Lynville, TN- After the the loss of their 4-year-old daughter Irma, who earlier this month was severely mauled by a neighbor's American Pit Bull terrier and died in her mother's arms in the back of an ambulance, the Simmons family could have allowed the tragic accident to change the way that they feel about the breed.
"Naturally we were angry at first," Irma's father Jim explains. "But after the outpouring of pictures and videos from owners of Pit Bulls, showing how at the moment they were taken or filmed the dog was not mauling someone, we realized how petty our concerns were in the grand scheme of private dog ownership."
Admittedly feeling a little foolish after at first considering taking to the media to call for restrictions on ownership of pit bulls and similar breeds, the Simmons family now puts the tragic loss of their only child in perspective. "All dogs bite. Even an eleven pound Havanese might, if provoked by a pestering small child, become aggressive and bite, perhaps leaving a few small puncture wounds or a shallow abrasion. You don't see people trying to ban them!"
Tinkerbell, the Pit Bull involved in the tragic death of Irma Simmons, is well known in the tight knit community of Lynville. His owners and many in the town swear that he is a sweet and loving animal that usually loves small children. Town Sheriff Duane Jones, an animal lover and father of 3 children, says that Tinkerbell has never caused a problem before. "On one hand, these people don't purposefully choose to own such a potentially dangerous animal...wait, they have a choice? That's just crazy!"
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
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3 comments:
Virtually ALL the Pit Bulls who kill have never shown aggression before the kill. So what is the point you're trying to make. You call yourself a 'reporter'... yet you cannot produce and unbiased and a complete report of WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW that ever the most beginning reporter on an elementary school newspaper is expected to know. So far 28 people have been killed by Pits this year and 41 last year, including 4 rescuers who were killed by their own Pits that they raised from puppy hood... so it's NOT 'how you raise them'... only a fool would bring a dog with over 300 years breeding to attack without provocation or warning to attack and hold until either the target or the Pit is dead or someone manages to break it off. No other breed has the recommendation to carry a break stick with you or where shelter workers are recommended to be near a panic button. Dog fighters don't choose poodles, do they?
I stand by my reporting of the facts of this tragic yet inspiring case.
Of the 4,590 dogs involved in fatal and disfiguring attacks on humans occurring in the U.S. & Canada since September 1982, when I began logging the data, 2,948 (64%) were pit bulls; 541 were Rottweilers; 3,721 were of related molosser breeds, including pit bulls, Rottweilers, mastiffs, boxers, and their mixes. Of the 525 human fatalities, 271 were killed by pit bulls; 84 were killed by Rottweilers; 393 (75%) were killed by molosser breeds. Of the 2,619 people who were disfigured, 1,774 (67%) were disfigured by pit bulls; 319 were disfigured by Rottweilers; 2,190 (83%) were disfigured by molosser breeds. Pit bulls--exclusive of their use in dogfighting--also inflict about 10 times as many fatal and disfiguring injuries on other pets and livestock as on humans, a pattern unique to the pit bull class. Surveys of dogs offered for sale or adoption indicate that pit bulls and pit mixes are less than 6% of the U.S. dog population; molosser breeds, all combined, are 9%.
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