family dog kills 2-year old

UNION CITY, Ga. — A family dog who had never shown aggression before attacked and killed a 2-year-old boy Wednesday in a subdivision about 15 miles south of Atlanta, police said.

The mother, Angela Rutledge, and her child were at home with their pit bull at about 1:30 p.m., investigators said. She told investigator that she left the room for a moment to go to the bathroom, but when she returned it was clear that the dog had attacked her son, killing him before she could call 911 for aid.

First responders were able to corral the dog in the bathroom until Animal Control officers arrived. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene.

"Clearly, they were rattled when they came out from what they saw," said Detective Melissa Parker of the Fulton County Police Department. "Some were in tears."

The grief-stricken Rutledge was taken to the hospital; her husband, Jermiah Rutledge, was subdued with a Taser after he came home and also became hysterical, police said.

The dog was taken to the Fulton County Animal Shelter, where it is being evaluated in isolation. Officers were not certain if the dog would be killed.

Police said Wednesday that no crime had been committed, and no charges had been filed as of Thursday.

***

Tragic.  Another strike against pitbulls and the bully breeds.  But I'd say this is very rare.  And it was likely that there were warning signs that were not recognized or ignored.

***

I wonder if this article was written in reaction.

dogs, children, and safety

*** [5/11/13]

When dogs attack

Maka (and Tom)

Jojo comes at like 6:00, let him up the steps.

Kimo still in the back, so Jojo goes in the back looking for him.  Kimo barks, so bring him out.  Makes a tiny puddle on the ewa side, so don't know how his poop is yet today.   Let them up the steps.

Let Jojo out when Duane and Coco come.  Go to retrieve Hershey.  No leash, so use my own.

Go to retrieve Fifi.  Walk back to garage and I treat the four.

Take home Hershey.

Hey here's that guy with the baby pit I saw with Maya and Tracy the other day.  (The one that lives where Max used to live.  And Tasha.)

Go to intro.  Fifi is fine.  Jojo is a little excited but is pretty good.

The pit is a grey female, about three month old named Maka (so another Maka but this one is female).  Already about 25 pounds.  Said mother was about 90 pounds.  Big one.

Walk down the street.  Surprisingly Kimo remains lying down and looks at us under the towels at the front door.

But then Keith barks and Kimo comes down and starts barking.

Go to see if Kimo might want to come out.  The guy (name is Tom) brings over Maka and they sniff through the fence.  That goes well, so I bring out Kimo.

We walk back with them, goes pretty well, though sometimes Jojo wants to play and Kimo stops often to pee.

So another dog in the neighborhood.

the dog's eyes

Elsewhere, we’ve dealt with the myth that dogs age seven years for every human year, but there’s another popular misconception floating around. This is the belief that dogs only see in black and white.

While their color vision is somewhat limited and different than ours, they do see color, and a look at the world through a dog’s eyes can provide insight into how they perceive the world.

For dogs, their color vision is most similar to a human with red-green color blindness, although there are other differences. Dogs are less sensitive to variations in gray shades than humans are, as well as only about half as sensitive to changes in brightness.

Dogs also tend to be nearsighted to varying degrees. A poodle, for example, is estimated to have what we would call 20/75 vision in the US (about 6/24 elsewhere in the world).

However, dogs do outperform humans in some visual abilities. Dogs are much more sensitive to motion at a distance — anywhere from 10 to 20 times more sensitive than humans. Their vision is also well-suited to hunting during dawn and dusk.

-- via facebook

goodbye Shammy and Miki

I was out with Fifi yesterday morning and Amy passed by in the car and stopped.

I asked her how the dogs were and she said they were in heaven.  They were both put to sleep at the same time.

I had noticed (last week?) that they had both cars in the garage and thought something was up since Shammy  had been taking up one half of the garage.

I asked her who made the decision and she said they had a family meeting and decided.

I was surprised that they decided to put Miki down too.  Shammy was understandable since she couldn't walk any more and just lay down all day on the pillow.

Miki, last I saw, could stand and walk a little.  But she would walk in circles because it looked like one leg was very weak.

I told her I'll miss them.  We'll all miss them.  And she said thank you.

I'll always remember them as the first dogs that Kimo met when he came to live with us.  Amy would take them out walking (later Harold would join her).  Kimo would go wild and I would take him out and force him to walk with them.  He remained wild at the beginning of the walk but then settled down after like five or ten minutes.

Then it would start all over again.

This went on for several weeks (or months), but slowly he got used to them.

Eventually I would just let him loose and he would run to Amy and Harold and they would pet him on the head.

Then later Hershey and Oliver joined the walk.

And sometimes I would bring the dogs to join Miki and Shammy at Amy's yard.

All was well (more or less), but one time [this was after Harold passed] Kimo was walking up to the entrance and Miki was walking down. As they crossed, Kimo growled and Miki went after him and pinned him down.  (Reina says she saw Kimo go after Shammy but I don't remember that.)

I pulled her off, but it was never the same after that.

Kimo hid in the garage for like two or three days.  And after that, whenever he saw Miki, he would go wild.

Sometimes, I would take him out and force him to walk with them.  And he would be OK after a while if he walked behind them.  But I never quite got him to stop reacting the first time he saw them.

Then in recent years, Miki and Shammy slowed up.  Shammy especially was wobbly on her walk.

Sometimes I would would walk Fifi behind Shammy when she was slow and she would speed up.  But I guess Amy didn't like that idea and asked me not to do it later.

Then last year, Shammy couldn't walk any more.  And Miki, who was always the strong one, noticeably slowed up too.  And we saw them less frequently.

I'll miss them.  R.I.P.

Kimo in the house

no, not our house this time.

Yesterday, I took Kimo to poop at Hershey's yard.  I let him and brought the flexi-leash, but forgot I took off his collar.

Well, he pooped and I went to get the hose to wash it down.  Kimo was off leash since he had no collar to hook it too.  Well, he won't wander off far I figured.

After I finished hosing it, it was "where'd he go?"

I think I saw him headed for Kathryn's garage.  I went up and didn't see him but uh oh I saw the door open.

Soon enough I heard Kathryn yelling (well not that loud yelling).  I went in and sure enough Kimo went in.  He was in her bedroom and I stringed the leash over his neck.  Sorry about that.  Good thing she's a nice lady and didn't make a fuss.

On the way out, we passed Picasso.  Picasso arched his back, but Kimo passed by with little or no notice.

[posted 4/9/13 10:48 AM]