ELDORADO – A recent dog attack in Saline County left two people bitten and a family pet dead shortly before 6 p.m. last Thursday, July 18.
Charles the Shih Tzu
The human victims of the attack (which occurred at 1722 Benton Street in Eldorado) are a 13-year-old boy and an unidentified woman who came to the child’s aid. When the woman approached the scene of the attack, the Pit bull dropped a mutilated Shih Tzu belonging to the boy from his jaws and turned his attack on the woman, who retreated after reportedly being bitten on the hand.
Disclosure staff and Saline County authorities have learned that the Pit bull, belonging to Jonathan Roe of Eldorado, has never been vaccinated for rabies and has a recent history of aggressive behavior and attacks.
The full story will appear in Disclosure, hitting newsstands this week and available here online at the e-Edition. In the meantime Disclosure staff and the boy’s mother have expressed concern about the unidentified woman. If anyone knows who the woman is, she needs to know that the Pit bull has been detained by Saline County Animal Control under Saline County’s Vicious Dog Statute, where the status of the dog’s health and vicious nature are being assessed.
Disclosure respects the privacy of the unidentified woman and asks for our readers’ respect of that privacy as well. We are not expecting her to be identified or identify herself, if that is her wish, but she needs to know the dog’s status has not yet been determined.
For the record, Disclosure’s take on Pit bulls is this: There are no “dangerous breeds”; there are only dangerous—and irresponsible—owners.
It’s not up to local units of governments to legislate what kinds of dogs a person can or cannot own.
Instead, it’s up to the governments to ensure that irresponsible pet ownership—for which there are statutes (laws) on the books to address—is enforced.
And when such an obvious violation takes place, the responsible thing to do is hold the right person accountable…instead of trying to outlaw a particular breed of animal.