Friday, March 12, 2010

Lousy Reporting Skills and Other Pit Bull News

A dog who is at least part Pit Bull was arrested and booked on charges of aggravated assault. No one knows which part of the dog is Pit Bull - his left foot or tail or maybe the nose (if it is pink, yes), only a thorough investigation will reveal the dog's genetic code.
An American Bulldog and a Boxer bit two horses several times. One horse threw his/her rider and was pursued by the dogs. At some point, the dogs must have bitten hard enough to sever a main vein or artery, because there was a lot of blood but only leg bite wounds. The horse died. The dogs have a history of getting loose. Most other stories incorrectly identify the American Bulldog as a Pit Bull. As a refresher, a Pit Bull is an American Pit Bull Terrier or American Staffordshire Terrier. An American Bulldog is not a Pit Bull.

This story makes no sense, and if you can figure out the actual plot, kudos. An editor is always handy. I gather there was a dog fight and a dog owner is angry. At some point, a police officer shot and killed one of the dogs. No dog attempted to eat a person. The comments are the best, as usual. I can guarantee you if these dogs were not Pit Bulls, the comments would be different. 100% different.

There are some inaccuracies in this article concerning a Wichita woman who has a long history of loose and aggressive dogs, culminating in the death of a neighbor's Corgi. I believe this woman should absolutely be prosecuted and spend time in jail. I wrote about this before - When Laws are Not Enforced
Inaccuracies:
1) There were four dogs who managed to enter the neighbor's property, three Pit Bulls and a Poodle. Two of the Pit Bulls engaged in an unfair fight against the Corgi, resulting in the dog's death.
2) The dogs got through two fences, not "multiple". I agree, that's dedication, but it's not "multiple" in which the dogs had to plow their way through 500 yards of fencing.
3) The other two Pit Bulls who she had killed were not killed because they hurt anyone. One "menaced" a postal worker but did not bite. The other she had killed by animal control because she just couldn't keep him confined.
Possible Inaccuracies:
1) According to the original article, the woman had a breeder's permit and a permit to have more than 2 Pit Bulls, intact. It is illegal to have intact Pit Bulls and more than two, unless a permit is issued.
If a city could be jailed, I think Wichita should be for this one.

2 comments:

Two Pitties in the City said...

Multiple? Menaced? I'm teaching my students how to write using specific words to convey tone...maybe we should just start looking at "pit bull attacks" articles to see how words can be slanted.

pibble said...

@Schwang - Have you read the original article in Rinalia's previous post re: the Sun?

I particularly liked how they labeled the dog as vicious because the stick he was "savagely" attacking was bloodied by the time the dog was finished. I never realized how horribly a stick could bleed!

Creative Writing, I believe it's called.