Saturday, August 1, 2015

The stabbing controversy / Occams razor

Another doggy double standard outrage.  Man arrested and charged with animal cruelty after stabbing attacking pit bull.

Relevant Actors:

- Rocky Faircloth:  Pit Bull owner.
- "Semi":  Trespassing, attacking "Pit Bull"/unidentifiable breed mutt.
- Rodney Woodward:  Owner of victim GSD.  Stabbed Semi 21 times according to necropsy report.
- One injured GSD.



Note the use of quotes around "Pit Bull":  The comments on the article are true classics.  One robo poster relentlessly pursued the notion that pit bulls cannot be identified.  By anybody.  Because nobody has a clue about anything.  I made a few snarky comments in reply, but finally cut through the cubic light years of bullshit with the following....











All of this chatter is noise. The man that stabbed the pit bull/unidentifiable breed mix/whatever was within his rights. An animal invaded his property and attacked his animal. Defending his animal in the way he did is an enumerated right almost everywhere. Pit bull or not this was NOT a case of animal cruelty.
Prosecuting this man is clearly a case of out of control, unhinged and unbalanced dog nuttery with no sense of proportion. You love dogs? Goody for you: Respect the right of others to protect their dogs from predators.

What was even more interesting were the pro-BSL folks that took the troll bait and flamed back in reply.  WHY does the entire world view of SO many people, on both sides of this debate, depend on what kind of dog it is?  From my perspective, the precise breed isn't central to the point.  The central point is, do you have a right to defend your animal from a trespassing canine attacker, or any realistic threat?   If the attacking animal were a rottweiler, or a cane corso, or a BEAR, it would be a distinction without a difference.

In my opinion, when a dog attacks, we do not necessarily WANT it to be one breed or the other.  What we want is for these bad behaviors to cease.  THAT would be a good outcome.

Now, if the invader were a gerbil, then that would lend the animal cruelty narrative some legitimacy.  A gerbil does not pose a realistic threat to a GSD.  A gerbil is not going to kill or even seriously injure a GSD.   However, the attacker was apparently not a gerbil.  In my opinion, as long as the threat is very plausible, the use of force is justified.

Back to the BSL debate - Breed ID "deniers" seem to violate the principle of Occams razor - that being that the simplest, most obvious explanation is probably the right one.  In this case, if several people see the same thing and they all agree on what it was, then that consensus is probably correct.  Sure, there may be a conspiracy, but that notion should be rejected without proof.

For example, a bank is robbed.  A half dozen eye-witnesses ID the getaway car as a red '60's vintage Ford Mustang.  These are readily identifiable vehicles.  So, you are not 100% sure a Mustang was the getaway car, but we can be sure enough.  You are never 100% sure of anything.  Competing theories, such as the car is unidentifiable because all of the witnesses were not retired Ford design engineers, are not very interesting.  "Nobody can ID a car!   It may have been a Mercedes Van, or a Chevy Pick Up!" the apologista bleat.  Yes, that is possible but very unlikely.  They could argue the colors, too - "Maybe they were ALL color blind!  They can't tell red from green!".   Yep, and maybe I'm the grand Ayatollah.

So, according to the apologista, NOBODY involved could ID the breed of "Semi".  Not the vics, not the cops, not the AC officers, not any of the neighbors that had seen the dog previously, not the vet that did the necropsy.  Nobody!   How do these people think the rest of us function.  How do we find our cars the the parking lot?  How do we identify our friends and family members?   Perhaps that person who looks like your spouse is not really your spouse.... maybe their long lost identical twin killed them and has taken their place?

Perhaps, Animal Uncontrol did not actually write this article.  Perhaps that person was cloned by aliens and this is all part of some big galactic conspiracy to turn humans against their dogs?  Now, THERE is a theory you can sink your teeth into!

Enjoy your weekend!

15 comments:

  1. This guy should get an award. It's the owners of the walking meat grinder that need to be charged for allowing their shit bull to run loose and attack. It's long past time to 'blame the deed' and put some real teeth into punishment of the shit owners who choose this shit breed.

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  2. Well now we know how many stabs it takes to get a pit bull off its object of affection. The reality is some of this crap is just going to have to play out in court.

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    1. The role of the court isn't to make law but to apply the laws already in existence to the case at hand. So what I'd like to know is why they are ignoring the ruling of the highest court in the land: U.S. SUPREME COURT, SENTELL v. NEW ORLEANS & C. R. CO., April 26, 1897
      Laws for the protection of domestic animals are regarded as having but a limited application to dogs and cats; and, regardless of statute, a ferocious dog is looked upon as hostis humani generis, and as having no right to his life which man is bound to respect.

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    2. Ka D. We're not in Kansas anymore. Cases like this are a waste of the courts time and I'm guessing tax payer dollars, that's us to litigate this nonsense. Reality would be the not a pit bull dog owner paying the vet expenses for the GSD, getting a ticket for having a loose dog and hopefully some more for letting a vicious dog run at large. Instead the local animal welfare agents decided that animal cruelty charges were called for since the pit is dead and the other dog is still alive.
      I would say it's a no brainer but the mauler is now living in a supposed country club for cancer ridden dogs after peeling the face off a child. Almost all states allow self defense when you are in fear of your life. Aside from an investigation that may take a while to clear up any questions very few go to trial. As to breed it doesn't matter if it was a cocker spaniel or one of the new luxury SUV models of the pit. Of course a CS would have quit after the first stick of the knife. For a pit it just adds some flavor to the fight.
      Of course had the dog that was like a family member been at home instead of running loose none of this would have happened. Or at least it would have mauled one of it's own family members.

