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Pit Bull Incident Underscores Rising Danger of Aggressive Dogs

Police See Rise of Vicious Pit Bulls
Palestine, TX - In the aftermath of a weekend incident during which a pit bull was shot and killed, Anderson County sheriff’s officials say the scenario is one that officers are facing more and more nowadays.

Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor said two pit bulls aggressively charged sheriff’s deputy Ronnie Howell on Sunday as he walked towards the front door of a residence on FM 322 during the investigation of a complaint. Howell, who was roughly 20-to-30 feet from his patrol car at the time, began retreating, but determined he would be unable to reach safety.

"He retreated backwards while firing," Taylor said.

Howell had initially responded to a complaint that two pit bulls had killed two cats in the complainant’s back yard. When the officer arrived, sure enough there were two extremely mutiliated cats torn to pieces and dead. The complainant told the officer that they saw the pit bulls near the dead cats and believed the animals belonged to a neighbor.

Howell then drove to the neighbor’s residence to further investigate. As he exited his patrol car, he observed two pit bulls, which appeared to be contained in a pen adjacent to the residence. But two other pit bulls that were not penned charged him. Howell drew his weapon and fired on them. Taylor added:

This is a danger law enforcement officers face more and more. People that have dogs that will attack from the mere presence of you getting out of the car, that’s a little much.


Taylor also said that pit bulls are very vicious when they do attack. He's glad the officer was able to fend them off. Taylor said a person does not have to pry too deeply to find examples throughout the U.S. of persons being brutally attacked or even killed by pit bulls.