Free Republic

“I have an emergency,” the woman said. “The dogs attacked. I have a shepherd, my husband’s PTSD service dog.”

An outbreak of plague that affected four people and a dog in Colorado might be the first instance of person-to-person transmission of plague in the United States in 90 years, officials said Thursday. It started with a sick pit bull, and its owner, two vet techs and a close personal contact of the dog's owner all ended up infected. The dog died but all four people were treated with antibiotics and are okay. And while the Yersinia pestis bacteria that causes plague is usually passed along in flea bites, the pneumonic form that infects the lungs can be transmitted by...

They say you should let sleeping dogs lie - advice that one driver in China paid the price for ignoring. He drove back to his home in Chongqing to find a stray dog lying in his favourite parking spot, so he got out and kicked it. However, as far as the dog was concerned, that was not the end of the matter.

JURUPA VALLEY (CBSLA.com) — A toddler was severely injured Wednesday morning when the family’s pit bull attacked him, ripping off the child’s ear. The incident happened shortly before 7:45 a.m. in the backyard of a home on Pontiac Avenue in Jurupa Valley, the Riverside Department of Animal Services said. The child, who is about 1.5 years old, was being babysat by his grandmother and was supposed to be taking a nap when the attack occurred. “Somehow the boy ended up outside in the backyard with the dog and that’s when the grandmother heard the boy screaming,” Fuller said. The dog,...

Last May a police officer hit a new low when he intentionally hit an Australian shepherd mix named Freckles with his car to stop him from approaching a group of children. He claimed he thought Freckles would harm them, but Freckles’ owner, Sarah Hecht, maintains that he was not dangerous and that he could have been stopped without using deadly force. “I have no doubt my dog would still be alive if the officer had on iota of training on dog behavior and dog psychology,” Hecht, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. ”There was no reason for deadly force.” In response...

A 12-foot pet Burmese python has broken out of its aquarium and strangled to death a two-year-old girl in her Florida bedroom. Police said Shaunia Hare was already dead when paramedics arrived at her home in Oxford, 50 miles northwest of Orlando. The albino snake had been owned by Charles Darnell, the boyfriend of Shaunia’s mother, who found it in the toddler's bedroom, wrapped around her. Mr Darnell, 32, stabbed the snake until he was able to pry her away, but was too late to save her. Mr Darnell did not have a permit for the snake, the Florida Fish...

Saturday, April 25th 2009 NEIGHBOURS rescued a girl from disfigurement or death after a pitbull attacked her and was in the process of chewing on the infant's face. Three-year-old Nathalia Jones's rescuers found her being mauled by the dog near her home on Thursday. She was last night a patient at the San Fernando General Hospital. It took 30 stitches to close the wounds. Little Nathalia was playing with her cousins when the dog pounced on her. "The dog grabbed my child's head and was biting. And when people see this they began pulling away the dog. I still can't...