Dangerous dogs  (Part 1) 
                                              

I can appreciate why people love having dogs as pets, but it is beyond my understanding as to why they would want to keep a dangerous dog as a pet in their homes especially when they have small children living with them.

On June 11^th 2013, in the British town of Mountsorrel, Lexi Hudson, a four-year old girl lived with her mother.  The little girl was mauled to death by the family`s pet dog.  The dog was a French mastiff that was much bigger than the little girl. A fully grown French mastiff weighs a minimum 110 pounds (49.9 kilograms).

Lexi took a midday nap after being off school sick. The normally placid French mastiff suddenly leapt at the sleeping four-year-old, grabbed her in its jaws and began shaking her like a rag doll. Lexi's horrified mother Jodi, 31, who was comforting the youngster in their shared bed, frantically wrestled with the dog to try to get it off her. Finally she ran to the kitchen to grab a knife. When she returned to her bedroom, she stabbed the dog to death. Unfortunately it was too late to save Lexi, who died from her injuries after being rushed to hospital.

Lexi`s mother was told that the dog was safe around kids so she brought it to their home. The hallmark of French mastiffs is their calm and dependable nature. They are not listed as a dangerous dog. So why did this particular dog attack the little girl?

These dogs are very capable guard dogs with their sheer size and strength backed by their courage and their natural protective instinct. They are usually very calm and very affectionate to their masters. In my opinion, the French mastiff that killed Lexi was more familiar with Lexi’s mother and if  the dog saw Lexi suddenly embrace her mother, the dog might have thought that the little girl was attacking her mother, hence the attack against Lexi.

On February 11^th 1914 in the British town of Blackburn, an 11-month-old girl died after being mauled by a “vicious and terrifying” dog. The dog was a Bull mastiff.

These particular guard dogs weigh between 110 and 130 pounds (50 and 59 kg).  Dogs of this breed are natural guardians of their home and owners. No special guard training is needed for a Bullmastiff to react appropriately if its family is endangered. Though usually mild-mannered, the powerful Bull mastiff is also serious and self-assured. He is afraid of nothing, and once aroused will seldom back down. The Bullmastiff has a docile, calm and independent temperament. It is a devoted dog and loves human attention. It is always alert, reliable, observant and protective which makes it a perfect watchdog.

The dog was a nightmare for neighbours and people were terrified of approaching it in the street.  It previously mauled a neighbour's cat to death. When the police arrived to rescue the baby, the dog was barking wildly and they couldn't get inside so they had to wait quite a long time before entering. The police in England don’t generally carry firearms with them. If they did, they could have shot the dog.

The dog that was called Mulan had been picked from a kennels for strays by Lexi's mother Jodi Hudson a few weeks before. In my opinion, that is the worst way to choose a pet, especially when there is a small baby in the house. The owner of those kinds of kennels would have no way of determining the background of the dogs in their care since they are separated from one another for obvious reasons.  Bull mastiffs are better suited in a home without young children'', because of its size, however in this [articular dog, staff at the kennel described the animal's temperament as being 'very friendly. How would they know?

The death of the baby was an absolute tragedy that should never have happened since there had been plenty of warning signs of the danger of the dog in the past while in the Hudson’s home.

On the 11^th of December 2013, a woman in West Yorkshire, in England who was the mother of four children was savaged to death by her two pet dogs.  The dogs were American pit pull Terriers. Their weight is  25–35 pounds (11–16 kg).

The breed is banned in the United Kingdom, in the Canadian province of Ontario and in many locations in the United States.

On December 25, 2015 in Fort St. John, in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, two dogs had entered the trailer home of Wendy Lee Baker, a 51-year-old woman and killed her cat and were mauling her and her partner, 55-year-old Robin Elgie. The dogs ripped their cat to pieces, they chased Lee around inside the laundry room and bedroom biting her multiple times.  They then proceeded to attack Robin. The dogs chewed both of Robin’s arms to shreds.

Once inside, the Federal RCMP police officers found Wendy Baker suffering from 100 dog bites and Robin Elgie sitting unresponsive in a chair, appearing to be in shock, while being attacked by the dogs.  The officers tried everything that they could to distract the dogs, to draw their attention away, but they still kept attacking this man. They shot one dog, but the other managed to escape with serious injuries, although it was later tracked down and “humanely put down,”

 Robin Elgie remained in an Edmonton hospital for days as doctors fought to save his life and what remains of both arms following the dog attack on Christmas Day. He had undergone two surgeries to clean up the injuries and attempt to reattach some tendons and save his arms. His arms were extremely damaged in the attack didn’t have a lot of anything left from the elbows down.

Lee was released from hospital but has some major healing to do, both physical and mentally.

