Pit bull killed after it attacks two people and dog
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McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- The owner of a pit bull, along with another woman who was trying to protect her Basset Hound, were injured on Monday morning after the pit bull attacked them, police said.
Just after 8:30 a.m., McMinnville police were called to the 600 block of SE Border Lane after hearing a 70-pound gray pit bull was attacking a woman.
That woman, Celeste Burnham of McMinnville, was trying to shield a smaller dog from the attack, officers said.
The dog's owner, Amanda McCommons of McMinnville, tried to stop the attack, but the dog turned on her and began to attack her, as well.
An animal control officer thinks the male pit bull was trying to protect a second female pit bull.
As a McMinnville police officer approached the male pit bull, it broke free from McCommons and turned aggressively toward the officer. The officer shot the dog three times to stop the attack, according to Captain Dennis Marks of the McMinnville Police Department.
The dog died at the scene.
Both Burnham and McCommons were taken to Willamette Valley Medical Center. Burnham appeared to have minor injuries to her leg, but McCommons suffered a broken arm and serious lacerations to her arms and fingers during the attack, Marks said.
The other dog -- a Basset Hound named Beuford -- was taken by neighbor Hayli Victor to a local veterinary clinic.
"It was an explosion of blood," Victor said. "She has blood from her head to her toes from this dog, the Basset Hound ... it took us three hours of scrubbing to get the blood out of the car."
A spokeswoman at Baker Street Animal Hospital said Beuford had surgery to help repair a punctured lip and injured left ear.
Yamhill County Dog Control officers took custody of the second pit bull McCommons owned for its own protection.
Both the McMinnville Police Department and Yamhill County Dog Control officials are continuing their investigation.
McMinnville police said the attack serves as a reminder to ensure that, as required by law, dogs should be either adequately secured at the owner's home or on a leash if out for a walk.
Animal control officers also say it's a good reminder to get dogs spayed or neutered so they are less aggressive and less protective.
I for one do not think all Pit Bulls are bad. In this case the owner is solely responsible for the attack. The dogs (no matter what kind they were) should have been in a fenced yard or kennel. I own 2 Bassets, if ANY dog would try to hurt one of them, I would kill it with my own 2 hands. This Basset and his owner were simply walking down the street, and the other dog attacked. If you own any dog, it is up to YOU as the owner to make sure the dogs are secured!!!
I think when reporting dog attack stories they should tell listeners to TURN ON THE HOSE AND WATER THEM DOWN!!! It doesn't always work but I'd say 99% of the time it WILL break up a dog fight. It's worth trying, it's worked for me.
All the "it's the owner, not the dog" people crack me up!
While there is normally the element of failure by the owner, the seriousness of injury that this particular breed can inflict must be considered when deciding whether it should be legal to own one.
If tigers and lions were as popular as pits, we would hear a lot more about the violent attacks they were involved in too.
@randola ..........what a foolish, foolish comment.
There should be an open season on all Pit bulls.
'about as threre should be open season on you, jallard! Think about what your saying, your a idot! Seriously, get a grip your a fool. I can't say what I am serously wanting to say because I am a LADY. A lady with three PITBULLS. I would die for all of my dogs. Your a idiot!
Another good reason for taking gun saftey classes and obtaining a CWP.
Another owner who does not know anything about traing dogs  I would also bet the male was entact.
Thanks to the stupid owner the dog needed to be destroyed, which is a good thing.
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The famale needs to be taken away from the owner and given to a qualified dog owner.
Yes, I am evil and not a dog person with the often associated mental illness that accompanies the hard-core dog person persona.
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I would rejoice, even revel, if every adult owner of their pit bull (or any large mean animal) were attacked and devoured by that beloved sweet wouldn't-harm-a-fly doggie woggie.
your a sick idiot, too. Obbop
 @Cyndi And I will still cry out with delight for every owner of a large vicious animal who is torn apart by their own critter.
http://www.dogsbite.org/blog-posts-fatal-dog-attacks.php
Google pit bull attack and start reading the stories and looking at the pictures. This is not just a once a month occurrence. These are happening all the time.  Granted, the owners bear a great deal of responsibility in most of these attacks, but the breed is inherently dangerous and should not be owned by any Tom, Dick or Harriet. Regulations are sorely needed.
