Dud3s

I'd have given them a piece of my mind. I would not have told them I was okay - I'd want them to apologize first, for them to truly realize that this is unacceptable behavior for their dog and that it could happen in the future so TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT MY LEG YOU BUSTERS!

On the other hand I would have broken that dog's neck.

Have you seen a doctor yet, Carmodyarc? I do hope it's not infected or anything. Get well soon.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that they were incredibly apologetic. They even came back over about 10 minutes later to make sure everything was still alright.

The dog has all it's shots and I cleaned the bite out so I'm skipping the doctor for now.

Honestly, I would have killed the damned dog and DARED them to do something about it.

Pitts are not dogs, they're animals.

I love dogs but there is one breed I will never even acknowledge and that's the Pitt Bull. Their owners just trip me out. There was a LITTLE CHILD in my home town who was killed when the family pitt ate her face off when the child was simply toddling across the room. They were told by the police dept. that the dog had to be put down and they actually SUED the police, swearing up and down that "the dog wasn't a mean dog". BULLSHIT, it ate your child's FACE OFF and you don't seem to CARE.

Another man, when I was a Junior in high school walked out his front door to get his paper one morning and saw his neighbors Pitt leap up and grab his owner by the neck, drag him to the ground and proceed to chew on his neck and face. The man went inside, got his gun and shot the dog, saving the man's life. The dipshit returned the favor by suing the man who saved his life.

I can honestly say that of the last 12 dog attack stories I've heard on the news, or read in the paper, ALL of them have been by Pitts... and they ALLWAYS have some fat guy with a mullet being interviewed about how "NICE" and "GENTLE" his dog is.

Wow. I'm sorry, but I would have:

a) gone to the doctor and been seen, just in case, and to have it all on record somewhere.

b) gone to the police and filed a report, again, so it's on record.

c) presented my neighbor with the bill from the doctor, and told them they were lucky to have gotten off that easily.

d) let all the rest of my neighbors know about the incident, so that everyone is aware of the situation with the dog and can be on guard.

The problem is that if it's just swept under the rug and let go, the next person the dog may go after may not be okay, the owners may not be able to call the dog back, and the next victim might even be a child. Somebody needs to be asking some serious and probably uncomfortable (for the owners) questions of these people as well, like why was the dog not restrained, and why isn't there a fence around the yard if the dog isn't on a leash?

I do hope you're REALLY okay...

Good points dreamweaver

There are a bunch of kids around this neighborhood. I'll talk to them tomorrow about how they plan to keep the same thing from happening to someone else. Thanks for the advice.

I second Dreamweaver. I would have still gone to the doctor anyway and make a police report. The thing about dogs is that regardless of whether they have had their shots, their mouth is still full of bacteria. I've seen bites go bad and I'd strongly advise you to go check it out just to be safe.

Pitt bulls are known for their ferociousness. Sure, they aren't Rottweilers, but they have a bite to them. Be very clear to their owners that this is not something that can be swept under the rug so easily. If you don't do something about it now, it can escalate and who knows what may happen next?

"Can someone please think of the children?!"

Kami says "they aren't Rottweilers" but they are, and more. In the US, Pit Bulls were responsible for almost twice as many human deaths as Rottweilers.

Pit Bulls can be loving pets but they take a lot of training to forget a lot of their innate aggression. They are a dangerous breed and their owners need to acknowledge and respect that.

You really aught to ask them to keep it muzzled when in public. No, muzzles aren't the nicest things in the world for dogs but its owners need to respect that their dog has a history of biting and it could do a lot more damage next time.

===

I think I would have been pretty pissed off but I would also know that this is somebody's pet. If somebody told me my cat had to be destroyed (the nice terminology they use in the news here to say 'put down' for dogs), I'd fall apart.

Unfortunately, reporting it in any sort of way (doctors or police) here would result in the animal's death. Another breed might get a second chance.

I'd probably get some serious antiseptic on the wound (TCP or some other iodine-based a/s) and keep applying it for a couple of days. I'd expect a little bit of swelling and a lot of bruising. If it's swill really tightly swollen after a day, it might be a good idea to visit the docs for some antibiotics.

