Rottweilers kill Wisconsin girl

[Aceman]

Link to story





<< Alicia Clark died as a result of multiple traumatic injuries, inflicted by six Rottweiler dogs," said the Juneau County Coroner's Office in a statement Friday. >>



Why in the Hell would any city allow someone to own SIX Rottweilers!!!!!!!! It's a time bomb waiting to explode.........and it did!

 

[LuNoTiCK]

How is it possible for someone to even take care of 6 rottweilers at one time.

But honestly, lots of breeders have multiple dogs at their place, these people didn't raise their dogs right.

 

[Aceman]

From the TV reports here in Minneapolis, they reported that these dogs were raised as attack dogs.

Breeders are usually in the country away from population and usually don't let a pack of dogs run loose.

 

[4824guy]

A terrible tragic story. No way should 10 yr old girls been alone in that situation.

"The Wisconsin State Journal newspaper in Madison Friday reported the attack occurred late Thursday while Clark and her friend, 10-year-old Missy McCracken, were alone in the McCracken house with the dogs. "

 

[Amused]

Why is owning six dogs so unbelievable?

The problem here is not the number of dogs. It's the way they were (not) cared for and trained. The owner is clearly at fault and neglegent, but it's not the number of dogs that caused the neglegence.

 

[kgraeme]

<< Why in the Hell would any city allow someone to own SIX Rottweilers!!!!!!!! It's a time bomb waiting to explode.........and it did! >>



What does their being Rottweilers have to do with it? The majority of gene lines of this breed have been bred to be passive, not fighting dogs. Their fighting dog history is mostly over. Sure there are some breeders here and there that breed fighting dogs, but those are far, far from the majority. You simply cannot assume behavior based on breed across the board. Hell, I'm more afraid of neurotically overbred Cocker Spaniels than I am of Rottweilers or Am. Staffs.

Your ignorance of modern breeding and behavior of a popular household dog is a testament to your stupidity. Wanker.


Edit: How the dogs are raised is the major factor in whether they are mean or docile. I have no evidence of upbringing in this case. I even live in Wisconsin, so I'm seeing this in local news. I will acknowledge though that in the area these people live it is zoned to limit people to owning no more than three dogs.

 

[BigSmooth]

<< The house does not have a telephone...
...the house "was a pigsty" with trash strewn about >>




Rottweilers can be mellow dogs and even six of them wouldn't be dangerous IF they had gotten the training they needed. Rottweilers need very firm training from a young age and even then they will not trust strangers right away. But these people don't exactly sound like very responsible individuals, considering they left two young girls alone with six huge dogs in their "pigsty".

Still, properly trained and handled dogs would not just attack a human being unprovoked.

 

[Aceman]

AmusedOne,
Please tell me how many people you know, that live in a town, and are not breeders, that own more than say THREE dogs?

 

[Aceman]

Agreed on the fact that it should read SIX DOGS and not just SIX ROTTWEILERS, but we all know that a nonbreeder owning six rottweilers is 9 times out of 10 up to no good.

I personally love Rottweilers along with other known attack/guard dog breeds.

 

[Amused]

<< AmusedOne,
Please tell me how many people you know, that live in a town, and are not breeders, that own more than say THREE dogs? >>



Why is my personal experience relevant? But yes, I've known people who lived in a city (Los Angeles, Columbia, Augusta, Charlotte to name a few) and had more than three dogs and were not breeders.

 

[Amused]

<< Agreed on the fact that it should read SIX DOGS and not just SIX ROTTWEILERS, but we all know that a nonbreeder owning six rottweilers is 9 times out of 10 up to no good. >>



Thank gawd you're not a judge.

 

[kgraeme]

<< ... but we all know that a nonbreeder owning six rottweilers is 9 times out of 10 up to no good. >>



The hell we do. You are paying too much attention to relatively rare cases of attacks in the news and not enought to actual people. Here in Wisconsin, owning several rotties isn't uncommon. Or huskies, or samoyeds.

