Posted on 06/11/2003 12:13:00 AM PDT by stlnative
Family Upset After Police Shoot Dog 6/10/2003 6:42:42 PM
By Randy Jackson
(KSDK) — Creve Coeur police say it was self defense, but the owners of "Tank", a one and a half year old pit bull-boxer mix, say it was over kill. Literally.
Tank was shot by an officer, seven times Monday night on Sun Swept Drive.
Police say the dog was charging at a lawn worker when the officer fired his service weapon. But Gary Byrd, the dog’s owner says "Tank" never displayed any signs of anger or dangerous behavior, the entire time his family has owned him.
Byrd stated, "seven shots, I pulled the cartridges up and showed the shots that were shot in the dogs head, and they left the dog lay there for about an hour and a half."
Byrd says he is angry too, that officers fired so many shots in a residential area with children.
"Obviously you don't want to discharge in a residential area like that" says Creve Coeur Police Capt. Dale Bailey, but, " as he ran toward the dog, (to minimize the danger of an errant round) Bailey says, " he fired 2 shots to try and stop the dog, then the dog turned and started at the officer and the officer fired five more shots before the dog fell."
Cody Byrd, Gary Byrd's son said, "You don't shoot a dog, I mean all he wanted to do is go home."
Gary Byrd says he is considering legal action. Creve Coeur Police say the officer involved in the shooting is still on duty, and they have started an internal investigation. Police say the officer, also a dog owner, has been shaken up by the incident.
This isn't right. It's not the dog's fault. IF this truely was a "vicious" dog, and IF it truely was attacking the laborer, then the fault is with (a) the owner, and (b) the breeder (for not spaying/neutering their dogs in the first place).
First of all, a PitBull x Boxer mix shouldn't exist in the first place. This is the result of two dog owners who didn't spay or neuter their dogs, and then allowed them to roam the streets so they could impregnate or become pregnant.
Second, while it is true that PitBulls are a breed that was bred to be tough, the temperament of any dog is a function of at least four things:
(a) Breeding (the temperament of sire and dam and their respective pedigrees);
(b) How the puppy was raised, cared for, and socialized during its first 8 weeks at the breeder's house;
(c) How well the puppy purchaser has been screened by the breeder (aka how experienced / informed / dedicated the new puppy owners are); and
(d) How well the puppy / adolescent dog is socialized and trained by it's owner.
All well-bred, well-raised, well-socialized, and well-trained puppies can become well-mannered dogs -- EVEN PITBULLS. Conversely, poorly-bred, poorly-raised, poorly-socialized, and poorly-trained dogs can be dangerous under certain circumstances - but are not always!
But the fault here is absolutely NOT with the dog -- dogs are representatives of their genes, their whelping conditions (breeder's rearing), and the socialization/training they do or do not get at their homes. Thus, if the dog was attacking the laborer, then the fault here is primarily with the OWNERS of this dog, and secondarily with the BREEDERS of this dog for allowing their intact dogs to breed in the first place.
The only other scenario, which is unlikely, would be if the Police Officer misinterpreted the dog's actions/intentions at the time. This happened in a case a couple of months ago where a highway patrolman shot a family's dog during a traffic stop. The family was pulled over because their car matched the description of a suspect in another crime. The family was told to get out of the car and leave the doors open. They had two dogs in the car. They asked the officers to close the doors so the dogs wouldn't get out of the car on the busy highway. But at least one of the dogs got out before the doors were closed. The dog, a Yellow Lab, was happily wagging it's tail and smiling, and it headed toward one of the officers to say hello. The officer shot the dog because it "kept coming" and wouldn't stop when he told it to! It turned out the officer knew very little about dogs and had no idea that a Yellow Lab (wagging it's tail and smiling) was absolutely no threat to him.
A few days ago, her Brother, (also my Nephew) told me one of the Rottweilers put him in the hospital. Chewed him up pretty badly.
Well it is obvious the owner of the dog is an idiot had no idea where the dog was and it probably took the cops an hour and a half to find out who owned the dog.
You need a clue. I watched this family on tv last night crying over a family pet who was shot in its own front yard.
They even showed a veterinarian report that noted the disposition of the dog (Nice Dog!). Neighborhood kids came over and played with the pup (14 months old).
It is amazing that the cop had to shoot it 7 times before it finally went down. The cop did the right thing and I hope they at least fined the owners for it running loose
What makes you think the cop hit the dog 7 times? He just sprayed and prayed... In a residential neighborhood, in the family that owned the dogs front yard. Get a couple of clues.
I was walking through the empty lot behind my house on my way to the post office when I felt something hit me in the small of my back . I thought it was a child, and I turned around . Instead, I found myself looking down into the unmistakeable eggshaped head of a pitbull. I think he was a "teenager" : Grown to full size but not quite a year old, say , 8-10 months. Still *technically* a puppy.
