Who Let the Dog Out?
OK. Now I’m very concerned. Apparently, there was a pitbull attack in an area not from from my neighborhood in NW D.C. I discovered this upon reading In Shaw this evening.
Yesterday night, some neighbors and their dogs were attacked by a loose pit bull near/on the 400 block of R St. One of the neighbors dogs was bitten so badly by the pit that the puncture wound could not be stiched up.
But that wasn’t the worst part of it. When the neighbors sought help from the city reporting the attack, they were met with useless unresponsiveness. One of the dog walkers who was able to grab her dog off the street called 311, while the other dog walker, bleeding, raced his wounded dog to the 24 hour vet. The 311 operator told the female dog walker that she couldn’t report it because she wasn’t the victim of the attack.
The post goes on about the quality of the 311 service in the city, but I couldn’t get past the part about the “loose pitbull.” Loose? Loose!? Maybe it’s because I’m a parent with a small child. Maybe it’s because I never entirely got over my childhood fear of dogs—I’m OK around them now, but the big ones make me nervous, and if one runs at me while barking then all bets are off—but the idea of a loose pitbull (am I stressing this enough?) running the streets fills me with fear and anger.
I won’t even go into why people own such dangerous animals in the city. (If you’ve got stuff to protect, get an alarm system. If you need a vicious dog for protection, maybe what you’re protecting is something you shouldn’t have or shouldn’t be doing in the first place.) I’m about this close to thinking that the whole breed should be outlawed in the first place.
As for pit bulls running around loose, I have a very simple policy I’d like to suggest: shoot first, shoot to kill, ask questions later. Better to take action before someone’s child or someone’s dog, or someone’s limbs end up maimed, or someone ends up dead. After the animal is dead, see if it has a collar, send the owner the bill, a ticket, and consider bringing them in and charging them with something.
That’s a lot nicer than what I would probably do if I or a member of my family were maimed or worse in an attack.
March 22nd, 2005 at 10:09 pm
Let me be clear, I love dogs, I have always loved dogs and I can’t think of any time in my life that there wasn’t a dog (or two) in my house. However I have on several occasions (I forgot how many) Killed a dog that was getting ready to attack me or someone else. I shot them without hesitation or remorse. I grew up in Alaska living in the woods and had to deal with Bears, Moose, Wolves and other wild animals. I WILL NOT allow ANY animal to put me or any other human in danger. You are right on T…Shoot first ask questions later. I don’t hunt, I don’t kill for sport and I don’t enjoy it, but I have zero problems killing a wild animal or dog and I won’t hesitate.
March 23rd, 2005 at 8:16 am
You know, I am such a pacifist.
But a ‘loose dog’ attacked my daughter once and to this day was the most frightening day of my life.
As much as pit bull owners like to say its the ‘owner’ and not the dog that is the problem, you never see killer shi tzu’s on the loose.
No, if there was a loose pit bull in my neighborhood, and one that had already attacked before at that, and if I owned a gun … i’d shoot first and have no remorse. Not owning a gun, well… I’ll find a way. Call me a ‘breedist’, but I don’t trust pit bulls (and some other breeds) at all.