Edit: Again, how they were raised is the most important. If you have more than three dogs you have to raise them differently or they will create their own pack without you as the alpha.

 

[Renob]

I think the number of dogs does come into play here, they get the pack mentality.
This is a SAD story.

Oh BTW I am a dog lover.

 

[kgraeme]

BTW, I want to make clear that I am in no way trying to excuse the death of the girl or defend the family owning the dogs. I'm simply taking offense at gross generalizations about dogs.

 

[Aceman]

kgraeme,
I own two dogs right now and would love to own a third. But, there just isn't enough room and time to care for more dogs. I have numerous friends that own rotts and doberman pinchers and german sheppards. But somebody please come up with a REASONABLE conclusion of why a city family needs SIX dogs. You telling me that just 1 or 2 Rottweilers can't guard your family?

I don't "blame" the dogs for their actions, I blame the owners for their action.

 

[kgraeme]

<< kgraeme,
I own two dogs right now and would love to own a third. But, there just isn't enough room and time to care for more dogs. I have numerous friends that own rotts and doberman pinchers and german sheppards. But somebody please come up with a REASONABLE conclusion of why a city family needs SIX dogs. You telling me that just 1 or 2 Rottweilers can't guard your family? >>



First off, this happened in Elroy, Wis. Calling it a city, is like calling a single ficus tree a forest. It just ain't. I agree that owning dogs is work, but for some people, particularly in rural areas, dogs are a hobby. Just like some people collect cars, others collect dogs. And just like some people restore their cars while some just put them on blocks, dogs can either be raised well or poorly.



<< I don't "blame" the dogs for their actions, I blame the owners for their action. >>



So do I, but I don't know what specific details the owners did or did not do in the raising of these particular dogs. Making generalizations about breed or number and correlating that to bad owners is offensive. Obviously, there was something wrong for these dogs to attack, but we just don't know what.

If you care, the dogs have been put down with the owner's permission.

 

[kamiam]

<< Why in the Hell would any city allow someone to own SIX Rottweilers!!!!!!!! It's a time bomb waiting to explode.........and it did! >>

quite the expert...

<< From the TV reports here in Minneapolis, they reported that these dogs were raised as attack dogs. Breeders are usually in the country away from population and usually don't let a pack of dogs run loose. >>

1st, it's this kind of sensationalism that has given certain breeds a bad rap over the years, and undeservedly so...1st in the 60's with german sheps... those nasty killer police dogs then in the 70's w/ the dobe's...vicious attack animals then in the 80's-90's its the pitt baby killer-fighting dogs that have lockjaw capabilities so you have to pry them off a victim...hell before the madia type-hype, these breeds were known for intelligence (the shep) very good around children as protectors (the rott) and the maligned pitt, ( bet you didn't know that in the B-W show back in the 30's,spanky and our gang, that dog w/ the circle around is eye, I think they called him patch, was a pitt bull) and you sir, seem to be ignorant of the truth, thereby helping to spread that kind of "animal prejudice"and by the way, apparently you didn't bother to read , but the little girl was left alone inside...usually don't let a pack of dogs run loose indeed...I think someone is suffering from "pack mentality"and just WTF is your problem w/ the # of animals a person has???are you the Dog Police???as long as the animals are well cared for just why is it any of your business.You post this as if you had the power, you wouldn't let anyone own more than 2 animals

 

[MeanMeosh]

<< AmusedOne,
Please tell me how many people you know, that live in a town, and are not breeders, that own more than say THREE dogs? >>



umm, even though i'm not AmusedOne, I know several like that, what's your point?

 

[js1973]

I swear if you changed a few words in this thread, this would read exactly like the dozens of gun control debates we've had on this forum.

 

[Aceman]

My point is on owning that many dogs is that most cities and towns have ordinances that do not allow people to own that many dogs without a breeders permit.

