Marauding pit bulls attack six - 10 year old boy, Critical

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Casshew

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Child In Stable Condition; Scalp Found In Dog's Stomach
HODGENVILLE, Ky. -- A 4-year-old Kentucky girl is lucky to be alive after a gruesome attack by the family's pit bull.

The attack happened Monday night at the child's home in Hodgenville, in Larue County, Louisville television station WLKY As Emily Page Stinnett remains in stable condition at Louisville's Kosair Children's Hospital, Larue County Sheriff Bobby Shoffer struggles to remember an attack as gruesome as Monday's.

"It's the worst I've seen in my 17 years of law enforcement," he said.

Shoffer added that when he and his colleagues responded to the Stinnet's home, they saw a blood-spattered doghouse in the backyard, Miller reported. And the pit bull hadn't seemed to calm down since the attack. The deputies then took action.

"When we got at the scene, the child was in the backyard just a few feet from the dog," Shoffer said. "EMS was called, and they responded. The dog apparently was still aggressive and it wouldn't let EMS near the child, so the dog had to be put down."

Stinnett and another girl were swinging on the swingset with the pit bull chained and staked just 7 feet away, WLKY-TV reported.

Shoffer said something provoked the dog, and it snapped, pulling its stake as it lunged at the girl and biting her face just above the eyebrow.

"I guess you would say she was more or less scalped," Shoffer said. "She had some puncture wounds to her stomach."

According to Shoffer, the dog then dragged the little girl around the yard as she screamed for help. Her stepmother ran to Emily's aid, but the dog would not let her near the little girl. According to investigators, the stepmother took off in her car to get a neighbor to help rescue little the girl.

"These dogs are unpredictable," Shoffer said. "The least little thing ... the dog could be happy one minute, and the next minute they go absolutely crazy. Anybody that has young children (needs) to make sure the dog is chained or properly fenced in."

http://www.thelouisvillechannel.com/news/3243296/detail.html
 
How terrible, I feel for the poor little girl. The insurance company I work for will not insure a person's home if they own a pitt bull because of the liability risk.
 
Scary stuff. Why do people need to own dogs like these? I know it is a free county but jeez. One irresponsible owner and a child is dead or scarred for life.
 
You can blame the breeders too. They inbred these dogs to make them meaner. A pitbull that isn't inbred, or is mixed with another breed can be a great dog that never turns on it's owner or the children. It's the purebreds that have these type of problems IMO.
 
I'm sure that little girl's step mother was probably in shock, but my God, she left to get help? Was there nothing she could hit that dog with anywhere near by? A butcher knife? A shovel? NOTHING???
 
I just don't understand people who have to have killer animals... Even a peaceful loving dog will fight to save it's family ~ so it's not about protection ~ I think that killer pets fulfill some sort of sick need ~ maybe insecurity or something....
 
Ike said:
How terrible, I feel for the poor little girl. The insurance company I work for will not insure a person's home if they own a pitt bull because of the liability risk.

I have trouble with insurance because I have a Rottie and a Chow mix....

pitbulls are another thing. They should be kept away from children. They are way too unpredictable.
 
Ike said:
How terrible, I feel for the poor little girl. The insurance company I work for will not insure a person's home if they own a pitt bull because of the liability risk.

Some airlines wont crate ship certain types of dogs. Not just the well known biters. Chows were on the list of dogs they will not transport.

I grew up with a chow and she didn't bite us but man no one was allowed on our property, per the dog. We had to chain her up when company came over.
 
MysteryMomma said:
Some airlines wont crate ship certain types of dogs. Not just the well known biters. Chows were on the list of dogs they will not transport.

I grew up with a chow and she didn't bite us but man no one was allowed on our property, per the dog. We had to chain her up when company came over.

My chow mix is just the opposite of most, he'd welcome anyone in and then show them where the silver is. Of course my Rottie would help them carry it out. Its all in their breeding and how they are brought up. Mine think they are kids.... then again they are to me.
 
After several of these attacks the UK goverment outlawed the owning of these dogs under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Any dogs found are destroyed and the owners fined or imprisoned. I think they are magnificent physical specimens but they are bred to fight and therefore although I can admire them they should not really be around in this day and age.
 
Hugh said:
After several of these attacks the UK goverment outlawed the owning of these dogs under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Any dogs found are destroyed and the owners fined or imprisoned. I think they are magnificent physical specimens but they are bred to fight and therefore although I can admire them they should not really be around in this day and age.

I applaud the UK with gusto for this decision. I wish the US government would have the guts to do the same.

