Louie is seen after the violent pit bull attack (left) and after reconstructive surgery.
Owner Shares Story
Boone, NC - On June 22, Dax Benfield, the owner of Louie, shared Louie's Story on Facebook. Benfield's post contains multiple photographs and videos. This is not for the faint of heart as, "Louie’s injuries were devastating and left him grotesquely disfigured." Benfield states, "Louie's maxilla had been fractured to the point his entire nose starting in front of his eyes was hanging by just the skin, multiple teeth had been broken off and his eye was partially bulging out of socket."
Benfield also correctly states the following: "After reflecting at length I have concluded you should never trust a pit bull and it's not the breed or the owner, it's both." Benfield wisely deflated the circular debate ("it's the owner not the breed!"), which "resets" this debate back to 1985, and chucked it out the window. "Sophia asked two times if the dog was friendly and if Louie could play with him. The owner told her that her pit bull was friendly and would play fine with Louie."
That did not happen. Pits will be pits. "As soon as Louie walked up to this pit, wagging his tail in his friendly puppy manner, this monster just latched onto his face with no warning. The pit would not let go and Sophia had to fight for Louie’s life," Benfield states. "Louie was making this indescribable gargle as he struggled to breath with his mangled face. At the same time I could see the owner holding her pit bull back. After mauling my puppy this pit bull was glowing with joy."
Correct. Pit bulls were selected for impulsive aggression to excel in the fighting pit. As animal behaviorist, Alexandra Semyonova states: "You will also not prevent the dog from being what he is genetically predisposed to be. Because the inbred postures and behaviors feel good, fitting the body and brain the dog has been bred with, they are internally motivated and internally rewarded." Thus, a breed selected for fighting, like pit bulls, may indeed be "glowing with joy" after a fight.
"You could see it in his face that he enjoyed what he had just done."
Benfield also offers an important warning to other dog owners. "As a closing remark to other dog owners, what happened to Louie will happen to your dog if you trust enough 'friendly pit bulls.' It only takes one encounter to kill your dog. Don’t take the risk. Don’t be afraid to tell someone you don’t trust their pit bull no matter what they say, it could save your dogs life," he states. Louie survived, but will be permanently maimed and emotionally scarred. It's not worth the risk.
Dog-on-Dog Attack Studies
Back in March, we published the results of two peer-reviewed European dog-on-dog attack studies. The UK study showed that 39.9% of the attackers were Staffie bull/pit bull terrier. The Netherlands study showed that 55.5% were Amstaff/pit bull terrier. Dog-on-dog aggression is a common behavioral problem, yet there is a glaring absence of data -- peer-reviewed and otherwise -- about the most common type of dog attack, dog-on-dog attacks, in the US.
In our March post, we also asked why is there a glaring absence of dog-on-dog attack data in the US? "Possibly because the results would be self-evident, just as the UK and Netherlands studies show," we stated. "Dogs purpose bred for dog-killing aggression are the most 'efficient' dog-killing breeds on earth. It's not rocket science. No one is surprised that racing dogs are the fastest dogs on earth or that herding dogs are the most effective herding dogs on earth either," we stated.
Louie's Story by Dax Benfield. June 22, 2021 (facebook.com)
Related Facebook page:
Our Pets Were Attacked By Pit Bulls - Share Your Story
Related articles:
06/25/21: What Are Pit Bulls Good At? by Guest Poster Boni
03/11/21: Peer-Reviewed Study Examines Dog-on-Dog Attacks in UK by Analyzing Media Articles
01/28/21: Why Aren't Dangerous Dog Owners Charged With Animal Cruelty? by Dog Lover
There is only one reason why people harbor dangerous breed canines and only one reason why our society worships dangerous breed canines and only one reason why our layers of government fail to protect the citizenry. Because some people, and our society, and our layers of government are Evil based, instead of Love based.
I wish I saw more owners of normal dog breeds turn their backs on pits. Somehow, pits are classified as dogs like all the other breeds and any-other-breed-owner is guilted into claiming they are the same. Of course there are nice pit bulls but that is until they aren’t. After an attack, pit bull owners scurry away like the cockroaches that they are when the lights come on.
I have been making a point of telling other dog people about a recent incident where 2 pits did the classic bite, hold, tear and not release thing on my lovely Labrador and tore her up pretty bad. Was it hitler who said if people hear something often enough they will believe it? The pit lobby has,unfortunately, succeeded in duping the majority into believing their nonsense. About a third of dog owners agree that pits are inherently dangerous. A third respond with the it’s how they are raised argument. If I respond by agreeing it’s partially true but selective breeding also counts than most in that group at least seem to consider the “both nature and nurture create behaviour”argument, so hopefully I’m not wasting my time. The other third are completely indoctrinated and find my attempts to warn them offensive in some way, so I just get cancelled.