He had that stupid pitbull grin and his tail was a blur. I was a little intimidated (a dog's grin lets you see the teeth!) so I talked to him, let him sniff my hand, and then I scritched him under the chin . (Some dogs dislike being petted on the head...A human arm over their heads reminds them of the way dominant wolves-and dogs-drape front legs over subordinate dog's shoulders.)
As I was scritching him , he suddenly reared up on his hind legs, so I was nearly looking him in the eye, and grabbed me around the waist. He leaned his head back to make the neck scritching more convenient for me, and just stood there, eyes shut, grinning, soaking up the attention.
Then the dog's owner rode by on his bike and called the dog to him. The owner looked a bit suspicious, as if he thought I was trying to steal his dog. The thought never crossed my mind...well, not seriously, anyway. So the pitbull obediently let go and loped after his person. Haven't seen him since.
While all this was going on, my dogs-two miniature dachshunds, one standard dachshund, and one chihuahua(combined weight : 39 lbs)-watched with shocked disbelief and an occasional bark/scream of pure canine rage at my treachery and disloyalty. When I let them back into the house, they snubbed me for some time...I had touched another dog without their permission.
I finally understood the attraction of big dogs.Little dogs are cute...But big dogs can hug back.
Oh I agree. I have big dogs too, and when they play, they might run past me and fly into the air just as they go past my body - in an effort to get up high to "smile" at my face as they fly by... and to anyone that (a) doesn't know dogs, and (b) doesn't know MY dogs, it may appear that they are "attacking" or leaping for my throat. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are just doing their wide-eyed puppy-frenzy race-around-like-a-bat-outta-hell playing thing. But Joe Schmoe walking on the sidewalk looking into my back yard might think I was being attacked by wild dogs.
The only part of this story where I think the Cop may have some responsibility is that PERHAPS he overreacted and he didn't know 100% that the dog was attacking. If the yard worker had NO injuries from the dog... did the Cop prevent a tragedy, or did he prevent a playful romp? Did the Cop yell "Are you OK sir? Do you feel threatened by this dog?" Did the yard guy say "This dog just tried to kill me, but I beat him off with a stick, and look, here he comes again!" This one story just doesn't have enough details for me to conclude the dog was truely attacking. So I'm going to do some net surfing to see if I can find any more details. Because we all know how news articles NEVER get the whole story or the correct story.
But for everyone else, here are a few bits of interesting data:
1. Children are the most common victims of severe dog bites. A Health Canada study suggests this is because young children lack judgement or have difficulty recognizing the dog's warning signs, and are more likely to act in a way the dog considers threatening. In March 1999, the Dutch Consumer Safety Institute reported on a survey of 164 dog-bite victims. The Netherlands has a dog population of 1.2 million. Out of the 15.6 million human population, one in 13 people owns a dog. Emergency departments treat about 12,000 dog bite victims every year and hospitals admit 220. About 40 per cent of the victims are under 10 years old. A 1996 study by the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) focused primarily on children. Out of 385 patients, almost 2/3 (64.7%) were under 10.
2. In the Netherlands, the breeds responsible for the highest total number of bites were Rottweilers (20 per cent), and Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers (15 per cent). Golden and Labrador Retrievers have a reputation for being friendly and good-natured, so the high number of bites is because they are very common breeds.
3. In the Canadian study, the most common breeds causing a bite injury were German Shepherds, Cocker Spaniels, Rottweilers and Golden Retrievers.
4. In the Canadian study, only 11.2 per cent of the dogs (that had bitten a human) had received obedience training.
And I've found some really interesting statistics on another website that I'll post in my next post.
The number of dogs:
There are approximately 68 million owned dogs in the United States.
40% of US households own a dog.
24% of owners own two dogs.
13% own three or more dogs.
The number of victims:
Dogs bite nearly 2% of the U.S. population -- more than 4.7 million people annually.
Almost 800,000 bites per year -- 1 out of every 6 -- are serious enough to require medical attention.
Dog bites send nearly 334,000 victims to hospital emergency departments per year (914 per day).
Bites to children represent more than 50% of the total number cases.
26% of child-victims -- compared with 12% of the adults -- require medical care.
Every year 2,851 letter carriers are bitten.
An American has a 1 in 50 chance of being bitten by a dog each year.
The number of fatalities:
In the U.S. from 1979 to 1996, 304 people in the U.S died from dog attacks, including 30 in California.
The average number of deaths per year was 17.
Most of the deceased were children.
The chances that the victim of a fatal dog attack will be a child are 7 out of 10; the odds that it will be a burgler are 1 in 177. However, fatalities are highly unusual.
