Saturday, January 10, 2009

El Paso Times: A little schizophrenic reporting

There were a couple of high profile dog attacks in the El Paso, TX area involving two dogs. The dogs attacked two women on separate occasions, critically injuring one victim (an elderly female). The dogs had dug out of the backyard.

Now, the El Paso Times has been covering the news. Their recent editorial is certainly positive (though I would argue that the animals aren't the only victims - a poor woman is in the hospital and another injured, they're victims too).

I have to temper the positive with the fact that the El Paso Times also ran the following articles Vicious pit bulls killed for rabies test; Woman's trip to buy milk ended in terror; Dog attacks send 2 women to Thomason Hospital; Investigation continues in Fabens dog attacks; Fabens woman says she feared for her life as she fought off two .......so, five separate articles about the dogs being dangerous and vicious and mauling people and one about that the dogs were also victims. Still...it's something. Right?


Dog attacks this week on two women in Fabens underlines some serious and basic problems -- with people.
The two pit bulls involved in the attacks have been killed for rabies testing by Animal Services -- a high price to pay for what was essentially a human problem.
A total of six misdemeanor citations were issued to the dogs' owner, two each for not having the dogs vaccinated, registered or confined. It appeared that the dogs had dug their way out of the owner's yard.
The clear fault in this incident belongs with the dogs' owner. He or she failed to obey the law in relation to owning animals.
But the animals ended up paying the price.
There has been little indication that the county is more than mildly interested in pursuing such cases through the courts. That needs to change.

No comments: