Animal Compassion
May 2nd, 2007 by Beate
This is a heart breaking story and as the owner of a Russell Terrier I feel horrible that such a brave little guy had to die in order to protect children from raging pit bulls. I am not against pit bulls in general but knowing that this breed has been originally bred for dog fights and to kill each other this breed is dynamite in the hands of the wrong people. Unfortunately everybody is allowed to have a pit bull and that makes me wonder if the killing and attacking will ever stop. Kudos to the brave Jack Russell Terrier who stood up against this beasts.
It’s about a plucky little Jack Russell terrier named George, who stood like a giant against two marauding pit bulls and gave his own life to save five kids from the steel-trap jaws and razor-sharp teeth of the vicious attack machines.
Local officials say it’s also a story about the people who trained the pit bulls to kill and who may have fed the animals methamphetamines to make them even more deadly.
The tragedy unfolded Sunday afternoon on New Zealand’s North Island, in the town of Manaia, where a group of children — and George — were walking back from a trip to the candy store.
Out of nowhere, the children told police, the two pit bulls lunged at them.
One of the kids, Richard Rosewarne, 11, told the local paper that George never backed down against the pit bulls, doggedly refusing to let the them get at his little brother, 4-year-old Darryl.
“George tried to protect us by barking and rushing at them, but they started to bite him — one on the head and the other on the back,” Rosewarne said. “We ran off crying and some people saw what was happening and rescued George.”
It was too late, however, to save the little 9-year-old terrier. Steven Hopkinson, the veterinarian who treated George, said the dog’s wounds were the worst he’d seen. Putting him down, Hopkinson said, was the only option.
For Allan Gay, George’s owner, the loss is especially devastating. He lives alone and George had been his faithful companion for seven of his nine years, inheriting the pup when neighbors moved away.
“These two pitbulls rushed up and were going for the little boy,” Gay said, choking back tears. “George went for them, it’s what he would do. He didn’t stand a chance, but I reckon he saved that boy from being chewed up.
“If it wasn’t for George, those kids would have copped it,” Gay said.
Gay said he had been receiving phone calls non-stop from relatives and news media since word got out about George’s heroics.
“The phone has been going since about half past seven this morning. Every time I hang up it rings again. It’s worn out; I might have to get a new one,” he said.
The pit bulls, meanwhile, were found Tuesday and turned over to local officials, who said they would be destroyed.
Officials also are investigating reports that the dogs could have been given methamphetamines to make them more aggressive and very unpredictable.
“I understand it commonly happens in Rotorua,” animal control officer Kiernan Best said.
“The pitbulls I’ve had dealings with are naturally aggressive because of the type of people they are with,” Best said. “They keep pitbulls around because they don’t like visitors, and one can only presume they have something to hide, that they are into crime and drugs.
“They are paranoid about officials visiting and the dog emulates the owner,” Best said.
Gay, meanwhile, and the kids George saved built a makeshift memorial to their hero.
“George was brave,” Gay said, as each of the kids held a photo of the little pup they’ll never forget. “He took them on and he’s not even a foot high. … He jumped in on them, he tried to keep them off.”
And, he gave his life doing so.
THE WATCHDOG
ANIMAL PEOPLE NEWS: Serial & rampage dog attack data
Posted By: AAS
Date: Tuesday, 1 March 2005, at 12:51 p.m.
In Response To: Ban insurance companies from DISCRIMINATING BASED ON BREED OF DOG (AAS)
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2002:
Serial & rampage dog attack data
Pit bull terriers and Rottweilers together appear to commit about two-thirds of the reported serial attacks on humans (65%), and more than three-fourths of the rampage attacks (79%), ANIMAL PEOPLE has learned, in a review of files on approximately 1,500 dog attacks in cases in which a person was killed or maimed, or police shot the dog.
Serial attacks are defined as instances of a dog injuring someone after having injured a person or an animal on a previous occasion. ANIMAL PEOPLE found that about 5% of the dogs involved in life-threatening or fatal attacks on humans, or shot by police while attacking, had attacked a person or killed a pet on an earlier occasion.
Among the 59 dogs who flunked a second chance after biting a person or killing a pet were 28 pit bulls (48%), 10 Rottweilers (17%), and 21 dogs of 10 other breeds. The lopsided risk associated with giving pit bulls a second or third chance would be even greater if pit bull advocates are correct in asserting that pit bulls are more likely than other breeds to be killed after their first violent incident–which would mean that relatively few pit bulls get further chances, and that those who do are among the dogs considered least likely to be genuinely dangerous.
However, the rates of flunking second and third chances among pit bulls, Rottweilers, and other breeds were all closely comparable to their overall rates of involvement in life threatening incidents, fatalities, and police shootings of dogs. This suggests that neither pit bulls nor Rottweilers are subject to statistically quantifiable discrimination in deciding which dogs get extra chances.
Rampage attacks are defined as instances of a dog attacking multiple people or animals during a single incident. About 10% of
the dog attack cases in the ANIMAL PEOPLE files involve rampages in which a person is killed or maimed, and/or the dog is shot by
police.
Of the 153 dogs who rampaged,
89 (58%) were pit bulls;
32 (21%) were Rottweilers;
32 (21%) were representatives of 14 other large breeds.
No dog smaller than a boxer was involved in a rampage attack, possibly because small dogs are more easily restrained after attacking their first victim.
The serial and rampage attack case accounts were extracted from the ANIMAL PEOPLE archives by volunteer Chrissy Deliyandis, of
Freeland, Washington. ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton did the data analysis.
ANIMAL PEOPLE was asked for data on serial and rampage dog attacks at the 2001 No-Kill Conference in Hartford, Connecticut,
after presenting an abstract of information from a breed-specific log of life-threatening and fatal dog attacks committed since September
1982 within the U.S. and Canada by dogs who were kept as pets. Attacks by guard dogs, fighting dogs, and police dogs are excluded from that log, but attacks by eight trained Rottweiler guard dogs were included in the analysis of rampage attacks because six of the dogs were specifically trained to guard family homes, in which they were also household pets, and two were trained to work at places of business in constant contact with the public.
Log totals
Through January 20, 2002, the log of life-threatening and fatal attacks showed that
pit bulls had committed 592 (45%) of the
1,301 total attacks qualifying for inclusion, including 280 (21%) of the attacks on children, 222 (60%) of the attacks on adults, 51
(34%) of the fatal attacks, and 321 (45%) of the maimings and disfigurements.
Rottweilers had committed 291 (22%) of the attacks, including 24% of the attacks on children, 63 (17%) of the attacks on
adults, 36 (24%) of the fatalities, and 159 (22%) of the maimings and disfigurements.
Combined, pit bulls and Rottweilers had committed 72% of all the attacks, 45% of the attacks on children, 77% of the attacks on
adults, 58% of the fatalities, and 67% of the maimings and disfigurements.
In theory, more closely regulating pit bulls and Rottweilers could markedly reduce dog attacks. In practice, breed-specific
legislation has rarely succeeded. In Reading, Pennsylvania, however, the city council in early January 2002 renewed an ordinance
which requires a special permit to keep any breed of dog which accounted for 40% or more of the dog attacks in the city during the previous year. Pit bulls accounted for 48% of the attacks in 1998, the year the ordinance was first adopted, and accounted for 41% in 2001–but the total number of attacks has fallen from 113 to 56, and the number of pit bull attacks has declined from 54 to 23.
Merritt Clifton
Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE
P.O. Box 960
Clinton, WA 98236
Telephone: 360-579-2505
Fax: 360-579-2575
E-mail: anmlpepl@whidbey.com
Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org
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