The story of Morgan the boxer

The story below represents an encouraging trend of late, an idea whose time has come, having been forced on us by irresponsible and sociopathic pit bull owners. What we are seeing, in the face of ever worsening pit bull attacks, is a growing willingness of citizens to defend their beloved animal companions with force.

My husband had just returned from Kuwait, and while he had been deployed, our 8 year old Boxer, Morgan, had been my constant companion, my protector and my best friend. My husband and I had taken Morgan for his nightly walk through the neighborhood when for some reason my husband turned around, and noticed a crouching pit bull moving towards us. He yelled "NO! NO! NO!"

Morgan

The owner heard this and came running out to call "Lucy" back. "She just wants to play!" he said. I was shaking and my husband was warily silent. I was actually more worried about him than anything. He had just returned from a two year deployment to Kuwait and still at that hyper-vigilant stage common among warriors returning home. We decided right then and there that we would not leave the house without a weapon of some kind. My husband started carrying a knife from that point onward; Sometimes when we started to go on our walks, he would remember that he hadn't brought the knife, and we would walk back to the house to get it.

Pit Bull

This particular night I was cooking supper and for some reason Morgan could just not wait to go for his walk. So my husband decided to take him while I stayed home and finished cooking. He walked out the door but came right back in - he had forgotten the knife! About 30 minutes later, they came rushing in the front door. “CALL 911! Morgan was attacked by a pit-bull! CALL 911!!” I could also hear people yelling outside. (I later found out it was the pit bull owners family threatening to come back and finish the job!)

The scene of the grisly attack

Morgan and husband were two houses from home when this beast ran up from behind and tackled our 8 year old Boxer. This thing got Morgan on his back and started thrashing his neck! Morgan managed to get up and husband yelled, “Run Morgan run!” Morgan ran to a neighbor’s door trying to seek safety. The pit tackled him again. That’s when husband pulled the knife and started stabbing. He was so afraid he would stab Morgan! Meanwhile the owner is punching my husband and yelling at him to get HIS dog off of hers! Husband said the pit was starting to slow down as the stabs were getting to him and it turned around once and glared at my husband. He later told me he saw the devil in the pit bull's face that night.

After emergency surgery

 So, the police arrived and took our reports, and we took our severely injured Morgan to the animal emergency hospital where he spent several days. The Vet said it was the worst attack she had ever seen. The pit bull that tried to kill Morgan later died at the same hospital. It sickened me that they were in the same room!

Recovering from the attack

It was a long and bumpy road but I am happy to say Morgan has survived and is turning 10 this month (November). He has muscle damage though, and suffers horrible nightmares! Although the judge ordered the owner to reimburse us for our vet bills, she has not done so and there is a warrant for her arrest. We bought a new home and left our rental behind for a beautiful neighborhood where the pet owners appear to be responsible upstanding people.

A much-loved, happy boy, lucky to be alive

We don't leave home without a knife anymore. 

We applaud the courage and compassion demonstrated by citizens who refuse to stand by and watch their beloved pets being mauled to death. Recent events have made it clear that hesitation, passivity or indifference allows innocent animals to be mauled to death, while aggressive defense saves lives. In a society where loose pit bulls are becoming all too common, everyone needs to be aware and prepared. It behooves everyone to get whatever effective type of weapon you can legally have, and make sure you have a plan and the will to do the needful, should the worst happen. It could save your life, as well as the life of your innocent pet.

Dog attack report by breed - November 2012

As a fitting conclusion to pit bull awareness month, it's time to publish another update to the running statistics on serious injuries and deaths from dog attack.

It comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the problem that pit bulls continue to widen their lead over all other breeds in the grisly race of mauling, maiming, and death.

These statistics, going back over 30 years, are compiled and updated on an ongoing basis by the the animal people . Ever since the CDC stopped tracking breed information in 1998, these reports provide the most thorough information available on the subject of serious injuries and deaths from dog attack.

Here are some highlights -

A quick summary of the top 5 breeds in terms of fatalities over the past 30 years shows that Pit bulls lead the second place Rottweilers by a huge margin; attacks from all other breeds are essentially statistical noise in comparison.

At the low end of the scale, statistically safe breeds - which accounted for 1 death or less over the 30 year period - include: Anatolian Shepherd, Pug, Greyhound, Great Pyrenees, and Weimaraner.

Since pit bulls are absolutely off the chart in the statistics, compared to any other breed, pit bull advocacy groups invariably attack these reports, as well as any other reports that mention breed, since they feel that such specific reports reflect badly on pit bulls, and they want the breed information suppressed. Unable to suppress the information, they instead seek to discredit any sources that mention it. They typically attack the credibility, the methodology or competence of the person or organization presenting the information, and often claim that the media is out to get pit bulls. Merritt Clifton answers for the animal people:

"There is a persistent allegation by pit bull terrier advocates that pit bulls are over-represented among reported dog attack deaths and maimings because of misidentifications or because 'pit bull' is, according to them, a generic term covering several similar types of dog. However, the frequency of pit bull attacks among these worst in 10,000 cases is so disproportionate that even if half of the attacks in the pit bull category were misattributed, or even if the pit bull category was split three ways, attacks by pit bulls and their closest relatives would still outnumber attacks by any other breed.

There is also a persistent allegation by pit bull terrier advocates that the use of media accounts as a data source is somehow suspect. Reality is that media coverage incorporates information from police reports, animal control reports, witness accounts, victim accounts in many instances, and hospital reports. Media coverage is, in short, multi-sourced, unlike reports from any single source."

The animal people have been working to benefit animals and to bring the facts to people who care. Please consider sending them a donation.

You can download a copy of the full report here