 @Scotty9 REALLY??  OMG.  GOOGLE DOG ATTACKS AND SEE THE NUMBERS!  What a foolish stupid thing to say.  Because the media never lies.  Half the time they don't know the breed of the dog in the attack so they'll use a stock photo of a pitbull (without noting it as such) and report on it as a pitbull attack.  Any dog can be trained to be mean.  Did you know that more small dogs maul people than big ones?  Stop fear mongering until you really know the facts.
 @Melissa Stidham-Clary "Did you know that more small dogs maul people than big ones"
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Maul is kind of an extreme word to use for a bite from a dachshund. You can live in la-la land if you want to, but the stats don't lie. You don't need to believe the media to learn the truth. I don't have a dog in the fight. I've been bitten by German shepherds and pekinese. I've had no personal experience with pits except good ones. That doesn't change the fact nothing compares to the bites and real mauling's of pits, rotts and the like. I'm sure that Your pit would never hurt a fly, but that's what every pit owner says after their dog kills or maims someone.
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 @Kyle.M With pit bulls the trigger maybe only be the sight of another dog being walked on a leash by it's owner. Training is a wonderful thing, but a dog is a dog and all the training in the world cannot guarantee that a dog won't disregard it.
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If a pekinese loses his temper you get a welt or a minor skin breakage; with a pit you can lose your arm or life.
There are two different arguments going on - one of the power behind a pitbulls bite and one on how aggressive the dog is. I don't, for a minute, discount the power pittbulls poses.The aggressive nature of the dog is also something I don't discount, but the aggression is always provoked. Since dogs have different triggers to aggression, it's solely on the human owner to teach them what's wrong and what's okay (much like what a pack leader would do).
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Not so long ago, pitbulls were sought after as "nannies" for people that couldn't afford a proper nanny (http://www.ywgrossman.com/photoblog/?p=676)
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 @Scotty9 "...the breed is inherently dangerous..." a big ignorant, don't you think? Look at statistics on dog bites and you will find there are more instances of a Golden Retrievers attacking humans than Pitt Bull (also, "Pit Bull" is not a breed of dog, it's just a name given to a Terrier mix. It's kind of like "race" for humans, labels like African American or Hispanic are arbitrary groups designed by the census bureau)
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I've rescued a pitt bull that gets bullied on a daily basis by my 13 pound rat terrier/chihuahua.
 @Kyle.M You need to study up on your statistics better.http://www.dogsbite.org/dog-bite-statistics.php
 @Kyle.M When did you learn it was one word? I can find three instances where you used pitt bull as the name, and now you are talking like others need to be educated in spelling. By the way... it is two words. You had it right before. Look it up in the dictionary.
Your inability to interpret the stats is as telling as your nitpicking (or is it nit picking) - who has the agenda? I'm not arguing pit-types are evil or need to be eliminated, just pointing out the ignorance of comparisons to Golden Retrievers.
NCRC was purchased by a member of AFF, not the actual organization. Regardless of ownership, you make my point - doesn't mater what you look at, there's going to be a hidden, self-fulfilling agenda (the difference between you and me is that I understand this when I'm reading/listening to the news). Taking from the links provided, pitbulls (which is one word, by the way) are not "more dangerous than any other kind of dog...". The research you use states rottweiler as having more victims. Look, I understand that people have unfounded fears of things they are not familiar with, but would you say any wild animal that attacks a human (if a dog has no obedience training, they are basically a wild animal) is inherently bad or evil? Should laws be enacted to terminate any wild creature, be it dog, deer, wolf or elk, that attacks a human?
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When your son or daughter hits or beats up a kid at school, are they inherently evil?
 @Kyle.M yes and you can't get more biased than the NCRC which is owned by a pit bull advocacy group and exists only to try to cast doubt on the obvious fact that pit bulls are far more dangerous than any other kind of dog popular in the US right now.
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You need to study your statistics, sources and punctuation, my friend.
