“Pit Bulls Attack Neighbor; Society Says Dog Not Aggressive”
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/22815358/detail.html
“We do not adopt out aggressive dogs, period,” he said. “We saw no signs of aggression that caused us to be concerned here.”
HSI Executive Director John Aleshire finds himself for the first in the crosshairs of the merciless bloggers. Welcome to the club, John!
http://cravendesires.blogspot.com/2010/03/indy-problem-continues.html
http://www.dogsbite.org/blog/2010/03/pit-bull-in-recent-mauling-adopted-from.html
This is a good time to assess the finger-pointing and come to a sense of mature perspective. In order to do so, we need to visit a few clear observations:
First, as we know, there will be no DNA testing to determine what kind of dogs these really were, but the media is quick to label dogs attacking people as “Pit Bulls.” http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html
Second, the answer to the question, “Does your dog bite?” is… “Yes, all dogs can bite under certain circumstances.” And the answer to the question, “Is your dog aggressive?” is… “Yes, all dogs can be aggressive under certain circumstances.”
Third, animal behavior is situational and depending on what situation the dog is put into by reckless and too casual owners, the dog will respond respectively.
Fourth, Mr. Aleshire is not an animal behavior expert, he is an executive director hired to raise money and direct the Humane Society agency. Perhaps he is, or isn’t, aware that animal behavior experts identify several kinds of aggression: territorial aggression, protective aggression, possessive aggression, fear aggression , defensive aggression, social aggression, frustrated-elicited aggression, redirected aggression, pain-elicited aggression, sex-related aggression, and predatory aggression.
His statement to the press, “We do not adopt out aggressive dogs, period,” … “We saw no signs of aggression that caused us to be concerned here,” is the best he could manage considering his station at HSI, but the fact is…. all dogs bite and all dogs can be aggressive. But what the bloggers want to do is jump at Aleshire, or Rae or Patitz or even the new IACC administrator, Teri Kendrick, and blame them for a dog attack in Indianapolis. This is a syndrome called PBAC, predatory blogging aggression cowardice, and the anonymous posters are, well, just that… anonymous.
Temperament Testing is not a science and it does not guarantee future behavior.
http://www.dogsbite.org/pdf/aggressive-behavior-in-adopted-dogs-that-passed-temperament-test.pdf
What we do know is that this dog apparently passed the extreme and unforgiving temperament testing used by HSI, (and now being duplicated at IACC). The dog was adopted to a person (and it matters not that he was a law enforcement officer) who had insecure fencing. The rest is headlines and, …one more reason to not let a fenced-in yard “baby-sit” your dogs because like people, fences can be imperfect and dogs are predictably going to be dogs.
Our sympathies to Mr. Bates, who was attacked.