 

[tcsenter]

The significance of having six large and powerful dogs is that it becomes impossible to control them in the event something should go wrong, short of resorting to a 12 gauge. Its not that Rottweilers attack more often, they don't. There are a dozen other breeds that log more bites and attacks annually, but the Rottweiler does consistently rank among the top two or three breeds responsible for the most FATAL and SEVERE attacks.

While it is true that all dogs can and do bite, not all dogs have the ability or predisposition to kill or maul. Some breeds will bite once or twice and let it at that. Other breeds are strongly disposed to maul until whatever they're mauling stops breathing and moving. I would rather have a dog which is more likely to bite, but whose bite will result in nothing more than a few stitches and a course of antibiotics, than a dog which is less likely to bite, but will require a gun to stop.

I don't consider Rottweilers to be inherently 'vicious' animals. In fact, there is no such thing in my book as a "vicious" animal. Humans are vicious, animals don't know better. But, animals have certain triggers for attack, and we do NOT understand all of those triggers.

Any qualified animal trainer or behaviorist will tell you that every animal has a few triggers for attack or aggression that we understand, its the one or two we don't understand you have to worry about.

 

[MeanMeosh]

<< My point is on owning that many dogs is that most cities and towns have ordinances that do not allow people to own that many dogs without a breeders permit. >>



ok, so the guy is going to get a fine IF Elroy has an ordinance. The population of Elroy is approximately 1578 (Text). You really think that they would have an ordinance on this issue? i doubt it. i was raised in a small town with 5000 people, and a bunch of my friends had more than 6 dogs. Granted, a bunch of them had that many dogs so that they could be taken on hunting trips, but i dont quite think that that is what you refer to when you say "they are upto no good."

 

[Aceman]

So tell me what purpose you would have for 6 Rotts? They aren't for hunting! They usually aren't show dogs! And towns that size DO have ordinances. I was raised in a town of 3000 with a few towns of 200 within 7 minles of my town. They all had ordinances controling the # of pets. One of the reasons is what tcsenter said......it's impossible to control 6 large dogs. Hell, it gets hard to control my two dogs when the pizza deliveryman comes knocking on the door.

 

[kgraeme]

<< ok, so the guy is going to get a fine IF Elroy has an ordinance. The population of Elroy is approximately 1578 (Text). You really think that they would have an ordinance on this issue? i doubt it. >>



Actually, they do. The limit is 3 dogs.

Let me play a slight devil's advocate with myself and side just a little with Aceman:

The limit of three is probably a good limit. While it is possible to raise six dogs and have them be obedient, it takes more work; otherwise, they will pack up and not treat you as the alpha.

In a recent CDC study about Dog-Bite-Related Fatalities, they found that "During 1995-1996, rottweilers were the most commonly reported breed involved in fatal attacks." On a larger time scale, they account for 29 deaths over 7 years. The "Pit Bull" accounts for 60 over that time period. Compare this to an estimated 4.7 million dog bites in a year and "an estimated 585,000 injuries that required medical attention" in 1986.

So while Pit Bulls and Rottweilers do account for the highest percentage of fatalities, the actual percentage of those fatalaties compared to non-fatal injuries is about .0000189%. And they conclude that "most of the approximately 55 million dogs in the United States never bite or kill humans." That's a likely hood of .085% chance of being bitten by ANY dog in the U.S.


There is no question that these dogs killed the girl. Or that Rotties are the second ranked dog involved in fatalities. But the statistics show that it is EXTREMELY rare, and thus comments like, "Why in the Hell would any city allow someone to own SIX Rottweilers!!!!!!!! It's a time bomb waiting to explode.........and it did!" are significantly more inflammatory than factual.

 

[OutHouse]

So tell me what purpose you would have for 6 Rotts? They aren't for hunting! They usually aren't show dogs! And towns that size DO have ordinances

OK time for me to chime in. I had a Rottweiler for almost 11 years. I had to put her down because of cancer last august. Rotties are a herding dog/working dog. However they can be trained like any other dog to retreive and yes many are show dogs. They are no different from Sheppards.