Cathy…close. Joseph Goebbels gets credit for that line (“if you tell a lie long enough, hard enough, to enough people enough times, pretty soon everyone is going to think it is the truth”). Truth be told, John Steinbeck used a similar line in his classic book “East of Eden.”
There’s only two choices or a combination therein.
It’s either genetics or stupid owners.
If it’s genetics, pitbulls don’t belong in family homes. BSL
If it’s ownership, well there’s a plethora of stupid collie/spaniel/Labrador/name-that-dog owners whose dogs are NOT the #1 threat to other dogs or #1 dog killer of humans, particularly seniors, disabled and children. Since most dog owners are clueless then the answer is still “BSL”.
No matter what, a few decades of phasing out pitbulls through mandatory spay/neuter and public muzzling are still the most humane solutions to fixing the problem of human stupidity or genetics.
There’s no question what the most dangerous dog breed, is. There’s also no question as to what has proved to be the most humane solution to cutting down the population.
Good luck debating with the true believers. But it’s not them you’re hoping to persuade but the fence-sitters reading your conversation 😉
I don’t even let normal dogs approach my timid greyhound. She’s been snapped at by regular dogs after their owners told me they were ok. I just don’t trust most dog owners anymore, much less pit owners.
I think the reasons people harbor pit bulls are complex. However, I do believe that the pit bull dog and it’s owners are under an evil influence. Many owners are deceived by the evil influence of pit centric orgs that sound like nice, sweet animal helpers like the HSUS And BFAS which are also under an evil influence, the no-kill movement and rescues devoted to pit bull dogs. It is a struggle against evil that we are involved in. These dogs killing and maiming children left and right, day in and day out are evil. Those who try to keep them from euthanasia after mauling humans to death are doers of evil. It is a depraved, evil society that sees these dogs kill people yet hears appeals to save the maulers as if they deserve the due process of and Miranda rights of a human being. People’s minds and way of thinking about pit bull dogs have been corrupted by this influence. I think of this Bible verse when I am confronted with a report like this,” For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12 and I pray for those on the front lines in this battle and ask God to protect them and give them wisdom and perseverance in this struggle against this pit bull deception as it is a struggle against evil.
The new “Clifford” movie ( Clifford the Big Red Dog of kid’s picture book fame) is partnering with Best Friends to promote the film to families on social media, even generating donations to the group through shares. Most people have no idea how their lobbying has hurt so many children, parents, and family pets.
I feel sorry for the injured dog, not its owners. The information IS out there is you choose to look even a little. Sad people are stupid enough to let nice dogs get torn up because they have no sense of reality. As someone once said, you can ignore reality but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.
I hope the pit owner took her mauler to be put down but I doubt it.
I’m glad Colleen is covering the pitbull mauling dog problem, here. I remember seeing this lovely poodle torn to shreds and I was appalled. What’s sad is–every day on Reddit and FB there are half a dozen or more of these maulings reported every single day.
Pitbull fanciers don’t love dogs. That’s would be a complete contradiction as pitbulls are top notch dog murderers.
They’re addicted to pitbulls. Reminds me of Erin Pizzey’s book where she describes how, due to the constant influx of opiods and adrenaline, in some abusive relationships neither spouse can break it off because they’re feeding each other’s chemical need for dopamine/opiods/adrenaline and thus, it creates the cyclical nature of abuse which, in her theory is an actual physical dependence.
That’s exactly what I see with pitbull owners with pitbulls that are dog aggressive. They start in denial of the problem, move to anger at everyone else over it, try bargaining/training/hoping that the situation will improve, at points are too depressed to even face their horrific living situation with some maniac pitbull and maybe, if nothing too horrendous happens first–they might actually accept just how uncontrollable their living situation has become and PTS the pitbull or palm it off elsewhere.
I cannot tell you how many posts I’ve seen where a pitbull has mangled the owner’s *other dog/pets* and they *kept the pitbull*,
It’s madness.
Poor Louie looks like a soft felt toy with blanket stitching. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
In Indianapolis, the top position at the Animal Control shelter was a revolving door. Few lasted one year. During those years, pit bulls were often destroyed. Once the policy of save as many pit bulls as possible emerged, the job at top.position was secure. No revolving door.
Bet it pays at least double too, Rachel.
I can understand the burnout. People go into that job thinking “I’m gonna be a hero that saves dogs” only to find out that runaway breeding, poor training and management means spending all day watching dogs die.
Not everyone can be a humane executioner.
Poor Louie, he is lucky to be alive… this horrible damage probably only took a few seconds, also yes, the sh*tbull did enjoy itself, this is what they were bred to do! It’s in their genetic make-up… I wonder what the owners excuse was… this time?
The most important comment. After the attack the pit bull was glowing with joy. It had just accomplished the task it was bred to do for generations and the careful selection of finding a dog that attacked without warning and did not want to release had been successful. They are not dog friendly, they are not pets. They just need to stop breeding them,let them go extinct