B.C. boy needed 100 stitches after pit bull attack

[EagleSmack]

The owner's actions alone in the above situation diserves a slab of concrete against his skull.

No kidding. I've known these folks for years but that was just his attitude. I mean it wasn't bothering him and thus far Klink had not bitten me.

None of my dogs would have ever gotten far enough to pounce on your chest and growl with teeth showing like that, because the next step from that is taking your face into their mouths and shaking.

This dog was trained to be aggressive. They bought it for home protection and family protection and trained it on their own. They were not proffessional trainers. He used to give a command...

"Watch him Klink!"

And the dog would growl fiercly at the target.

Then the dog had an attack command. So i believe aggressive behavoir was encouraged in the dog.

When the dog is like that all the time, it is of course a dominance thing it enjoys playing with you each time he/she sees you, but the owner of the dog should have addressed this attitude of the dog long ago and not by "Knock it off Klink" This shows that the dog has more slack and leinancy when around his owner or that the owner gives a level of tollerance for this type of behavior in which gives the dog a level of unpredictability.

Big time...I agree. That night when that happened he was treated by a pet on the head from it's Master. That, in my opinion with not being an expert, showed to the dog that he did well.

I don't care who's friggin dog it is, whether they are right there beside their dog or not, but if a dog is going to do that to me continually, their owner's going to soon realize that they better keep the damn dog in check or I'll keep him in check for him... and I won't be using blunt objects to do it either.

An animal can learn to fear a human with a weapon, it's an entirely different situation when they fear a human as a human.

There is a post script to it. I did hurt the dog. It needed stitches. I went over the house and my friend's Dad was all up in arms at how some "punk" hit his dog in the head. When i saw the dog it was all sedated and had it's head wrapped up. But I didn't feel bad. I was tired of being tormented by the dog every day on the way home from school, or when I walked by the house, or went over to meet my buddy. I never told them what happened that night.

 

[karrie]

There is a post script to it. I did hurt the dog. It needed stitches. I went over the house and my friend's Dad was all up in arms at how some "punk" hit his dog in the head. When i saw the dog it was all sedated and had it's head wrapped up. But I didn't feel bad. I was tired of being tormented by the dog every day on the way home from school, or when I walked by the house, or went over to meet my buddy. I never told them what happened that night.

What you did (no insult intended) is equally part of why a responsible dog owner keeps their dog locked up.... so no one injures it. There are a lot of people who hate animals.

 

[Praxius]

.....There is a post script to it. I did hurt the dog. It needed stitches. I went over the house and my friend's Dad was all up in arms at how some "punk" hit his dog in the head. When i saw the dog it was all sedated and had it's head wrapped up. But I didn't feel bad. I was tired of being tormented by the dog every day on the way home from school, or when I walked by the house, or went over to meet my buddy. I never told them what happened that night.

Well down to the roots of it all, we're all animals and we all have our own limits.... it was only a matter of time before he attacked you or you attacked him...... you had enough of the game, you played passive for too long, giving him the dominance angle of the situation everytime and eventually, an official challenge of authority would have been started by him if you didn't do it yourself....

..... you won.

The owner of the dog clearly was an idiot imo in regards to this situation.... if he kept training and treating the dog like this, wtf did he expect to eventually happen?

His dog would either be put down for attacking someone or his dog would be just plain dead somewhere in a ditch from trying to attack someone.

The dog was lucky if you ask me.

 

[EagleSmack]

What you did (no insult intended) is equally part of why a responsible dog owner keeps their dog locked up.... so no one injures it. There are a lot of people who hate animals.

Believe me. I am no animal hater. I had two Sheppards myself. I never went after another animal before or since. I just thought it was my only option.

 

[talloola]

Often people need as much training as dogs do. Some even more.
Never run from a dog. Instinct is a very powerful drive and for most dogs, it's a trigger to chase and catch.

