Best Friends Dog Fight Death

I find it interesting the way Best Friends has handled a recent case of negligence - you can start by reading Sad News from Dogtown.

One dog is dead and two others are injured after one or all three escaped from their individual kennels.

One dog escaping is an accident. Two dogs escaping is unacceptable. Three dogs is negligence, in my book.

But read their article..."One of the dogs escaped from his run..." Well gee, how nice of Best Friends to give the dead dog an honorable mention. That "one of the dogs" was Beans, a Pit Bull* mix.

But guess who does get a mention? " he broke into one of the runs of Tug, a dog rescued from the Michael Vick dog fighting case, who in turn broke into the run of Denzel, another of the Vicktory dogs. A fight ensued."

Beans, the dead dog, isn't mentioned except to point out that he broke into the kennel of one dog confiscated from Michael Vick's dogfighting property. Those two dogs (housed separately), one of whom was significantly injured, don't just get honorable mentions, they get their names and history included!

Beans is blamed, but so are deer. That's creative. "but we suspect their return might have over stimulated the dogs to behave in this way." 

How is it that three dogs somehow got out of their enclosures, especially knowing that all are dog aggressive? And knowing that deer, a "regular fixture", overstimulate the dogs...why were their kennels so shoddy that not one, not two, but three powerful dogs could have busted out of their enclosures?

There is a lot of information missing, and I can't say I'm entirely pleased with how Best Friends handled the description of the events that transpired or the lack of personal responsibility. Beans is not responsible. Tug and Denzel are not responsible. Deer aren't responsible. Best Friends is responsible, period, end of story. I'd give them leeway if one dog got out because of an unknown integrity problem with an enclosure, but for three dogs to get out? Sorry, I'm not buying that dogs or deer are the ones at fault. For an organization that likes to preach personal responsibility, it's the people not the dogs, rhetoric, they sure haven't listened to themselves on this case.

What do you think? Is Best Friends management and caregivers culpable or was this really a really big fluke of nature?

*I am sure you will find it interesting that anti-Pit Bull zealot sites and some of the comments on BF's article insist on calling Beans a "cur" or a mutt...as if Pit Bulls cannot be victims of dog attacks and if their attackers are Pit Bulls themselves, better to call the dead dog a mutt or cur instead of, you know, a Pit Bull mix.

- Marji Beach