 @Kyle.M Thank you for the links, my friend. BTW, I am very well aware that pits are not a breed. :-)
Here's a 15-year, 228 patient study: http://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2011&issue=04000&article=00023&type=abstract "Conclusions: Attacks by pit bulls are associated with higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than are attacks by other breeds of dogs. Strict regulation of pit bulls may substantially reduce the US mortality rates related to dog bites."
Here's a study of just fatalities, 238 of them (mostly children): http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/images/dogbreeds-a.pdf "Despite these limitations and concerns, the data indicate that Rottweilers and pit bull-type dogs accounted for 67% of human DBRF in the United States between 1997 and 1998. It is extremely unlikely that they accounted for anywhere near 60% of dogs in the United States during that same period and, thus, there appears to be a breed-specific problem with fatalities."
The link you provide is to a group (not an not-for-profit or government agency) that has a website primarily devoted to "education" on Pitbull (again, Pitbull is not a breed of dog) bites (from their website, "...DogsBite.org is a public education website about dangerous dogs -- primarily pit bull type dogs")Everything they include on the website is going to be inherently biased against Pittbulls.
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Now I give you some links:
http://www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/advocacy-center/animal-laws-about-the-issues/pit-bull-bias-in-the-media.aspx
http://www.nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/dogbites/whatisadogbite/
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A couple of takeaway points:
Anyone can create a website
Pitbulls are not a breed of dog
There is no "national system in the United States for tallying reports of dog bites" - see http://www.nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/dogbites/whatisadogbite/
Every link to every survey provided from comments has a test sample of less than 100 "attacks"
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Please study, your statistics my friend.
Way to miss the point - pit-types are FAR more likely to kill or badly maim when they do bite - hence, the "inherently dangerous" tag
 @Kyle.M Your comment said "Look at statistics on dog bites and you will find there are more instances of a Golden Retrievers attacking humans than Pitt Bull". ~~~ I was showing you a website which shows the results of years of comprehensive studies. I am not taking up a side in this issue. Every creature with teeth bites, but when it comes to dogs, I would rather get bit on the ankle by a Chihuahua, then on the throat by a pitbull.
Where does it say "pit-types" are far more likely to kill or badly maim? Again, these judgments are made from biased reports.Â
You are so correct. Too many people are getting these dogs and making them mean.
They can be raised from a puppy and trained just like any other dog.
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Just watch Ceasar and his dog Daddy and Junior.
 @Scotty9 From http://www.americanhumane.org/animals/stop-animal-abuse/fact-sheets/dog-bites.html*Approximately 92% of fatal dog attacks involved male dogs, 94% of which were not neutered1
*Unsupervised newborns were 370 times more likely than an adult to be killed by a dog5
*Any breed of dog can bite, and research suggests BSL (breed specific Legislation) Â does little to protect the community from dog-bite incidents.
*In fact, BSL can often have unintended consequences -- such as black-market interest and indiscriminant breeding practices -- resulting in subsequent breed overpopulation that leads to increases in the number of homeless, stray and euthanized dogs.
*Enforcement of BSL has been shown to be very costly and extremely difficult to enforce. One county in *Maryland spent more than $560,000 maintaining pit bulls (not including payroll, cross-agency costs and utilities), while fees generated only $35,000.5Responsible breeding and ownership, public education and enforcement of existing laws are the most effective ways of reducing dog bites.
In response to the calls to ban pits:Pit bulls don't need to be banned. There is a need for ENFORCED BREEDING LAWS, as well as punishment for abusive or neglectful owners. I'd be willing to bet that the dogs that the media scares everyone with have histories of abuse, neglect, inbreeding, or a combination. As with ANY dog, these factors make a poorly behaved, aggressive dog. Pit bulls, when properly cared for, are no more dangerous than golden retrievers or beagles and on average pass the temperament tests with 83.9%.The "bad owner" argument isn't always valid, as stated below because how dogs are bred and their strongest genes play a huge role. And like I said, there is a need for breeding laws in order to keep aggression levels at bay with all breeds of dogs. And by the way, did you know 22 of Michael Vick's dogs are now therapy dogs?Not all pit bulls are horrible and aggressive. My pit bull welcomes everyone into the house. She's always on her leash with a front clip harness in case another unleashed dog attacks her because I'm not about to put my dog down because an ignorant owner let their dog free. I work with her daily on basic obedience as well as temperament. Pit bulls ARE affectionate family dogs, and have been used as "nanny dogs."