But for the dog, I would just want its owners to make sure that nothing like that could happen in the future to somebody that was less able to defend themselves. Muzzles, intensive training, fences. And needless to say, they've got to cover any medical expenses.

Basically what Dreamweaver said. Also, I would add, trying to get a court order to ensure that the dog is muzzled every time it leaves the house. A dog that goes off like that and bites is a dog that can't be trusted, period. Also, if it happens again, the dog needs to be put to sleep.

Down here in Miami-Dade county, it's actually illegal to own Pit Bulls now, for pretty much all the reasons mentioned in this thread. The dogs were bred for one thing: to be aggressive. If you've seen the history of how they were bred, the guy that bred them would get a batch, then put them all to fight. Any which showed signs of backing down was taken out of the gene pool. He continued to this dis over and over. adding little obstacles lige sawing the front legs off, to see if they'd still fight. When he finally had a dog that wouldn't back down, ever, he had "perfected" the pit bull.

I might see a doctor anyway. Dog mouths are actually pretty clean, but there's just a phenomenal chance of infection with any wound that deep.

As to the people, I'm glad they were apologetic, but the dogs behavior is directly their responsibility and their fault. Does your city have leash laws? Many do. Even if you don't, when you've got a LARGE potentially violent dog, you absolutely can not let it be on it's own in public. Ever.

Your neighbors are epically irresponsible. They need to get their act together or the dogs need to be taken away from them. Dog's don't just attack people, unless you're encroaching on their territory or threatening their pack in some fashion they have to be messed up to act like that. In most cases of these types of dogs they're very neglected and bored, so they tend to go batty.

I think I'd still report it to the local authorities, not as pressing charges perhaps, but so that they are aware of a potential serious problem.

Since everyone else has offered great advice I can only say that I would sick either my lion or hippo on them to even the score. And that dog wouldn't have made it back to its owners in time.

@Scrivs,

I had a friend in Loxahatchee. One of his neighbors has tigers, and another had monkeys. I suppose it could be worse.

Update:
I talked to the owner on the phone this morning, they agreed that the best course would be to "put it down." Apparently, this is the first time it's ever bitten a person but it's been very aggressive with other people (especially men) around the wife for years.

I suppose that it was just trying to protect her, but as you've all so keenly pointed out it's probably far more dangerous than I initially thought. I feel terrible that someone has to loose their pet, but sometimes the risk far outweighs the reward.

Putting it down is also irresponsible and lazy. Unless it's truly sick all it needs is training. In the end I'm glad something is being done, and they're not just blowing off the severity of the situation. It's pretty sad when people won't take the time and effort required to care for an animal they've brought into their home.

Some people should just never have pets. I hope they aren't as negligent with their children.

My Uncle (deceased) had a PitBull, single-handedly one of the most lovable pets I've come across. Because of that, I don't condemn PitBulls as a whole, but on a case by case basis.

I do know once a PitBull becomes aggressive (which my Uncle's was not) it is very hard to make them go "backwards", going against their nature. As a neighbor that dog is familiar carmodyarc's scent, and the dog is aggressive with people around its owner.

The only question to ask: what if carmodyarc had been a child? Can that dog be guaranteed not to be aggressive and bite anyone else again?

From what I read about PitBulls, the only way to avoid that is to put a muzzle on the dog when it goes out. For all we know they talked to a vet and the vet's recommendation was to have the dog put to sleep.

Anytime I hear of a PitBull biting someone here (on the news) the dog is put to sleep, even if the owner wants to have it trained or try to stop the aggressive behavior.

A lot of the bad press pit bulls get is essentially bullshit. I am not a fan of the breed, but it does get a very bad rap. In almost every case the dog has been neglected, and in some even encouraged into violent behaviors. That's the owners fault, not the animal.

There are rehabilitation resources for even those.