Pit bulls aren't even a "real" dog breed. They were created, essentially over the last thirty years by mixing English Bull Dogs (a breed that consequently is also a mix of two breeds, the original large Bull-Dog and the Chinese Pug) and terriers. It doesn't really seem to matter which terrier gets thrown in the gene cauldron along with the Bull Dogs. They still get called Pit Bulls. :rolleyes: There actually is a breed that has been legitimized and is called The American Pit Bull. But nearly none of these "backyard breeder atrocities" that we see all the time, everywhere, are legitimate bloodline descendants of any of the official breed. Instead they are closer to a volatile mix of aggressive, non-desirable flaws... because mean, stupid dogs fight better and to the death. They actually carry the term "pit" in their breed name because originally they fought rats in a pit. Now they fight each other in a repulsive display that nets big bucks for criminal types. :sick:

Why anyone would be moronic enough to own one of these stupid, potential killing machines as a "family pet" boggles the mind. It ought to be child abuse to have one and also have a child. :mad:

This part of the story made me physically ill... as well as confused... :confused:

Once the girl was transported to Kosair, doctors there told the sheriff that child's hair and scalp had to be found and delivered or she would die. Shoffer said he had to cut the dog's stomach open to find the scalp, which was then rushed to the hospital, WLKY reported.

Family members told WLKY that the doctors reattached the majority of the scalp, but added that the girl still might face more surgeries.

I guess time spent in the digestive juices of a dog's stomach doesn't deform a scalp with hair... or even contaminate it with bacteria just itching to cause major infection!! :eek: Just a good size dose of Dial anti-bacterial soap and "Houston, we have go"... huh? :confused:
 
becca said:
I have trouble with insurance because I have a Rottie and a Chow mix....

pitbulls are another thing. They should be kept away from children. They are way too unpredictable.


Rottweilers and Chows are also included on our list of "uninsurable dogs" along with any type of wolf hybrid.

I've been around alot of these types of dogs with no problem. However, overall they are known for being aggressive and alot of insurance companies will not insure you if you have them.
 
Ike said:
Rottweilers and Chows are also included on our list of "uninsurable dogs" along with any type of wolf hybrid.

I've been around alot of these types of dogs with no problem. However, overall they are known for being aggressive and alot of insurance companies will not insure you if you have them.

Thanks to the AKC and the work they do, I knew what companies to avoid.
They have a chart on their website http://www.akc.org/love/dip/legislat/insurance_chart0702.cfm
that helps.
Some companies want the vet to verify a mixed breed isn't more of one breed than another. I can't even imagine asking my vet to do that for Bear. He's a chow/shepard mix , it won't do a bit of good to pay for that test.He's a very gentle dog with everything and everyone except the bunny.
 
becca said:
Thanks to the AKC and the work they do, I knew what companies to avoid.
They have a chart on their website http://www.akc.org/love/dip/legislat/insurance_chart0702.cfm
that helps.
Some companies want the vet to verify a mixed breed isn't more of one breed than another. I can't even imagine asking my vet to do that for Bear. He's a chow/shepard mix , it won't do a bit of good to pay for that test.He's a very gentle dog with everything and everyone except the bunny.

How interesting, thank you for sharing that! The company I work for, American Family Insurance, isn't on the list. We are only in thirteen states so that may have something to do with it.
 
becca said:
I have trouble with insurance because I have a Rottie and a Chow mix....

pitbulls are another thing. They should be kept away from children. They are way too unpredictable.
Nope. Wrangler is right. A well-bred Pitbull is one of the most docile (to humans anyway), playful, loyal dogs a person could own. They are very active and requite LOTS of exercise and playtime and even climb trees.

I had a wonderful pitbull who died of a heart attack a few months ago. My brother used to be a breeder and still owns his stud and one of his daughters. My children have done to them what children always do (pull ears, jump on them...) and they take it like it's a big game.

It is true that unscrupulous breeders inbreed and the results can be disastrous. It gives the whole breed a bad name. But if you are lucky enough to know one that is well bred, then you know that most pitbulls are just happy-go-lucky little clowns. (Just keep them away from other animals! They DO NOT have to be trained or given weird things to make them want to fight other dogs. They were bred like that and it's hundreds of years of instinct that make them do it).
 
I and glad I live where this breed is BANNED! :hand:


A 10-year-old boy was in critical condition Sunday after three pit bulls escaped from a home and went on a rampage, attacking six people before police shot and killed dogs, authorities said.

Neighbors said the attacks started late Saturday afternoon when children going door-to-door for a fund-raiser arrived at the home of Scott Sword, 41, who owned the dogs.

"We had music playing, and I heard this bizarre sound," said Debby Rivera, who lives three houses away. "I looked out the window, and I saw a young boy. The dogs were just jumping on him."

"The screams were horrible," she said. The dogs were "relentless, like they were possessed."

The pit bulls attacked the two children, and when the dogs' owner tried to stop them, the dogs turned on him and bit off his thumb, Nygren said. The boy's father also tried to protect his son and was attacked. The dogs went after another neighbor as well.

