Dog Community

Doberman attacks family - Pit Bull defends them and kills the attacker

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:04:49 AM

Yeah. HERE'S THE STORY:

My friend was walking her pit bull ON LEASH, with her 5 children. A harmless family walk. Her neighbor has an over-sized doberman that has shown to be growly and mean while in its fenced in backyard. My friend never messes with the dog.

Well, while she was out walking her dog with her children, this doberman was on leash in it's yard.
Guess who was holding the other end of the doberman's leash??

The neighbor's 10 YEAR OLD SON.

Now my friend's pit bull is a little larger than the breed standard, but he's a gentle guy just barely over a year old. Not a lick of dog aggression in this dog as my friend fosters and has NEVER had a problem with this dog and other dogs.

Well, the doberman sees them walking and charges for them.

And guess what happened. The 10 year old boy, OF COURSE, got knocked on his butt and the doberman got loose and continued to charge at them. My friend put her children and Kain behind her. And when I say "charged at them" I mean, VICIOUSLY charged at them. Growling and barking at them. Right before the dog went for her, Kain jumped out and grabbed the dobe by his head and then grabbed his neck, yanked, and snapped the dog's neck. My friend had a hold of Kain's leash the ENTIRE TIME.

She said it couldn't have lasted longer than a few seconds, but she said it was an ETERNITY.
Her children were freaking out, rightfully so, and she had to tell them to run home.
It happened so fast that by the time the son had run to tell his mom what was going on, and she ran out of the house, her dog was already dead. She ran up screaming at my friend, "DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SPENT ON THAT DOG!?!?!?!"
My friend was devastated, in shock, and scared for her life. And this lady was screaming about the price of her dog. YEAH.
I'm sorry, but if a doberman was running towards me and my children, barking and growling at us, I'd probably pee myself in fear.

So what happened besides the doberman got killed and everyone was upset?
The cops and AC were called and they had to come and take Kain and put him in quarantine. AC tried to reassure my friend that it wasn't anything that her dog did wrong, that it was procedure and that anytime a dog killed another dog in her county, this was what had to happen. They have to make sure that the dog Kain killed didn't have anything. He's not being quarantined from humans, just from other animals. She is able to go see him and her and her husband do, but Kain won't eat.

And she said for some reason, in her county, if that dobe owner so wished to deem Kain a vicious dog, they'd have to put Kain to sleep.
BUT, she said that AC is on her side with this and are going to talk to the lady about not pressing charges against my friend because my friend can turn around and sue her for the cost of her dog. And technically, HER dog charged and went for MY friend and, honestly in my opinion, that dobe owner should thank her lucky stars that my friend and her children were not attacked by her dobe because other more serious charges could have been pressed had that happened. I'm sorry but dog/human attacks are taken a bit more serious than dog/dog attacks.
So, IMO, Kain the dog could have to pay for someone else's irresponsibility. And that is NOT right.

My friend is upset, not only for her dog, but because she witnessed a dog attack (I know how devastating that one is) and her dog killed another dog. And no matter what the circumstances are, a dog lover doesn't like to see another dog kill another dog. It's a horrible thing.

PurplePets22

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:11:15 AM

OMG !

After last night I have a new appreciation for how upset your friend must be. Seems to me that Kain acted instinctively to protect his family. Good for him. Not so good that it resulted in the death of the Dobe.... In no way should Kain be "punished" for this.

How surreal it must have been to watch all that unfold in seconds......

miranadobe

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:16:13 AM

I wish I'd never read this.

Luvntzus

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:22:42 AM

Oh my gosh, what a horrible, horrible thing to have happened. [

] I'm disturbed just READING the story; I can't imagine actually living it. I cannot even believe the first thing the Doberman's owner thought of is how much the dog cost. [

] And the worst part is she'll probably going around telling everyone about how vicious Pit Bulls are. [&o] Although of course the dog was just protecting his family!

chewbecca

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:28:13 AM

I can only imagine how surreal it was!

And poor Kain, he won't eat and is clearly upset that he cannot be with his family or in his usual environment.
I told her that once this is settled (the 10 days are up) that if this lady tries to push the issue and it ends up going to court, that I will testify that Kain was a great dog, not only with people, but with other DOGS as well. I've seen him with the dogs in her house and I've seen him with strange dogs he doesn't know.
IN FACT, at doggy day afternoon, we were at the Chicagoland Bully Breed Rescue booth and a lady had her two JRTs and one kept barking at Kain as he sat quietly, not reacting to the dog. This JRT then jumped up and bit Kain on his nose. All Kain did was perk his ears and look at the dog. He STILL didn't react!

Here's Kain. Please keep him in your thoughts. He's SUCH a GREAT dog.

Here he is with another dog (I thought I had pictures of these two actually playfully interacting, but I guess I didn't get shots of that):

Luvntzus

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:35:40 AM

I'll definitely keep him in my thoughts. Being quarantine for 10 days can't be fun. I just thought of something; I hope he doesn't have issues with dogs after this. What happened has to be REALLY traumatic for him too.

polarexpress

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:37:26 AM

How horrible.[

]

IMHO It is IMPERATIVE that your friend contact the local media.

Did you see the story a few months ago about the pits that protected someone from a Chow that was attacking? Many media outlets ran the story on their pm news or had it on their websites.

News media will love the story of the 1 year old dog fearlessly protecting a woman and her five children from an attacking dog. The fact he was on leash and on public property will help.

A couple of photos of 5 kids loving on the dog or video of the mom decsribing the attack should ensure the dog's safety and prevent the Dobe's owner from making any trouble---plus potraying a

it as the staunch defender of women and children is good for other pits in the area.

[:@]If the story starts circulating in an abbreviated fashion some folks are going to hear "pit killed another dog in front of kids."

