Pit Bulls Enter Home Through Pet Door, Maul Woman

(my modified response from a forum where this article was posted…)

This situation doesn’t sound too unlikely. The article says the dogs went after this woman’s Jack Russel Terrier. I love JRT’s, and I know that this particular dog was a service dog, but they can be feisty and many would not think twice about taking on another dog six times their size.

So maybe the Pit Bulls chased the dog into the house. Or maybe they saw the dog, and went in to get a closer look. Or maybe they just found a random pet door and decided to check it out, encountering another dog once they got inside.

At any rate, the article does say that the dogs began to fight, and it pretty strongly infers that the fighting dogs ended up in the woman’s bedroom (maybe her poor dog tried to run in there) She tried to break up the fight, which is an instant recipe for disaster. Hyped up, potentially aggressive dogs looking to bite anything that moves.

These dogs unexpectedly broke free from what sounds like an otherwise secure containment and a terrible thing happened. And I am so very sorry that this woman was injured and her dog was killed.

But honestly? MY dog could have been in the same situation. He would have gone after the little dog and could definitely have caused some damage had a person tried to physically interfere (never, ever put yourself between two fighting animals). My dog was a Dalmatian. This isn’t a Pit Bull issue AT ALL. It’s an issue of controlling roaming dogs, and this poor woman being caught in a bad situation.

There are reasons these stories make for ‘good’ news. Not because there are waves of Pit Bull attacks across the country, but because people respond. They respond with outrage and bias and sweeping legislation. But what are you more likely to see: a story about an aggressive Labrador, or an aggressive Pit Bull? The latter, and not because Labs don’t bite people: they’re one of the top offenders.

It’s sensationalism, pure and simple.