"The scene sprawled over a couple blocks; it was a very chaotic scene," said Lt. Michael Douglas of the Cary Fire Protection District.

Residents threw rocks at the dogs and honked car horns to try to distract them from attacking before police arrived and shot the animals.

Jim Malone said he and a neighbor tried to beat the dogs back with baseball bats. "He'd hit them, they'd run, and they'd come back," Malone said. "This went on for 15 minutes."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/06/pit.bulls.ap/index.html
 
The dogs themselves are not the problem. It is the irresponsible owners and the people who train them to attack and fight that are the problem.
 
Hbgchick said:
The dogs themselves are not the problem. It is the irresponsible owners and the people who train them to attack and fight that are the problem.
Hearing that said over and over, I still don't think Pit Bulls need to be kept as pets in the city. Supposedly these dogs were not trained to be attack or fighting dogs, but just "pets". Over and over, we hear of so much destruction and heartache these dogs cause.

Notice these attacks seem to happen when there are more than one pit bull in the household. Sometimes it could be one pit bull, but dogs of other breeds in the house. To trust them around children is just asking for it.

I know all dogs can bite, but pit bulls have the reputation for vicious and continuing attacks that lead to death. Why not get a dog with a milder bred personality, especially with children in the home.

Years ago we had a beautiful female collie for our two young boys. She played with them, guarded them, pulled them out of the street and pushed them home when I called them in for meals. She went everywhere with us. Once a young kid put his face up against the car window and said something like "hiya dog" and since the boys were in the back seat with her, she let this kid know that he needed to back off. Never tried to bite, but she held her ground between the boys and bared her teeth until he left. Yet she never did it when all the neighborhood kids were out playing with her. Even little squabbles, she'd try to "settle" in her gentle way. Collies, labs, retrievers can be wonderful family pets. Why on earth would someone buy a pit bull for a family dog, when these other large breeds can make better pets?
 
BarnGoddess said:
Hearing that said over and over, I still don't think Pit Bulls need to be kept as pets in the city. Supposedly these dogs were not trained to be attack or fighting dogs, but just "pets". Over and over, we hear of so much destruction and heartache these dogs cause.

Notice these attacks seem to happen when there are more than one pit bull in the household. Sometimes it could be one pit bull, but dogs of other breeds in the house. To trust them around children is just asking for it.

I know all dogs can bite, but pit bulls have the reputation for vicious and continuing attacks that lead to death. Why not get a dog with a milder bred personality, especially with children in the home.

Years ago we had a beautiful female collie for our two young boys. She played with them, guarded them, pulled them out of the street and pushed them home when I called them in for meals. She went everywhere with us. Once a young kid put his face up against the car window and said something like "hiya dog" and since the boys were in the back seat with her, she let this kid know that he needed to back off. Never tried to bite, but she held her ground between the boys and bared her teeth until he left. Yet she never did it when all the neighborhood kids were out playing with her. Even little squabbles, she'd try to "settle" in her gentle way. Collies, labs, retrievers can be wonderful family pets. Why on earth would someone buy a pit bull for a family dog, when these other large breeds can make better pets?
Depending on where you're talking about, I don't think ANY dog over 15lbs should be kept in a city without room to run and play. Taking a walk on a leash along a cement sidewalk twice a day just doesn't cut it.

I don't disagree with you totally, but I really think that pit bulls have gotten a bad rep. As you say, "have the reputation for vicious and continuing attacks that lead to death". I think a lot of (not all) people who own pit bulls LIKE that they are "bred to attack", and actually have done the breeding themselves. I also think that if you do not raise a dog from a puppy, you can't really guarantee what they'll do given a certain situation. I definitely do agree with you in that I would absolutely not choose a pit bull as a pet unless I had raised it from a puppy, and even then I would keep him restrained in the fenced in forest we have behind our house for our dogs to run.

I think a lot of these "attacks" are a combination of at least three and maybe four things - first of all, very often the dogs are found to have been TRAINED to attack or fight, in which case they're only doing what they do (they have been adopted and the family does not know it's true history). Secondly, I have seen many of these "vicious dog" stories which end up more like "people teased dog and got bitten" stories. Third, I know that often if a dog thinks it's master is danger for any reason - as in your collie's situation - they will protect them. Who is to say what the collie would have done if she had not been restrained in the back seat by her diligent owner? And fourth, a dog, or dogs, should not be kept 24 hours a day restrained. That would get to anyone, don't you think? If you've got two large pit bulls in a small city apartment, can't blame them for getting a little uptight. But again, I think the PEOPLE are more to blame than the dog.

I think if there were a real and true study done, it would find that very, very few "attack dog" stories are of just a normal, everyday pet suddenly "going wrong" and attacking a totally innocent human being.
 
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