Double Amputee Killed by Dogs in Vicious Attack in South Carolina - Page 6

Stats aren't useless, it is the morons interpreting the stats that are useless. Numbers don't lie, like people. Learn to interpret the numbers and you are golden.

"4x stronger than normal"

Oh, I have no doubts about the effects of a good old-fashioned adrenaline kick! I've heard many,many stories about people performing feats of superhuman strength in an emergency! Like the jeepload of GI's who got caught on a narrow road between two rice paddies during the Vietnam war, with no room to turn around. When the enemy began firing on them, the physically PICKED THE JEEP UP and turned it around!

One of their buddies bet them they couldn't do it again, after they were safely back at base. He won the bet!

Dogs, humans, it doesn't matter. Adrenaline works the same way.

A friend of mine used to work as the manager of a shelter in Indiana. She eventually quit because having  to euthanize far too many perfectly healthy kittens and puppies began to give her nightmares.

She was also asked by the local police to help break up dog fighting rings.  She would find out the location of the fights, and film them with a hidden camera. Then, the law would swoop in and raid the fights, and use her film footage as evidence.  She adopted some of the surviving dogs.

One was a small red pit that had been used as a bait dog. He was a pitiful sight. He had rickets in his front legs, was almost hairless due to mange, and was partially blind in one eye due to having it damaged during a fight.

His temperament seemed pretty mellow, though, so once he was  healthy enough, she took him home with her. At first, he got along fine with her other three dogs, then problems began to surface.

She ignored the first attack, when he tried to bite her foot after she nudged him to get him to move over in bed.  She'd put a lot of work into rehabilitating this dog, and didn't want to lose him.

But the next attack was too vicious to ignore. She'd just returned from walking him, along with another pit she'd adopted. With no warning, he lit into her elderly mixed breed dog. She said he had that insane look in his eyes that told her he was right over the edge, and not able to listen to her frantic commands to back off. She grabbed a broom, and started hitting him with it. He went after her and the broom.

Then, suddenly, within less than a minute, it was all over. He calmed down, and was back to his normal mellow self.

She spoiled him rotten for the rest of the weekend. Then, on Monday, she took him with her to work, and euthanized him.

I have very little experience with pits, as they are banned here in Ontario. But before the ban, I talked to my vet about them. He said they reminded him of the bears he used to work with in the zoo. He said, "They're perfectly fine one minute, then the next, they go into this berserk rage. It doesn't last long, but by the time it's over, someone is seriously injured or dead."

Sounds sort of like what my friend experienced above. I always tell people who want to adopt a dog to research what the dog was originally bred for. Pitties were bred for fighting other animals. You are always going to have to remember that when you're dealing with them.

As for the attack on the guy in the wheelchair, dogs are naturally more suspicious of anything that looks strange or different. They will bark much harder at someone who moves with an awkward gait, or has strange clothing that flaps in the breeze (remember the description of 'the sneak' in Kohler's book on "Guard Dog Training"? ) That's likely why this poor man was targeted by the dogs  Nothing to do with their breed. It comes from the old predatory instincts to attack prey that moves differently due to being weak or diseased.
 

Sunsilver, seriously? You know I think you're a very nice person and have respect for you, but seriously? How, in any way, shape, or form, can an educated dog person really take that vet's statement to heart? Comparing dogs to bears? Bears?? He sounds like a very uneducated person spewing his personal fears, which people have a right to do, I suppose, EXCEPT, many people think because he's a vet that he actually has some idea what he's talking about. Not sure why people think vets are competent on all things breed and behavior-related, but newsflash, they are NOT! I have brought lovely GSD pups in for health certificates and had vets say they're aggressive, I need to watch Cesar and learn to put them on their sides, they don't look "full-blooded", etc. LAUGHABLE!

People's inability to read dogs is why they get in trouble. Period. If you can read a dog, you can read a Pit Bull; they're harder to read on occasion, (more stoic, sometimes) but certainly not impossible, and I don't consider it any form of coincidence or luck that in my almost 20 years in the breed, dealing with both rescues and well-bred (read: "gamebred") dogs, I have never, not one time, not even close, had an incident with one and any human. I have also never, not even once, had any "vicious attack" on any of my other animals (and I have had quite a few in that time!) except for one incident with a cat-killing GSD (yep, that stands for one of those murderous, vicious German Shepherd Dogs) where the female rescued Pit joined in after he was mostly finished. Gee, <rolling eyes> no sane dog would do that, right? Kill a cat?! Egads! Give them the blue needle! Is it just dumb luck? Or maybe, just maybe (not trying to brag, here) I can read them a little bit and know who is going to be ok to bring into my home, sleep on the couch with my child and Chihuahua, and who is not of proper temperament for that situation, same as I assess my GSDs. 

