Posted on 12/16/2017 10:12:32 PM PST by Kartographer
But responding deputies quickly discovered the woman was dead. They came upon what Goochland County Sheriff James Agnew described as a “grisly” scene, littered with bloody scraps of clothing.
Investigators believe the victim’s dogs, described as pit bulls, initiated a “violent” attack on Stephens while she was out walking them.
"The victim had defensive wounds on her hands and arms trying to keep the dogs away from her, which would be consistent with being attacked while she was still alive,” Agnew told reporters during a Friday afternoon news conference.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
We know the woman is dead.
We don’t yet know all the factors involved in bringing about her death.
To extrapolate from this that all dogs fitting someone’s description of a ‘pit bull’
need to be summarily put down, is an irrational conclusion.
Thank you for the link.
But your profile was more informative. Now I get it.
I didn’t propose such a conclusion.
But it looks pretty obvious and yes, if it were me, I would have such destructive breeds be exclusively the dogs put down in shelters until they were rare instead of common.
They do not belong as the average person’s pet in the modern, crowded world. I would hold anyone with such a dog that does damage criminally responsible—and then we would see fewer such dogs and fewer such deaths by dog.
I pray the Good Lord frees you from your hatred and ignorance.
.........................................
KANAWA, thank you, I have that hope, too.
For pitys sake, the dog killed and ate the poor woman. And the doggies? Kill em.
He had to go to the shelter in any event. We couldn’t keep him. No way were we going to offer him to anyone or drop him off on the side of the road. We were up front about his behavior. If he wasn’t picked up by someone looking for dog like him and willing to go through the trouble to properly socialize him, odds are extremely high he was put down.
I know it’s tough. Let’s just hope the shelter was forthcoming on his further adoption. And I am glad you didn’t wait until he was able to do real harm in your family.
I realize that.
All breeds, all dogs are potentially dangerous.
The larger the breed, the greater the potential damage they can do.
Although, the smaller, the younger, the older the victim, the more potential damage any dog can do.
There are many other factors involved in dog attacks beyond just breed.
Population of a breed/type is related to the number of attacks.
Here in Canada, there was only one fatal attack attributed to what is colloquially called a "pitbull type" in the period 1990–2007,
while husky/sled dog types were responsible for the most DBRFs
Rather than compose the list of all the factors, for the sake of time, I'll use another's presentation of them...
"Irrespective of breed, inadvertently creating the circumstance for multiple dogs, whether owned or stray, to form packs without human supervision
may have been a major dog-related factor underlying the pattern of the fatalities identified in this study.
Kneafsey and Condon (13) have reported that in a pack situation, once an aggressive act is initiated, whether as a playful nip or a serious bite,
individually benign dogs may join in and the pack instinct escalates the attack until the victim is killed or the dogs are driven off.
Other factors thought to facilitate the initiation of attacks on humans by dogs include...
a possible genetic predisposition toward aggressiveness; male gender; intact reproductive status; poor health;
late, inadequate training and socialization; lack of supervision; defense of territory or puppies; hunger;
predatory experience; pack-dog experience; assertion of social dominance;
age, size and behavior of victims; and absence of other people in the vicinity (1,5,13,14).
It may be that children, while being curious about dogs, are less experienced in reading signals
when dogs are alarmed, provoked, or plainly aggressive, and when attacked, are unable to defend themselves.
Discussions on why children are more often the victims of dog attacks and what can be done to prevent such attacks have been published (13–15)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2387261/
I want to work towards eliminating ALL dog attacks.
Owning a dog entails a great responsibility, not just to your dog but to the community in which you live.
Your right to own a dog ends when it interferes with the rights of others.
Responsible Dog Ownership is the key regardless of breed.
Education about and application of the Principles of RDO, which include...
Control/Containment/Supervision
Training
Socialization
Health care
...is crucially important
In addition the laws governing and penalize irresponsible owners must be strictly enforced.
Attacks are too often preceded by complaints to Animal Control that are not rigorously and effectively dealt with.
.
For you Sammy. You earned the highest accolade possible...you were a GoodDog
Do you?
I am sorry, but that is a lot of claptrap.
Pitbull-type dogs have been bred differently, they tend to have stronger jaws and upper bodies, they tend to clench on and not let go.
All too many times such a dog that kills a human “never showed any sign of aggression”. Not too likely, but either way, simply evidence that they don’t belong in civilized human society.
Plenty of adorable little pet dogs that couldn’t do much damage even if they decided they wanted to, can be had for pet purposes. Even big, friendly dog breeds can be had for that.
Idiots who fall for your line of argument don’t deserve the right to put their neighbors at risk.
Thanks for the taking the time to compose a pointed rebuttal to my post.
Disagree without being Disagreeable
Have a Nice Day
You too—and keep safe!
This article and others I have read state she raised them from pups.
If you think I am accepting, excusing, or justifying the behavior of these two dogs, you are mistaken.
“Some theorize that a dog, feral or domestic, could be stirred up by the scent of a young female. They sense the presence of pheromones.”
Since then, I really don’t buy the notion that “oh, that pit bull was just raised to be mean” argument.
My first dog was an English Springer Spaniel. We never had to train him as he just became a near-perfect hunting dog and was responsible for putting many a Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock on the family dinner table.
Dog breeds have been bred to perform certain jobs. That is what the breeding is for and not just to make a different looking pet. It is genetic. They do what their genes tell them to do. It is that way with all species, including humans (though a person cannot bring that issue up without being accused of racism). Pit Bulls were specifically bred to fight and their genes will make them fight.
About two years ago I decide to run a small uniform/tactical store. The owner had two mutts that were the door greaters and were just plain friendly. His daughter worked in the back room and started to bring a a Pit Bull that she got as a puppy. The dog was very friendly but I refused to trust it or let it get too close to me.
Anyway, one night I was helping a military guy fit a pair of new combat boots and there was a lady looking at scrubs. The owner's daughter came out from the back to go home so the Pit Bull was on a leash. That dog took a look at the woman customer and went totally bananas. If it had not been on that leash the poor woman would have been mauled and I would have had to shoot it. I always carried one of my 45 ACPs while I worked.
The moral of my story is that you are correct. It is about the breed and genetics.
I agree with you....we had a male cocker spaniel who would NOT obey me, and I was scared of him...and of course he knew it. Even took him to obedience school, where they wanted us to “Show him”....he was extremely smart, but very, very cocky to me.
Women cannot be the alpha in a pack
Not correct, what dogs do is set up an order which is dependent on who trains and corrects them the most. In other words, I trained my Mal, if I am in the house, my wife gives her a command, she will ignore her. If I’m away, she will obey without question. The girl is submissive to your daughter in law because she messed with her more.
Not at all. My daughter in law is the prime trainer of both dogs. She should be alpha to both but is not. It seems very strange to me, and I am pretty ignorant of dog behavior.
The difference is startling when you take me into account. I'm just around and yet the dog obeys me better than it does her. I was well on my way to solidifying this theory when just the other day, my daughter in law was on the floor wrapping a Christmas present and the male dog came up behind her and stuck his nose in the naughty place.
I concluded that this dog would not accept my daughter in law as it's alpha.
Swimming Sammy, Sam's a swimming puppy
Paddle, Paddle, Splish, Splish, Splash
Out for the Stick and back in a Flash
Swimming Sammy, Sam's a swimming puppy
.....and gosh darn it, he was pretty good at herding the sheep too... 
Not as good as these guys...
https://youtu.be/D2FX9rviEhw
..but that's probably down to his incompentent owner ;)
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