May 29, 2014 Bath man shoots pit bull, claims self-defense

Bath - Fred Miller, 82, was driving a golf cart in his neighborhood, armed with a shotgun loaded with bird shot, when a pit bull approached him.  He felt he needed to defend himself, so he shot the pit bull in the snout.

The Mason County State's Attorney, Roger Thomson, charged Miller with aggravated cruelty to a companion animal.

Thomson is reported to have said that being under attack by a dog would qualify Miller's actions as self-defense.  Evidently, you have to allow yourself to be attacked before you can defend yourself in Thomson's mind.  Thomson characterized Miller as merely "fearing that a dog could possibly attack." and the news article did not report Miller's account of the event.

The pit bull survived.

Miller says he will hire an attorney.

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Pekin Times

Mar 12, 2014 New Mason County Animal Control Officer Copes with Pit Bulls

Mason Co-The first day on the job, Mason County Animal Control Officer Joe Ragle had to contend with a pit bull that turned on its family.  In the first few months on the job Ragle has had to deal with four pit bulls that turned on the family and needed Ragle's help getting it off of the property.

"Ragle said in a report to the County Board that he has not had any incidents in which anybody has been seriously hurt but that possibility is there, as evidenced by the January incident in Bloomington in which a 4-year-old girl was killed by one of her family’s pit bulls. According to Ragle, there are a lot more pit bulls in the county than he realized before he took the job, and he hopes dog owners remain mindful of how powerful the dogs can be."

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Pekin Times Accessed: 2014-04-19.(Archived by WebCite^® at http://www.webcitation.org/6Ox7F8cOW)

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