damn

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091302192.html

Family's 2 pit bulls kill infant in Nevada home
 

The Associated Press
Saturday, September 13, 2008; 7:56 PM

LAS VEGAS -- A family's two pit bulls burst into the house from the backyard to attack a 4-month girl, mauling her to death even as her grandmother tried to escape with the baby into another room, police said.

The grandmother, who was baby-sitting at the time of the attack Friday, was hospitalized Saturday with non-life-threatening injuries.

The dogs apparently entered the house in North Las Vegas by bursting through a screen door and starting attacking the baby in her stroller, police said.

"They just went right for the little girl," North Las Vegas police Chief Joseph Forti told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The grandmother told authorities she tried to take the girl into another room, but the dogs forced their way in before she could close the door.


Police said the dogs were still acting aggressively when officers arrived. They shot and killed the pit bulls.

The names of the baby and her grandmother were not immediately released.

___

[Manedwolf]

They're illegal in most of South Florida.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i'd want more details of who raised em and how. i've had pits that were cool and got rid of some that weren't. if they are bad they get put down humanely.

[AJ Dual]

i'd want more details of who raised em and how. i've had pits that were cool and got rid of some that weren't. if they are bad they get put down humanely.

Yes. It really depends on the dog. The problem arises in that they've got the physique to do tremendous damage if they're ill tempered.

We've had our rescue for three weeks now, a 1-3 y.o. female who was originaly brought into a private rescue group who takes dogs from quick-kill shelters in TN, then places them with families in Wisconsin (where the family is originaly from) where there's not such a big stray problem, and most shelters are no-kill, except for violent or diseased dogs.  She's been spayed after having one litter while at the rescue. She'd been in the rescue long enough to have her litter and wean them, and was still covered in scabs when we got her, and the swelling on dozens of scars was still going down.

Then on close inspection, I realized many of the smaller scabs and scars all connected up into much longer ones. 

Either she had a very rough life as a stray before winding up at the municipal kill shelter, or she was a "bait dog", a peaceful one with no fight in her, used as a training target for the agressive dogs.

All she wants is human contact, and a lap to lay on.

[roo_ster]

AJ:

She does not seem nearly as large as some of the freakish ghetto-pits I have seen.

Looks closer, size-wise, to what I recall most pitts being before they became crack-dealers' favorite.

I bet you're right and that she knows, deep down, y'all saved her life.  Form now on, its all gravy, all the time for her.

[AJ Dual]

AJ:

She does not seem nearly as large as some of the freakish ghetto-pits I have seen.

Looks closer, size-wise, to what I recall most pitts being before they became crack-dealers' favorite.

I bet you're right and that she knows, deep down, y'all saved her life.  Form now on, its all gravy, all the time for her.

At about 55lbs she's fair sized, but she's taller and a bit skinnier than a "Pitt's Pitt" is. She's either a non-Pitt American Bulldog, or maybe just not pure Pitt. Which also makes me think she may have been subjected to the "bait dog" treatment by some low-lifes in TN, or dumped after it was clear she was not "Pitt enough"

Amazing dog, you can handle her paws and nails all you want, and she just sits still for it. She shies from ear-cleaning, but just one hand on her back is enough to make her sit still for it.  There's still some issues. She's woken up from what I can only call Dog-PTSD nightmares, jumps bolt upright to full standing position breathing like she's fighting for her life. She also trembles and shirks-shies at odd times, probably from something that makes her remember.. before.

She's perking up, doing a few of the more normal "naughty" dog things, like sniffing on tables and countertops for stray food she can snag, and chewing up a few of my kids toys.

[anygunanywhere]

I'll bet she would come smartly to life if someone were to be agressive to the children.

She is a beautiful dog. The eyes tell the story.

Anygunanywhere

[Jamisjockey]

I'm more scared of multiple Pitts than one dog.  Seems the poorly treated ones fall into an aggressive pack mentality very easily

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

it took me three months to place a guy we called jaws. gentle giant. almost timid. i placed him with an older redneck friend who takes care of his sons kid while son drives over the road. after 5 days in the house when the dad showed up friday afternoon jaws wouldn't allow him near the 14 monthy old. till grandpa said ok then it was all wags and licks. rarely have i wanted to keep a dog more but at that time my wife wasn't a good enough dog person.i got so many "wrong " calls for him and ended up smacking the punk at the pizza shop over him. for a dog like that you need a real background check. i think i weirded out the guy who got him. i had him checked out by some friends and knew things about him he didn't expect.
i am pretty pacific in my old age but abusing animals and kids is at least a smacking offense if not more.

[Perd Hapley]

AJ,

My wife wants to know your doggy's name. 

I always show her the good doggy pictures I find.  But I didn't tell her the whole story, it would make her too sad.   

[Balog]

AJ: beautiful dog, glad she's got a good home now. And tell your kid grats on the wicked Irish 'fro. 

[GigaBuist]

In response to the original news article:

1)  "pit bull" isn't a breed.  We've got America Pit Bull Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers here.  Pick one.

2)  If they don't know what it actually is the how the frick are they qualified in classifying then thing other than "large mutt?"

