If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, angry dog lovers can’t be far behind.
I must admit that the reaction to an article from earlier in the week, Is it time to ban pit bulls?, was certainly more than I expected. The passion (in some cases, vitriol) of those responding (whether on this site, others, or via email) runs the spectrum. Some even devolved into name calling, which, though it weakens the credibility of anyone’s argument, does indicate the depth of feelings on this issue. (There were also many, many, polite, informed and persusaive messages.)
Two of the most common objections to the article were that there is no such thing as a “pit bull”, and that the media was responsible for the public perception that “pit bulls” are dangerous dogs. (I’m still confused by those who argue both - that the media gives pit bulls a bad name, but there’s no such thing as a pit bull.) Posters battled back and forth: some said, despite technicalities, there are certainly types of dogs commonly known as pit bulls, and they are dangerous; others said no dogs are inherently dangerous and any problems lie with the owner, not the dog (no matter what type).
Well, those fighting the battle to defend these dogs will be annoyed to know the Houston media was at it again within a few days of the original story:
A couple in Montgomery County is describing a horrific scene at their house near Splendora.
What happened in Thelma Simon’s backyard almost defies description. Her husband Floyd, a triple amputee, had let their 10-year-old Boston terrier outside to relieve herself.
Floyd: “I looked out this glass door and I seen two pit bulls had my little dog.”
The triple amputee crawled out of the house attempting to intervene, but was unsuccessful:
Floyd: “They got her head sucked through that gate and literally tore her head off.”
The couple said that one of the “pit bulls” belonged to his neighbor. (The TV station claims that when the reporters tried to interview the neighbor, he told them to go away or he would call the police. So, in all fairness, we never got to hear the neighbor’s story.)
The day got no better for Floyd after the police arrived:
“I got mad. He got mad. Cop got mad,” said Floyd. “He called some more cops and we all got mad.”
And Mr. Simon made a threat.
“I told him I would kill his dogs if they ever came back on my property,” he said.
For that, Floyd Simon was issued a citation for disorderly conduct and assault by threat.
Talk about pouring salt on your wounds.
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32 Responses to “What’s in a (dog’s) name? Apparently, a lot”Search
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I’ve heard the many arguements about the ( I think its called) Staffordshire Terrior. I have never had anyone say it’s a lie that when they bite, their jaws lock. I haven’t read all postings nor have I read a lot on the subject. Practicality says, don’t have a dog who, when excited and bites, jaws lock. I have heard the stories coming from heart-broken famlies when their beloved pit bull dismembers their beloved child, or grandma , etc. That’s enough for me. I cannot think of one good reason to own one, except a flawed human personality trait.
But…but…there’s no such thing as a pit bull! I know, because the commenters said so!
A triple amputee gets a ticket because a “pit bull” tore his pet’s head off.
Ban ‘em. Every freaking one of them. Looks like a pit bull, walks like a pit bull, terminate it.
Whaaat? No H/T? I’m never posting here again. Neeeveeerrrr!/walks outa room and slams door…
Oh, and forgot to mention…Rumor has it in my neighborhood that those 3 dog’s days are numbered…I think they got lost in the woods. yeah..yeah….It’s just a rumor, though!
So, if there is no such thing as an American Staffordshire Terrier (the breed name, iirc, that is commonly referred to as a pit bull), then there wouldn’t be any dead dogs were I to shoot the ones that killed mine.
The difference between me and Floyd is that he threatened to do it, while I would deny doing it.
There’s good dogs, there’s bad dogs, and then there’s dog’s that need just plain need killin’. Any of the latter that cross my path will get a taste of hot lead. How does WARNING your neighbor that the next time their crazed, proven-killer dogs come into YOUR YARD constitute a threat - much less the bogus charge of “assault by threat”? Boy, if that ain’t lawyer-speak, I dunno what is!?!
How about some more government and more laws - yeah, that’ll solve it.
SSS - Shoot,Shovel,ShutUp
IworkIvote - let me know if you want help.
