Aw, shoot…
Some of you may remember that a while back I wrote about my neighbor’s dogs. We had a couple pit bulls from up the street attack our across-the-street neighbor’s dog, nearly killing it, and our over-the-fence neighbor’s pit bull and pit-rott mix (or something that looks like it could be a pit-rott mix anyway) both attacked their third dog, putting the small pooch in the doggy hospital.
Since then the two pit bulls from up the street have been put down, and the pit-rott was given a shock collar to keep her under control (which baffled me a bit as it was the OTHER pit bull that was chewing on the small dog). The little dog, Sandy, has been attacked two more times since then by these two dogs, but the neighbors STILL refused to keep the three dogs separate. Sandy spent most of the summer with a leg cast on and her mouth wired shut, cowering in fear of the other two dogs she was forced to share a yard with.
Sandy passed away yesterday afternoon after being attacked yet again by the pit bull (the pit-rott jumped in the fun after little Sandy was half dead and the two played tug-of-war with the little pup).
Animal control came to the neighbor’s house (again) and spent several hours over there, eventually leaving with the pit bull. They’re NOT going to put the pit bull down, though, as the neighbors are appealing the dog’s fate in court, and are thinking about passing a petition around the neighborhood to get the dog back. “Oh, she’s harmless, she’s my baby!” the neighbor keeps saying to everyone. “If that little dog hadn’t provoked her none of this would have happened! I can’t believe they came and took my baby away!”
We’re really, REALLY hoping the City of Sioux City chooses to do the right thing and keep the pit bull out of our neighbor’s hands — they’re good people, but they simply can’t control their animals. And now one of them is dead.
I’m still worried about the dog they still have — the pit-rottweiler mix. She jumps the fence several times a day and runs off. By court order she’s wearing a shock collar, but the neighbors never use it (“Oh, it just scares her so much”). We have a LOT of small children in this neighborhood. A vicious dog + small children = bad, bad things.
This just chills me to hear! I can’t believe these people are allowed to keep the dogs when they have this history of not being able to control them.
Shoot the Dog.
I have my own dog story. Years ago, my oldest son was walking our Dalmation (on leash), and two neighborhood dogs being walked by neighbors of ours (not on leash), attacked our dog. One was a Rottweiler, one was a Doberman.
My son, 10 years old at the time intervened to save our Dog, and he got bit in the shoulder and had to have stitches.
Given the fact we were Neighbors and all, we asked our Neighbors to split the cost of the Vet Bill. One was a single Mom, and she was flat broke, but she paid us over three months. The other Neighbors said “no way, the dogs never liked each other.
Our dogs throat was ripped open, and her jugular vein was just hanging in the open. The Vet bill was over $500.
We never spoke to the cheapskate Neighbors again, but we moved to a new home a couple of years later. The day we left, our son who was bitten went around the neighborhood collecting all the dog poop he could find. He filled there mailbox with it.
Chris (I tried to respond from work, but the connection is so… grrrr) – I second Skylersdad’s sentiments.
Poor Sandy… man, this breaks my heart.
These dogs are not pets. They have not been socialized. They are destructive and dangerous.
They are your neighbor’s “babies”?
Tell you what… if my “baby” tore another kid (or animal or property) apart, I’d be in prison.
Time for people to accept personal responsibility in your neighborhood.
I’m sorry this happened… I am sorry you or anyone had to witness this.
It makes me sick.
*Hi Zoey*
Love.
That’s really sad. Those damn neighbours should be forced by law to wear a freakin’ shock collar.
I felt sick as I read your story. I hope Animal Control does the right thing with the killer dog. I thought Sioux Town passed a “new rule” on pitbulls.
That just makes me sick. Just sick. And people like that don’t deserve animals.
Over the weekend we had a confrontation with a nieghbor woman with two pit-bulls – she actually screamed at us for walking our dog on her street. She ranted and raged about she would not be responsibile for her animal’s if anything happened to our leashed dog…and that we should not be sumjecting our dog to this stress. Crazy, crazy, crazy. Her dogs are manic and dangerous, but I have to change my habits? Found out later someone had thrown gasoline on her pit-bulls…
I think a dog’s behavior (or a child’s behavior) indicates a lot about the owner (parent)…scary…
Too many people do not take time to properly 1. train, 2. supervise and 3. exercise their animals.
Aunt V
In Sunny Santa Fe
as a former dog breeder and trainer i can state with some authority that there are nearly zero “bad dogs”, but thousands and thousands of “bad owners”…this sad story is played out over and over every day in this country…
…here’s a dog story for you…
…when i was actively involved in the canine biz, i was also employed by a veterinarian as a vet tech and lived on the second floor of the clinic and was the first voice people would hear when calling in the middle of the night for this emergency or that…
…one day a man brought a dog in, a mixed breed, possibly bull terrier and Lab or Golden Retriever approx. 6 months old…the dog was obviously in distress, thin, shaking, leaking copious amounts of blood rectally…first thing we thought was some sort of poisoning…so the doctor asked the fellow, “Did this dog eat anything out of the ordinary?” , to which this arsehole replies, “Well, i’ve been mixing goat blood and gunpowder into his food cuz a friend of mine said it would make him mean.”
…how can one fight such monumental idiocy?
…and mrsleep, LOVE the poop in the mailbox manuvuer…
This just made me heartsick. It was a [needless] tragedy just waiting to happen (based on what happened previously) and your clueless, irresponsible neighbors went right on ahead and allowed it to happen. Did the Journal cover this? These people need to be exposed…right before they’re led off in handcuffs.
On another note, congratulations on the newest addition to your family! Zoey is absolutely adorable! There’s nothing better than seeing a good dog in need find the perfect family. I’ll look forward to hearing all the stories (and seeing more pix!) — especially from one who understands what pet ownership is all about!
Very very frightening me.
There’s not bad dogs..only bad owners? Then why is it always pitbulls you hear about. Everyone that owns a pitbull is a bad owner?