Pit Bull Attack – 21 injured

I cringe after seeing these types of articles about Pit Bulls attacking people. I don’t cringe thinking about the blood and guts, I cringe thinking that this all could have been avoided. I have had a Pitty in my family for the past 28 years; not once has any of them shown the least aggression. I’m not saying that this is fake news, I know that many of these types of attacks occur. And they are always the fault of the owner of the dog(s). A responsible owner will first maintain control of their dog(s). Dogs should never be allowed to just freely roam the neighborhood like this. They should either be contained in a fence, on a leash, or under the control of their owners.

Just so you know where I stand on this subject. My dogs are family members, they are loved, pampered, spoiled, and well-cared for. They are not allowed to freely roam the streets. They spend more than 23 hours a day inside the house. They are never weathered and just left out in the cold or heat. Animals that are kept outside 24 hours a day are not pets, pets are well-loved and cared for,

Our first Pit was an American Bulldog and Labrador Retriever mix that we rescued from the shelter in North Carolina. We didn’t intend to get a Pit, in fact, we didn’t really care about the breed. Her name was Casey and like all of our dogs, she chose us. Ironically, our son, who was a toddler at the time was sitting on the floor and Casey was an 8-week-old puppy. She came to him climbed in his lap and piddled on him, and the rest was history. They told us that she wire terrier mix, and wow, they were so wrong.

Our son and Casey grew up together and she turned out to be the best dog we ever had. Ironically, we never for a second worried about her being around our son, we knew he was safe and she would NEVER hurt him. She protected her family from danger and actually stopped a peeping tom and two robbery attempts.

Casey and I were once stopped by the MPs in base housing at MCAS Cherry Point while we were out for a walk. She often went for a walk without a leash, and at the time, according to base policy lease was not required if the dog was under positive voice command. She was about 30-40 yards away in a field on the side of base housing. The MP stopped and told me that I needed to have my dog on a leash. I quoted him the policy and he asked me if she was under control. I called her name, and she stopped playing and turned to look at me. I gave her the hand signal to sit and then one to lie down. Needless to say, she was able to be without a lease and the MP was impressed. Casey always held herself to a very high standard, like she was a military working dog at heart.

We have fond memories of our son leading her around the house by her tongue once and she was very cool about it. Things were great with Casey, until that one day, when our son started to scream in the living room of our apartment, When we got to him, he was bleeding from a wound on his lower lip. Our son said that Casey bit him. I turned around and Casey was trying to crawl inside herself in the corner of the room. I grabbed her and put her out on the back balcony and then provided our son with first aid. He had a very small wound on his lower lip. It looked like she scratched or bit him, He was bleeding a little, but nothing major, it didn’t require stitches, so he was lucky.

I was so upset with Casey, knowing that this was very likely the end of her. After we got our son taken care of and cleaned up, I went out to talk with Casey, I was in tears. That dog was a shell of herself, she was so upset, so scared, and she knew what it meant. We talked to a family member who owns a kennel and she said that if the dog is remorseful, then everything will be ok. Once things calmed down, we found that our son (like 2 years old) told us that he was hugging her face-to-face. He demonstrated it on me and sure enough, he was giving her a  firm hug around the neck and his face was less than an inch from hers. I had him demonstrate it to her and she was petrified. It turned out that she had a very deep fear of being choked and this was her trigger. As a family, we overcame this and Casey went on to live a long life, passing at 16 years old.

But this post isn’t about Casey, it is about Pit Bulls attacking. It isn’t in the dog’s DNA, it’s not in the breed’s DNA, it is how they are trained, or not trained, likely they are abused.

Our second pitty was a deaf and partially blind American Bulldog that we rescued from Orange County shelter. Zeva was a severely abused girl, that was likely born deaf (she was white and white dogs are often deaf) and she was blind in one eye. It looked like she was beaten by a ball bat. Her head was slightly tilted and her throat was constricted, she had major scarring on her face from past surgeries to fix her head and face. She was such a sweetheart and our daughter taught her a modified sign language in a couple of weeks, She knew about 30-35 words when she passed away.

