Dec 30, 2011 Irresponsible Owner's Pit Bull with Bite History Shot While Wandering Neighborhood

Mary Gholston had an un-spayed pit bull terrier with a bite history that she routinely let outside to wander the neighborhood. Gholston admits to the dog having one litter of puppies.
On Christmas day, while it was off property, unattended and uncontrolled, someone in the neighborhood shot it.
And Brian Stanley of the Herald Tribune paints this most incredibly irresponsible owner as a victim. Why should a neighborhood be held hostage by a free roaming pit bull with a bite history?

Dog’s Christmas Day slaying ‘so cruel’
By Brian Stanley bstanley@stmedianetwork.com

Joliet Township - It was around 11:15 a.m. when she opened the back door of her house in the 200 block of Louis Road so Angel could go out into the yard. “She’d go to the bathroom by the fence and then sometimes go next door, but she never ran around and would come back,” Gholston said.
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Herald News
Accessed: 2011-12-31. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/64LnFqz9h)

Dec 27, 2011 Wilmette boy treated for injuries after pit bull attack

Wilmette - A Wilmette dog owner was cited after her pit bull attacked a 13-year-old boy on Christmas Eve.

The boy was taken to Evanston Hospital for treatment of injuries to his left triceps, upper right torso, both legs and buttocks, according to a police report. The injuries were not life-threatening, but resulted in lacerations, punctures and bruises to his body and led doctors to X-ray his chest for possible broken ribs.

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Trib local  Accessed: 2011-12-27. (Archived by WebCite^® at http://www.webcitation.org/64G73LgHN)

Dec 20, 2011 Arlington Hgts. toughens penalties for dangerous animals following pit bull attack

The attack that inspired this new dangerous dog legislation involved two unleashed pit bulls that attacked a leashed poodle/labrador retreiver mix off property and unprovoked.

Arlington Heights -  Previously, a dangerous animal would need to be convicted in three or more physical attacks before a court could rule to put the animal to sleep or order the owner to pay a fine, said Robin Ward, manager of the village legal department.

Now, if the first attack is serious enough, the dog can be destroyed.

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Daily Herald  Accessed: 2011-12-21.(Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/646wrHPYQ)

Dec 19, 2011 Dogs Attack Students During Recess as SW Suburban Elementary

So, a pit bull and a pekingese attack school children...Don't miss the part where the reporter says a teacher kicked "one of the dogs" that had knocked a child down. Wonder if that was the pekingese?

Evergreen Park - Three first-grade students at an elementary school in south west suburban Evergreen Park were at recess Tuesday when stray dogs attacked. Two faculty members came to their rescue.

Two dogs, a pit bull and a Pekingese, escaped from a house in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood community and wandered to Southeast Elementary School at 9800 S. Francisco Ave., according to police reports.

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WLS  Accessed: 2011-12-19. (Archived by WebCite^® at http://www.webcitation.org/643t7gnUG)

Chicago Sun Times  Accessed: 2011-12-20. (Archived by WebCite^® at http://www.webcitation.org/645OE9mkH)

Dec 12, 2011 Heights Family's Dog Shot by Unknown Gunman

A 34-year-old Chicago Heights woman told police her son let Plexa, a brown medium-sized pit bull, out of their home unleashed to relieve itself, and the dog returned a few minutes later bleeding heavily.
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There had been several neighborhood complaints of Plexa running unleashed, according to the woman, who said those complaints were unfounded.

Read more:
Patch Chicago Heights

Dec 07, 2011 Rockford woman dies after attack by her pit bull

Rockford - A woman died Tuesday after being mauled by one of her two pit bulls in November.

Tonia C. Parks, 39, was attacked by one of her two 8-year-old pit bulls as she had a seizure in her home Nov. 18 in the 3200 block of Collins Street, said Jennifer Stacy, deputy director of Winnebago County Animal Services.  Reports say she suffered injuries to her head and that her jugular vein had been bitten.  Had remained in critical condition until she passed away.

This fatal pit bull attack was not picked up by national news outlets. The initial local reports correctly identified the dogs as pit bulls though subsequent reports suggested the dogs were american bulldogs.  AP Illinois' miniscule coverage mentioned no breed in a report a month after local Animal Services confirmed the dogs were pit bulls through a FOI request from the Rockford Register Star.

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Rockford Register Star Nov. 18  (Archived by WebCite^® at http://www.webcitation.org/6XgbRT9yr)
Rockford Register Star  Dec 7  (Archived by WebCite^® at http://www.webcitation.org/63rgSHJW0)

ABC local Accessed: 2011-12-11. (Archived by WebCite^® at http://www.webcitation.org/63rirBzbF)

WREX

WIFR  (Archived by WebCite^® at http://www.webcitation.org/63rhq7gxx)

ABC local  Accessed: 2011-12-11. (Archived by WebCite^® at http://www.webcitation.org/63rirBzbF)

Dec 02, 2011 Dog bites all too common in Texas

By John K. Bini and Stephen M. Cohn, Guest Voices

A study showed that people who were attacked by pit bulls had more severe injuries than those attacked by other breeds. It’s estimated that 885,000 people a year need medical attention for dog bites.

A story in the Express-News, on March 31, 2009, by Eva Ruth Moravec, “7-month-old boy dies from dog attack,” told how an infant was literally torn to shreds as he was mauled, maimed and bitten to death by his grandmother's two pit bulls in her home.

When the grandmother attempted to intervene, these violent animals turned their aggression on her. The dogs were so vicious they had to be shot to death by the police so rescuers could reach the infant. Sadly, according to neighbors and family, these dangerous dogs had attacked previously.

As trauma surgeons, we feel obligated to bring to attention a life-threatening issue we have observed in San Antonio — that of dangerous canines posing a public health risk.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates 885,000 people per year require medical attention for dog bites. In 2006, more than 31,000 Americans required reconstructive surgery as a result of dog attacks.

We're writing to bring this problem to the fore, along with information from Spain about an effective program to mitigate this issue. We cite two articles, both published in respected medical journals:

The first paper, “Mortality, Mauling and Maiming by Vicious Dogs” was published in the Annals of Surgery, April 2011. We looked at mortality and morbidity in patients hospitalized at our trauma center due to dog bite injuries.

We compared data for patients attacked by pit bull-type dogs to those attacked by other breeds and found patients attacked by pit bulls had more severe injuries, higher hospital charges and a higher risk of death.

The second article, published in Injury Prevention in 2010, is entitled “Decline in hospitalizations due to dog bite injuries in (Spain) 1997-2008. An effect of government regulation.”

It looked at hospitalizations caused by dog injuries before and after the enactment of stricter regulations on dog ownership and found a nearly 40 percent decline in hospitalizations after regulation.

The U.S. does not have standardized legislation regarding dangerous animals from state to state. Also, dog bite injuries aren't reportable, according to CDC guidance, so such data are captured inconsistently, probably underestimating the magnitude of this problem.

Texas has dubiously been a leader in the number of dog bite deaths over the past decade. Texas also has legislation that specifically prohibits municipalities from enacting breed-specific legislation regarding dog ownership, regardless of recognized epidemiology.

Regardless of this legislative restriction on counties and municipalities, many communities and subdivisions restrict breed ownership in their covenants and restrictions. And the federal government enforces prohibitions on certain dangerous dog breeds on multiple federal military installations.

We think a hearing is required on this public health problem, and that the Texas Legislature should take steps as Spain has done to deal with the problem — so no other family has to face the pain of losing a child to this senseless, violent and fully preventable cause of death.

John K. Bini and Stephen M. Cohn are San Antonio physicians.

MYSA