Dogs play with their mouths. I'm sure that if they did have hands with opposable thumbs they would play with their hands. But they don't. Consider this, when you were young, you would rough and tumble, play fight and what not with your buddies. You of course used your hands to do so and eventually learned a few tricks and how things work that way. Dogs are no different really. When people play fight with them, when they are young, play tug of war and what not, they are teaching the dog to play. Problem is, once a dog grows to it's potential it's far too rough to play even a little bit with someone who isn't prepared mentally and physically to under go the rigors of all out play.

Kicking screaming and hitting are play for most dogs. So when some kid thinking they are being attacked, kicks screams and hits the dog, to the dogs perspective, it's just ramping up the game a bit. Like a kid who hits too hard.

All of your advice is good, but this was a child, not an adult, and the dog was not
playing, he was 'attacking', and the dog knows the difference. When they are
playing, even vigorously, they do not draw blood, their teeth do not penetrate the
skin, unless it is an accident, usually caused by the adult playing with them, and
the dog would not continue drawing blood, a dog will only continue playing in a
rough way, if the 'person' is in a good frame of mind, if the person becomes scared,
the dog will back off and be puzzled, if the person becomes angry the dog will back
off and become fearful and worried.

If I was playing with any of my dogs, and I started to scream and become terrified,
the dog would stop and become concerned and puzzled.

If a dog doesn't react in the above manner, and continues to become more agressive,
there is 'real' problem with the dog, and help is needed quickly.

It is too bad that there are certain adults in the world, who, because of their own
lack of ability to blend into society, and their need to be threatening to others, teach their dogs to be agressive, it seems to
be signal that "Hey do the wrong thing and I will let this dog free to do what he wants
to you", I pity the dog, and I pity the person.
Without their dog, they are not able to deal with people, are afraid, and suspicious.

 

[karrie]

Believe me. I am no animal hater. I had two Sheppards myself. I never went after another animal before or since. I just thought it was my only option.

Being a responsible pet owner means keeping your animal under control so it doesn't drive people to behavior like that. I hear people talk all the time about how only psycho animal haters would ever hurt an animal. But, my hubby, a huge animal lover, has on two occasions been ready to kill neighbor's animals due to their behavior. One instance was a set of boxers that would throw themselves against our chain link fence, barking and snarling at us in our own yard, everytime we passed by to get to our cars, or anytime the kids would try to play back there. It hit the point where the kids wouldn't play in their own yard, because the noise was too much and the dogs scared them. And the owners refused to do anything about it. If their yard hadn't been padlocked, hubby would have gone and snuffed those dogs out when he completely snapped one day. The only thing that kept him from heading over there with an axe was finding out that other neighbors before had a habit of shooting the dogs with bb guns and slingshots through the fence, thus helping spark such aggression. But it was always a bone of contention with those neighbors.

The other time, my husband and I had let the kids go biking around the neighborhood, and heard screaming and crying coming from their direction. Hubby took off running, only to see the neighbor's goat standing over my screaming daughter. She managed to get herself up, and run home, the goat tearing after her, trying to head butt her the entire way. Hubby grabbed a stick and had to intervene, clubbing the goat to keep it off the kids. My daughter ran straight past me and into the house completely terrified and all scraped up. I ran after her, and while I was bandaging her my son made his way back into the house. I asked where his dad was, and he said 'he went and got a hammer and left to find the goat'. ACK!!! I had to phone and yell at him, demand he come straight back home. Thankfully I caught him before he caught the goat.

 

[talloola]

I like the 'KLINK' story, a brave young person you were. too bad the dog had to deal
with you, but you taught him a lesson he didn't forget, and another dog owner, who
had no concern with others, and all of the problems were in the head of the owner,
there are many of them out there.