A GoFundMe page, launched in support of Elgie and his girlfriend, has raised more than $22,000 that was used to cover the expenses incurred re their injuries.

The officers said they had a good idea who owned the animals but were still trying to figure out why the dogs were loose and what led to the vicious attack. Alas, I can’t find anything more about the dogs and the owner of the dogs.  If the owner is found, he or she will be charged with letting the two dogs free to roam. Further, that person can be sued for a great deal of money.

 On January 1^st, 2016 in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, a woman was bitten more than 100 times while protecting her 3-year-old nephew from a vicious dog. She was in critical condition following the second such dog attack to take place in British Columbia within a week.

The 21-year-old woman was covered in blood while she was fending off a large Rottweiler-pit bull cross on an outdoor field. The toddler was unharmed but the boy’s aunt and a passerby were injured while trying to rescue the boy. The two women were taken to hospital. The boy’s aunt had to undergo surgery after suffering dozens of bites, a broken arm and a detached bicep.

The RCMP said the dog belonged to the aunt’s boyfriend. What kind of jerk owns such a dog?  A very stupid fool. I hope the aunt has broken off that relationship. No doubt, the man was charged.

Rottweilers and pit-bull dogs are both very dangerous dogs, but when they are the mixture of those two kinds of dogs, they are really dangerous. 

Rottweilers

These dogs are often used as guard dogs.  The weight of these dogs are generally between 50 and 60 kg (110 and 132 lbs) for males and 35 and 48 kg (77 and 105 lbs) for females.

They are potentially dangerous dogs which usually results from irresponsible ownership caused by abuse, neglect, or lack of socialization and training.

According to a  study by the Centers for Disease Control into fatal dog attacks on humans between 1979 and 1998, Rottweilers and pit bull-type dogs were responsible for more than half (67%) of all deaths. In the years from 1993 to 1996 Rottweilers were responsible for half of all deaths. They concluded that "fatal attacks on humans appear to be a breed-specific problem (pit bull-type dogs and Rottweilers.

A pit bull is defined as:

A pit bull terrier

A Staffordshire bull terrier

An American Staffordshire terrier

An American pit bull terrier

A dog that has an appearance and physical characteristics substantially similar to any of those dogs.

Contrary to popular myth, Pit bulls do not have “locking jaws” There is no physiological "locking mechanism" in the jaw muscle and bone structure of pit bulls or other dogs. But Pit bulls are dangerous dogs because they can a bite, hold, and shake their victims and at times refuse to release their victims with their strong jaws. Pit bull bites are particularly serious because they tend to bite deeply and grind their molars into tissue.

Courts in the United States and Canada have ruled that expert identification, when using published breed standards, is sufficient for the enforcement of breed-specific legislation Approximately 550 jurisdictions have enacted breed-specific legislation (BSL) in response to a number of well-publicized incidents involving pit bull-type dogs, and some government organizations such as the U.S. Army and Marine Corps  have taken administrative action as well. These actions range from outright bans on the possession of pit bull-type dogs, to restrictions and conditions on pit bull ownership. They often establish a legal presumption that a pit bull-type dog is prima facie a legally "dangerous" or "vicious" dog  In response, 16 states in the U.S. prohibited or restricted the ability of municipal governments within those states to enact BSL

In June 2016, Christine Vadnais, was found dead in the backyard of her Montreal, Quebec home with a neighbour's dog mauling her body. Police at the time said the dog was a Pit bull.  The neighbor was charged with negligence causing death for letting the dogs run freely.

 in October 14^th 2015, at the entrance to an apartment building in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville district  of Montreal,  Nancy Martel was holding the door open for a woman and her Pit bull when the dog lunged for Nancy’s leg, biting her and dragging her down onto the steps outside. She was left with deep gashes on her leg. The woman who owned the dog had a leash on the dog but couldn’t control it. The dog should have been muzzled. The owner of the dog insisted that her dog not be euthanized. This terrible woman was more interested in the welfare of her dangerous dog than the welfare of human beings.

Bessie Flowers, 86, died from neck and head wounds after being attacked by American two Pit bulls belonging to the woman’s daughter. She was visiting her daughter in Charlotte, North Carolina, when she tripped and fell over in the back yard. The police say that the animals started playing with her before turning aggressive. Neighbors say authorities were warned earlier about the two dogs, but took no action. In my opinion, both the dead woman’s daughter who owned the two dangerous dogs and the authorities who did nothing, after hearing the complaints about the two dogs are jointly responsible for the woman’s death.

In Toronto, a woman left her apartment and suddenly, two Pit bulls who were in the hallway, (and belonged to a neighbour) attacked the woman and killed her.