The dog you describe had suffered quite a bit. No doubt your well-meaning friend babied him and tried to teach him that humans are loving and blah blah blah- all that stuff that the majority of rescue people do. Well guess what? Dogs live in the moment. Her actions (I notice particularly that he was sleeping on the bed)  told him he was boss and could do whatever he wanted. Nothing he did sounds all that unusual for a dog trying to move up in rank because the person in charge isn't really in charge. How many GSDs would bite someone's foot for pushing them with it? I think a lot, particularly dogs with no discipline, no foundation, raised and treated to think they're superior/dominant, would do that. Of course he was fine at first- then he settled in and tried to test/take charge, like lots of dogs would do. Would I rescue a former fighting dog? Sure. Would I let it (or any adult canine for that matter) have its freedom right off the bat or try to get it to mesh with my existing dogs or sleep in bed with it? Um, no. Absofreakinglutely not! I'm not trying to criticize her- she tried to do a good thing, but to use that example as an illustration of the vet's asinine analogy is something I just cannot let slide. 

And I agree about the adrenaline; of course Pit Bulls are prone to the same effects of adrenaline that ALL animals are- human animals included. That is sheer insanity to say they're "4x stronger". How do you quantify the effects of adrenaline without speaking in generalizations? To say such a thing about Pit Bulls is just as inane as saying they have "locking jaws" or that Dobermans are fine until their brains swell too big for their heads and they kill their whole family and drive off in their vehicles to avoid prosecution. Simply say they are more intense with a healthy dose of adrenalin, as all animals are- don't single them out as if they're the Incredible Hulk or something. 

You're also dead-on about the likely reason for the attack. A pack of dogs, rather than one single dog, only makes this more likely. 

 

Pitties are probably not the best breed for an inexperienced dog owner or for an owner who won't dedicate the time needed to socialize the dog or take it to the most basic OB class. In my immediate family there are currently 4 pitties owned by 2 different relatives. They have owned a total of 6 pitties over the last 12 years. One current dog is a new female blue nose puppy. So far she is the only pittie that anyone other than the family can get near without being bitten. Sad to say this about my own family, but neither of them should ever own this breed. They are too lazy to train these dogs or to socialize them. They treat the dogs great, they don't let them roam the neighborhood, but if any of them ever did get loose there is no doubt in my mind that someone would get hurt.

Brain swells too large for the skull, LMAO. That's probably what happened to all those psycho kids killing siblings and or parents. Just that they aren't as smart as a Dobie and get caught because they didn't think of driving off in the family car. LOL.

Jenni, this vet was very experienced. He had worked a lot with zoo animals and was a veterinary eye specialist. And he LOVED, LOVED GSDs!

So, yeah, forgive me if I took him at his word.

My friend has also worked with dogs most of her life. She has competed in obedience and other AKC sports, and has worked at several different shelters. She is currently employed as a veterinary assistant. It's the only way she can afford to keep her menagerie of rescued dogs and cats.

The dog that was attacked was elderly and frail, so I can understand her not wanting to risk a second attack. You may be right about her babying the pit by allowing it to sleep on the bed, etc. She's an e-friend, and although I've met her in person several times, have never had a chance to evaluate her training skills with dominant breeds such as pits and GSDs. She's had pits as pets, so I have to assume she's not totally clueless when it comes to handling the breed.

I was told by my aunt(animal control officer here in South Carolina) that the dogs that did this were not Pitt bulls, they were mutts with hardly(if ANY) pitt in them. Also, the reason they think this happened was because of his wheelchair. The deceased man, was passing the empty house the mother dog and her pups were living in, and are thinking she was just trying to protect what was hers and the pups(being older pups) joined in with her and ended up mauling the guy. So, there goes the "they were pittbulls".

As for dogs being fine one minute and then suddenly flipping out. It happens, all different breeds can do that. There are dogs like that, and I'm sure people will agree with me in my saying that, its usually(not always, but often times) because they were spoiled and aren't under control from their human caretaker. They are the Alpha dog, doing what alpha dogs do. I've seen a couple that were just plain crazy in the head, but what made them like that? Bad breeding? Bad raising during its important stages of development? (both being human faults) What's the dogs past?  I know I don't know a TON about dogs and their breed temperaments, but I am learning more and more all the time, and it rather shocks me at people who take it out on "that terrible breed" instead of the(usual) trashy people that buy dogs of these certain breeds to look "cool" or "awesome". Then, just let them run loose and create havoc and give the rest of the breed a bad name. To me, these dogs were bred for a purpose and people don't respect the breeds by doing right by the dogs. Example; Keep a working dog locked up in a little backyard=what? A hyperactive destructive dog most of the time. Why? Humans don't do right by the dog and work it, like it was meant to be.  Give a dog breed that was bred to hunt large game and protect property, freedom on its own, or letting it be in charge and what happens..?? Exactly.

My little rant, forgive me if I offended anyone, but it is the way I see it. Thank you.

Odd that animal control claims they are not pit bulls while witnesses and family members of the dog's owners state they are pit bulls.

Very odd, isn't it?

Let's see photos of the dogs in question. I still don't think breed is relevant when you have the recipe for the "perfect storm" as in this case, but I'd like to see pics just for curiosity's sake.