The horse, Joker, died after the dogs attacked. Authorities are not sure if the death was directly due to the attack, as the horse was more than 30 years old.
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Nearly two years ago to the day, we launched SRUV with a post about an attack on Joker by two pit bulls. On February 6th of this year Joker was attacked again and died as a result of the attack. The attack which ended Joker's life was the fourth pit bull attack on the Appaloosa mare. These attacks, and others in the area, make the Mint Hill, NC area a Bermuda Triangle of pit bull attacks.
The attack on Joker is one of numerous recent attacks on horses and ponies, including attacks in Sandoval County NM, Durham County NC, and DeSoto County MS. In St Mary Parish, LA, a pit bull attacked a horse, then attacked the teenage rider after he fell off. SRUV recently posted Spud and Misty, about two recent attacks on horses. In the UK the British Horse Society has recorded 347 attacks on horses in the last two years; the problem is so serious that police have lobbied for stronger legislation (see below).
One of the more noteworthy recent attacks in the US was the attack on a Park Police horse at Crissy Field near San Francisco. The pit bull (an American Staffordshire Terrier in this case) attacked the horse's stomach, then chased her for over a mile, attacking her the entire distance. In the ensuing media circus the owner gamed the social networks, bringing so much pressure to bear on the Federal Courts that he saved his dog.
The circumstances surrounding the 2011 attack on Joker were so bazaar that we've reprinted our original post below. The 2013 attack on Joker has eerie echoes of the 2011 attack; it's now known that the owner of the two pit bulls in the 2013 attack is the same man who owned the the pit bulls -- two different pit bulls -- that attacked Joker in 2011. When asked to comment the owner said he "didn't care" that his dogs had killed Joker.
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Saturday, February 12, 2011
Hall of Shame
Revised: Dec 25, 2012; 16:16 GMT
SRUV nominates Tim Long, Editor of the Mint Hill Times, to the Hall of Shame for the month of January 2011.
Mr Long published the remarkable story Are Pit Bulls Mean Dogs? We Ask the President of a Pit Bull Association. The story consists of four softball questions lobbed to Michael Davis, the President of the National American Pit Bull Terrier Association.
Dozens of similar advocacy stories are regularly published but Mr Long's is exceptional for the following reason. Not far from Mint Hill is the town of Waxhaw, NC, where five year old Makayla Woodward was killed by two pit bulls not two weeks before Mr Long wrote his story. His ghastly defense of pit bulls on the heels of this horrific attack demonstrates a callous disregard.
The day after Mr Long's story appeared a horse was attacked by a pit bull in Mint Hill, the second time in ten days that Joker had been attacked by the same dogs. The owner of the horse, Bill Williamson, suffered a heart attack during the attack on Joker but was revived by a defibrillator when police serendipitously drove along the rural road. These attacks followed the earlier attack (December 22) on a 6 year old child and her grandmother, Muriel Price, also from Mint Hill.
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News:
Mint Hill police seek pit bulls that attacked horse
The Charlotte Observer, Feb 7, 2013
UK News:
Concern over rising number of dog attacks
(Horse & Hound, Jan 20, 2012)
British Horse Society influencing legislation
(Horse & Hound, Nov 15, 2012)
Sources:
Pit bull attacks on horses and ponies
Fatal Pit Bull Attacks
Statistics:
Statistics quoted on SRUV are from the 30+ year, continuously updated Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, published by Animal People. To view or download the current PDF click here. This page may also include information from Dogsbite and Fatal Pit Bull Attacks.
Information on euthanasia rates is from Pit bulls and Political Recklessness, by Merritt Clifton. Shelter intake and euthanasia rates are published annually in the July/August edition of Animal People.
Google News: Today's pit bull attacks
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