{"id":5582,"date":"2010-04-13T05:04:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/pets\/terror-unleashed\/"},"modified":"2010-04-13T05:04:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T05:04:00","slug":"terror-unleashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/pets\/terror-unleashed","title":{"rendered":"Terror Unleashed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"2:30pm |<\/strong> Last week, there was a horrible, tragic incident in a nearby neighborhood. A dog\u2014a pit bull\u2014somehow got out of his owner\u2019s apartment, ran across the street and nearly killed a dachshund who was out for a walk with his human companion. It took an act of bravery among three people, including the little dog\u2019s owner, to pull the berserk animal off his victim.<\/p>\n

Noise carries where we live, and when I heard someone weeping and raging, \u201c\u2026.my dog!\u201d I got over there. The scene was like nothing any newscast could show in 2-D with any screen separation from reality. The little dog\u2019s owner was lying on the ground cradling his pet. The owner was splattered with blood and had bruises from canine teeth and a blow from the pit\u2019s owner, who\u2019d taken offense at his anger. Neighbors were bringing towels and lending support. The only one not in hysterics was the dachsie\u2014he was sitting quietly and open-eyed in shocked and bewilderment. The entire top of his head was raw meat. The owner was crying in pain\u2014mostly emotional. All he cared about was his buddy.<\/p>\n

The story was covered by the lbpost.com’s Samuel Lippke<\/a> (photo above by Lippke<\/em>) and other local media, as well as KABC-TV Channel 7 News, but not even the televised video could approach what it was like to have been in all that. When the first gunshot popped (and we all scattered), what went running through my mind was: Who was shot? Who shot? How long should we hide? But I knew, and I didn\u2019t want to consider it. I had a flash of sympathetic understanding of how any neighborhood feels in a tragedy, whether a human or animal is victim. Shaking your head in commiseration over the televised bites\u2014you may think you\u2019re empathizing, but you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

The victim\u2019s friend and I took the poor little dog to an emergency clinic, where he was diagnosed with a fractured skull, broken leg and various puncture wounds. Happily, he\u2019s in recovery\u2014how complete it will be, I don\u2019t know. As for the pit, he couldn\u2019t be controlled by either owners or police; he ran to a car and attempted an attack on another neighbor trying to get out with her own dog, and then fled in terror to Livingston Park several blocks away, where he was shot and killed. And this was what had pierced my heart the most: I knew the pit, although I never had anything to say to his owners. I saw him being walked on the street. We petted him once or twice. And, after the incident, opinions flew on online postings as always, with everyone and everything being blamed, from the police to a possible distemper infection (I logged off with a snort after that one). The one comment that summed it up most succinctly was posted after Lippke\u2019s article by someone named Staci: \u201cPut the blame where blame is deserved\u2014this is a problem caused entirely by humans and the dogs end up paying the ultimate price. Very sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes. I highly doubt that police officers go out grinning like pirates while they look for dogs to gun down. Many of them own dogs and no doubt feel like hell when they have to shoot an innocent animal. Innocent\u2014the poor pit was simply acting like a troubled dog. As much as we love our pets and attribute human qualities to them, they don\u2019t consciously \u201cmake choices\u201d to behave as do humans. No one wants to see an animal shot, and \u201cthe police are too quick to shoot\u201d can be bandied back and forth all day, but at the end of that day, the police had tried baton force, the dog\u2019s owners couldn\u2019t even get him under control, the dog tried to attack again, and they shot him to protect anyone else nearby.<\/p>\n