 Doctors are optimistic they won’t have to amputate the arm of a woman who was mauled by a pit bull-type dog on July 26, 2016, says her daughter, who owns the dog. The attack occurred despite a province-wide ban on new pit bulls that was instituted in 2005,  Neighbours of the family said that the dogs are a very common sight in Vaniere, Ontario. That implies that they were running wild on the streets. 

There was a horrible incident where a Pit bull mauled someone very seriously in Toronto in 2004  so I wrote a letter to the premier of Ontario insisting that he bring in a law prohibiting pit bulls being owned by anyone in Ontario. He wrote me back and said that he had forwarded my letter to the Attorney General of the province with instructions to proceed in drafting such a law.

This is a letter I sent to the Premier of Ontario on August 30^th 2004.

Dear Sir:

Ontarians are facing and have been facing for a very long time, a very serious problem with respect to dangerous dogs.

The universally recognized dangerous dogs are; Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Husky breeds, Staffordshire, Bull Terrier, German Sheppards, Tosa Inu and Dobermans.

In 2000, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 25 breeds of dogs were involved in 238 fatal dog bites from 1979-1998. More than 50% of the deaths where the breed was known were caused by Pit Bull type dogs and Rottweilers.

I don’t have statistics for Canada or Ontario however it must be apparent to you as it is to everyone else that we really do have a very serious problem in Ontario as it relates to dangerous dogs.

I think it is time to get rid of these dogs by phasing them out.

The United Kingdom has taken steps to solve their problem. In 1991, their parliament passed the Dangerous Dogs Act.

1.—(1) This section applies to—

(a) any dog of the type known as the pit bull terrier;

b) any dog of the type known as the Japanese tosa; and

(c) any dog of any type designated for the purposes of this section by an order of the Secretary of State, being a type appearing to him to be bred for fighting or to have the characteristics of a type bred for that purpose.

(2) No person shall—

(a) breed, or breed from, a dog to which this section applies;

(b) sell or exchange such a dog or offer, advertise or expose such a dog for sale or  a gift;

(d) allow such a dog of which he is the owner or of which he is for the time being in charge to be in a public place without being muzzled and kept on a lead; or

(e) abandon such a dog of which he is the owner or, being the owner or for the time being in charge of such a dog, allow it to stray.

3.—(1) If a dog is dangerously out of control in a public place—

(a) the owner; and

(b) if different, the person for the time being in charge of the dog is guilty of an offence, or, if the dog while so out of control injures any person, an aggravated offence, under this subsection.

I think it is time to bring in legislation to solve this problem. If not, then many more people in our province will eventually be maimed and killed by these dogs.

On your website, you have said, and I quote;

Our government is working with Ontarians to deliver real, positive change. We’re listening to Ontarians about where they want to go — and we’re leading the way there.

I think if you bring in legislation that prohibits the breeding of dangerous dogs in Ontario, your government will deliver a real, positive change to Ontarians.

Do you have the courage to bring in such legislation? If not, then your statement that you are listening to Ontarians is a farce. If another child dies because of an attack by a dangerous dog, that child will have died because we don’t have legislation in Ontario that can prevent these needless deaths.

Yours truly

Dahn Batchelor     

 After he read my letter, he wrote me back and said that he would pass it on to the Attorney General of Ontario. Within months, the Attorney General brought a bill before the legislature and the majority of the members brought in a ban on pit bulls in 2005.

Anyone having a pit bull at the time of the ban could keep it, as long as the dog was sterilized and muzzled and kept on a leash while in public. Further, the only legal pit bulls in the province would be those who are  over the age of age 11.

The law prohibits pit bull terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, American pit bull terriers or any dog that “has an appearance and physical characteristics substantially similar to any of those dogs. The general term is “pit-bull type. The law also states;

6. Except as permitted by this Act or the regulations, no person shall,

(a) own a pit bull;

(b) breed a pit bull;

(c) transfer a pit bull, whether by sale, gift or otherwise;

(d) abandon a pit bull other than to a pound operated by or on behalf of a municipality, Ontario or a designated body;

(e) allow a pit bull in his or her possession to stray;

(f) import a pit bull into Ontario; or

(g) train a pit bull for fighting

The Ministry of the Attorney General’s office notes the legislation also applies to any dog that poses a danger to the public and also said in 2005, that the ministry heard very clearly from Ontarians that they wanted to be protected from pit bulls.

Pit bull dogs born before 2005 are exempt from Ontario’s ban but the owners must adhere to section 6.

Years before that, I wrote our alderman a letter complaining about dogs running wild on our streets. I suggested that the city needed a bylaw prohibiting dogs running wild. He wrote me back saying that he wasn’t going to ask the city to bring in such a bylaw as there were already too many bylaws in the city.

