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Officer hurt by pit bull
dbryce@journalnet.com

POCATELLO -- A city animal control officer is recovering after being attacked Friday by a pit bull.

Tamara Andersen was released from the Portneuf Medical Center on Saturday after undergoing surgery to repair bite wounds from the dog.
Pocatello police Sgt. Cliff Kelley said the unprovoked attack occurred after Andersen responded to 650 Park Lane to investigate a report regarding an aggressive pit bull.

The caller stated that the dog had previously been banned in both Power and Bingham counties.
Kelley said the dog's owner was cooperative and the dog was not aggressive as Andersen attempted to photograph it, but without warning, the animal attacked her. She notified the dispatch center and officers assisted at the scene.

Andersen sustained severe punctures and laceration to her left arm and was transported to PMC via ambulance, Kelley said.
The dog was impounded, but he could not confirm that it had been destroyed.

The Center for Disease Control reports that pit bulls are the breed most often involved in fatal dog attacks in the U.S.A. -- out of 238 dog bite deaths reported over a 19 year period, 66 were caused by pit bull attacks.

By Debbie Bryce


This document was originally published online on Monday, December 08, 2008

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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of our paper.

idspud62 wrote on Dec 8, 2008 8:54 AM:

" Time to put the dog down!!! "

djbird wrote on Dec 8, 2008 8:50 PM:

" The Center for Disease Control reports that pit bulls are the breed most often involved in fatal dog attacks in the U.S.A. -- out of 238 dog bite deaths reported over a 19 year period, 66 were caused by pit bull attacks.

And what was the other breeds of the other 172 dog bite deaths? When ever there is A problem with A dog and it just happens to be A Pit Bull, it becomes big news. I have been bit twice and both times it was from a German Shep. Lets start profiling that breed, Ow what that is what the law uses to aggressivly take down perps, that would not be fair.. GET EDUCATED AND STOP BLAMING THE BREEDS AND START BLAMING THE SO CALLED OWNERS.. "

PASsING ThE BUCK wrote on Dec 9, 2008 10:13 AM:

" Several yrs ago my family was outside moving snow and a pit bull approached us and tried to attack our animals that was in a fenced yard. We tried to go inside so the dog would leave and the dog ried to attack my husband, after finally getting the dog to leave we called animal control and then proceeded to follow this dog to see where it lived and to give control a direcgtion to where this dog was. Too make a long story short animal control knew of problems of this dog and its owners abuse to the dog and stated that no one would go to court because they were scared, me and my husband deciede that the owner needs to be responsible and signed papers to go to court. The court date approached and we were out in the hall waiting to be called and with not being called the owner was allow to setle case by stating the dog will be moved to another city and if it came back it would be removed from the owner. well I couldnt believe that they didnt even listen to us they just settled. Well we weren't happy with this so I called animal control and they werent happy with this either. This was the way our county passed the buck to another. THE FAULT IS THE OWNERS AND THEY NEED TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE! "

STAFFORDSHIRE wrote on Dec 9, 2008 12:15 PM:

" BOTH OF THE LAST TWO COMMENTS ARE RIGHT, THE OWNER'S ARE RESPONSIBLE TO TRAIN AND LOVE THERE PETS TO BE GOOD PETS. I ONLY HOPE THAT THIS BREED CAN STOP BEING PROFILED AS ONLY VISCOUS AND CAN BE SEEN AS A BREED WITH ALOT OF GOOD. BEST DOG I HAVE EVER HAD TO BE AROUND MY CHILDREN.
STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIER, AMERICAN STAFFORDSHIRE TERRIER, PROFILED NICKNAME"PIT BULL" "

Trish wrote on Dec 9, 2008 7:40 PM:

" Having been bitten twice(unprovoked and once seriously) by dogs of mixed breed that were not trained nor treated well by their owners, I will affirm that the fault lies with the owners. The law can only do so much, but unfortunately in both cases neither owner was held accountable despite my attempts to do something about loose dogs that came out on public streets and attacked. The dogs were simply moved to another neighborhood. Ridiculous. "

Doc Shund wrote on Dec 9, 2008 10:47 PM:

" Pit bulls should be outlawed. The mental midgets that keep them suffer from serious inadequacies and need the big tough dog to give them some potency missing from their otherwise trailer trash or barrio existence. In fact, why stop with the dog? Put down the owners and improve the gene pool, too. Idiots! "

KC wrote on Dec 13, 2008 7:18 AM:

" As a law enforcement officer 8 out of the 10 calls regarding civilian problems with dogs that I respond to include a pit bull. Not to mention all the times I have to deal with these dogs when we make house visits.
Any time a dog attacks somebody it needs to be put down. No questions asked. I can remember 7 incidents off the top of my head where the dog went back to the owner after it attacked somebody, and shortly after attacked again. All were pit bulls. As a side note I advise anybody who is a runner or walks the neighborhood to carry OC or Mace. Just a spray in the general direction of a dog usually is enough to keep them away from you. (Just make sure the wind is blowing the opposite direction) "

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