Strategies for dealing with dangerous dogs next door

An anonymous reader sent these suggestions for dealing with maulers next door. This is a threat to be taken seriously as evidenced in tragic cases like those of  Klonda Richey and Juan Campos, not to mention the staggering number of innocent pets mauled to death in their own yards by invading pit bulls. We welcome comments, and if there is enough interest, we'll incorporate updates, improvements and refinements. 

First of all, get the neighbors on board.

Get as many neighbors to call in every single complaint they have, and send letters when needed. You cannot be the only one that wants the maulers gone. Make sure the owners get anonymous notes about their dogs being a threat, and let them know that every time their maulers leave the house someone is watching them, waiting to have them removed.

Do not harass them or be nasty, just let them know they are posing a threat and they will not be tolerated. Even the biggest jerk is bothered by a steady onslaught of complaints. REMAIN ANONYMOUS. There is power in this, as well as safety.

Keep in mind that if you engage these people directly, they may get violent. People have been shot and killed over this.

Stay safe. The owners are often as volatile as their grippers, and they frequently have anti social behaviors and criminal proclivities. Let the authorities handle them, and keep your actual names out of any actions.

You need the neighbors to be witnesses and write their own complaints about the dogs, so the sooner you organize them, they better. Just know most people are both lazy, AND hesitant to get involved. This may be the most frustrating thing. Head this off by offer to write the letters for them, as long as they agree with the content and are willing to sign it. The more people you can get to complain the better it is for you. Letters to the local newspaper can also help, if enough neighbors do it.

Secondly, approach the landlord or the property management company. 

Send the owners landlord a certified letter telling them all about the danger this dog poses, and list all of the attacks and escapes, plus any other witnesses. Make sure you include the bill for your dogs vet bills, with a detailed description of the wounds. Ask them for reimbursement, and ask who their insurance carrier is (you should already know this).

Let them know that they WILL be liable for any more attacks. Since they have been notified, if they do nothing to remedy the situation, it will be even worse for them financially if any attacks happen. Let them know that the average insurance claim for pit attacks is $500,000, with awards being much higher if a lawsuit is necessary.

Let them know that you understand their position, but that you cannot live in terror each day. Spell out clearly that your small children are in serious danger; they may have kids too. Be polite, be to the point, offer a way out: eviction. I would send it overnight, with a signature required for delivery.

Call the landlord and see if they are willing to do anything, and when this will happen. Make sure you wait until they get the letter. Be kind and polite, and make sure they know that they will be on the hook for any attacks from the maulers. If they are going to help, thank them profusely and tell them they are saving lives. People need to feel good
about doing the right thing.

Thirdly, approach their insurer.

Find the insurance carrier and send them a similar (but shorter, and more professional) letter. If you weren't paid by the landlord, make a claim. If you were paid, make sure they know this.

Tread carefully! Be advised that this step could result in the insurance company dropping the coverage.This could force the landlord to have the mauler removed in order to secure new insurance coverage, but it could also result in a victim being unprotected financially. Without insurance, victims can only get a judgement against the landlord, many years later, if you are lucky, with no guarantee of recovery.

To be fair, you may be unprotected anyway, as many carriers will not pay out for pit bull attacks. They are often not covered because of the inherent hazard. You can find out if they cover pit attacks BEFORE you let them know about the situation- if they don't, you might as well let them know, you have nothing to lose. If this is the case, also let that
landlord know that HE will be personally liable!

Fourth: Call the cops.

Engage the police department, and push for removal of the animal and for charges from the last attack (based on the pattern, which you MUST document carefully).

Call them about the dogs anytime you feel threatened, or they are lose, or trying to get loose/ ANY excuse to have them come out, you need a record of complaints. Be frank with them, some might actually help you. They may also be more apt to come with guns drawn if they know the dogs are likely to attack. This is good, one snarl and the grippers may be
dispatched.

Then send the Police/ Sheriff, and Animal Control, a letter with the same information, plus the dates of any complaints. Firmly request that the dog is removed, and remind them that they too have been informed, and when an attack on a human occurs, they may be considered responsible. They won't get hit financially, but people may lose their jobs or get suspended if the case is egregious enough. I wouldn't bet on this outcome, but it is still a good threat.

If the steps above just won't work, you might opt to go vigilante, in which case your legal covering will be shaky at best. But it is a matter of safety at this point, and I would call it self defense. (As a wise man once said, it's better to be judged by 12 than to be carried by 6.) The maulers will at some point "somehow" get loose and seize a human victim. Your children are in very real danger. If only I were kidding - but a pit bull attack is so sudden, and so violent that, even if you are right there, you may be unable to stop them. Your conscience must be your guide here in choosing between greater and lesser evils, for the greater good.

