The amputee killed by dogs last Wednesday was only the first in a string of tragic pit bull and dog attacks this week. The vicious killing of 80-year-old Carlton Freeman, a paralyzed man trapped in a wheelchair, brings more attention to the growing crisis of vicious dog packs.
Nathan Francis reported the grueling details of the Dorchester County, South Carolina attack. The dogs set upon the amputee, pulled him out of the chair, and were attempting to drag him into the woods when they were finally stopped.
The very next morning, an equally brutal attack occurred on a healthy, athletic 63-year-old woman who was taking her daily exercise walk in a rural area of Los Angeles County, California. Four tan-colored pit bulls took down the woman, killing her even with an immediate response from the sheriff’s department.
She died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, triggering a search with a helicopter as well as door-to-door contact to catch the dogs and find their owner.
On Friday, in Corona, California, a 15-year-old girl walking a Shih Tzu was attacked by a pit bull who was apparently trying to kill her pet. Brave Alex Cuevas saved Cocoa, her pet’s life — but at a cost.
Alex’s right ear was nearly severed and had to be surgically reattached.
It’s possible that both Cuevas and her pet would have been killed if not for a neighbor, who joined in the battle by striking the attacking pit bull on the head with a shovel.
A horrific March 14 pit bull attack in Westwego, LA, which is located in the greater New Orleans area, resulted in a local woman losing an eye and both arms. Yesterday, two months later, the Westwego City Council finally received a proposal to strengthen the city’s pit bull ordinance. But it won’t go for a vote until July.
And, elsewhere in the nation, pit bulls and other dangerous dogs are still roaming out of control.
Three brutal dog attacks in three days suggests a pattern of too many people allowing too many dogs to run loose and form their own packs.
And those dog packs attack and sometimes kill the most vulnerable — not just amputees but pets, children, women, and older people.
[Staffordshire photo by cynoclub via Shutterstock ]