We have a freeloader living in a relative’s house next door to our home. The paint huffing, unemployed moron has four pit bulls living with him. The law in the City of Houston is a maximum of three dogs per property. BARC will not enforce this law. These dogs broke through our common fence and into our back yard on a Saturday morning this Spring. Their owners were out of town and HPD and BARC did nothing for a day and a half. These dogs were trying to get into our home (and at our dogs) through our glass back door! The animal control officer nabbed two of them early Sunday evening and promised only one would be returned to the owner due to the dog per household limit. We got home from work Monday and both young male pits were back in the pack of four! Subsequent calls to BARC about were met with ‘We are understaffed’ and ‘You are not a priority’ and ‘Until they bite somebody it is not a serious issue’. Don’t expect help from the city. The dog catcher even advised us that it would be better if their dog/dogs bit one of us before we used force against them in our own yard - as they would have to charge us with animal cruelty for defending ourselves prior to an attack!
SSS - Awesome. Think about that poor man - that’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard…
Where do I send money to pay his citation? I’m gonna find out….
10.
Let them charge you. I doubt a jury will convit anyone of getting rid of a viscious dog that no one else will control
I pointed out one reason on the original thread:
http://www.dardenhoghunts.com/hunting/index.html
But to deny that “pit bulls” are not disproportionately represented in dog attacks is a bit silly. Trying to deny that “pit bulls” don’t exist is even sillier. A rose by any other name…
http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html
Still no reason to own one of these dogs. I saw a woman walking one this morning in my neighborhood. She was real quick to tell me that it was an American Staffordshire Terrier but it still looked like the ones you see on the news that kills people. One thing I noticed was that the dog was controlling her even though it was on a leash. If that dog had decided to bolt and attack someone, there is no way she could have stopped it. Very scary.
#13-why would someone want to go on a canned hunt like Darden?
#10: There are license laws for the city, and also current rabies vaccinations. I’d let them know that you believe they are not licensed or current shots….the proof is on the owner. Hopefully they will be fined. Also file a complaint and get photos of the dogs running loose. Been there, done that!
THawkk: contact me at:
southerntragedy@hotmail.com
We need to talk!
My neighbor was killed by one of these beasts earlier this year.
The devastating effect her death had on her husband and stepsons - not to mention the rest of the community! - is reason enough to ban pit bulls.
#15 - Because they can and its legal? I used to hunt hogs with bay and catch dogs. They weren’t “canned hunts”. We took OUR dogs out and caught feral hogs. The advantage to catch vs. shoot is you can bring the hog back, castrate, and fatten him up. It makes the meat edible. Someone said they couldn’t think of one good reason to own a pit. I thought of one. You might not like the reason but that doesn’t make it less legitimate.
There are numerous laws already on the books to protect people from dangerous dogs. Let’s start with leash laws. Every municipality has them. They just don’t enforce them. What makes anyone think they’ll enforce new laws?
Most insurance companies won’t cover homeowners who own so-called dangerous dog breeds. I realize, just from my neighborhood, a lot of pit bull owners don’t own their homes. But someone owns the house. It should be the owner’s responsibility to let their tenants know they can’t have dangerous dogs.
I just don’t see how more unenforced laws will make a dang difference.
This comment cracked me up: “don’t have a dog who, when excited and bites, jaws lock.”
I’ve got two pit bull mixes, both of whom came to live with us entirely without my intent (all three of my dogs are “hand me ups” from my adult daughter).
In fact, I don’t recall ever in my adult life choosing a dog, much less a particular dog. They always just show up, somehow. In my household dog ownership isn’t necessarily a choice, just something that occasionally, inadvertently happens as we stumble through life. I know we’re not alone in that, either, that’s true for a lot of people, though I guess we all must have a “flawed human personality trait.”
On the dangerousness question: If you don’t like my dogs, stay out of my yard. And were anyone to threaten to shoot them, I’d inform them that their owner shoots back.
