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People have become more civilized in the last thousand years but we really should learn some lessons from the past. The reason I say this is people should still be at the top of the food chain! We (speaking for all humanity here) are smarter than any animal but in today’s society – using our native smarts have not been cultivated in cities.
I reviewed this video about two women that were attacked by a Pitt Bull dog and were taking on lots of bites. I would first like to say that an animal owner should not own a dog he or she cannot control and I would also like to point out that these women were scared and they probably had never had to fight for their lives. Review this video and then I will talk about strategy.
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First off did you notice the women did not believe they could win against the dog? I'm not trying to say they did anything wrong judging from modern society's perspective but from a self-defense prospective, they were totally dependent on someone saving them.
Here is what I noticed. There were two women that each outweighed the one dog. The women did not seem to have any weapons handy and did not seem to know how to fight. The women were smarter than the dog but they did not use their superior intelligence.
The guy came out and commanded the dog to stop! When the dog turned on him he found a tool (a rock in this case) and chucked it at the dog. He fought back! Now I am not one of these guys that think that men are any smarter than women and I also believe that if women are exposed to fighting - they will be more likely to fight back.
Now here is what I think, the two women that were accosted by the dog should split up and found weapons. Think about it... why wait around to scream at the dog while your friend is getting bit? What good does that do? While I understand the feeling of disbelief that this is happening, I think while the dog was attacking one woman - the other should have found a weapon and defended her friend!
What? You many be thinking (or shouting at your computer screen)! Let me tell you about fighting. It will never happen when you are ready. You will be sick, drunk, asleep, or have your back turned when you are attacked... you will have to surmount an adversity to gain the upper hand. Sometimes you cannot get a clear win (meaning you will get hurt or worse) but there is only one clear way to lose... THAT IS TO NOT FIGHT BACK!!!!
I am so happy that this guy heard the women and the dog did not get any of the women down on the ground. This could have ended really ugly for the women. But the guy that was not willing to back down - did show up and help out the women.
My wife (let me call her Sly) had an experience that I would like to share. She was walking through the back streets of Lakeside, CA. The people here in the county of San Diego do not think much of leash laws and many let their dogs run loose.
Sly was walking when three large dogs came out of a side yard, surrounding her in the street. She screamed at the dogs to get the hell back and readied her mace spray. The dogs owner, an middle aged lady stepped out to her porch to see what was happening and did not do anything initially.
Sly yelled at her, all the while taking aim at the biggest dog, and said, "Can you say lawsuit?" The lady then quickly called her dogs back and the situation diffused.
Now if the dogs had jumped Sly... her best hope was to incapacitate the largest dog and scare the rest (that's about all she would have time for with very aggressive dogs). I don't know how she would have made out fighting three dogs that where almost as big as her but her being the victim was not a forgone conclusion.
Now for these poor women... I know that not everyone will turn out to have the gumption to fight back physically. Mothers - If your daughters are not aggressive in their own defense - my advice is to carry a small baseball bat on walks or get pepper spray!
Remember the police cannot protect you... that is your job! The police generally will not arrive for five to ten minutes. That's long enough for a man or beast to finish an attack if you cannot take care of yourself. Click this website to see what non-lethal legal weapons can help you with your self-defense plan and remember to use your head and keep yourself safe out there!
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Pepper Spray or a Taser are extreamly effective against dog attacks. Great Story, Thank You!
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Hi Mike,
You are preaching to the choir with me. I’ve been attacked when I was younger and been in many fights. The one thing you can count on is it will happen when you are not really thinking about defending yourself. I think it is great to learn self-defense, carry a stun gun/pepper spray or baseball bat. You cannot ever be too safe as anyone who has been a victim before can tell you.
It is not the victims fault but try convincing them of that after the fact if they inadvertently put themselves in a precarious position.
Thanks for your comment.
John W. Zimmer
June 24th, 2008 at 6:28 am
John,
Good story. As you know dogs and bullies feed off of fear. The best way to handle both is to fight back! During my days of delivering bottled water I ran across many dogs that wanted to eat me, in most cases just a strong verbal command made them stop long enough for me to get to a safe area. I’m not saying that if a mean dog wants to attack you can always talk them out of doing so (LOL) my point is if you do nothing but cower the dog will most defiantly gain momentum and most likely attack.
June 27th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Part of what I do is investigate vacant houses in Detroit and secure them. I was at one house with a partner and heard a dog barking viciously inside the house. The neighbor said dog had pups and she was standing her ground ready to tear into the first limb she could get her teeth into.
While on the front porch, trying to come up with a plan, the dog got out thru the side door and ran directly at me….a raging Pit Bull…mad as hell, and wasn’t going to stop for anything. I grabbed my pepper spray, stood my ground, gave her one shot (she was still 6 ft away ), and she stopped dead in her tracks and ran like hell the other way and we never saw her again. And we saved the pups in that nasty vacant house. I don’t know if she actually got a wiff of the spray or was just scared, but it definately worked.
Great Site !
June 29th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Thanks for stopping by Saber!
I am glad to hear the pepper spray worked well for you. The phrase, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” comes to mind while reading about the Pit Bull charging at you… Thank God you had the pepper spray.
Take care,
John W. Zimmer