It would be best if you could see them at large, and record it on your cell phone. Then you can call the cops and tell them that you are in deadly situation, that they are violently aggressive and have killed before. When cops have to come out to take care of a pit bull running loose, things often escalate in such a way as to result in the removal of the threat.

Do not call animal control (aka, pit bull social workers), they won't help you, as they tend to be primarily concerned with trying to maintain a positive image for pit bulls. The police, on the other hand, see these attacks often enough they know to shoot to kill.

Of course there are other ways to rid the neighborhood of these killers permanently, but I don't think the owners of this site want anyone posting things that encourage harming any animal. It sickens me that it can come to this in order to keep people safe from these beasts.

To pit lovers who think this is cruel: F you. We are tired of being forced to deal with your deadly dogs everyday - especially those of which owners know to be aggressive, those that have killed animals and attacked humans in the past. It's on you to keep your maulers contained. They shouldn't be killing and attacking, ever, let alone at this insane rate. You all like to talk about responsible owners, but finding one is near impossible. 

The danger needs to be resolved before someone dies.

Konen Dean Asa Dagley – attacked and almost killed by the family pit bull

This is a typical pattern of attack in which a well-treated, well-behaved, "family pit bull" with no history of aggression suddenly, with zero warning, asserts its genetic imperative.

The pit bull is the result of centuries of breeding a type of dog which will happily attack, torture and kill another creature for no particular reason. Let us not feign surprise when these motor patterns surface and pit bulls do what they were bred to do, any more than we should be surprised when a pointer points, or a retriever retrieves. 

It's well known that working dogs should be given a chance to do their work, or they can become frustrated. Border Collies without sheep to herd have been known to attempt to herd children. But the "work" of a pit bull is a felony in all 50 states. It's job is now a crime. 

What can be done and what ought to be done about this is a controversial topic, but the fact that there is a problem is not open to debate.

Please visit Daxton's Friends for the full story at the link below

Konen Dean Asa Dagley – attacked and almost killed by the family pit bull

'via Blog this'

Beau's Tombstone Memorial

It pains us to present this message, but it is a reminder of why we work to raise awareness of the pit bull problem. 2 year old Beau Rutledge was mauled to death by a well-behaved family pit bull last year. His mother, Angela Provo Rutledge, speaks about what their family went through, and about the memorial she hopes to build.

On April 24, 2013 We lost both our beautiful son Beau Isaac and our family dog, affectionately known as Kissy Face. Kissy face had been part of our family for 8 years and lived up to her name, for she was compelled to overload you with kisses. Oh she was such a very loving and family oriented dog. Kissy face had been around since her birthdate, November 22, 2005, two years prior to having the first child, Bella. When Bella came into the picture, it was so much fun to have the dog around, because she acted as a companion and protector. Never was she aggressive towards Bella and played generously with other children. Therefore, we felt confident in our family's safety when it came to our family pet.

Then 4 years later Beau Isaac was born on April 4, 2011. Over the next two years Beau and Kissy Face loved on each other compassionately. Until shortly after his 2nd birthday I made a trip to the restroom. Just a few minutes later I came out of the restroom to find my son in a pool of his own blood. It was the most horrific day of my life and a day without warning. Our dog sat next to his body looking confused as if she didn't understand why he wasn't getting up. The screams from my voice were so loud and so terrifying that our neighbors (two doors over) rushed over and joined in with my horrific screams!

Rewinding back to the year 2005, I was told by some random person that pit bulls were aggressive and were bred to fight other dogs to the kill. Then I was also told by another random person at our dogs vet the very opposite. I was told if you raise pit bulls with love and care they are just as gentle, loving, and domesticated as any other household dog breed. Therefore, we truly believed that with love and proper up brining that the nurture factor would override the nature of this breed dog.

Our story is not about hating or loving the pit bull breed. Our story is simply this, any dog can bite and any dog can love like a human being, yes all dogs have the ability to display some strong emotions that resemble those of a human. The downside to a dogs thought and emotional process is simply this, it cannot process the chain reaction that comes of their nature. We regrettably believe, now that it is too late, that there is something extremely untrue to what we had once believed. The truth is this, there is not just this story, but 288 reported stories like ours since 1998 and 30 plus stories reported this year alone. There are countless adult fatalities and countless attacks leaving a person for dead because of this breed of dog and like aggressive breads.

In conclusion, we are not saying to take your dog out back and shoot it. We are not saying not to love your dogs. We are simply saying that even with tons of love and attention that our dog (and many dogs of her breed) still snap ped and killed our son in a matter of moments. Consider this, we as dog lovers, should ponder this one thing, if there was a one and a million chance that your dog could turn on you or your child, would you get rid of it and grieve for a moment or loose a child and grieve for a lifetime?

Love
Angela

Beau's Tombstone Memorial

Please help us raise the funds to give Beau the tombstone he deserves, as well as a beautiful place for his mother, big sister Bella and friends/family to visit and mourn.

