In the 3-year period from 2006 to 2008, pit bull type dogs killed 52 Americans and accounted for 59% of all fatal attacks. Combined, pit bulls and rottweilers accounted for 73% of these deaths. | More »
Zupf: Dyersburg 16-Year Old Girl Attacked by Two Pit Bulls
Pit Bulls Attack 16-Year Old Dyersburg, TN - Yesterday, we published a post about a pit bull attack in Dyersburg that involved a 16-year old girl. Because the well-written, detailed article had multiple themes, we had anticipated breaking the story into multiple blog posts to speak to each theme directly. Video artist Zupf has done some of this work for us. In his recent video, he comments specifically on the number of pit bulls involved in Dyersburg court cases in the last year.
If you have not read the Dyersburg State Gazette article, please do. The author (who was not given a byline) did an outstanding job in covering a multitude of very important issues. In addition to quoting the animal control officers about medical bills ("nine out of 10 pit bull owners can't pay"), the Gazette delved into 2 key areas that are rarely covered by news journalists: Which dogs are in 'Dog Court'? and what are the implications of 'Dog Court' to shelters?
Dog Court Stats:
"Figures from the Dyersburg City Attorney's office show there were 35 court cases involving dogs within the last year, in the city. Of the 35 cases, 29 of them involved pit bulls. Also, there were six dog bite cases and all of those were from pit bulls. All six of the pit bulls were euthanized, due to either being court ordered or the owner's decision."
Shelter Realities:
"The humane society had 49 total court cases, which included the county and city. They also had 21 cases of dog bites. Not all dog bite cases go to court according to Dyersburg/Dyer County Shelter Supervisor Derek Avery. Ten pit bulls were included in the shelter's 21 dog bite cases and eight of them were euthanized."
"Dr. Carol Feather, president of the Dyersburg/Dyer County Humane Society, said they often run out of room at the shelter to accommodate dogs in court cases. "Sometimes we have to put down some lovely dogs to make room for the dogs in court cases," said Feather."
Dangerous dogs -- that end up in "Dog Court" -- force animal shelters to kill "lovely" dogs. These are lovely dogs. Not dogs that have attacked people or pets or have been seized in dogfighting raids. As Feather states, most of the dogs in court end up being euthanized. Due to dangerous dogs (in many cases pit bulls), horrific and "vacuous" dog owners, and the rules of our justice system, "lovely" dogs are killed to "make room" for dogs that will end up euthanized anyway.
by Anonymous4/08/2009 1:26 PM | Flag as abusive "Dr. Carol Feather, president of the Dyersburg/Dyer County Humane Society, said they often run out of room at the shelter to accommodate dogs in court cases. "Sometimes we have to put down some lovely dogs to make room for the dogs in court cases," said Feather.""
This is EXACTLY what Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah is not only advocating, THEY ARE DOING.
Best Friends has animals left at the shelter gates every day. BF calls local animal control to euthanize them.
They also turn down requests to help lovely, loving dogs that could be helped and placed in homes easily.
INSTEAD Best Friends has decided to turn into a pit bull breeder and fighter lobbying organization.
Space, resources, money, employees are taken up by the warehoused Vick pit bulls and other pit bulls.
And lovely dogs DIE while Best Friends expends so much time and resources on pit bulls that STILL are not trustworthy, no matter what hyped stories they try to tell.
In these years, think of all the "lovely dogs" that Best Friends condemned to DEATH so they could try to make money off Vick pit bulls and work as a marketing machine for the dog breeder lobby.
by annod4/08/2009 2:41 PM | Flag as abusive Another Zupf masterpiece.
The 100 Silliest Things People Say About Dogs
In this ground-breaking and sometimes controversial book, Alexandra Semyonova explodes the 100 most common myths about dogs, their nature, their behavior and how to treat them.
DogsBite.org is a national dog bite victims' group dedicated to reducing serious dog attacks. Through our work, we hope to protect both people and pets from future attacks.
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