Humane Society officials remove dogs from a location in St. Louis.
Posted on 07/09/2009 2:48:56 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Yesterday, authorities seized more than 400 dogs and charged 26 people from seven states in what Humane Society officials are calling one of the largest crackdowns on dogfighting in the United States. State and federal agents staged raids in several states, charging individuals in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas following a more-than-year-long investigation originally tipped off by the Humane Society of Missouri.
In Missouri, prosecutors said members of a multistate ring routinely denied the dogs medical treatment and "destroyed" injured dogs who were no longer able to fight by shooting them "in the head, throwing them into the river or burning them in a barrel."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Humane Society officials remove dogs from a location in St. Louis.
You have those on here that believe every last one should be destroyed. I’m not among those.
You have those on here that believe every last one should be destroyed. I’m not among those.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The dog owners? Yes. The dogs? No.
I do! I believe every last on of the PEOPLE involved in this should be destroyed!
“You have those on here that believe every last one should be destroyed.”
The dog pimps destroyed? You bet! Neutered, at the VERY least.
“Humane Society” does not equal ASPCA and vice versa.
Agreed. I also don’t think it should be a dog to be owned by anyone either though. Not through legislation, but through personal responsibility. I will admit, I wouldn’t be able to handle one.
I think its horrible how people who truly don’t know how to or can’t handle these dogs are the ones that are the majority that owns them. The ones that want them to be agressive are idiots too.
I will admit, I wouldn’t be able to handle one.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The majority of people that own one can’t handle one, they only THINK they can handle one (a fact soon to be proven by a beavy of Freepers posting how THEY can handle their pit bull ;-) . )
Rescued for euthanasia. I don’t think “rescued” is the appropriate term.
I don’t see much of a difference.
Don’t see much of a difference in what?
One of the jerks they busted lives in my county. Get this, he is a registered nurse in a small local hospital! Bet he was real compassionate.
I live in Madrid, near Des Moines in central Iowa. Town of about 2,000 plus... Tell Michael Vick that us “hicks from the sticks” can fight dogs with the best of them. LOCAL SCIENCE TEACHER BUSTED IN THE RAID!
Early Wednesday morning federal agents arrested 26 people across the Midwest for their alleged involvement in dog fighting rings.
Four of those arrested were from Iowa According to Federal prosecutors, the men and woman traveled to Missouri between February and May this year to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture.
The indictment says the defendants were also involved in killing dogs that were injured in these fights: “They destroyed the dogs... by shooting the dogs in the head, then throwing the carcasses into the river or burning them in a barrel.”
The four Iowans facing charges include Jill Makstaller, 43, of Perry, Zachary R. Connelly, 32, of Ogden, Kevin P. Tasler, 51 of Jefferson, and Ryan J. Tasler, 42, of Woodward. RYAN TASLER IS A SCIENCE TEACHER IN THE MADRID COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT. The district’s superintendent said he couldn’t comment on the investigation at this point. The occupations of the other Iowans were not available.
They’re scheduled to appear in court in Kansas City, Missouri on July 23rd. Each person could face up to 10 years in prison if they are found guilty.
If it was up to me, they would all be strung up!
Prison is too good for “people” like this.
Pit bull owners.
I really just don’t understand dogfighting. I can’t wrap my head around how somebody can think of it as a fun thing to do.
I understand that raised properly, the fighting breeds have at times made good pets. But one that has already been trained to fight? I certainly wouldn't trust one around kids.
Thing is, training a dog to fight another dog is very much like training a dog to hunt for rabbits or rats. They definitely know the difference between people and other animals, which is why they were/are (unfortunately) used. The majority of dogs that were human aggressive in dog fighting rings were culled because they needed to be able to handle a dog in the heat of the fight without getting a redirect attack. Some infamous man-biters made it through because the handlers thought it was worth the risk to have such a money maker, but overall, they were killed.
Look at the Vick dogs. A lot of them are now happy, stable dogs, and at least one works as a therapy dog. I wouldn’t leave them alone with other pets or children, but I wouldn’t leave my kids alone with ANY dog. Kids can be cruel, do make mistakes, and should not be expected to know dog behavior when the average adult doesn’t either.
I think you raise some fair points.
I’m not a rabid pit-bull hater (so to speak), but I do think it’s important to draw a distinction between the fighting breeds and other sorts of dogs. Yes, all dogs bite and yes, children can be (even unintentionally) cruel. Labs bite more kids than any other breed, it’s true... but that’s because labs are trusted with kids more than many breeds.
There’s an enormous difference between the bite of “other” breeds like labs or whatnot... and pit bulls (meant generically for fighting breeds). A yellow lab that gets cruelly jumped on by some unthinking child may in a moment of pain snap at them or nip at an arm or a leg, but they will also tend to immediately disengage. Fighting breeds are different. These dogs attack to kill. They don’t just bite quick and then run off and bark and growl. They clamp down and tear flesh. They rip out throats and tear faces off. They fight for keeps. And it IS characteristic of the fighting breeds that is different from most other sorts of dogs. It doesn’t mean they’re all “bad dogs” but it is not a trivial thing, either.
My .02
“Fighting breeds are different. These dogs attack to kill. They don’t just bite quick and then run off and bark and growl. They clamp down and tear flesh. They rip out throats and tear faces off. They fight for keeps.”
This is a common misconception. There are many pit bull-type dogs that are involved in single-bite incidents that still somehow make news, and many other breeds that do just as much damage but don’t get as much time in the spotlight. Most of the time, as with other, “friendly” breeds, these occurrences don’t cause much, if any damage, but still they are considered newsworthy. Recently there was an incident the media called a vicious attack:
http://www.wwmt.com/articles/attacked-1363805-year-battle.html
The girl didn’t need to recover. The picture shows a tiny cut on her arm, which is obviously not a dog bite. Stories like this are pretty common, and only make the dogs look worse. The girl was heard screaming, and by the time the woman came out to “rescue” her, she was fine even with a dog on top of her.
The dog wasn’t even attacking her at all, but playing. If it had been attacking, she would have had at least a single bite on her. People are so scared of these dogs that rationality has left some of them. If it had been a labrador, they would have grabbed a tennis ball to distract it so they could reunite it with its owner.
Here’s a real attack which I think caused much more damage, but as you can see, the breed wasn’t even mentioned, and even though this girl will have a scar for life, they want to keep the dog! (Husky-type)
http://www.pro8news.com/news/local/48119097.html
I think a lot can be said for how the media decides to report stories like this. Sometimes, they decide not to report stories involving serious injury because their experience in the industry has taught them that some breeds of dog get more attention, and therefore more money, than others. It isn’t a conspiracy or a bias they have, just business.
The same thing seems to happen in places like Youtube, where you can see that pit bull videos get massive amounts of hits, especially when they are controversial, and when compared to other breeds of dog. Look up lab attacks, and you see “scruffy mutt and dirty lab attack boy” getting 41 hits, even though it is a joke. You look up pit bull attacks, and the majority of them have at least 20 thousand hits, and one I have seen recently had over 4 million hits!
Didn’t mean to say the attack was a joke....I was trying to say as if it were a joke. Silly me.
“I understand that raised properly, the fighting breeds have at times made good pets. But one that has already been trained to fight? I certainly wouldn’t trust one around kids.”
I agree.
That’s because the media is not an organization that is obligated to provide information for the education and welfare of the public. They are businesses devoted to making money,and only report stories that are profitable to them. Many important things are generally missed altogether because of this.
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