Do whatever you have to do to stop the pitbulls, including shooting them, poisoning them...I don't care!!!
Here is a very long and sad story about pitbulls.
On July 7, 2006, 2 roaming pitbulls destroyed the gate on my very strong dog kennel/run and killed all 3 of my dogs!
For months prior to that, I and several other neighbors had called animal control to report the roaming pits.
AFTER my dogs were killed, I learned what those pits had done before.
They attacked a HORSE and so badly mauled its face that the horse had to be put down. They killed my next door neighbors dog, who was stupidly on the owners part, chained in an open yard. They attacked and nearly killed the across the street neighbors black lab. The vet bills to save the dog were more than a thousand dollars.
In April of 2006, Animal Control took the pits into custody, after all of the above had happened, and a stupid freaking judge ordered Animal Control to release the pits back to their owner. The judge put the owners on probation and made them sign a contract that they would control the dogs and NEVER let them roam free again. HA! HA! HA! These people did nothing to control or contain the pits.
I reported the pits on my property at least 3 times between April and July, again, knowing nothing about the court proceeding or the harm the pits had done. (It's probably important to state that we live in the woods on minimum 5 acre parcels, so we are not really close to our neighbors and don't have occasion to chat)
My concern was that I have many cats who have been dumped here and are wild, but I feed them. And I have 3 cats who I love, but they are outside cats, that's just the way it is. I was afraid the pits would kill my cats.
I never even thought about the safety of my dogs who were all inside dogs, but did have a dog run/kennel that was totally fenced in, just outside my back door. The door actually opened into the kennel, and was kept open in good weather, so the dogs could go out to the dog yard at will. I have 2 houses on my property, and the dog yard was at the other house where my daughter lived.
On July 7, I had to run some errands that kept me away from home for about 5 hours. My dogs, BJ, a German Shepherd; Otter, an Aussi/wolf/husky mix, and my baby Cedar, a long haired dash hound
were left in the house with the door open to the dog yard.
I came home to find the 2 blood streaked pitbulls in my front yard. But it really didn't click at the time, I just yelled at them to get out of my yard. And they ran. Then I walked down to the other house to get Cedar.
I went into the house, and no dogs. I went back outside and went to the outside gate of the dog yard, and the gate was all smashed and no dogs.
Still nothing was clicking in my mind....I was mildly confused.
Then the pitbulls come running back onto my property, and I realize that what looked like brown streaks on them was blood. I began yelling for my dogs. And I STILL didn't understand or ponder what had happened. So I think my dogs somehow got out of the dog yard, and I am calling and calling them.
In the meantime, I call Animal Control to report that the pits are ONCE AGAIN, running loose. Then I go out and keep calling, BJ, Otter, Cedar, calling over and over.
And the pits keep coming back over and over, so I finally threw some rocks at them and they ran away again.
Ok, now comes the really bad part.......
I finally looked in the area where the pits had kept coming back to and then I saw Otter, dead. Of course I went crazy then and kept screaming for BJ and Cedar. And sadly had to start walking around, and then I saw my baby Cedar, dead, under the very Cedar tree for which he was named. Both Otter and Cedar had their throats ripped to shreads.
In total hysteria, I kept screaming BJ, BJ, BJ....but he never came.
I called 911 and said I know that dead dogs are probably not allowed as a reason for calling 911, but ***********those ********pit bulls killed 2 of my dogs and I can't find the other one.
The Sheriffs and Animal Control actually came. My Animal Control guy, George, put my dead Otter and my Cedar into the back of his vehicle and drove over to the owners of the pit bulls and DEMANDED that the owner come and see what his dogs had done. He was so nasty to George and to the Deputy...Said, "Why the ****** should I have to look at some "bitch's dead dogs?"
It would take another several pages to tell all of what happened after. We never found BJ, but in the 98 degree temps, we knew where he was because by Sunday, we could smell his body which was so deeply in the berry bushes and undergrowth that it was not possible to get him out.
George came to see me every day for more than a week. He felt so bad. He had impounded those dogs, he knew how dangerous they were, but he had to let them go because a Judge said so.
I cried so hard that I vomited constantly for days. My sister nearly flew down from Portland because she was so worried about me.
The end of the story is that we went to court. Every authority in this county stood beside me and demanded that the pit bull be destroyed. It was ultimately the pictures that the Sheriff's Deputy took at my DEMAND, of my dead dogs that won. And all of the other documented history, and the failure of the pit owners to do anything they had agreed to.
The pit bulls were humanely destroyed. The owner was placed on probation and were ordered to not OWN, POSESS, OR BE IN CONTROL OF ANY DOG FOR 2 YEARS. Believe it or not, they actually had 2 more pits and a litter of 5 pit puppies on their property when Animal Control went to investigate. None of those dogs were destroyed, of course. They hadn't done anything wrong. They were siezed and found new homes.
I thought I would never ever heal, I really felt like I was going to go crazy.
Then, just one month later, I saw an ad in a paper I never read, in the pet section, which I certainly never read, for a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. When I think about that it still gives me chills.
For years I had dreamed of having a Cavalier, but with the 2 big dogs and with Cedar who I loved so much, I kinda forgot about it, and financially it was definately out of my reach.
That ad was for my Toby. Sometimes, especially when I am really stressed or sad, I will accidentally call him Cedar. Toby isn't Cedar, but he is the absolute love of my life.