News accounts of Beau's untimely death may be found here

Lessons from the school of hard knocks

Here are a few accounts from readers who have chosen to remain anonymous for their own safety. 

The sweet pit bull

My coworker owned a pit bull. She described her as very sweet, wouldn't hurt a fly. She often dog sat for a friends large akita, and the pit and akita were always best friends. One night they were out in their yard together and they noticed that their play had escalated to a full on dog fight. The pit was no match for the akita, who had size and a protective coat on its side. But despite the fact that the pit bull was losing badly, it continued to fight. Her husband had to beat her with a shovel to get her to stop. Once the pit stopped, the akita stopped.

Some years later this same coworker decided to adopt a small, elderly chihuahua mix that someone found wandering in the road. I warned her not to trust her pit bull, but she was not concerned. For a year the dogs lived together happily, often sharing a bed and seeming to enjoy each other. Then one night the pit walked over to the sleeping chi mix and grabbed it around the neck and began shaking it with the clear intent to kill it. The chi was screaming but the pit was silent. Again her husband and to stop the pit bulls attack, but there was no shovel handy. He had to punch the pit bull repeatedly in the head to get it to stop, and he had to do it so hard he broke his hand. The little chi survived only because he was wearing a thick collar. The next day my coworker came to work and was clearly still shaken up by the whole thing. She kept saying "you were right, you were right..."  She will never own another pit bull. Wise woman.

The Vet

She was connected to the company I worked for, she was not my vet. Because she knew I had  knowledge of dogs, she called me one day and told me that she adopted a pit bull and wanted advice on how to integrate this male dog into her household of three other dogs, a male and two females. I told her to return the pit bull and not even bother trying. She did not take my advice, but she did call frequently to keep me posted. Big surprise, the pit decided that her male dog needed to die, and would attack him whenever he saw his chance. She had to separate them, and enlist the services of a trainer. Of course it did no good. It got to the point where if the pit bull even heard the male dog in another room he would go ballistic and try to get to him, through the door or wall if necessary. He could not be distracted when he was in such a state. Eventually, of course, management fails and he had a fight with the male and the vet and her husband realized that it was not going to work out and that someone was going to be seriously injured. They returned the pit to rescue where it was placed in home with no other animals. I hope their neighbors have no other animals either... That vet did call me and say that she would NEVER own another pit bull again.

The Dog Walker

Several years ago I helped out a local dog walker with her overflow clients. One of her clients owned a young male dog, Ralphie. The dog walker mentioned she had a "bull pit" and when I asked her what that was, she said it was a pit bull that didn't realize it was a pit bull. I know. Nauseating. In any case, her bull pit figured it out pretty fast. When Ralphie was taken to the dog sitters house for the evening, he was attacked by the shit bull and his throat torn open. He survived, but the dog walker didn't even have the decency to tell his owners. She returned Ralphie while they were at work the next morning and went off on vacation. I got the phone call asking what the hell happened! I could not believe that not only would she endanger a clients dog's life by bringing it near that fucking thing, she didn't even tell them what happened! She just took the dog to the vet where she worked and had it treated!

A senseless mauling

Sue wrote about the loss of her beloved papillon in a brutal, senseless pit bull attack. Attacks like this, where an innocent family pet is savagely mauled to death by one or more pit bulls, occur daily, but are almost never reported. This is her story: 

The house next to mine became a rental this fall. The chain link around the house was built in 1970 and has never been replaced. It has a lot of damage and is held together with BBQ grates. A family moved in with two pit bulls. I told the tenant that the fence was in bad condition and I was scared with my two sons and dogs in my yard. He said he was making improvements on the fence. And that one dog was aggressive and liked to dig out but he was working on it.

On November 12th, a month after they moved in, the Pit bulls jumped the fence and attacked my dog in my front yard in front of my four and nine year old sons. The dogs severed the spinal cord of my 13 year old nine pound papillon. He was unable to move or get away as they crushed his pelvis and punctured his colon exposing his internal organs to the outside. My son held the dog as we rushed him to the vet as my other son cried. I incurred a $800 vet bill before having to put him down.

Since the attack I found out the pits had been getting out while I was at work. They jumped the fence and attempted to attack a neighbor walking her lab. She let go of the leash and her dog managed to escape unharmed. The day after the attack on my dog, the same lab was being walked by another person past the pits. They jumped the fence and grabbed the lab by the throat and hind quarters. The owner came out and called the dogs in. The owner ignored the woman as she screamed her dog had been attacked. The wife of the pit owner came on the scene at that point and asked if the dogs had attacked again, and offered to pay. She claimed her husband was deaf and could not hear her screams.