Grits, what about if your dog goes into someone else’s yard?
If someone else’s dog comes into my yard and so much as growls at me or my family there probably won’t be any need to call BARC. A couple of years ago I walked out on my back porch. There was a, surprise, pit bull (or the canine formerly known as a pit bull) laying in my back yard. He started walking towards me growling. Luckily there was a hoe on the porch and the dog was “dispatched”.
The terms “pit bull, pit bulldog, pit dog, or pit” originally were used to define any dog whose owner fought it in the pit. Today the usage has expanded to cover twenty-five to thirty actual breeds of dogs. There are more than seventy-five breeds of dogs that are restricted, or prohibited from ownership in venues throughout the USA. The problem with breed specific legislation is that it sets a legal precedent that empowers the enacting body to add any or all other breeds of dogs with no further public notice. Breed specific dog laws punish the responsible, caring owner along with the irresponsible owner. Texas has a state level preemption against the passage of breed specific legislation.§ 822.047. LOCAL REGULATION OF DANGEROUS DOGS.
A county or municipality may place additional requirements or restrictions
on dangerous dogs if the requirements or restrictions:
(1) are not specific to one breed or several breeds of
dogs; and
(2) are more stringent than restrictions provided by
this subchapter.
Added by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 916, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1991.
To see a list of the banned, or restricted breeds go to http://www.povn.com/rdows
Cherie Graves, chairwoman
Responsible Dog Owners of the Western States
Hamous, if you need to protect yourself on your own property, that’s a different topic from all these Big Government Conservatives who want to team up with the Big Government Liberals to make banning and criminalizing stuff the solution to every social problem.
I’m a responsible dog owner. I own two pit mixes and a third mutt (plus my own home, despite the earlier stereotype); my family all loves our dogs, and they love us. Without even a close second nobody in my entire life is EVER as glad to see me as the younger of our two pits, and I value that on a very personal, emotional level, as many dog owners do. Then I see our normally gracious host announce, “Ban ‘em. Every freaking one of them. Looks like a pit bull, walks like a pit bull, terminate it.” And I’m telling you that if you try you’re going to have a fight on your hands, on many levels.
Motorcycles are more dangerous than pit bulls. Traffic and workplace accidents kill many many times more people. If the goal is to prevent unnecessary deaths, focus your energies where deaths come in volume, not on the rare, spectacular case that grabs headlines but really doesn’t happen much by comparison. And stop trying to ban stuff just because you don’t like it - especially my dogs. best,
Grits, the stereotype was not directed at you. I was just making an observation of pit owners in my ‘hood. I only wanted a clarification on your position should your dogs leave your yard.
As I’ve said, I have owned pits in the past and had no issues with them. I also said I don’t see how passing more laws that won’t be enforced will solve the problem. I’m just saying that those trying to convince us that pits are no more dangerous than poodles are, uh, barking up the wrong tree, so to speak.
Yes they’re more dangerous than poodles, but less dangerous, by far, than getting into your car and driving to work, much less a motorcycle, by any statistical measure. All this prohibitionist hand-wringing, IMO, is what’s barking up the wrong tree. This is a small-time issue and there are plenty of laws in place to handle real rights violations and damages related to dog attacks.
Also I agree with you, Hamous, that if the cops won’t enforce current laws, as some here complain about, I fail to see how passing new laws would help.
The media hypes this stuff b/c it’s trendy and horrible to imagine it happening to you. It’s the same reason the ‘Jason’ movies were popular. But neither scenario actually poses a significant threat, however titillating. best,
One more thought. I remember as a child being bitten by a dog owned by one of my father’s friends, a pretty rough old country dog that lived at the stables where we kept some horses owned jointly with his owner. I don’t know how old I was, but pretty young - maybe first grade, more or less. The dog was eating and I reached over to pat its head, earning myself a dog bite that required stitches at the emergency room.