For every fatal dog bite in the United States, there are 230,000 bites that are not treated by a physician.
The scene of attack is home or a familiar place:
The majority of dog attacks (61%) happen at home or in a familiar place.
Dogs bite family and friends:
The vast majority of biting dogs (77%) belong to the victim's family or a friend.
The dogs most likely to bite:
The Centers for Disease Control study dog bite incidents, including the types of dogs most likely to bite. The breeds that the CDC considers highest risk are:
pit bulls (??)***
Rottweilers (22,196)***
German Shepherds (46,963)***
Siberian Huskies (12,350)***
Alaskan Malamutes (2,291)***
Doberman Pinschers (11,829)***
Chow Chows (2,199)***
Great Danes (8,975)***
St. Bernards (5,188)***
and Akitas (3,987)***
***The number in parentheses is the number of new AKC registrations for each breed during the year 2002. The number of UNregistered dogs in each of these breeds is UNKNOWN. No statistic is listed for "pit bulls" because that is not technically a breed recognized by the AKC.
For comparison, in 2002, there were 154,616 new AKC registrations for Labrador Retrievers, and 56,124 new registrations for Golden Retrievers.
For a complete listing of all AKC breed registrations for 2002, see the AKC Website
There is an 8 out of 10 chance that a biting dog is male.
Although pit bull mixes and Rottweillers are most likely to kill and seriously maim, fatal attacks since 1975 have been attributed to dogs from at least 30 breeds.
The most horrifying example of the lack of breed predictibility is the October 2000 death of a 6-week-old baby, which was killed by her family's Pomeranian dog. The average weight of a Pomeranian is about 4 pounds, and they are not thought of as a dangerous breed. Note, however, that they were bred to be watchdogs! The baby's uncle left the infant and the dog on a bed while the uncle prepared her bottle in the kitchen. Upon his return, the dog was mauling the baby, who died shortly afterwards.
In all fairness, therefore, it must be noted that:
Any dog, treated harshly or trained to attack, may bite a person. Any dog can be turned into a dangerous dog. The owner most often is responsible -- not the breed, and not the dog.
An irresponsible owner or dog handler might create a situation that places another person in danger by a dog, without the dog itself being dangerous, as in the case of the Pomeranian that killed the infant (see above).
Any individual dog may be a good, loving pet, even though its breed is considered to be likely to bite. A responsible owner can win the love and respect of a dog, no matter its breed. One cannot look at an individual dog, recognize its breed, and then state whether or not it is going to attack.
Children are the most frequent targets: Studies of dog bite injuries have reported that:
The median age of patients bitten was 15 years, with children, especially boys aged 5 to 9 years, having the highest incidence rate.
The odds that a bite victim will be a child are 3.2 to 1. (CDC.)
Children seen in emergency departments were more likely than older persons to be bitten on the face, neck, and head. 77% of injuries to children under 10 years old are facial.
Severe injuries occur almost exclusively in children less than 10 years of age.
The majority of dog attacks (61%) happen at home or in a familiar place.
The vast majority of biting dogs (77%) belong to the victim's family or a friend.
When a child less than 4 years old is the victim, the family dog was the attacker half the time (47%), and the attack almost always happened in the family home (90%).
Here's how dog bites rank among other common causes of childhood emergency-room injuries (source: JAMA):
Cause of injury -- Number of Emergency room incidents anually
Baseball/softball 404,364
Dog bites 333,687
Playground accidents 268,810
All-terrain vehicles, mopeds, etc 125,136
Volleyball 97,523
Inline skating 75,994
Horseback riding 71,162
Baby walkers 28,000
Skateboards 25,486
The face is the most frequent target: Studies also have shown that:
Dog bites result in approximately 44,000 facial injuries in US hospitals each year. This represents between 0.5% and 1.5% of all emergency room visits.
The face is the most frequent target (77% of all injures). Mail carriers are an exception where 97% involve the lower extremities.
The central target area for the face includes the lips, nose, and cheeks.
The one thing that you don't understand "pits" just have a bad name. They are fun, loving, caring, playfull dogs. My "pit" plays with all the children around. He shows no harm to anyone, complete strangers come and pat him.
These dogs are simply bred for meanness, aggession and toughness.
any dog could attack you and no dog I repeat no dog must be trained not to attack all dogs that are used for security whether it be at home or on the job must be taught to attack I had a pit that I got from someone who raised it to fight it was old and mostly lazy it had scars all over its head from fighting and furthermore did anyone ever think about the fact the hundred and fifty pound dog could easily jump a fence up to six feet high with ease and that the owner may have had it in the yard and it escaped also if you got shot in the head twice wouldn't you try to attack the person whom shot you
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