The Curious Incident of the Pit Bull


This week has been dominated by the pit bull next door. He is owned by two typical pit bull owners. I am not sure people look like their dogs necessarily but we do pick dogs that fit our personalities. I love dogs but I hate pit bulls. I lived in North Carolina long enough to learn to fear them too.

There are new renters in the house down the road and they own a pit bull. Pit bull owners, as a rule, never put collars on their dogs and fail to understand why they should exercise any control over them. Their pit bull attacked Magique. We got lucky and no serious damage was done.

Our state has not outlawed these beast yet but the movement is a afoot or apaw as it were. Several cities require very strict licensing of them and their owners. No insurance company will provide liability coverage if you own a pit bull. As a consequence I do not allow the breed to be owned by any renter of mine, so I figured the owner to the duplex next door did not know he had a pit bull resident. I called him.

The pit bull owners countered by doing a police report stating that it was mine and Steve's dog that attacked his poor pit bull and that Steve later drew a gun and threatened them and their dog. It is not unusual for locals in this rural area to carry a gun while out waking or riding their horses. We have bears, and coyotes, and a mountain lion, and now a pit bull. But we are responsible gun owners and nobody draws down on a human.

When I heard of the police report I figured the pit bull owners (two brothers 19 and 18) were being vindictive as they had been given an ultimatum of getting rid of their dog or moving out. Then when I went to pick up my retractable leash (Steve and I have changed the direction of our walk and have at least two of the four dogs on a leash when out) I noticed that it might very well be mistaken for a gun at some distance. They are not purple orblue or orange if you have a serious dog but black and dark gray. And if the dog is straining against the leash (black but invisible in some lights) your hand and arm comes up as if you are moving a gun into firing position.

Should I write Petmate about their Walkabout and tell them the danger this devise might hold for the user? Or Petco that sells the Walkabout. Or all of the above. Remember when people that owned those water pistols that looked like machine guns were getting killed by police officers for being armed and dangerous? Being shot for your Walkabout is as bad.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 1, 2009 at 11:53 PM

    gawd! imagine being shot for walking the dog!!! this all sounds a bit yeehar to me - guns, dawgs, etc. hopefully the 2 evil brothers and their pet will move on soon

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Blog of BeeJuly 7, 2009 at 1:25 PM

    Whilst I understand your dislike of pit bulls, in defence of the dog - there really is no such thing as a bad dog - only bad owners because they don't train their dogs properly. Sounds to me that you have a couple of louts near you now who are going to need watching very carefully. They don't have mohawks and studded collars do they?

    ReplyDelete
  3. George WeaverMarch 9, 2013 at 8:22 AM

    Jacqui, you may hate pit bulls, but your portrait of this one is superb +. It's just gorgeous with the stance, the light the full-frame composition. WOW

    ReplyDelete

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