one of the family’s dogs, which appeared to be a Rottweiler mix, broke loose from its chain and attacked one of the children in the yard. When the mother tried to save the girl, the dog attacked her, too.

Wait: a Rottweiler mix? Mixed with what? Maybe bear.

RSS icon Comments

1

Not to say they had it coming(especially the children) but to get a dog like that and then chain it up is a recipe for disaster. Chaining dogs makes them aggressive. My hunch is that the dog spent a lot of time outside on that chain and rarely spent time with the family, much less being trained. Idiots.

Posted by Giffy | September 3, 2007 1:08 PM
2

Like having one's own personal I.E.D. - but pettable.

Posted by KY. COL. of TRUTH | September 3, 2007 1:25 PM
3

"The dog will not get free by biting his chain."

Posted by ARABIC PROVERB | September 3, 2007 2:36 PM
4

@1 - Kudos to Giffy for his good sense.

No dog - NO DOG - should be chained in the back yard. Dogs should only belong to someone who wants and loves them - and keeps them close. Like in the fucking house.

If you can't commit to that, you don't deserve to have a dog!

Yes - I am sorry for the childen. Maybe even for the mother. I just wish people would get the right lesson from this disaster. If you want a dog (or any animal) to be part of your family, you can't stick them in the back yard and expect them to have good manners and be good citizens.

And if you never intend that animal to be a part of your family - don't get it!

Yeah, Dan - I know you hate dogs, but think for a moment how DJ might have turned out if you'd chained him in the yard after he stopped being a cute toddler - and threw him food once a day.

Posted by Ayden | September 3, 2007 3:45 PM
5

@4:
The Rottweiler species was bread to be vicious guard dogs. They have the genetic code of a killer. Doesn't matter how tame they are or how good they've had it, they are unpredictably violent.

But hey, feel free to pack your house with Rotts. Hope you don't have kids.

Posted by Sean | September 3, 2007 7:58 PM
6

Microscopic dogs are the way to go.

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | September 3, 2007 9:48 PM
7

Here you go Dan - check out my viciously evil dogs. One's a pit bull, the other a pit bull/Rottweiler mix. Their names are Murder and Mayhem. Don't be fooled by the cuteness.

Oh, and Sean? Rottweilers were originally cattle dogs.

Posted by oscar | September 3, 2007 10:00 PM
8

See http://www.petpublishing.com/dogken/breeds/rottie.shtml

Rottweliers are descendants of the dogs the Romans bred to fight lions in the Cicus MAximus. LAter they drove the cattle (weatlh) of the Roman Army, they were left in a German town with red tiles (rott weil) and the Germans esp. butchers used them to guard butcher shops and allegedly carry purses of money tothe bank, i.e., they are bred for agressiveness.

They come right after pit bulls in the frequency of bites. Of course those who love them blame the owners who supposedly are at fault for not showing the dog who's boss early on enough.

So to say they were "cattle dogs" like they are basically hereded or similar to Lassie the collie or something is pretty much wrong, wrong, wrong. They were the freakin' guard dogs of the ROMAN ARMY.

Posted by unPC | September 3, 2007 10:34 PM
9

Off topic for a moment- What about the bear story? They're going to euthanize the momma bear just cause she defended her cubs? Can't they bike somewhere else until the babies grow up? I'm reliving the nightmare of Bambi all over again.

Posted by me | September 3, 2007 10:37 PM
10

I never met a pit bull that wasn't a sweetie. There are no bad dogs, only bad owners who make them that way :(

Posted by glasspusher | September 3, 2007 11:11 PM
11

@5

Nope - Neither Rotties nor Pits are my dogs of choice. I prefer the hairy kind that were originally bred to work WITH people.

I have Sheltland Sheepdogs and Belgian Tervuren. (Perfect breeds unless hair everywhere bothers you... Oh, yeah - or barking...)

Nonetheless, my advice holds, unless you WANT a dog, don't get one. And know what a breed is like before you get it.

I have known really nice Rotties and Pits - and I still wouldn't want them. Nor would I let them around MY kids.

Hairy, barking dogs are best ;-))

Posted by Ayden | September 4, 2007 12:28 AM
12

re: bear. Sounds like there were cubs around, but at the risk of disagreeing w/ the battalion chief of South Kitsap Fire and Rescue, it was likely the dogs that set the bear off. Bears *hate* dogs. The surest way to get attacked by a bear in the wilderness is to bring a dog. Taking dogs into grizzly country is even worse. Bad for the dog, bad for the bear, bad bad bad...

Posted by Big Sven | September 4, 2007 1:10 AM
13

I wish I'd been attacked by a bear this weekend...

Posted by UNPAID BLOGGER | September 4, 2007 8:33 AM
14

when i was growing up, we had a dog that spent most of her life in the backyard. why is this bad? the dog was too big for inside. we played with her all the time, we trained her, and took her for walks everyday.

Posted by infrequent | September 4, 2007 9:19 AM
15

LOL at you Dog Lovers!! See what you get with "Man's Best Friend"? Now Fritz the Cat never attacks me because I do all Fritz tells me to do without question. Oh Mighty Fritz! Praise to the Master of the House. (If you do not do as he says he will steal your breath in the middle of the night!)

Posted by Cat Lover Forever | September 4, 2007 9:20 AM
16

My x-girlfriends rotweiller LOVED me, or at least liked but wanted to tear the throat out of the previous boyfriend.

Not that it makes that much of a difference, but meeting that dog was one of the scarriest momments of my life.

I thought rottweillers were bred to take down bears ... or something like that.

Still think they are cool dogs and ... less frightening than dobermans, they still scare me.

Posted by OR Matt | September 4, 2007 9:56 AM
17

"They come right after pit bulls in the frequency of bites. Of course those who love them blame the owners who supposedly are at fault for not showing the dog who's boss early on enough."

Show your source please... For I don't think this is correct.

Posted by sam hill | September 4, 2007 10:36 AM
18

@17,

Here you go. This was posted in an earlier comment thread about pit bulls. In the past 24 years, Rotts came in second with 409 attacks causing bodily harm while Pits and Pit-mixes were responsible for 1,182.

Posted by keshmeshi | September 4, 2007 11:38 AM
19

To keshmeshi,

Take note that "Pit-mixes" are often mislabeled mutts,... or they are pit-labs, pit-goldens etc....So you have to realize that many of those bites were also from Labs and Golden's etc....

Posted by cris | September 4, 2007 12:00 PM
20

OK, well, plain old Pits were responsible for 1,100 attacks causing bodily injury.

Posted by keshmeshi | September 4, 2007 12:17 PM
21
Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | September 4, 2007 1:22 PM
22

I am new to this page and may have missed a few things while scanning the posts and please forgive me if it was pertaining to my post.

I am disappointed that the only source I see from keshmeshi regarding his previous post plainly states in the first paragraph "from press accounts". Is this all you have?

If several news stories claimed that Paris Hilton was a virgin would that make it a fact or merely press?

Posted by tmsgrl | September 11, 2007 8:23 PM

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