Just my [sm=2cents.gif]

Please keep us up to date on this in case trouble does start....how are the kids and your friend holding up? Must be hard to explain their dog is in "jail" now[

]

chewbecca

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:37:58 AM

ORIGINAL: Luvntzus

I'll definitely keep him in my thoughts. Being quarantine for 10 days can't be fun. I just thought of something; I hope he doesn't have issues with dogs after this. What happened has to be REALLY traumatic for him too.

thank you.

And, exactly. I, too, hope this hasn't traumatized him towards other dogs. He's such a well behaved dog. He loved scritches and scratches and out of her entire pack of dogs, he was the best behaved.

chewbecca

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:43:13 AM

This happened...I think it was Friday. No, Thursday. When she called me and told me about it on Friday, she didn't have long to talk. She said her kids were screaming and scared, but all my friend could think of was trying to protect her children and her dog. But she said that once she realized that when she put Kain behind her, that dobe was STILL charging for her, she was almost glad that Kain got in front of her at almost the last moment and saved her.

I'm going to try to reach her today. I'll tell her to report it to the local paper and to call the news.

It's just sad because I also don't want it to make doberman pinschers look like vicious killers. Because they're not. This lady left this dog outside while she allowed her other dobes inside.

spiritdogs

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:48:02 AM

First of all, your post should have read, "Doberman attacks family - Pit Bull defends them and kills the attacker".
Rule number one, for anyone else I haven't gotten to on all my years on this forum...
NEVER LEAVE A CHILD UNSUPERVISED WITH A DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And your stupid ten year old is NOT capable of holding a 70 pound dog back when it wants to go. This makes me so mad. Didn't have to happen.
Tell your friend to acclimate Kain to a muzzle, and call an attorney to sue the Dobe owner for the attack - that dog came OUT of his yard to cause a problem, and the mom needs to take responsibility. I'd be calling a TV station to tell them my dog was a hero for defending his family. She needs to do it NOW, before any decision is made by others on her dog - it's only too easy for them to say have him PTS if there is no scrutiny from outside.

chewbecca

Posted : 7/8/2007 8:53:22 AM

Changed the title.

I called her and left her a message. She's either not up yet, or she's out running errands.

calliecritturs

Posted : 7/8/2007 10:52:59 AM

*BEFORE* she calls the media, and I am *****so***** serious about this -- your friend needs to call a reputable local attorney who does "civil litigation" and talk to them.

1. Vicious dog inadequately supervised that attacked a family with children *and* parent.

2. Dog got loose and was off it's property in attack-mode.

~However~ because of your county's laws about quarantine -- which is gonna look bad bad bad bad BAD if it's twisted the wrong way, and because her dog is a pit, which is gonna get the "bad rap" (sorry Bad Rap, but this so applies) if someone twists it the wrong way.

This could all go SO bad in the media if not properly handled by the attorney. Because if some reporter decides to report the other woman's story first it turns into "Vicious pit pull attacks and kills dog in front of injured 10 year old owner. Pit's owner helpless to prevent it" -- and trust me, it could get twisted worse than that!!

An attorney is going to best know how to handle this particular law and how to release this to the media. I agree it needs to be out there, but not without incredible respect to local law.

Certain trigger words can be woefully mishandled -- "quarantine" is never a good media word. No one is going to explain why the pit is in quarantine. Animal control may be "on their side" now, but Animal Control is often a politically motivated position and if this other woman gets an attorney (and she probably will -- this is too juicy a lawsuit not to happen -- particularly if her son skinned his knee) animal control's helpfulness will disappear.

She needs to make a list of anyone and everyone who knows this dog and who will vouch for it that it is not the slightest bit aggressive.

Just saying "Oh we want to forget it ever happened." is doomed here -- simply because if this woman was moaning about how much the dog cost at the time of the incident, she's gonna capitalize on the pit bull aspect.

Sorry -- real life intrudes here. I am a legal secretary and I was in litigation for 15 years. I've seen such stories twist TOO many times and too fast and the fact that this pit was a 'hero' will get lost too fast to sneeze.

Tell her good luck!

stormyknight

Posted : 7/8/2007 11:07:59 AM

How tragic! We have bite cases quarantined at our shelter quite often and the dogs always stress. Tell your friend to visit him as often as possible and ask the staff if there is an area she can walk him - getting out of his kennel around his family is the best thing for him. Perhaps if she can give him a little wet food, it will entice him to eat.

Our AC ordinances are the same way - the dog must be quarantined, even if the bite was justified. I feel terrible for the owners in these cases since they were the victims. As far as being declared vicious (and I suppose this depends on the individual county), I would think that 1.) an AC committee or council would have to meet to decide whether or not the dog was declared vicious; and 2.) even if he is declared to be, they should give her a set of rules to follow regarding the care of her dog (always on leash, muzzled in public, etc.) rather than just PTS the dog. I don't know which county this happened in (obviously) but she should ask for a copy of the ordinances ASAP to find out what her rights are as the owner. It sounds as though AC is on her side, so I hope it stays that way.

Poor Kain is in my thoughts.

willowchow

Posted : 7/8/2007 11:22:08 AM

Doggie prayers and good wishes from one blue dog to another.
Kain is a HERO!

huskymom

Posted : 7/8/2007 11:23:21 AM

Not that I dislike Dobes... I don't . I think they are wonderful, beautiful, graceful creatures. But it was probably a good thing for the Pit that it was a Dobe that attacked. Just because of the stereotype. Imagine if it was a yellow lab or something? I think it would be really hard for the general public to believe.

But while this may be a kudos for pitties, I think Dobes as a breed will take a blow. Swift backhands to irresponsible dog owners that let things like this happen.[:@]