 His letter pissed me off. That was a big mistake on his part. I have lived by a policy that I have had all my life since I was a child. “Don’t fuck me unless you kiss me first.” This dummy didn’t kiss me so I decided to punish him and punish him I did.

 It was at a time when there were two elections about to take place. They were provincial and municipal. He was running for both. Wherever he went to give a speech, I attend the venue and I asked him the following question. “If you get elected as our alderman and you are also elected as a member of the legislature, which one of us will you desert since you can’t serve both of them at the same time?

 I will never forget the anger directed to him at those meetings after he replied, “I have the right to run for two offices.”  H lost both elections by a very large margin.

 Many years ago when I was serving court documents as a process server, I stepped onto the porch leading to the front door of a house. Suddenly, a black mid-sized dog (I can’t remember the breed) that was unseen by me on the porch, lunged at my left knee and bit it. It left a fairly large gash.

 It was at that moment that a fat black woman opened the door and said angrily, “WHAT DO YOU WANT?” 

 I handed her the court document then I told her that her dog had just bitten me. She replied angrily. “You shouldn’t have been on my porch in the first place.”

 Ohh. That poor stupid woman. She didn’t know what I do to fools who pisses me off. 

 While I sat in my car, I called the police. An officer arrived and I told him what had occurred. He knocked on her door but she didn’t answer it.  He called the station and got her phone number and called her. He told her that if she doesn’t answer the door, he would force his way into the house. She opened the door.  He charged her with having a dangerous dog. He also told her to put the dog on a leash.

 The next day I approached the dog that was then on a leash. It jumped into the air towards me with its teeth bared. At the trial, I showed the justice of the peace the photo of the angry dog lunging at me.

After the stupid dog owner stepped into the witness box, she said, “I have turned the dog over to the pound.” The JP asked the officer to call the pound to verify her statement. He did and returned to the court and said, “She did take it to the pound and told the people there that she would be taking the dog back later in the afternoon.”  The case was adjourned for a week. 

The following week, she and I attended court again. She testified that she asked the pound to put the dog down. The JP asked the officer to call the pound again and verify her statement. The officer made the call and then said to the JP. “Sir. The dog has been euthanized.”  The judge said something that made everyone in the court room laugh. He said, “If for some miraculous reason that dog becomes alive again, I will give you a two-thousand dollar fine.”

As I and the woman left the courtroom, she turned to me and said angrily, “I will have my lawyer sue you for thousands of dollars.”

When I was a very small child, my mother said to me, “Danny. There are only two things you should never be afraid of. They are the  bogeyman and lawyers.” I said to the woman as she was leaving the courthouse. “You tell your lawyer, if you really have one, that I eat lawyers for breakfast.”  Needless to say, I never got a call from her so-called lawyer. 

If that stupid woman had apologized to me and offered to get me a band aid, I would have forgiven her and her dog. Instead, she fucked me and didn’t kiss me and you know what I do to people who make that cardinal mistake. Her outrageous conduct resulted in her having her dog put down.

Since Ontario’s Pit bull ban came into effect ten years earlier, fewer of those Pit bull dogs are in the province, resulting in less vicious attacks by Pit bulls.

What I would like to see done is the following.

1.       Define any dog as a DANGEROUS DOG that has seriously bitten a human being or another animal with the seriousness of the bite to be determined by a court or other municipal authority.

2.       The owner of such a dog if allowed to keep it;  must place a sign that is no smaller than eight inches by sixteen inches with the words DANGEROUS DOG on it on the lawn of the property the dog resides at. If the owner of the dog resides in a townhouse or an apartment and is permitted to keep the dog in such premises, the owner must place a sign that is no smaller than six inches by twelve inches with the words DANGEROUS DOG on it on the door.

3. Any dog that is classified as a DANGEROUS DOG must have a bright red dog collar around its neck.        

4.       If a DANGEROUS DOG is placed in a back yard, it must be leashed and if not leashed, a fence must be erected that is not lower than six feet.

5.       If a DANGEROUS DOG is taken for a walk, it must be leashed and the leash must not be longer than six feet.

6.       If a child takes a DANGEROUS DOG for a walk, the child must weigh no less than fifty pounds more than the weight of the dog.

7.       If a dog attacks a human being and seriously injures that person, the dog must be euthanized.  

8.       The owner of a DANGEROUS DOG who fails to abide by Rules one through six will receive a fine of no less than one thousand dollars.

The cities of Calgary, Alberta and Burnaby, British Columbia, have similar by-laws.

Such by-laws will in my opinion, reduce the number of dog bites by Dangerous Dogs.