3)  These are the same reporters that blast crap like "SKS-47 assault rifle" or "40mm Glock Revolver" into our news stream.  You'll have to excuse me if I fail to trust these guardians of truth with the difficult task of identifying a dog's breed or heritage.  I wouldn't trust my vet with IDing's my dog's actual heritage but an 8 year old could tell you the difference between an SKS and an AK-47 given 3 minutes on the internet.  Given their utter, repeated, failure in being able to do the latter I'm forced to presume that anytime they print the words "pit bull" that they're only certain it was a dog, and nothing more.

[crt360]

In response to the original news article:

1)  "pit bull" isn't a breed.  We've got America Pit Bull Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers here.  Pick one.

2)  If they don't know what it actually is the how the frick are they qualified in classifying then thing other than "large mutt?"

3)  These are the same reporters that blast crap like "SKS-47 assault rifle" or "40mm Glock Revolver" into our news stream.  You'll have to excuse me if I fail to trust these guardians of truth with the difficult task of identifying a dog's breed or heritage.  I wouldn't trust my vet with IDing's my dog's actual heritage but an 8 year old could tell you the difference between an SKS and an AK-47 given 3 minutes on the internet.  Given their utter, repeated, failure in being able to do the latter I'm forced to presume that anytime they print the words "pit bull" that they're only certain it was a dog, and nothing more.

To add to your problem, a large percentage of "pit bull" owners can't identify the breed or heritage of their own dogs and end up calling them "pit bulls."  It's hard to fault reporters when the owners and their vets can't come up with a better description.

[AJ Dual]

AJ,

My wife wants to know your doggy's name. 

I always show her the good doggy pictures I find.  But I didn't tell her the whole story, it would make her too sad.   

Her name is Harlow. (Like the actress' last name, I guess) We did not know she didn't really know her name when we got her, it was what the rescue called her. We probably would have changed it to Martha, or maybe Taylor (We had a presidential theme going with our pets over the years) but she started to learn her name so we jsut stuck with it.

AJ: beautiful dog, glad she's got a good home now. And tell your kid grats on the wicked Irish 'fro. 

That's Audrey. She and her twin sister pictured in the first picture above in this thread, Amelia, are fraternal, so the hair is different. The problem is their year-younger set of twin sisters, Abigail and Alice, also have straight blond hair more like Amelia's, so people assume all the time that the three are triplets, or as they get closer looking in age, that they're quads, and then focus on Audrey as the unusual one. Audrey knows she gets alternately extra comments/attention over her hair, or gets ignored when people assume the other three are triplets and it confuses her a bit.



If they weren't born as twins, and I didn't have somewhat curly hair as a toddler myself, I'd be just a bit concerned as to who Audrey's father was... Lots of potential candidates.



The dog supplies come in handy though when you've got chores to get done and the kids are underfoot.

[Perd Hapley]

Wrong.

Make the kids do the chores.  Thanks for more info on your dogs and kids and such. 

[taurusowner]

I'm not a dog owner yet, but when I am it will be a German Shepard.  I want something that is highly trainable, and German Shepards have a well earned reputation as being such, with their obvious roles in law enforcement, etc.  I want my dog to be a guard dog when and where I train him to, be friendly when, where and to whom, I train him to, be quiet and calm when and where I train him to, etc.  I know all animals are unpredictable and have instincts, but I want as close to a dog/robot as I can get.  If I could get a dog trained with like a verbal "on/off" switch for growling and barking at anything that moves, and the rest of the time be playful, but quiet, I would.  I know, it's difficult and probably unrealistic. But a German Shepard, with the right training, especially from birth, seems like the best path to that end.

[The Annoyed Man]

Thanks, but I still prefer basenjis...

 AJ, that looks like a hell of a dog ya gots there. And I'll second the motion that you'll see "peaceful/non-agressive" go the way of the dodo if anyone acts up towards your kids...

[roo_ster]

[smacks forehead]  Why did I never think about stuffing the kids in to the dog crate?

Oh, because CPS doesn't mind "open top" cages but gets all wiggy about "closed top"  cages.

Also, no need to wonder if Phil Spector is Audrey's dad.  Audrey (well, all four) is cute as a button, while SPector is all creepy, all the time, no matter his hair do:

[AJ Dual]

[smacks forehead]  Why did I never think about stuffing the kids in to the dog crate?

Oh, because CPS doesn't mind "open top" cages but gets all wiggy about "closed top"  cages.

Also, no need to wonder if Phil Spector is Audrey's dad.  Audrey (well, all four) is cute as a button, while SPector is all creepy, all the time, no matter his hair do:

  Must be "Hair Bear" then...

And the girls are constantly crawling into Harlow's kennel. (And fight over who gets to sit in there when there's more than two inside. I yelled at them and got them to sit still for that picture.)  I'm incredibly thankful she's a nice low-shed bulldog-mix of some stripe with that nice short hair, and not say... a Samoyed, so the girls come out relatively clean.

And is it just me, or does Phil Spector look kind of like Putin in a wig?