I don’t think it would have ever occurred to anyone in my family to call the police. What I remember most about the incident wasn’t the ER visit but my father sitting me down afterward to tell me, “Never touch a dog while its eating if it’s not your dog.” He said me it wasn’t the dog’s fault, it was mine, and that you had to understand the dog’s temperament, the breed, the owner, and a lot of other things about it before you could tell how it might react. It was a good lesson, mostly because he told me what I could do better and didn’t blame the dog. He told me to take responsibility. Believe me I never made the same mistake again.
I can, and it is my responsibility, to keep my kids off motorcycles. It shouldn’t be my responsibility to worry about my irresponsible neighbor’s vicious dog getting out of his yard and attacking the kids. But I’m prepared for that too. I just don’t want any whiny animal rights activists or the wannabe gang-banger owner crying when there’s a dead dog in my back yard.
I’ve gone back and forth on this but I pretty much agree banning specific breeds is not the solution.
BTW, there’s one category of dogs who can bite anybody they want with no consequences.
And Hamous, you write, “It shouldn’t be my responsibility to worry about my irresponsible neighbor’s vicious dog getting out of his yard and attacking the kids.” But there are already laws governing that - it’s ILLEGAL. As you point out, banning dangerous behaviors is a smarter approach than banning breeds, which is really just kind of silly.
That said, whatever you think “should” be your responsibility, your kids in their lives will run into strange dogs on the street, especially if they ever travel much outside the states. I suggest teaching them how to deal with the situation, for heavens sake, not to call the cops for every little thing. best,
Day late and a dollar short, but I just remembered when I bought this place (out in the country) and acquired home owner’s insurance on it, the insurance company made me sign a release form at the time stating any damage incurred by our dogs was not included in the policy because we had 6 dogs at the time - which is not illegal out here but they could be considered a “pack” and dangerous if they were to attack an animal or person as a pack. And they did get out and kill a neighbor’s goat several years ago. Luckily the neighbor knew them and blasted them with rock salt when she had every right to kill them.
These were not pit bulls, but ANY dog is a predatory creature by instinctual nature - just a few genes short of being a wolf or coyote.
Their master is the Alpha dog and it is the responsibility of that human to control them and protect other’s from harm. If they can’t, they have no business having dogs.
“The Clifton study” is completey without merit (not Merrit - his name - no pun intended) for many reasons that I would be happy to debate (as Mr. Clifton personally sent me a complete copy…)but the obvious one is that it was soley based upon news reports! Also, Clifton’s publication is devoted exclusively to the extremist animal rights/domestic terrorist agenda, and his sampler bias is blatant pandering to their cause. The fact that it appears on the website of a personal injury attorney who is a “hired gun”, testifying in favor of legislation outside of his home state that restricts/punishes owners of ALL breeds is hardly surprising. He has been nothing but evasive to questions that I emailed him previously…
For those that did not see my comments on the previous article, I will restate them here:
They can read it in previous article.
The Moderator
When was the last time a motorcycle or a car ran next door and killed the neighbor’s dog while the owner was at work?
Drivers have to have a license to drive either vehicle…they have to take a test…they are required by law to have insurance to cover accidents they cause…and they are held strictly responsible for what happens to others around them when they are behind the wheel. In the case of dogs…if a dog bites somebody, it is pretty rare for the owner to get anything more than a slap on the wrist ticket, even if the dog kills somebody’s pet. There is very little incentive for the owner of a dangerous dog to do anything about it. At worst, the dog loses its life…but the owner can simply go get a new one.
As for studies, the CDC study was pretty clear in showing that pits, pit-types, rotts, dobermans, and german shepherds were responsible for 3/4 of all fatal dog attacks for a 10 year period. Nothing ambiguous or biased in that…just cold hard math.
My views were expressed pretty clearly on the previous thread, so I will just say that if any dog (pit or otherwise) kills my pet on my property, BARC is welcome to come search my trashcan for the carcass of the dog that did it if they somehow find out about the attack from somebody else. Floyd’s mistake was opening his mouth.