Sue was left with a dead animal companion and a vet bill for hundreds of dollars. This is the everyday reality for animal lovers who suffer the loss of their pets in vicious attacks by "family pit bulls" The pit bull owners are not held accountable for their actions or the actions of the animals or which they are supposedly responsible. The bereaved virtually never receive any compensation for their loss, but are routinely harassed and threatened. This needs to change, and the sooner the better.

It's a slaughterhouse out there

Update:

The study How many other animals did pit bulls kill last year has been published by animals24-7.org - please follow the link for details

The animal people organization have been collecting and analyzing data on dog attacks against animals in 2013. While the complete report has not yet been published, some statistics have been released, and the sheer number of horrific attacks occurring daily is heartbreaking for any animal lover - nay, to anyone with a heart. Some of the pertinent statistics which have come to light are as follows:

Ann Ziegler's hearing ear dog, brutally massacred by a pit bull

About 31,400 dogs attacked about 61,500 other animals in the U.S. in 2013, killing 43,500 and seriously injuring 18,100. 

The animals killed included about 12,000 dogs, 8,000 cats, 6,000 hooved animals, and 17,000 other small domestic animals, primarily poultry. 

Another victim of pit bull advocacy

The seriously injured included about 12,400 dogs, 4,000 cats, and 1,700 hooved animals. Few small mammals and poultry survived reported dog attacks.

Pit bulls inflicted 99% of the total fatal attacks on other animals (43,000); 96% of the fatal attacks on other dogs (11,520); 95% of the fatal attacks on livestock (5,700) and on small mammals and poultry (16,150); and 94% of the fatal attacks on cats (11,280). 

About 30,000 pit bulls were involved in attacks on other animals, many of them killing multiple other animals. 

There are about 3.2 million pit bulls in the U.S. at any given time, according to the annual ANIMAL PEOPLE surveys of dogs offered for sale or adoption via online classified ads. 

Thus in 2013 about one pit bull in 107 killed or seriously injured another animal, compared with about one dog in 50,000 of other breeds. 

Complete details of the year-long epidemiological survey that produced these estimates will appear in the January/February edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE. 

Merritt Clifton has added the following clarifying comments: The forthcoming ANIMAL PEOPLE study is taking an epidemiological approach to estimating the dog attack & pit bull attack tolls on other animals precisely to address the underreporting factor. Figuring out how to compensate for non-reporting is among the most common problems in epidemiological research, and we have used standard methods for doing it.

More info will posted here as it becomes available. In the meantime, there are many interesting articles to be found at the web site -  Animal People News

My red nose pit bull

Velvet writes:  "I defended the breed. I always thought it was all in how they're raised. I had to learn the hard way when I put my loved ones in harms way. Never again"

Here's her story:

It all started about 10 years ago when I owned a red nose pit. We had gotten Coco when he was 6 weeks old, and he grew up with my small niece. They were always playing together and loved each other. He was a very loved and well socialized pet, and for nearly 4 years he was perfectly well behaved, with a wonderful temperament. Even when we would visit RV parks, people loved him

"Proof" that our pit bull was safe with children

 One day my niece came over and wanted to play, so we all went out into the fenced back yard. Coco and my niece were chasing each other, having a wonderful time as they had so often before. As I was attending to the gate, I heard her scream. I immediately struck the dog and was somehow able to grab my niece. She was bleeding badly from her face. We got to the hospital and as we was walking through the door she looked at me and said "Nana am I going to die?". It took everything I had not to cry in front if my baby. I told her no and handed her to the nurse. I hit my knees as they turned away. Not in a million years would I have guessed that big lovable baby would ever do that the the child he loved. Coco was put down, but not before leaving my niece scarred. There hasn't been a day go by that I don't regret not listening to my family when they tried to warn me about these dogs.

To top it off, last year my little 3 year old nephew was playing outside with my 6 year old nephew when all of a sudden the neighbors pit came across the fence and attacked him, biting him in the back. It took my Dad and my 2 sisters to get the dog off of him. I consider myself fortunate to have both of them still alive and healthy.

Bite marks on my nephew's back

Sometimes I'm asked "What would it have taken to change my mind about pit bulls?" at a time when I was was so misinformed. "What could someone have said to you that would have made a difference?"

The fact is, nothing anybody could have said would have changed my mind.

From the start, I was determined that it was all in how they are raised. I believed that, and worse, I trusted those who fed me nanny dog myth. What hurt the most is that I trusted my dog, who I raised from a small puppy with love and affection, and I'd have never in a million years ever thought he would attack my niece. It's clear to me now that no matter what you do or how much you socialize a pit bull, it can turn in the blink of an eye.

Editor: Clearly, one cannot love away or train away the genetic characteristics of  purpose bred dogs. It's not about temperament or socialization. A pit bull can pass the ATTS with flying colors and then go home and viscously maul a 2 year old. It's the penchant for sudden, random, unpredictable violence that makes them such a risk.