Posted on 05/24/2006 8:42:10 AM PDT by rawhide
Cecil Wallace awoke about 4:30 a.m. Saturday to the bawling of cows and the howling of dogs. The Buford farmer grabbed his shotgun and went running out the back door.
His son and next-door neighbor, Kenneth Wallace, also jarred awake — also carrying a shotgun — joined him. Father and son ran toward the pasture...
...Reaching the pasture, the Wallaces saw a cow, bloodied and torn, its calf standing nearby. As they approached the animal, according to reports, two dogs came running towards them.
Kenneth Wallace raised his 12-gauge. Boom! The larger dog hit the dirt, howling. Wallace fired again, and the dog was quiet.
The female kept coming. Kenneth Wallace fired a third time, the blast echoing along the darkened reaches of Bart Johnson Road.
The Wallaces dragged the dogs' bodies aside and tended to the cow, Betsy. She looked bad — right ear torn off, the left shredded like paper. Her nose was ripped and torn. Two teeth were knocked loose. Not long after daybreak, Cecil Wallace took Betsy to a Cumming veterinarian, who prescribed painkillers and antibiotics for the Angus/Hereford cross.
"She's still in bad shape," Cecil Wallace, 73, said Tuesday. "She tries to eat, but she can't; her mouth's too sore."
Animal control officers have cited one dog owner with failing to have the animal on a leash.. They also charged the owner with violating the county's vicious-animal ordinance, which requires owners of a dangerous dog or cat to have it muzzled whenever the animal is off the owner's property.
Meghan Martin, who lives near the Wallaces, said she is the owner whom officers cited...p>
When I went to sleep, my dog was in bed with me," she said. A roommate let out her dog, plus a friend's pit bull, Martin said...
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Apples and oranges, buddy.
If you had ever in your life bothered to research the breed you would know that bull baiting and man biting are two completely different things. Before these dogs were bred to fight each other, they were trusted to control bulls until they were to be slaughtered.
Back in the day, for a while the only way to get bull meat was from a "baited" bull. Don't ask me why, I have no idea why they would think it would be any better than regular meat. They were, at that time, nothing more than working dogs, much like most other breeds when they still had a use. They weren't supposed to be cuddly and happy-go-lucky because they needed to be strong, determined and no-nonsense about their job. They were so good at it that when bull baiting was outlawed, their owners loved the determination so much, they decided to make a new blood sport.
In order to do this, however, they had to selectively breed dogs to fit their requirements. One, the dogs had to be willing and able to fight without giving up despite great pain. Two, they had to be extremely trusting of people in order for their owners to be able to separate them when the fight was over.
This is all fact, the handlers would wash each other's dogs to make sure nothing was put in the fur to hurt the other dog unfairly. They had to be able to get in the middle of two raging dogs and separate them without fear of retaliation, or "redirecting aggression", which happens in most other dog breeds when they fight. The dog had to know the difference between dog and person, or the dog's career, and life, ended there.
The breed was "refined" to make an extremely dog aggressive dog that was also extremely trusting and accepting of people. Anyone working in dog rescues where these dogs are permitted knows what I am talking about. There will be a Lab that might have been hit alongside a pit bull that was fought, beaten, starved, kept on a chain, and mutilated, and for the most part, the Lab will always be the one shivering, biting out of fear, or displaying other such unstable traits. The pit bulls, although not every one, but most, will still be wagging their tails (if it hasn't already been cut off), dancing around like it's just another day. The really sad part is, when these dogs are temperament tested, even after all of this, they show a remarkable resillience, whereas other breeds tend to be more fragile.
"WELL FREAKIN KNOWN for being friendly...that's a good one!!!"
Yes. They were and are well known for being human friendly...to anyone who bothers to research it instead of relying on media hype.
Too true. My Chihuahua thinks he is a rotwieller and would just as soon bite you as look at you. But I keep a very short chain on him. He is a dog; dogs bite. Only a moroon would think their dog is incapable of biting anyone.
