Woman nearly killed by a large pack of stray dogs (Houston: school, living)

[F2BBS]

Originally Posted by Athena2c

So awful, for the woman and the dogs. Since moving here, I have been saddened by the number of stray dogs wandering in certain areas...

Affluent areas I'm sure...

[BrianH]

Id seen huge packs like that in Albuquerque too, hopefully shell be OK. I wish more people would neuter their dogs, first thing I did with mine was make him have "brain surgery" as soon as he was six months old. When my other dog, the stray that found us showed up I had him fixed within a couple of days. I too like how they pinpointed the pitbull mix as the leader of the pack, way to take a horrible story and peak interest by damning those box headed killers ...

[txdemo]

Originally Posted by bronstew

I'm not usually this cynical, but this place is beginning to resemble a Third World country. I live in an affluent area, so I don't see it as much, but this story reminds me that there are neighborhoods in Houston and in other cities (Detroit) that wouldn't look out of place in Calcutta or San Salvador (no offense to Indians or El Salvadorians). Canada looks really good some days.

The very worst parts of Houston are no where near 3rd world country conditions. I've personally seen handicapped people crawling behind food carts to pick up scraps of vegetables in the 3rd world.

[Vicman]

There should be a catalog of what breeds and appearances these dogs are. Then the citizenry should be told to shoot them on sight. Remind citizens to make sure that their friends/family film them with cameras when they shoot dangerous stray dogs, to send the message home. The city government should say "if the dog is unleashed, and it's with a pack, it can be killed anytime."

[BrianH]

That would be a disaster Vic. The article described a dog as a pitbull mix, that already raises the fear levels up and top that with 90% of people not being able to point one out I could see any dog with muscles being shot just because they saw it.

If a dog is attacking me, or God forbid mine attacked somebody I would fully expect to see a dead dog though.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by Vicman

There should be a catalog of what breeds and appearances these dogs are. Then the citizenry should be told to shoot them on sight. Remind citizens to make sure that their friends/family film them with cameras when they shoot dangerous stray dogs, to send the message home. The city government should say "if the dog is unleashed, and it's with a pack, it can be killed anytime."

That goes too far IMHO, but I understand why you feel that way.

[dejamiller]

5th Ward is the worst though when it comes to these stray dogs. I can count on my hand how many obviously nursing dogs that are running loose.

In contrast, I remember the Heights area had their issue with feral cats. LOL.

[daniepwils]

These dogs had not eaten or drank anything in days. And most of them were being led by an alpha dog who was probably already aggressive to begin with, most if not all dogs follow what their leader does. Some of these guys were puppies and didn't know any better. It is very sad that this poor lady happen to be the victim, I feel for her. I can't even imagine what was going through her mind.

I am a huge dog rights advocate and work with rescue groups in our area. I hate to say it but most, if not all of these guys will have to be put down. Maybe the pups can be trained, but you never know.

Please don't use the Pit Bull crap. A large majority of the mixed breeds in Houston are mixed with either Lab or Pit Bull and are adopted out just fine without ever an incident. Pit Bulls (any dog for that matter) are only aggressive if they are raised that way or if they are raised on the streets and forced to fight with other dogs for food (as is the case here). My parents have a rescued pit bull who is more docile than my parents tea cup Chihuahua.

[Heidi60]

I pray we can do better:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/dogs/...d-baghdad.html

[vegankris]

The problem as I see it is that Houston has the lowest budget for animal control of any large metropolitan city in the U.S. When I say lowest, the next city up from Houston spends twice as much per person on animal control. So here in lies the problem. The problem will never be solved until Houston does something drastic and throws the right amount of money at the problem.

The worse thing that could happen, is if one of these stray dogs or pack of dogs attacks a kid on the way to school or on the school grounds. I've seen many times at my own kids' schools, stray dogs wandering around. I've spoken at city council and the HISD school board about the problem. It all falls on deaf ears. If this tragedy isn't enough to cause the city to make a change, then unfortunately something even worse may have to happen before the city takes notice. Or, maybe if someone affluent is attacked that will get the city's attention. Who knows.