My wife and I are dog lovers but she was bit on her hand by one of our friend's dogs a few months ago, not as bad as your bite though. The woman offered to pay for our doctor's bills as Eleni had to get a tetanus shot and get dressing for it.

Saying a particular breed of dog is always evil is about as intelligent as saying a particular race of people is evil. I've dealt with maniac golden retrievers and I've seen perfectly harmless pitbulls, so you can't make generalizations.

As far as putting the dog down... I don't really know about that one. Such a tough call.

Yeah, putting it down is a tough call, I agree, but it's probably the safest thing. I was kind of surprised by your update, carmodyarc, since I suspected that any suggestion of putting the dog down would be met with strong resistance. I have to commend these people though, for making that tough decision about a pet. Maybe they have already tried training and it's been unsuccessful, and they just don't want to take the risk that the dog could get completely out of hand and injure again, or even kill someone.

Well, when I talked to the husband he was pretty set on having it put down. Apparently it was the wife's dog prior to the marriage. She wasn't happy with the thought, but agreed it was the right course (according to the husband anyway).

He'd also said that when they were walking the dog recently it had become even more aggressive. It had even begun growling and lunging at the young girl (about 7) from across the street.

I don't know what would be involved in trying to re-train a dog like that. I am pretty sure that their decision is the safest one. If anything happened later I would beat myself up that I hadn't called the police or animal control (which would have certainly resulted in having the dog put to sleep, according to city law)

and @Tyme
Their other pit is a fantastic dog. I was here when they bought it (8 months ago). They brought him over when I was on the porch this morning and he is an incredibly lovable dog. He licked my hand, tried to eat my plants and was just generally nice.

I don't have any real problem with the breed, but I am really glad they're getting rid of that other dog.

That's an unfortunate situation, and if I were in it, I would have tried to kill that damn dog. In terms of it being a pit bull, I don't buy all that crap about them being evil dogs. It's all about the owners and how they are raised, just like kids. I've had two different pit bulls, one of them being the nicest dog I've ever been around. Never had problems with any of them though.

Like any dog, they just need to be trained. You can't just bring them home and expect them to be angels. So it annoys me when people blame things on the pit bulls and not the owners who fail to train them right.

Of course all pits aren't evil, but to assume that some dog species aren't more aggressive than others is also naive. There is a reason those are the first dogs bred for dog fighting, they really do have a natural instinct it seems for aggression. That's like saying not all chiuahuas (sp?) aren't hyper as hell. Any dog can be trained a certain way early on and honestly some pets after some time have it ingrained in their instinct so much that there is no turning back.

That dog has an attachment to the wife and to train it to assume there is no aggression towards her might be a slow and long process in which during that time it can do more harm.

When it comes to animals I think you can and almost should make generalizations to err on the side of safety. If I see a guy with a pit I'm not going to run up and pet it. Not saying it is going to harm me, but I'm going to hold back without taking the risk. As great as dogs are and how attached people grow to them, you can't compare them to humans.

As great as dogs are and how attached people grow to them, you can't compare them to humans.

That's the key thing right there. They aren't human. They don't act like humans, they don't re-act like humans, and they don't think like humans.

For someone that knows what they're doing (I'm not saying I'm an expert, but maybe better than many,) It is rarely a long or difficult task to fix that sort of behavior unless it's been going on a very long time. The real experts know how dogs think and communicate to an eerie level. Check out "The Dog Whisperer" if you haven't before.

I do agree, if it's necessary then absolutely err on the side of safety. It wont' be cheap for sure, and it might be hard to find the right person or organization.

In the UK owning a pitbull is illegal and they are part of the dangerous dogs act along with a few other breeds. I am not really going to get into if that's right or not, but I do feel that it really angers me that owners don't understand all dogs no matter what breed can injure and are an animal. I love our dogs probably more than some humans but I still recognise they are animals at the end of the day. The first thing any of our dogs ever got taught was to reject a human hand in their mouth. I've known vicious labradors and other breeds most would not call 'dangerous' - when it comes down to it they do all have teeth and are part nature and nurture. If you don't train your dog or realise it's an animal you get problems.