Matt Simpson wrote:
> In article <telecom26.119.10@telecom-digest.org>, Richard Wood and
> Jayne Hulbert <news@telecom-digest.org> wrote:
>> A feisty Jack Russell terrier has given his life to save five children
>> from a mauling by two savage pit bulls.
>> The tiny dog leapt to the defence of the children -- aged between four
>> and 11 -- when the two dogs threatened them on the way to a dairy in
>> Manaia, New Zealand, on Sunday.
> An alternative viewpoint is that it was just a dogfight that the
> children happened to witness.
> Jack Russells are known for being stupid and aggressive, frequently
> attacking much larger dogs. A likely scenario is that the kids were
> out for a walk with their stupid little rat dog which decided to
> attack the pit bulls, and the pit bulls fought back.
> Notice that the kids were not hurt at all. If the pit bulls had
> really been going after them, they would have ignored stupid little
> rat dog and gone after the kids when they ran away. With the kids
> gone, little rat dog wasn't defending them, he was just acting like a
> Jack Russell.
I suppose that is a possibility but I don't think it is likely. In my
work as an electrician I have worked in many places over the years and I
have had pretty good luck making friends with family pets. I've even
had a cat give me two mice as a thank you gift after I gave it tuna fish
from my lunch. I've made friends with a lot of dogs in that time but I
do have to admit to being prejudiced against pit bulls. The breed was
bread as a fighting dog and is naturally very aggressive. Every
encounter I've had with the breed has been a negative experience.
I was working on one job site and had a pit bull break through a fence
to try and get at me. It was the dog's bad luck that I was doing
conduit work and had the tubing bender to hand. A strong swing that
was powered by fear only stunned the brute. I'm a six foot four inch
(193 CM) tall, two hundred and thirty five pound (107 Kg),
construction electrician. That bender connected with the side of the
dog's head and threw him a good four feet but he was back up trying to
get at me in seconds. While the dog was trying to get at me another
electrician jammed a powder operated tool against his body with the
trigger pressed. It was only the threaded stud that went into his
back that caused him enough pain that he retreated.
The animal control officer that responded said it was more likely the
startle effect of the discharge of the powder operated tool, in this
case a Ramset, that caused the dog to run away. He had ten years on
the job and had pit bulls with broken legs still trying to attack. He
claimed they were relatively insensitive to pain once their blood was
up.
I went to the commissioner's office and swore out a complaint for a
dangerous dog. The dog's owner tried to get a stay on the destruction
order but when I brought the bender to the hearing the judge heard my
story and upheld the destruction order. The judge also ordered
compensation for my lost wages but I never attempted to collect it.
Since he loved the dog enough to hire a lawyer to try and save it I
figured the loss of the animal was bad enough. Why poor salt on the
owner's wounds.
Tom Horne
"This alternating current stuff is just a fad. It is much too dangerous
for general use." Thomas Alva Edison
Tom Horne, Electrician (hornetd@mindspring.com)