One day when my daughter was about 9 yrs old, we were walking on the side of the road,
out came a large doberman, from a yard, and ran right to us, snarling and barking, and very
threatening, I tucked my daughter close to me, and covered her face, and faced the dog,
which was about 2 feet in front of us. The lady who owned the dog, came out on her porch, and I called to her to 'call her dog off', the dog was very loud and snarly and still
threatening us. She said 'IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, WALK ON ANOTHER STREET". The dog
turned when he heard her talk, and became a little quieter, and moved a little way away,
but did not leave. We slowly backed up, and turned and walked on.

When I got home I phoned the spca, explained exactly what happened, explained to them
that I raise dogs, know dogs, and if I had have panicked at all, that dog would have been
all over us. I never saw that dog again, and I continued walking that route, although
the next few times I did it alone.
My daughter could have been alone, in that situation, I'm so glad I was with her.

 

[Praxius]

.....One day when my daughter was about 9 yrs old, we were walking on the side of the road, out came a large doberman, from a yard, and ran right to us, snarling and barking, and very threatening, I tucked my daughter close to me, and covered her face, and faced the dog, which was about 2 feet in front of us. The lady who owned the dog, came out on her porch, and I called to her to 'call her dog off', the dog was very loud and snarly and still threatening us. She said 'IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, WALK ON ANOTHER STREET". The dog turned when he heard her talk, and became a little quieter, and moved a little way away, but did not leave. We slowly backed up, and turned and walked on.

Yeah, I would have said back "Yeah ok, say goodbye to your fk'n mutt!" and break its neck right then and there.... but then the child equation kinda screws that up now doesn't it? Then again the child equation also justifies self defense of the child from the dog and thus killing right then and there would also work.... might have some small legal things to deal with, along with some explaining to be done to your child, but you'd still probably win the legal case at least and your child learn what defense is about. Besides, experiences like that help them grow up faster ;-) (Half Joking)

Idiot owners like that need their necks broken more then the dogs in all honesty, but there's more legal issues to deal with when you go down that route.

They don't own the sidewalks, and their dogs are not the guardians of them either.... .allowing your animal to act that way or justify that sort of behavior is totally unacceptible, esspecially when children are nearby.

When I got home I phoned the spca, explained exactly what happened, explained to them that I raise dogs, know dogs, and if I had have panicked at all, that dog would have been all over us. I never saw that dog again, and I continued walking that route, although the next few times I did it alone. My daughter could have been alone, in that situation, I'm so glad I was with her.

Perhaps that wasn't the first complaint they had about the owner and their dog.

 

[karrie]

An older gentleman who walks in my neighborhood with his dog, carries a cane, with a sharpened point. I think he may have had a few too many run ins with loose animals.

 

[shadowshiv]

Yep:lol: You're my kind of people. As an old mailman,I've been attacked by every kind of dog imaginable and even a few cats,too & every one that bit me paid for it dearly.

A postal worker was attacked here in Chatham a few years back, and she was severely injured. The dog leapt through a screen door to attack her while she attempted to place the mail in the mailbox.

This attack prompted a by-law banning pits bulls(and perhaps similar breeds?). No one can legally have pit bulls anymore(except for ones previously owned, which are grandfathered in. However, they all had to be neutered.).

 

[Unforgiven]

Often people need as much training as dogs do. Some even more.
Never run from a dog. Instinct is a very powerful drive and for most dogs, it's a trigger to chase and catch.

Dogs play with their mouths. I'm sure that if they did have hands with opposable thumbs they would play with their hands. But they don't. Consider this, when you were young, you would rough and tumble, play fight and what not with your buddies. You of course used your hands to do so and eventually learned a few tricks and how things work that way. Dogs are no different really. When people play fight with them, when they are young, play tug of war and what not, they are teaching the dog to play. Problem is, once a dog grows to it's potential it's far too rough to play even a little bit with someone who isn't prepared mentally and physically to under go the rigors of all out play.

Kicking screaming and hitting are play for most dogs. So when some kid thinking they are being attacked, kicks screams and hits the dog, to the dogs perspective, it's just ramping up the game a bit. Like a kid who hits too hard.

