What is WRONG with this Picture?

I have not run the air conditioning in  about 10 years.  Heat doesn't bother me, cold does.  I hvae ceiling fans and a couple of fans in windows.  I also leave my back door open all day long, and sometimes at night, but not often.  I do not expect vicious dogs to enter my house and attack me or my dogs.--6 foot privacy fence, gate is lock.
 
And yes, I have two brothers in fire department in large city and the fire department is the first to get to the scene 99.9% of the time.  And as to the women trying to sue a gun, heck yes, if dogs were attacking me or my dogs I most certainly would do all i could to protect them.  I agree with whoever said if you were being attacked, a dog was killed, would you call the attacking dogs owners and ask them please come get their dogs out of your house, or would you call 911.  Not doubt what I would do--call 911. 
 
The thing here is since the guy knew that when his dog and the other dog got together there was trouble, he should not have had the other dog at his house.  And if there had been toruble before, how could he say the dogs were the kind of dogs you would let babies play with.  This guy is most certainly one that does not need to have any kind of bully breed dog and I hope he never has another one.

As my husband said, she could be quite severly disabled. the door may be left open because it may be hard fo her to move.maybe her hands shake or are uncontrolable,therefore making it hard to aim the gun.You don't know what you would do til the situation presents itself.My husband was an EMT AND FIREFIGHTER and many times people are in shock.And yes, those pitbulls should have been restrained,knowing a handicupped person lives next door.Sad story all the way around.

ORIGINAL: sandra_slayton


And yes, I have two brothers in fire department in large city and the fire department is the first to get to the scene 99.9% of the time.  And as to the women trying to sue a gun, heck yes, if dogs were attacking me or my dogs I most certainly would do all i could to protect them.  I agree with whoever said if you were being attacked, a dog was killed, would you call the attacking dogs owners and ask them please come get their dogs out of your house, or would you call 911.  Not doubt what I would do--call 911. 

my question was WHY send the fire dep. for a dog attack case? i'm sure she mentioned the dogs were still at large, IN her house. who knows, maybe she failed to mention it? my brother was a fireman and first responder so i know about that stuff, but in dangerous situations - like rampaging pit bulls - why would send the boy scouts in first?
sure you'll need a clean up crew on standby to do the first aid but i think this situation lasted longer than it should have. where i come from if there is a loose animal, or criminal, or potentially hazardous situation the unarmed first responders are NOT allowed to enter the situation.... it would cause more damage to the situation.

I would think that in your part of the country you could end up with other assorted critters you wouldn't want as house guests.

 
I've never seen anything but my animals, a couple snails [:'(] and many bugs come in through my open back door. And that door is open so much that if it's closed, someone ALWAYS asks why it's closed. [8D]

ORIGINAL: DumDog


my question was WHY send the fire dep. for a dog attack case?

 
When you call 911, they send everyone, fire, EMS and police, no matter what the call is for. I called 911 when my daughter was having trouble breathing once and they sent fire, ambulence, and two police cars. I think it's just standard procedure.

ORIGINAL: DumDog

my question was WHY send the fire dep. for a dog attack case?

 
I believe it was a rescue crew from the FD---not just a bunch of guys with ladders and hoses []  When she called she reported that she was injured (and in her car) so a crew was dispatched to deal with her injuries and they arrived first. When the FD rescue/ambulance crew beats the PD  to a scene, cops call it "ABC"Ambulance Before Cruiser.
 
Some rural cops I know prefer "ABC" situations because if they arrive first then THEY must help the injured (unless there is someone on the scene who has more medical knowledge) and they have to KEEP helping the injured until the professional help arrives---and if the cop is doing first aid he isn't directing traffic away from an accident scene or any of the other things he is supposed to be doing.
 
RE the door: on the interview I saw she said she "locks" the slider at night and she forgot that night. I think she said she kept it open a small amount for her cat (?) and she usually put something in it so it couldn't be shoved open (maybe a nail or something???) and that night she just plain forgot to do it.[] oor lady.

It could also be that, since the JRT frequently came over to visit through her dog door, the pits followed the JRT into the house? Or followed one of her cats in? Sad story...I'm not sure I would think to lock a dog door either....wouldn't have one without a fence though, still I wouldn't have thought of strange animals coming in through it.

If anybody should have had a good fence up, it's the owners of those dogs.  I kind of got the idea that the dogs are chained up a lot.  That most likely contributed more than a little bit to their problems.  

Agreed, Joyce. Most definitely. Not having a fence is the first mistake, chaining the dogs her second, not taking the necessary precautions after the previous complaints about their dogs the fourth, and furthermore, she should have evaluated their temperaments long before this terrible incident, and taken action with a behaviorist, training, socialization, or otherwise.

Its really too bad for everyone/thing involved that it came to this.

you know the ONE good thing to come of this situation is... she did make a public statement that she doesnt hate the pit bull as a breed, just those two dogs.
and she did accept the appology of the owners.... now let's hear from the terrier's owner.... but i must wonder.... who lets their dog wander the neighbourhood having sleep overs? i mean i can understand dropping it off to stay with a friend. i've done that in the past... but... opening the door, waving bye bye, saying have a good time........ eh?
maybe that wasnt the case, but it sounded like it.

again with the fire department... i understand all that, but were they trying to keep the dogs in the house so they couldnt get out again? it just seemed like too much drama, the FD doing someone elses job - maybe they had to if the dogs were trying to escape....
and i still wonder where the pit owners were... i'm sure they heard the racket next door.
i know, its minor details, but i'm nosey..... i can see all kinds of ways to prevent a situation like this. i wonder if the woman even knew they were staying next door?