And who was ultimately responsible? The dog wasn\u2019t evil; he was acting the way he was raised, and his owners\u2019 irresponsibility got him killed. I\u2019m not Albert Payson Terhune<\/a> and I don\u2019t \u201cknow dogs,\u201d as the author would continually hold forth in Lad: A Dog and his innumerable books about his other collies. Nowhere could I find any last word about pits and whether they can turn murderous in a split second, although the stats I saw seem skewed that way. Pits appear to be the bad-boy dog of choice\u2014I don\u2019t recall having seen a junkyard guarded by a golden retriever. They\u2019re not recognized as a breed by the American Kennel Club (AKC); Long Beach Kennel Club president Jack Smith says that they\u2019re represented by the AKC as the American Staffordshire terrier, which Judy says is essentially a pit bull. The breed is described on the AKC site<\/a> as \u201ca people-oriented dog that thrives when he is made part of the family and given a job to do. Although friendly, this breed is loyal to his family and will protect them from any threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not even arguably does this include charging a dachshund minding his own business across the street and chewing him up. \u201cSociety now needs to concentrate more on the humans buying this breed verses the controversial issue of whether pit bulls are friendly and loving pets or vicious, aggressive, out-of-control dogs,\u201d Judy said. She believes that it\u2019s the way humans raise their animals and the treatment the animals receive, and I have no reason to disagree.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny canine, be they chi-chi or pitty, can bite your pinky toe off or do [other] severe damage if there\u2019s a reason, whether it\u2019s bad treatment, protection of the owner or a medical disorder,\u201d Judy said. My co-writer is also opposed to breed-specific legislation but still feels that anyone without a specific-breeder license who adopts a pit should be required to spay\/neuter the dog. Animal professionals feel that this cuts down on roaming and aggressive behavior (it\u2019s unknown if the slain dog had been altered). She also recommends attend obedience-training classes with the dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dog\u2019s owner has to be the alpha leader,\u201d Judy said.<\/p>\n

Slogging through the Internet, I found a table of dog bites<\/a> reported by \u201cvarious news organizations\u201d that showed 20 percent of dog-bite fatalities had been engendered by pit bulls. It reported huskies, rotties, and other canine intimidators, but there were also Weimaraners, poms, and even a lab. Granted, it was from Wikipedia, but the site did give a reference link and there were descriptions of incidents. In many of the cases, the attacking dogs had been abused, unsupervised and neglected to starvation. I know a number of sweet, adorable and downright silly pit bulls. I also once said hi to a pretty mixed breed who looked sweet but lunged at me and bit me after I greeted him. His self-entitled owner airily said, \u201cOh, that\u2019s just the way he reacts to you,\u201d and then took off running. (Yes, I can imagine her children, should she breed.)<\/p>\n

And those arguable facts are rendered even more arguable when you consider that 20 percent is still a large number of a single type of dog. There were no percentages for Weimaraners, Dobermans or any other breed. And on another hand of this octopuslike argument, even with legislation passed in certain cities to make ownership of pits illegal, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is against such laws, and the California American Veterinary Association (CAVA) has produced a document<\/a> stating specifically why, while they do support dangerous animal legislation, they do not support breed-specific legislation. They agree that pit bulls aren\u2019t breeds and that one pit-bull mix could be considered a lethal weapon in one town and just another dawg in another. In their final point, they state the following: \u201cMany pit bulls, Dobermans, Rottweilers, and other large dog breeds have been raised in loving homes and are highly trained. It would be unfair to penalize responsible dog owners by placing these animals in the same class and category of \u2018vicious dogs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Which goes back to the point that I\u2019ve been circumlocutorily approaching: Look at the owners. What are they doing? How are they bringing up the dog? Why wasn\u2019t the dog secured in the home, and why couldn\u2019t the owners have controlled him so that he wouldn\u2019t have had to be killed? Did they not love their pet? The owners are responsible not only for the incident but also for the death of their dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong Beach also has a leash law, which no dog owner is above,\u201d Judy said. \u201cIf you see any dog running off leash, exception of dog zone, report it immediately to ACS and the police! You could be saving someone\u2019s life, especially if you know the dog is aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The human victim\u2019s own dog was on leash, which may have made it easier for him to draw his little friend up to him when he was attacked. Anyway, burn a candle for the pit bull. No matter what you may want to call his owners, in that whole horrid debacle, he was the biggest loser.<\/p>\n

Train the parent and spare the child<\/em>.
\u2014Duane Alan Hahn, writer of pithy quotes<\/div>\n


Virtually Pets\u2014Take \u2018pitty\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

While writing this article, Gott Cha, the goddess of irony, visited us with two adoption\/foster candidates. Both of them are pit bull types. Both of them have sweet dispositions; neither the Path volunteer nor ACS would be trying to home these dogs if they had sketchy pasts. I\u2019ll admit that the idea had crossed my own mind, but neither of us feels that it\u2019s tacky to refuse to find adoption for any animal in need.<\/p>\n