All of your advice is good, but this was a child, not an adult, and the dog was not

playing, he was 'attacking', and the dog knows the difference. When they are
playing, even vigorously, they do not draw blood, their teeth do not penetrate the
skin, unless it is an accident, usually caused by the adult playing with them, and
the dog would not continue drawing blood, a dog will only continue playing in a
rough way, if the 'person' is in a good frame of mind, if the person becomes scared,
the dog will back off and be puzzled, if the person becomes angry the dog will back
off and become fearful and worried.

Children need to know how to act around animals, dogs especially. The onus should be on each and every parent/adult to teach all children. I don't think dogs know a persons mind unless they have been raised and trained to do so. An advanced feat for most dogs. While I can see a dog backing off when confronted with a violent reaction like kicking and screaming, I know that plenty of dogs won't. If all dogs did then there would be no attacks. Alpha dogs usually don't back down much. They may just walk away, often they don't play too much anyway but unless someone comes along to tell them to knock it off, they will do as they see fit.

If I was playing with any of my dogs, and I started to scream and become terrified,

the dog would stop and become concerned and puzzled.

Of course, your dogs know you and I suspect accept you as the pack leader, in doggie logic. You set the tone of all things.

If a dog doesn't react in the above manner, and continues to become more agressive,

there is 'real' problem with the dog, and help is needed quickly.

Dog personalities span a range much like people do. Some are shy and retiring, others boisterous and outgoing. Some are even bullys and others simply have a bad attitude.
Mental health aside, it comes down to the owner. A responsible owner can have any type of dog and it will never bother a soul. Simply because the owner knows the dog and takes steps to make absolutly sure that the dog will not get into a position that it will be tested or make the choice to attack or not.

It is too bad that there are certain adults in the world, who, because of their own

lack of ability to blend into society, and their need to be threatening to others, teach their dogs to be agressive, it seems to be signal that "Hey do the wrong thing and I will let this dog free to do what he wants to you", I pity the dog, and I pity the person.
Without their dog, they are not able to deal with people, are afraid, and suspicious.

Bang on! You are absolutly correct. The manly man mucho macho He man personea is the root to more trouble than anything else I reckon. It seems that stupid often is a symptom of that mental issue.

A dog should be a companion, a cuddly friend who will stand by you thick or thin. Not a machine to kill people who steal your old tv. Insurance makes everything I own worth $250. That's my deductable and so I have no worry about someone stealing my property.
As well I make my home secure so that while someone could still break in, it will take a minute or two and they will have to make an awful lot of noise to get in. Then they get to deal with me, wide awake and armed. So killing us off is going to cost some blood on their part. And to be honest with you, I can't think of anything I have that someone would want to go to that enxtent to take off me.

It's that abusive nature that some people have that caused this and many other totally preventable tragedies.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

Manjit Bajwa, the father of the boy who was mauled, wants the owner of the pit bulls punished for allowing the dogs to run loose in a playground.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/05/bc-pitbull-baseball-bat.html

Any one who breeds a dog to kill is an antisocial misfit. The boy has respect for the animal. The owner of the dog should be sued for the trauma this boy received mental as well physical. When a dog is mistreated in the manner to which the animal knows no friendliness they should be put down immediately, these dogs are not rehabilitate able. They attack unpredictably being that their brain gets bigger as they progress to more anger and this is why pit bulls are scary because their owners purposely starve them and beat them so they can be very angry. F loosers.

