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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

"Pit Bulls Killed a Member of My Extended Family"

Posted by on Wed, May 4, 2011 at 9:57 AM

So reads the subject of the email from Slog Tipper Tia, who writes, "I'm a long time reader and an infrequent Slog commenter and I never thought I'd have a personal connection to a Slog story. It's terrible. Thank you for raising awareness."

 

Comments (23) RSS

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gloomy gus 1
I'm so sorry, Tia. That's a hell of a quote: "“I think it’s like living in the middle ages where you hate to go outside because the wolves are going to eat your grandchildren.”"

Yesterday Slog had a post about our county's animal shelters that led me to look up the stats they keep on animal destructions. Month after month the dog reports listed pit bull as the breed and aggressiveness as the reason for destruction.
Posted by gloomy gus on May 4, 2011 at 10:24 AM
The Wretched Harmony 2
Pot killed one of my cousins. Yeah, pot! Alcohol got two of my uncles.

If only we banned it, there things would never happen.
Posted by The Wretched Harmony on May 4, 2011 at 10:24 AM
Keister Button 3
What does it say about Americans that the pit bull is the second most common breed?
What does it say that many Americans who own pit bulls choose not to train them?
Posted by Keister Button on May 4, 2011 at 10:37 AM
4
@3, what? I hold no particular brief for any of the molosser-type breeds or breeds specifically bred for fighting, but I don't know where you're getting THAT from. Pit bulls certainly aren't the 2nd most common (or most popular?) breed in the U.S. And I think it's less about failure to train than failure to confine the dogs.
Posted by NoraToo on May 4, 2011 at 10:46 AM
Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In 5
Pit bulls don't kill people, people kill...

No, wait.

Irresponsible dog owners kill people, so they should be prosec....

Oh, fuck. Hold on.

If only people would understand that pit bulls are harmless, they wouldn't be killed & maimed by them.

Yeah, that's it!!! It's all just a "misunderstood breed"!
Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In on May 4, 2011 at 10:49 AM
6
Anyone care to post the news stories about people being mauled to death by pack of other kinds of dogs? Anyone? No?
Posted by Your Pit Sucks And So Do You on May 4, 2011 at 10:58 AM
aardvark 7
carry a gun when in the sticks.
Posted by aardvark on May 4, 2011 at 11:12 AM
8
@2 Are you serious? Pot kills? I have never heard of pot roving the streets raping babies and murdering elderly, young and middle aged alike... I think you have your facts on wrong.
Posted by subwlf on May 4, 2011 at 11:16 AM
9
Condolences to Slog Tipper Tia.

My family too has a member attacked by the family dog. Luckily my three year old nephew survived and they were able to sew his scalp back on. We gave the dog away. Since I was a child at the time I was not involved in that decision and I can only hope our dog did not ever kill anyone or attack anyone again. I believe that to be false hope, however... ) : =
Posted by subwlf on May 4, 2011 at 11:19 AM
More, I Say! 10
@8 indeed!

@2, choosing (yes, choosing!) to smoke pot or drink yourself to death is not comparable to being fatally attacked by an animal.
Posted by More, I Say! on May 4, 2011 at 12:11 PM
11
The long-term solution is to pour more money into background checks for pet owners and at animal welfare organizations that can educate and monitor and protect the pet populations, in order to keep assholes away from dogs—any and all dogs. But there is no money, so the poor dogs that wind up with asshole owners are f-ed. The short and easy in-the-meantime fix is to ban this breed of choice of the assholes.
Posted by mitten on May 4, 2011 at 12:17 PM
12
@11,

People who own dangerous pits (intact and usually siblings) did not get them from shelters or animal welfare organizations. Background checks would be utterly useless.
Posted by keshmeshi on May 4, 2011 at 12:26 PM
TVDinner 13
Oh Tia, this is awful. I'm so sorry.
Posted by TVDinner http:// on May 4, 2011 at 12:38 PM
The Wretched Harmony 14
OK, yes there was a lot of stupid mixed with the pot in that one. Same as with pit bulls. If pit bulls were illegal, stupid people wouldn't get them. Just like if pot were illegal, stupid people wouldn't get it. We should make pot illegal.

And regardless, you have to agree that if we banned alcohol, there would be no more innocents killed by drunk drivers. That's why they call it a "ban" because it makes the dangerous thing go away forever.
Posted by The Wretched Harmony on May 4, 2011 at 1:31 PM
15
@14 - Now I understand what you were trying to say! Banning pit bulls won't make them magically disappear.

What can be done then? I have no answers to that...
Posted by subwlf on May 4, 2011 at 1:40 PM
Geni 16
Mandatory neutering for owners of unneutered pit bulls seems to me like it would work.
Posted by Geni on May 4, 2011 at 1:49 PM
17
Hooray ignorance...

"What is considered aggressive is culturally and generationally relative. German shepherds were on the top of the list after World War II; in the 1990's Rottweilers and Dobermans were scorned; the American Staffordshire terrier (also known as the Pit Bull) is the current bete noire. Their classification has more to do with recent events and public perception than with their intrinsic nature. Recent research found that of all (dog) breeds the dachshunds were the most aggressive to both their owners and to strangers. Perhaps this is under reported because a snarling dachshund can be picked up and stashed away in a tote bag." - Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz.
Posted by IgnoranceIsBliss on May 4, 2011 at 2:00 PM
julie russell 18
Well stated, 17!
Posted by julie russell http:// on May 4, 2011 at 2:25 PM
19
@18: Right on time.

I love how cheerful you are about not caring one tiny little bit about the people who die as a result of your sad little hobby.
Posted by Keep Your Dog Away From Me on May 4, 2011 at 4:01 PM
julie russell 20
@ 19: Last I checked NONE of my hobbies kill people.
1) Mountain Biking
2) Surfing
3) Helping Dogs
4) Shopping
5) Harassing Grant Brissey
Hmmmm...nope. Those don't often result in people dying, though I suppose they could.

As for not being sympathetic to victims of dog attacks...that is ridiculous...See 2008 KIRO radio interview on The Ron and Don show where the interviewer didn't even recall the victim's name. I prefaced all following statements by expressing sadness for Huong Li.
Posted by julie russell http:// on May 4, 2011 at 8:42 PM
MsEmilyMae 21
This is ridiculous.

Last weekend I went to Lake Padden in Bellingham for a pitbull picnic. There were tiny, tiny children hugging pitbulls- not being mauled.

In fact, of the 30 or so dogs I saw that day, the only one that made me nervous was the tiny rat terrier who bared his teeth at me.

This death is tragic, but it's tragic because a woman was killed by dogs who were loose from their owner and obviously not trained - or trained to attack.
Posted by MsEmilyMae on May 4, 2011 at 9:57 PM
22 Comment Pulled (Spam) Comment Policy
More, I Say! 23
Ahh! A wild spam appears!
Posted by More, I Say! on May 12, 2011 at 3:46 PM

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