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16 thoughts on “Mini Horse Needs Your Help After Vicious Dog Attack in Bethune, South Carolina; One Mini Has Already Died

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  1. $400 fine, my arse!

    This horse owner needs to file a lawsuit so big that it will need a beacon to warn passing aircraft.

    Call it BSL — Breed-Specific Litigation.

    • If you haven’t seen pitbull bites personally, you cannot perceive the damage these dogs cause. I’ve seen it. There is the kind of bite normal dogs do and a different, horrifically bad type of bite inflicted by pit bulls. It’s sad about the horses. Unfortunately, farmers cannot afford to construct pit bull proof fences to keep pit bulls out.

      • I unfortunately have! When my children were toddlers I lived beside one of these monsters that the owner would let lose to run the neighborhood because “they didn’t have a fence” after attacking a neighbors dog while people beat him in the head with a shovel which seemed to make him become more violent eventually they got it to let go by pushing a water hose in its mouth until it nearly drowned! Her dog survived the attack only because she had used a thick leather belt as a collar & the pit bull didn’t make it through the leather to the jugular vein. That night after animal control let them have a pass they put it outside to terrorize the neighbors again and some hero ran it over! I personally was quite relieved when the animal control officer took the time to go door to door trying to find out who ran over the dog! They certainly couldn’t care less about it making the neighborhood unsafe for children and others pets but become aggressive about finding out who ran it over! That’s when I learned about pit bulls& animal controls mission to put everyone’s lives in danger for their cause!

  2. Thanks for this article. So sorry for the Hinson family in their loss of Rebel and for the injuries to Chocolate. Infuriating inequity between the costs of healing care to the Hinsons compared to the dog owner’s fines. Disturbing to learn about equine PTSD. These horses generally live a long time.

    As a zoo docent, I enjoyed the annual Farm in the Zoo day. An eye-opener outing for children–and adults–in the large city of Chicago. In the Barn were breeds of cows, including Jersey, Guernsey, Texas Longhorn, Holstein. A miniature horse was brought in to delight the children. We learned about chicks losing their egg tooth, and a woolly sheep was sheared into a corduroy sheep.

    The Canadian TV series “Heartland,” out on DVDs at some libraries, includes miniature horses. Fun to watch.

  3. The pit owner should pay ALL the ongoing costs associated with getting these animals back to health.
    And the dogs should be euthanized, not shipped somewhere else to maul again.

    • PLUS the cost of a new male horse to replace Rebel. It sounds like Chocolate is now the only miniature horse left, until her foal comes.

  4. The owner can sue for the value of Rebel, the cost of veterinary care, and the cost of body disposal. By law, he/she has a legal right to these. I hope the owner of the dogs has the money to pay for the damages. It could well exceed the financial limits of small claims court.

  5. My condolences to the Hinson family on the loss of their two miniature horses. I had hoped that Chocolate might pull through.

    Five years ago, in 2017, 20,000 horses and other farm animals were killed by pitbulls. That annual number is undoubtedly higher now.

    – Pitbulls: Facts and Figures
    By Attorney Kenneth M. Phillips, author of Dog Bite Law

    • That number is only the number reported. Many people just pick up the pieces (sometimes literally) and move on without making a report. I know that when a neighbor’s pit killed eight of my ducks I didn’t know that ALL dog attacks should be reported. After all, they were only ducks, I was told, and the dog was only playing, they said. Like it was no big deal and I was being a drama queen. When a different pit attacked my cows a few years later, causing one to be euthanized, we did report it. However, Animal Control was all about the dog. I don’t think the death of the cow and all the other injuries even made it into the report. Everything is always about the dog, not the victims. They’re so careful to make sure the dog gets a hearing and has a voice. I was not notified of the hearing given for the dog that attacked my cows. The owners were given a few fines and had to rehome the dog outside of the county. Where is that dog now? AC has no idea.

  6. When I’ve commented about my dog which died as the result of a pitbull bite, I’ve never said that I waited too long to put her down.
    I was selfish and tried to get her to live. These pitbull bites can be soooooo severe as was hers.
    The top of her neck was eaten down to the vertebrae. The damage was horrific. There are normal dog bites and there are pitbull bites. They are not the same. I don’t expect any animal to survive a pitbull bite. The grabbing and shaking their heads while biting greatly increases the damage. I listen for a few days to see if the victim appears to be making a good recovery before I consider the victim to be a survivor.

  7. Rose and Farmer Jayne, with your excellent reports of your bouts w Animal Control, you will be interested to read about a Putnam County woman’s experience.
    Putnam County is the locale in which Pam Rock, USPS, was murdered by pitbulls.

    Perhaps Putnam County, a poor Florida county, doesn’t have a capture wagon. See what happened with a request to pick up a loose dog and how the persevering woman actually complied. We have to admire her tenacity. The link is currently at the end of Comments.

    https://blog.dogsbite.org/2022/08/rural-postal-carrier-vicious-attack-pack-of-dogs-putnam-county-florida.html#comments

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