I'd do it if you promised to STFU about pitbulls, pitbull owners and all things canine forever.
There. That bifurcated line from your post says all that needs to be said.
Sad, but the cow is food anyways.
These dogs were bred to bait bulls for the amusement of humans and somehow it is "shocking" when they do what they were bred for.....the owners should not have allowed these dogs to roam free. Duh.
Wherever I've lived, Pit Bull owners are typically low class thugs and thug wannabes, often from certain ethnic/racial groups.
My daughter was attacked by a "Spuds McKenzie" dog, AKA bull terrier and pit bull. She was seven years old. She had Never seen the dog before. The dog was let out of his kennel by his male owner, the wife asked my daughter if she'd like a drink. My daughter stood up to answer the wife and the dog was on her neck in an instant. She never looked at the dog, wasn't agressive to the dog, nothing. The owner was on the dog also in an instant. If my seven year old daughter hadn't had on three turtle necks that day,(I'm not sure why she had on so many except it is cold in SoDak in January) her throat would have been a mess. As it was, she only had one bite in her neck. These dogs are scary!
Here is the mistake many dog owners make: They fail to understand that when their dog is outside their control, it has no master. If someone forgets to lock the gate and they get out, something is going to die a horrible death.
Animals are programmed by their breeding to be a certain way, and some of these guys are natural born killers. They see the old, the small, the young as prey when their master is not in control of them.
I agree. Dogs that are not dangerous and are among the most affectionate and reliable of breeds are being classed as "pit bulls". This is outrageous. Irresponsible dog owners are guilty of animal cruelty and should be punished accordingly. Any breed of dog will bite if not properly handled and socialised.
"WELL FREAKIN KNOWN for being friendly...that's a good one!!!"
"Yes. They were and are well known for being human friendly...to anyone who bothers to research it instead of relying on media hype."
Thanks for pointing out how low class animal torturing criminals developed and selected the breed.
Once again the reflexive denial...on a thread where the Pits let go of the cow and charged the humans who were on their own property.
The track record of them being friendly just isn't there. This breed leads in all categories of serious maulings, limb removal and human deaths.
Since the last time we chatted over a month ago, Pits have killed an additional two humans. The good news is that the killing rate is far behind last years record pace. Law enforcement personnel seem very aware of the Pit problem, respond quickly and don't hesitate to shoot them.
I believe the cow will survive with proper care. DVM's really are miracle workers.
It's so important to have a zero tolerance approach to animals attacking livestock. It would not matter to me what breed of dog, if it came from the house next door or two miles away - if a dog breeches the fenceline - it will be shot. Period.
It's also the property of someone.
That would make you a gun control advocate too and that argument doesn't work for guns or agressive breeds of dog.
Agressive dogs need time and expertise to be uised properly, so do guns. Deadly force in dogs and guns is the same and requires often extraordinary care and foresight. The people who train in that care and fcoresight should be the ones to have deadly force available to them, those that do not form a greater risk to society.
You act as if these dogs are nothing but machines.
The fact that a normally-placid pit will, frequently, snap and start mauling anything and anybody in its vicinity is proof that, no matter how much training you provide, these beasts will revert to their genetic breeding traits eventually.
Comparing them to a gun, which will do what I want it to do, every single time I want it to do it, is ridiculous.
Not only that, but like I said earlier...if I shoot your kid, I'm going to jail. If my Bull baiting dog rips your kid's arm off, I may be protected from criminal and civil liability by "vicious dog laws". In some states the dog has to be declared dangerous before criminal and civil penalties kick in.
That's why the dog lobby fights these laws fiercely. If certains breeds are designated as "known dangerous" or "require special handling", the liability umbrella extends to breeders and even the registering organizations pushing them on the public. They've managed to push the loving Pit Bull is everyman's dog story, keep the money rolling in and stay above the liability fray.
We've gone well past the point of expecting them to police themselves.
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