 

[talloola]

I was walking with my beloved chocolate lab 'Joe', the other day, a long 'river walk', which
is walked by many each day, when a young mother, walking with her two children, one,
was about 21/2 yrs old, the other about 4, and the kids became quite excited as they
approached joe and I, and she asked me if her children could touch Joe, I hesitated for
a couple of seconds, then I said, "no I don't feel comfortable letting your kids do that,"
not because there is anything at all about Joe that I don't trust, but the body language
of the children was a little too exuberant, and I didn't trust 'how' they were going to touch
him, so I said no, and she understood.
If one of them had rushed to him and grabbed his nose, or pulled his ear, or tried to hug
him, I'm not sure how he would react, we are a retired couple, live a very quiet life, he is
not used to small kids, as, even when my small grandchildren were at my place several times, I always put Joe somewhere else, cause I'm not sure what they will do, his life
is so laid back, he is so quiet and mild, but in a blink of an eye, he can be a very strong
energetic athletic dog, doing retrieving and swimming, but he did not grow up with kids,
and he has not been grabbed or pinched or punched or hugged hard, as many kids do with
their dogs.
My youngest grandson has a cat that I feel very very sorry for, as she has had so many things done to her,
and puts up with alomost of it, although at times my grandson walks around with scratches on him, and
deserves every one of them.

 

[Unforgiven]

I was walking with my beloved chocolate lab 'Joe', the other day, a long 'river walk', which
is walked by many each day, when a young mother, walking with her two children, one,
was about 21/2 yrs old, the other about 4, and the kids became quite excited as they
approached joe and I, and she asked me if her children could touch Joe, I hesitated for
a couple of seconds, then I said, "no I don't feel comfortable letting your kids do that,"
not because there is anything at all about Joe that I don't trust, but the body language
of the children was a little too exuberant, and I didn't trust 'how' they were going to touch
him, so I said no, and she understood. If one of them had rushed to him and grabbed his nose, or pulled his ear, or tried to hug him, I'm not sure how he would react, we are a retired couple, live a very quiet life, he is not used to small kids, as, even when my small grandchildren were at my place several times, I always put Joe somewhere else, cause I'm not sure what they will do, his life is so laid back, he is so quiet and mild, but in a blink of an eye, he can be a very strong energetic athletic dog, doing retrieving and swimming, but he did not grow up with kids, and he has not been grabbed or pinched or punched or hugged hard, as many kids do with their dogs.

My youngest grandson has a cat that I feel very very sorry for, as she has had so many things done to her, and puts up with alomost of it, although at times my grandson walks around with scratches on him, and deserves every one of them.

Exactly the right decision in my estimation Talloola. Knowing your dog and the possibilities is what responsible pet owners do. More so, reading the body language of other people that come in contact with our pets is one of those extra steps an owner should be able to manage that helps make for a problem free pet. I wish more had the same sense as yourself.

I think abuse towards an animal is an indicator of someone who has issues fitting into society as a whole. While rough play is one thing, and I've seen a few nasty damn cats in my time, going out to purposely starve an animal to make it more aggression or breeding aggression to aggression is antisocial and a detriment to society. In my opinion, it should carry a heavy price and some serious intervention into that person's life to resolve the issues they have that results in doing something as stupid as creating a menace to society.

There is a fine line between aggression and gameness. A game dog is on perhaps like your own that is ready and willing to hit the water and retrieve a bird or lure. It's what separates a good working dog or sporting dog from a lumpy couch potato like I have.
But more importantly, it's what ignorant breeders miss in their attempt to do whatever it is that they are trying to do in their backyards.

A word about Pit Bulls.

Though I'm not directing this at you Talloola, I'll use this opportunity to say a few things about these dogs.

Back when blood sport was a mainstay in the lives of our ancestors, dogs were bred to fight. You didn't see wildly aggressive dogs that would attack anything that moved. On the contrary a good pit fighting dog was calm, never out of control and since the owner of the dog's opponent would wash it, never aggressive towards people. As a matter of fact, if your dog bit someone, it would be removed unless it was shown that there was a good reason for it.

So the statement "These dogs are bred to kill" and the like are at best, misinformed.
While it's not impossible to breed a dog expressly to kill things, few people are able to do so, and the breeding is only part of the total package. Environment plays a large role in making a dog a killing machine. What's more Pit Bull is used incorrectly many times to describe a dog that has little to do with an actual American Pit Bull Terrier, or American Staffordshire Terrier, the two dogs that are officially recognised as a Pit Bull breed.