Foster needed for Mindy<\/em>
\"\"
A volunteer for a homeless organization asked us to post Mindy\u2019s plight. She\u2019s the loving companion of a homeless man. There\u2019s no shelter\u2014yet\u2014that accepts pets with their homeless human buddies, and Mindy ended up at ACS. The volunteer redeemed her and had her spayed, inoculated and microchipped. But her owner cannot care for her while she\u2019s recovering from surgery and she needs a loving home in which to recover. The volunteer has crates, food, treats and everything else except for a place to stay. If you want to hear more of Mindy\u2019s story and want to help out, e-mail the responsible party at hoffmannclaudia@hotmail.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Smiling puppy at ACS<\/em>
\"\"
This beauty will be ready for adoption in about six days if her owners do not come for her at ACS. She is a stray and may have a brother in the shelter, but they both are at our shelter today where they are safe and cannot be abused or hit by a car. According to shelter officials, this picture doesn\u2019t even do her justice! She is very sweet, but a little timid. She is lab\/pit mix, approximately 10 months old and is in kennel 703. If you believe that you can correctly raise a puppy, let’s find them both a home. Visit her at ACS, 7700 E. Spring St., Long Beach 90815, 562-570-7387 <\/p>\n

Pet Projects<\/strong><\/p>\n

Animal Care Services reports that acting Long Beach city health officer Dr. Anne Anglim is advising local residents to avoid contact with any bats they might come across (not that most of us wouldn\u2019t). A bat recently found in a neighboring community has tested positive for rabies, which is a highly contagious disease and possibly fatal in humans. The bat entered a bedroom through a sliding door which had been left open.<\/p>\n

ACS removed the bat and it subsequently tested positive for rabies. Health officials have been working with the family to ensure that members receive necessary medical treatment to prevent infection from rabies. No Long Beach residents were exposed.<\/p>\n

Rabies is a virus that causes severe brain infection in humans and other mammals that is nearly 100 percent fatal once symptoms appear but can be prevented with prompt medical treatment. In California, the disease is most commonly found in bats, skunk, and foxes. Humans can become infected through bites from an infected animal or through contact with its saliva. Signs of rabies in bats include activity during the daytime (bats are usually active only at night), being present in a place not usually seen (such as a home, playground or anywhere on the ground), and an inability to fly. Bat bites can go undetected because their teeth are very small and do not leave easily recognizable wounds. If you wake up with a bat in your bedroom, seek medical attention. Direct contact with any bat should be avoided, and if a bat displaying the above behavior is found; immediately notify ACS at (562) 570-7387 to retrieve the animal for testing. The Health Department offers these tips to prevent risk of exposure to rabies:<\/p>\n

\n

1. Teach children to never touch unfamiliar animals, wild or domestic, even if they seem friendly.
2. Wash any wound from an animal thoroughly with soap and water; seek medical attention immediately.
3. Request to have all bats tested for rabies if exposure to people or pets occurs (contact ACS).
4. Prevent bats from entering buildings by keeping doors and windows closed or covered with screens.
5. Be a responsible pet owner by keeping rabies vaccinations current for all pets (both cats and dogs).
6. Contact Animal Care Services about any sick or injured stray animal or for information on controlling nuisance wildlife.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For more information on bats and rabies, visit www.cdc.gov\/ncidod\/dvrd\/rabies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

April 22, Annual Benefit for the Animals

For a fun and entertaining evening, join Friends of Long Beach Animals (FOLBA) folba.org<\/a> for its Annual Benefit for the Animals at the Long Beach Playhouse. The reception begins at 6:30 and features a delicious selection of finger food by Palming Catering and music by pianist Ralph Brunson. You will have time to browse and bid on a wide selection of silent auction items and to purchase your tickets for the raffle. At 7:30, our Hero to Animals 2010 will be introduced, followed by a performance of Agatha Christie\u2019s The Hollow. Tickets are $25 and are available at the following locations:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2022 Belmont Pets and Launderpet, 3429 E. Broadway
\u2022 Bixby Animal Clinic, 3938 Atlantic Avenue
\u2022 Bixby Knolls Launderpet, 4102 Orange Avenue, #113
\u2022 Chewsy Dog, 4107 N. Viking Way, Chuck & Toby, 191 Park Avenue, Belmont Shore
\u2022 Go Dogs Go, 3440 N. Los Coyotes Diagonal<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judy and Kate reveal new details from last week’s pit bull shooting and continue the discussion on whether or not the pit bull is a dangerous breed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pets","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5582"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5582"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}