Pit Bull

You never realize just how a news story affects you, your family and everyone around until something happens to you. I am speaking about the latest pit-bull mauling. When my son was attacked, one of the first things I was told was that the dog was a pit bull. If you are like us and most others, the first thing that came to our minds was "Thank God it didn't kill him or get his face. " As our son continues to try to make his 8-year-old mind stronger and less fearful and his body tries to heal, we deal with scarring and other procedures he might have to endure.

RE THE letter "Pit bull of the Week": As a volunteer for the PSPCA/ACCT, let me answer your questions, Mr. Felix. First, the reason that some pit bulls attack anyone is because they are trained to do so by their idiot owners. And by the way, there isn't an attack "every week. " Second, the reason that the Pet of the Week is always a pit bull is that so much of this city's population thinks it's cool to get a pit bull, either for fighting or for breeding (to make money)

The popping sound of firecrackers is common around Ditman and Levick streets in Tacony, neighbors say. But last night that sound came from a gun used to shoot a pit bull in the head. It was the second pit bull that was found killed in a public area in two weeks. About 10 p.m. last night, residents on Ditman heard a "pop, pop" but thought nothing of it until cops arrived in the back alley way about an hour later. Police found a brown pit-bull mix laying in a puddle of its own blood, tied to a fence post with a gunshot wound on the side of its head.

A Philadelphia legislator has filed a bill designed to end fighting contests by dogs and other animals that have become a fad in some areas of his district. Rep. Gordon Linton, a Democrat who represents sections of Northwest Philadelphia, filed the bill this week stating that his proposal would make people who promote or sponsor pit-bull contests subject to stiff fines and jail terms. He said legislation setting a stiffer penalty was necessary because existing laws had failed to halt the growing practice.

MY 6-YEAR-OLD daughter was recently attacked by a pit bull, with some pretty serious lacerations. When I called police, they referred me to animal control. The people who own the dog were only given a citation and a fine. The dog got away with no repercussions at all. The police - I mean "animal control" - said to call the next time the dog was outside without a leash. I thought there was a leash law requiring all dogs to be controlled while outside in public. Next time could prove fatal.

A pit bull terrier escaped from its pen in Levittown on Sunday night, charged into a backyard birthday party, bit one boy and was shot by Bristol Township police as it chased two other boys on a bicycle, police said yesterday. The dog's owner, Terry Thompson of Aspen Lane, told police he was not home when the dog, named Rosco, got out of his pen. Thompson said he believed that someone had lifted a fastener that locked the gate. About 7:30 p.m. police got a complaint of a loose dog causing havoc at a neighbor's birthday party for a 7-year-old girl.

They can be great pets and great fighters. In the wrong hands they can, and are, used as instruments of crime and terror. Originally bred in England to fight bears or bulls in a pit, they are pit bulldogs. American pit bulls were bred to fight each other, mostly in the rural South. Until seven or eight years ago, pit bulls were rarely seen in northern cities. Now thousands can be found in Philadelphia - some in the wrong hands. Recently, the vicious use of pit bulls manifested itself in several incidents in Philadelphia: Five youngsters were bitten Dec. 15 when two pit bulls ran amok among children playing in the schoolyard of St. Edward's parish school in North Philadelphia.

She's brown with a white belly, weighs about 50 pounds and has sweet disposition. Her name is Roxie, and she's a 2-year-old pit bull. Her owners don't know if she's still alive. About six weeks ago, she was snatched by two carloads of teen-aged dognappers right out of her North Philadelphia back yard. The thieves tricked the friendly pooch into coming close to the gate for a cuddle. Then they scooped her up, threw her in the back of their car and sped off. What Roxie left behind were tears and heartbreak as her owners, Ira and Patricia Williamson, grieve for their sweet pet as they would for a lost child.

HOW MANY more attacks by these four-legged menaces are we going to have to endure before City Council does something? These pit bulls are a serious drain on the quality of life meter - just ask the poor woman going to work at 6:30 in the morning. I propose a law similar to the one that applies when a sex offender moves into your neighborhood. You should have the location and the name of the owners of these four-legged weapons posted around the streets to warn people that they're entering pit-bull territory - akin to a deer crossing.

Britain, a nation of dog lovers, has found a breed it hates: the American pit bull terrier. And under a ban on fighting dogs now being rushed into law, as many as 10,000 pit bulls now living in Britain could be put to death. After a series of attacks by bull terriers against children in the last few days, the government on Tuesday banned the import of pit bulls. And yesterday, it announced that it would seek to eliminate the breed from British soil. "It is clear that such dogs have no place in our homes," said Prime Minister John Major, at whose insistence the measure was drafted.

