People couldn’t believe two dogs killed their owner

I find this fascinating: "Stephens' friends have said the dogs were not capable of such a violent attack." This casual epistemology has worked out in my favor.

A couple of years ago my dog was accused of biting another and a police complaint was lodged. The complaint was quite horrific -- my violent, unleashed dog ran into the street to attack his leashed dog, dogs fighting, blood in the other dog's coat and on the owner... quite exciting. And an expensive vet bill was sent to me (though not included in the police complaint).

I got a call from the animal control officer. He had only one question: "was this <my dog's name>?" I said "yes" and he said "Then I'm closing the investigation." That was it -- he send me the report which said simply, "no violation, issue closed."

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I was relieved to be spared a complicated process of word against word. On the other hand, the police know my dog (he is kind of a fixture around town) which seems unfair.

BTW I was of course there too (as my dog is always with me :-) and observed 1> other dog was aggressive and it and its owner were on my property and 2> my dog made a very loud noise noise but was never within a meter of the other dog or owner (never more than a meter from me in fact), and 3> my dog returned to my side as soon as I called him. As in: all that happened is the dog did his job properly.

FWIW I don't have a PB but all the ones I've met have been super sweet.

Just few days ago, I had conversation with my GF about Pit bulls. She told me that they are adorable dogs. Well... Pit bulls - the only breed of dogs that ends up on front pages of news. They are not dogs, they are weapons.

Entire story reminds me /r/relationships story about a woman with the child, who's boyfriend had Vietnamese centipede(venomous and extremely aggressive arthropod) in their apartments. Centipede escaped and they could not find it.

Why would someone keep venomous centipede or Pit Bull is beyond my understanding.

This is kind of unbelievable! Advice from the article on how not to get killed by your dogs:

* Don't have ~100lb pitbulls

* Don't breed them to fight

* Don't abandon them in outdoor cages

A dog raised properly with love and compassion, that isn't starved and doesn't have some sort of a brain tumor will never, ever attack its owner. It doesn't matter what breed of dog. This unfortunate story is very easily explained:

>Stephens had been living elsewhere and had left the dogs with her father. The dogs, which were previously indoor animals, were left in a kennel outside with little human contact, aside from a visit from Stephens about five times a week, Blackwood told reporters.

This woman abandoned her dogs and left them in an outdoor cage. Unfortunately this attitude is common. Many people view their pets (and, in some cases, their children) as accessories or possessions, and treat them as such. A dog is a member of your family, like a child. You don't simply decide to "live somewhere else" and leave your dogs behind (let alone leaving them in outdoor cages without human contact) any more then you would decide to "live somewhere else" and leave your children behind in an outdoor cage. If you have dogs, or children, you make sure that the place you plan on moving can house your whole family. This is a very sad story, but not surprising given her behavior and treatment of her dogs which no doubt (rightfully) felt that she had abandoned them.

This brings to mind other stories I've read referencing studies showing people appear to emphasize more with dogs than other humans. Is this a recent phenomenon? Or has it always been this way?