I can think of a couple of dozen dog breeds off the top of my head that are every bit as dangerous as a poorly bred and mistreated Pit Bull. Yet you will never hear much about them as the popularity of those breeds are nothing in comparison here in North America.

This is one reason why breed bans don't work. Yet we seem helpless to take the steps that would prevent people and most importantly kids from being hurt by dogs.

 

[Praxius]

Something just popped into my head that got me thinking:

B.C. boy needed 100 stitches after pit bull attack


Was it exactly 100 stiches or was it just rounded up or down for the media?

I always wondered if they round them up when explaining it or do they actually make sure it's an even number for inventory reasons

 

[Unforgiven]

Something just popped into my head that got me thinking:

B.C. boy needed 100 stitches after pit bull attack


Was it exactly 100 stiches or was it just rounded up or down for the media?

I always wondered if they round them up when explaining it or do they actually make sure it's an even number for inventory reasons

I haven't a clue, though I know that when stitching a face they will sometimes use a specific suture and close stitching to reduce scarring later on. This could be the reason for the high stitch count. Along with of course the possibility that it took that many stitches to close the wounds. Reporters have made mistakes due to carelessness and milking a story before so mileage may vary.

 

[karrie]

I haven't a clue, though I know that when stitching a face they will sometimes use a specific suture and close stitching to reduce scarring later on. This could be the reason for the high stitch count. Along with of course the possibility that it took that many stitches to close the wounds. Reporters have made mistakes due to carelessness and milking a story before so mileage may vary.

He needed three hours of surgery according to the one article I read, so, I'm guessing 100 stitches is a low count.

 

[tracy]

My dog would probably attack someone breaking into the house if the kids or I were home. I'd fight tooth and nail before I let anyone put my dog down for something that comes naturally to her, defending her family. If those dogs attacked that guy for breaking in then, imo, he had it coming.

I grew up with a pitbull for a pet and she was a fabulous dog. The funny thing is, we got robbed when she was home. Since none of us were home, she felt no need to be protective and let the robber get away with most of our entertainment system. You know a dog loves people when she'll even let them steal her owner's stuff.

 

[tracy]

Karrie I agree with you, I work in the veterinary field and have been bitten many many times. The breeds that more often show the signs of aggressiveness are the small breeds. The ones that people just think that it is soo cute that only one person can actually touch it! Most of my bites have come from shih tzus, min pins and cats (Karrie I can sympathize with the medical treatment from the cat bite).
The thing about large dogs is that the majority are very good dogs, we see very few large aggressive dogs because that sort of behavior is stopped at the first sign, it is simply not allowed because they can cause so much more damage. There are a lot of responsible owners out there.
I actually really like pitbulls, rotties, mastiffs (my fav!) and dobbies!

In this situation though, the dogs should not have been running free in a playground, thats what off leash areas are for. But also the dog started out by licking the boy (not to say that this is at all his fault) but perhaps the boy freaked out and paniced causing a panic response from the dog.
I think a lot of people need to learn not to be afraid and to stay calm.

At the clinic we often see clients come in with their little dogs running at the end of their extendable leashes barking and snapping at calm relaxed big dogs and the small dog client says how unsafe big dogs are! Yeshh!

My dog is 14lbs or so and is by far the most prone to biting of any dog I've ever known. He is NEVER off leash out of the house and NEVER allowed to play with children. I won't let a child touch him. It's not worth the risk. He hasn't bitten anyone in years now, but I still muzzle him at the vet's office.

 

[tracy]

Also a small dog may bite but it is not going to rip your newborn apart.... larger dogs left alone with babies have done that.
.

Actually there was a well publicized case in LA of a Pomeranian killing a newborn.