It was the Rottweiler, then the German Shepard, then the Dobermon, now its the Pit bull. In the next 10 years it'll be a different dog.
 @Karlie L. Betcha it won't.
 @Scotty9 Probably not. Because instead of making PEOPLE be responsible for their actions and their property, the government will step in and create a false impression of safety, by banning the animal. It is not the solution. The animals can be awesome. I've had quite a few dogs but never a pit because I know they take way more time and training than I have available. The most aggressive animal I ever owned was an Australian Cattle dog. But not because they are mean, it's because they were bred to protect, not a bad trait but one that needs to be used properly.
We have got to quit blaming the animals, when we all know it is the owner who either chose poorly because they didn't have the time to give to the dog, or because they just wanted to be all tough looking.
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when are the portland police going to crack down on the people fighting these pit bulls?
My friend and I today had to go to my sisters farm to clean up the carnage a German Shepard and a Chocolate lab did. They killed 16 chicken and two rabbits. A roster and third rabbit are missing. They dug under the coop house and knocked it two feet off its foundation, knocked over and busted two hutches. One if not both pushed through the top of an enclosure that had baby chickens in it. Marion County Sheriffs were out there along with animal control taking pictures. it was horrible to see. One of the other neighbors lost 20 chickens from the same two dogs.
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 @swimbad Do you know her sister?Â
@swimbad No she is not. Also she has guns and has been told by Marion County if the dogs come back she is allowed to shoot and kill , should she kill them,she is to call Marion County and they will pick up the bodies. They will work to find out who owns them. The owners will be fined for vicious dogs at large, killing life stock and various other charges. Marion County does not take dogs killing live stock lightly. The owners will have to pay rice the amount the animals cost. So kiss it buddy!
RIP Dog :(
Beuford,
 I'm speaking on behalf of all basset lovers. We're pulling for you my friend. We know you're going to pull through, but you have to know it's not your fault. You look like a handsome gentleman who means no harm. Hugs are being sent your way, good buddy.Â
Typical KATU...The owner of the pit bull ACTUALLY was the one who shielded the surviving dog. How nice of KATU to ignore that and slander the Pitbulls owner as careless. The owner of the Basset defiantly IGNORED the pit bulls owner, so a kid had to watch his pet get gunned down, a dog owner gets mauled by her very own dog, and another dog got hurt as well. Why?  Because people are too important to be inconvenienced. Way to go KATU.... your journalism is **spot-on** as usual.
@Don Marion Pretty sure we all read the same story you did and it clearly states that the Pit owner did jump in to help. Dork
 @Don Marion wait. Which dog was off leash again? If the pitty, then yes, careless owner; a mated pair off leash=bad idea
 @Don Marion I'm sorry, but a dog that attacks another animal as well as two people that violently needs to be put down. It would have been another person, except the officer was able to shoot the dog before it attacked him. It was no different than coming at the officer with a weapon - the officer was in danger and protected himself.Â
If a racoon attacks you, do we kill all racoons?
If a bunny bites you, do we kill all bunnies?
If a house cat claws you, do we kill all cats?
If your kids punches another kid at school, do we demonize your kid?
I hope the pitt bull owner has some good liability insurance. It should be required if you own a dangerous breed dog.
@Luckylucy ........I think that'll be coming Lucy. With homeowners or renters insurance. Problem is which of this breed owners will obtain it?
I would really like to know the background of the pit bull. Â How was it treated by the owner? Â I find it hard to understand how a nice, calm dog can suddenly and unexpectedly lash out with such ferocity. Â My sister had a pit, and yep, it was the sweetest mutt, no bad behavior ever. Â Just wish I could find out more about how the pit bull was raised and treated.
@Laurie Reed ........Laurie, take a look at my post a few hours ago.
 @Rob C  @Laurie  Yes, I saw your post, very interesting.  It's disappointing that a pit bull, or any aggressive dog, can be a walking time bomb.  There's such strong opinion on both sides.  And that's enough of me repeating the very obvious...LOL
Laurie.......you're absolutely right. We won't change anyones mind here. Sadly, the tradgedys do.