I got the idea that this is an area where nobody puts up fences, unlike a typical suburban neighborhood where all the houses are fenced on both sides and the back.  Here, when you drive out into the more rural areas of the county, you don't see fences at all except for the ones where people keep horses or some other farm animals.  The little JRTs owner didn't have one, or else his pup wouldn't have been able to go visit his buddy for a sleep over. I think if I lived in that type of area, I'd make a fence my number one priority if there were dangerous dogs roaming around ... even if it meant having a much smaller area for my dog to be outside in.
 
Joyce

chelsea_b

I've never seen anything but my animals, a couple snails and many bugs come in through my open back door.

My next door neighbor has a cat door and for a while he had trouble with a raccoon coming in.  I have seen skunks, opossums, and foxes in my yard.  Coyotes have been spotted nearby.
 
No, I do not live in a rural area and, yes, I have a fence.  I live in a residential area about a quarter mile outside Dallas near the Trinity river!   It is amazing what animals can slip through a 2" opening under a gate.
 
I might leave a door open if there was a secondary screen door, but otherwise no way!  If I had a pet door I would try very hard to be sure it is locked at night.

Okay, another copy of a news report was given on one of my golden forums by a guy who lives near wher this happened.  The pits were in a fenced yard, the gate tied with rope and one of them chewed the rope and got the gate open.  The one dog was chained because the two had been known to get out and caused trouble together--apparently no problem if only one was outl.  The neighbor owned one dog, and was "dog sitting" the other for a friend.  I do not remember which one was chained, his or the fiends, but it broke the chain. This was not a case of two dogs being chained all the time. 
 
And fences don't always do the job.  i told of the 2 pitties catty corner to our yard that dug under the fence into the yard behind us and Linda barely had time to get her fosters into the cemented, chained link area in her yard. They got under her raised shet (about 18") and animal control wouldn't even attempt to get them out.  had to wait for owners to come home to get them.   On that above forum a bull mastiff dug under the fence and got the 4 month old golden puppy and Starlite spent a week in the hospitl with drains, etc for over 20 puncture wounds in her neck. 
 
When i was a kid we had a neighbor down the lane that had a German Shepherd and we use to play with that dog.  His name was Colonel.  Many years later my younget son was bitten in the face by one, and a few years later one jumped a fence and bit my oldest son on his leg as he was riding down the street throwing papers.  Both boys required stiches, the younger developed a staph infection and it took weeks to clear up and what thought he was going to have to have surgery.  Do i hate German Shepherds because of them biting my boys?  No, but i would not own one and i do not fully trust them as i did as a child.
 
I woudl much prefer not to have pits in my neighborhood--it was a pit that got free and tried to attack our elderly golden that my husband was walking, it was pits that tried to get that that little gap between our fence and the utility pole every time my dogs went to that corner of the yard. With a good, knowledgable owner, they would more than likely be just fine.  problem is, how could I be sure the owners knew how to handle their dog, made sure they never got out, etc.
 
 

ORIGINAL: buster the show dog

Aaaaand once again, when a story of a dog attack occurs we have people jumping in to blame the victim (why was the doggy door open? Why didn't she just call her neighbor in the middle of the night and nicely ask him to remove his dogs from her arms and the body of the JRT instead of creating a big fuss by calling the police? Why didn't she invest in a secure fence so that dogs wouldn't enter her house in the middle of the night and attack her? she must have been worried about not mussing up her house to not shoot the dogs....) and blaming the press for having the audacity to report something we'd rather not think could happen.

Here's a link to a more detailed description of the incident:

[linkhttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003847662_pitbull22m.html?syndication=rss]attack[/link]

A few salient points:

The service dog was sleeping on the bed with the victim and apparently managed to escape the attack.

The JRT was a frequent visitor to the house and was also sleeping on the bed with the victim - he did not enter during the attack.

The victim tried to shoot the dogs but her gun failed to fire.

The service dog was a sheltie that ran and hid.

She was trying to beat the dogs off of the JRT when they turned on her.....

The woman ran to her car.

Is definitely odd.

I don't get all the hostility towards the victim?  So she's not the brightest bulb in the box, but even if she had ALL of her windows and doors wide open, it's not her fault someone else's aggressive dogs (who were already known to cause trouble and were involved with incidents in the past) charged into her house and attacked other dogs.  Her dog and the JRT were on her property, under her control, when it happened; two other loose dogs came into her home and attacked her, another dog, and tried to attack the second dog.  I don't see how anything else (including the breed of the attacking dogs) is even relevant.

ORIGINAL: Liesje

I don't get all the hostility towards the victim?  So she's not the brightest bulb in the box, but even if she had ALL of her windows and doors wide open, it's not her fault someone else's aggressive dogs (who were already known to cause trouble and were involved with incidents in the past) charged into her house and attacked other dogs.  Her dog and the JRT were on her property, under her control, when it happened; two other loose dogs came into her home and attacked her, another dog, and tried to attack the second dog.  I don't see how anything else (including the breed of the attacking dogs) is even relevant.

 
I agree with this entirely up to that last sentence.  The breed is certainly relevant because it dictates how reasonable its owner was being.  In other words, if you own a dog you know to have no prey drive and that is not otherwise dog aggressive, chaining him up in a backyard, in a fenced in area may not be the brightest thing you can do, but it's not nearly as irresponsible as doing the same thing with a pit.  As far as I'm concerned, if you own a pit bull, you have to assume your dog is dog aggressive and prey driven such that you cannot give him or her the slightest opportunity to be out of your control when there is a possibility of another dog being close by.  In other words, I think pit owners have to be held to a different standard of what is reasonable.