The series so far: The 12 inmates and their six rescue dogs living on Mod 3 have formed close bonds. The men are practicing job interviews, preparing for employment after prison. And most are working hard to ready their dogs for the AKC Canine Good Citizen Test, which is fast approaching. Others are falling behind. Fourth of six parts. Under a gray spongy sky on a Sunday afternoon, the hopeful came to the Philadelphia Pet Hotel and Villas, a boarding facility near the airport.

A CHAIN-LINK fence capped with razor wire sits between two pit bulls in a North Philly car lot and the lady who wants to pet them. The woman, who lives on Green Lane near Broad Street, tosses them some treats, and the dogs gobble them up quickly, their tails wiggling and wagging. "See how friendly they are? They wouldn't hurt a fly," said the woman, who didn't want to give her name. "You're just some nice doggies, aren't you?" Over the course of an hour on this Sunday afternoon, the dirt-covered dogs don't bark or growl at anyone, and the woman from Green Lane isn't the only one showering them with snacks and baby talk.

DEAR ABBY: My two adult granddaughters have rejected me. Their father gave me this explanation: "They are uncomfortable with the way you rub their shoulders and necks. " These girls and both parents have misinterpreted my innocent expressions of affection, which haven't changed since the girls were little. The only change is in their perception of my actions. I asked twice to meet with these family members to discuss their concerns. It has been three months; no meeting time has been offered.

THEY ARE BURLY, tattooed men in black with soft spots for neglected animals, but authorities say Justice Rescue took the outlaw-biker mystique too far and actually broke the law. According to the Pennsylvania SPCA, Justice Rescue members Russell Wayne "Wolf" Harper and Robert John "House" Lewis were arrested Tuesday for impersonating a law-enforcement officer, theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy for allegedly taking a pit bull in...

PSPCA OFFICIALS are reminding Philadelphians to bring their dogs inside during extreme cold weather after they recovered a frozen pit bull in Kensington on Sunday night, then rescued two dogs from an abandoned house. "To go away and leave your dog out there, that's horrendous," George Bengal, PSPCA's director of law enforcement, said of the young pit bull that froze to death outside on Water Street near Clearfield. Humane officers executed a warrant on the same block, forcing their way into a rowhouse where a pit bull and Chihuahua mix had been abandoned.

A person of interest was being questioned by police Wednesday night in the killing of Melissa Ketunuti, who was found this week strangled, bound, and set on fire in the basement of her Center City rowhouse, sources said. The unidentified man, 36, had not been charged as of Wednesday night, but sources said he was captured on surveillance footage near Ketunuti's house around the time of the slaying. He was taken into custody in Levittown, where police were searching his house and vehicle.

A person of interest was being questioned by police Wednesday night in the killing of Melissa Ketunuti, who was found this week strangled, bound, and set on fire in the basement of her Center City rowhouse, sources said. The unidentified man, 36, had not been charged as of Wednesday night, but sources said he was captured on surveillance footage near Ketunuti's house around the time of the slaying. He was taken into custody in Levittown, where police were searching his house and vehicle.

Dr. Melissa Ketunuti, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia pediatrician and researcher whose body was found in her burning Center City home Monday, apparently was strangled with a rope, Philadelphia police said Tuesday. Capt. James Clark, commander of the police homicide unit, said detectives were canvassing her Graduate Hospital neighborhood Tuesday and returning to the rowhouse with a friend of Ketunuti's to see what, if anything, had been taken. Ketunuti, 35, was found with a rope around her neck, and that is believed to be the cause of death, Clark said, though results from the medical examiner are not yet in. Police were also tracing her movements Monday morning from electronic transactions, and collecting video surveillance from the several places she visited in Center City, including a Walgreen's around the corner.

'Assassin," a crisp two-character play by David Robson, is in previews at the Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom St. It opens on Wednesday, and it is not about John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald or even Gavrilo Princip, the zealot who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and triggered World War I. It is not about football, which is something you can tell your wife or girlfriend when she sighs and rolls her lovely eyes at the thought of...

A Chester County couple was charged this morning with operating a pit-bull fighting ring out of their home - where five children lived -- torturing and killing dogs that "quit" during their matches. After finding two dead dogs, one of which was burned alive in its cage, officials said, they arrested Shane L. Santiago and Laura Acampara, both 33, of the 1300 block of North Manor Road in West Brandywine Township. Santiago acknowledged killing 10 dogs, according to the affidavit of probable cause.