Zeva seemed to have left all her past behind her was starting her life anew. She was very puppy-like in many aspects, but she was a natural at learning and she quickly picked up sit, lay down, stay, come here. We don’t know her history as she was a rescue, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t seem to have a negative bone in her body, she was always happy and friendly and loved her life with us.

We had a pet rabbit that we rescued when another family no longer wanted to take care of him. This little rabbit was actually Zeva’s best friend. The two would play chase and wrestle all the time. It was a very funny sight to see a little bunny wrestling with a big dog.

Sadly she developed fast-growing benign tumors and had several major surgeries to remove them. On her leg, she had over 20 staples that ran from her hip to her ankle. Sadly we lost her after living with her for three years. She ended up having a tumor in her brain and one in her throat. When she experienced a major seizure, it was time. She passed with me and other family members holding the I Love You sign in front of her. It has been eight years now and I miss her more than ever.

So that is two pit bulls that didn’t attack anyone or anything. Next came Ginger (American Bulldog), who was, you guessed it, a rescue from Orange County. She was a very special needs dog, who had been at the shelter for over a year and was actually returned to the shelter twice and sadly had terminal rectal cancer. When we were filling out the paperwork, they told as a foster, they will pick up all her medical bills associated with her cancer. We quickly corrected them and said that it isn’t a foster, she is being adopted. Since we had a proven track record with them, they allowed the adoption. They reminded us that she can be returned and we told them that, that will never happen, we don’t do that, she is with us until the end. The shelter said that their vet is giving her 3-4 months.

Since we treated Zeva, we knew what we were getting into. We drafted a bucket list for her, just like we did with Zeva, and we started to help Ginger enrich what life she has left. The vet at the shelter was impressed that we got more than a year for her and she loved her life. We don’t know her history, but she never showed any sign of aggression with us.

Our current pitty is Roxie, an American Bulldog, and Beagle mix. We wanted a smaller pit this time, as we are gearing up for retirement and figured a smaller dog would be easier to travel with when we retire. The funny thing about that is Roxie can’t step foot into a car, she instantly starts to panic and salivate and get ready to throw up.

Roxie is a great little girl, smart as all get out, but sadly was dealt a bad hand in life. She managed to get the bone structure of the beagle and the beefy muscles of the pitty. She is so strong, that she actually destroyed her knees, literally pulling joints apart. She had to have surgery done on both knees to essentially put in new joints.

She has been with us for six years now and like all the others, she never has yet shown a single sign of aggression. She lives with 10 cats and is often seen snuggling with them all day long.

The only dog we had that had ever shown any aggression was BJ. He was a little Dachshund / Springer Spaniel mix and didn’t have a mean bone, but he did allow his undisciplined little body to get the best of him. If I ever feared that a dog might hurt someone, it would be BJ. He passed away after 12 years with us.

It is so sad to see how some people treat their animals. In the past, my family was involved with an animal rescue as volunteers. We went on several rescues as well as helped to care for the animals after the rescue. We are talking rescues, where someone had to give up dozens of horses, cats, and dogs totaling over 100 and an array of other animals.

Some facts about this particular dog attack:

• It involved two Pit Bull mixes
• None of those affected were seriously injured
• Students were in 5th and 6th grade (10-12 years old)Unfences school yardThree teachers and three students suffered from bites or more serious wounds which required medical attention
• Dogs were euthanized and tested negative for rabies
• The statistics on dog bites are insane, it is reported that approximately 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year in the United States.

Special thanks to 100.9 The Eagle radio station (Quincy, Illinois) for having the best leading image for this story as well as my header for this story. I love their arrow showing where the dog should be.

Here is a video from the I Hate Dogs channel on YouTube This guy managed to make a 50-minute live stream out of this story.