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  3. pit bull owners think have a monopoly on love and protection of their family members.

    and i am not convinced these charges will amount to anything. unless the jury is chosen from pitbullforum, i doubt that anything other than stress and legal bills (which is bad enough) will amount for the GSD owner.

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    1. This will be an interesting case to follow. There may be a lot more to this than has yet been revealed: Woodward may have "dissed" the local AC folks and/or the police, or there may be a conflict of interest somewhere.

      While stabbing the pit bull 21 times was likely a necessity, I expect that the prosecution will try to frame that as an aggressive act. Their position will be that the 2 dogs were simply "playing" and Woodward went into a complete frenzy.

      That said, the breed background of the invading dog should come up in court - you cannot simply scare off a game-bred fighting breed dog. In situations like these, you need to apply force until the attacking dog is dead or at least incapacitated.

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    2. There was a Judge Judy episode where a woman stabbed a pit bull 16 times. Not only did the pit bull refuse to let go, it lived. It shouldn't be too difficult to show 20 stab wounds to an attacking pit bull isn't unreasonable, especially if at least some of the wounds were shallow "deterrent" type stabs.

      The "my dog was simply playing and you escalated things" claim seems to be a popular one these days. There's been a few of these on Judge Judy as well. She tells people "You're an idiot" when they try to use that defense. Hopefully other courts share her views on people that don't control their dogs.

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  4. It looks like common sense ran far far away from these people. I can identify a pit bull. I saw a guy on a skateboard with a very young puppy tonight. I didn't ask, the head and jaws gave it away. It looked to be maybe six weeks old. I know a pit when I see one. As far as stopping the pit from attacking the GSD, he did what he had to do. Pit defenders are always up in arms when one of theirs is "wronged". Look at the whole save Mickey thing. Poor wittle doggy was just trying to stop a preschooler from stealing his bone. Why should doggy woggy be punished for that evil brat's actions? If anything or anyone comes into my house and tries to hurt my son, our pets, or myself, they risk death. I'm not taking chances. I don't own a gun, but my knife is always close by.

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    1. Trisha, unless your trying to deny your breed of choice proclivity to tear living things to bleeding shreds twisting off limbs and pulling off faces the bully breeds or pit bulls or what ever cute name like pibbles that the nuts assign to them they are clearly identifiable as fighting breeds.
      Lets take AC thought a bit further. A witness ID's a get away car as a red 2014 Mustang while another says it's the Candy Apple Red 2015 Mustang so by not being able to ID the color and year it must not have been a Mustang at all but a 1975 pinto 4 door and therefore incapable of being a get away car. While you see this nonsense argument in comments on pit bull attack stories it's not a theme I've seen within the inner sanctum forums of pit bull owner forums.

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  5. So a pit bull named Fat Boy , via the maulers web page, chomped a 63 year old woman who opened a gate and walked onto the dogs property. The nutters defend the dogs right to maul her and do serious bodily harm and say the dog was only defending his property. In fact at least one claimed she got what she deserved for entering what I'm guessing was an unlocked gate. Nothing suggests she entered for nefarious purposes. She is now in the hospital. The dog has been surrendered and the only concern of the nuts is the dog will be destroyed in 10 days unless a rescue can take it.
    And yet a man is facing charges for stabbing a dog that invaded his property and was attacking his dog.
    Reason says this case will be dropped or dismissed.

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    1. I have been following that case as well. "Reason" is not in the lexicon of the dog worshiper.

      Defending yourself and/or your animal against an invading dog? FAIL

      Dog attacking a visitor, even an invited guest? PASS

      It all makes sense to them.

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    2. Either there is much more to this story or there is small town politics going on. As a rule you are allowed to defend yourself and within reason your pets. A pit bull was stabbed not a human being.
      This is very reminiscent of the Justice for Clara crap only they couldn't get charges pressed. In that case a man stabbed a pit bull when it attacked his dog in pet smart. As a result the pit had to be destroyed.
      Again the pit nuts tried to say the small dog initiated it by barking at the pit bull. Which is why the pit slipped its collar ran back in the store and nibbled its ear.
      The only thing that catches my eye is the statement from the pit owner claiming they've had trouble with those people before. Suggestive of a long running feud likely over dogs.
      As yet nothing has been presented to show that the owners of the GS were doing anything but defending themselves and their dog and there seems to be no issue over a loose pit bull.

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  6. http://safetybeforebulldogs.blogspot.com/2014/09/list-of-pit-bulls-that-had-to-be.html

    Boom

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  7. http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2015/07/man-charged-in-dogs-stabbing-death/

    This adds a few details to the original story.

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  8. https://www.facebook.com/nvdaily
    You have to scroll down to July 25 to find the entry on the fB page.

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