Well, my sister who lives in VaBch, called me crying this morning. She and her 13YO daughter had just witnessed their 10YO JRT "Christmas" killed by their neighbor's pitbull. As they were leaving for school this morning, they heard Christmas yelping, screaming as she put it, in apparent pain. They ran to the back door to and could see Christmas from the front shoulders back trying to pull backward from the fence. They could not see her head. My sis ran out of the house and around to the neighbor's fence. Her plan was to distract the PB long enough for my niece to run and rescue the dog.
The pitbull charged my sis and she ran back inside to get to her dog. The PB beat her back to her stunned dog and grabbed Christmas by the throat, ripping out her airway. The PB then drug her body thru the fence and shredded her until the animal control officer arrived.
The owner of the PB came home as well and surrendered the dog. It was put down before noon today. The sad thing was that the PB was a shelter dog. The ASPCA said that the dog wasn't bad, it had only been a victim of its environment. The owner had the dog approximately 18 months without incident.
You never know what is going to set a dog off and all breeds have their "bad apples". It just makes me uneasy when I can't take my dog out for a walk without all of the "nice" little Cujos running up and being ugly.
Also, I would appreciate someone enforcing the leash laws. Walt has all of his shots, stamps, tags, fees etc.. and I have been checked several times this spring. I see dogs daily that have nothing on them, are out on the beach during the off limits time and whose owners don't clean up after them. WTH?
I am so sorry for your sister and her family! I'm sure that was terrible to witness.
What happened to "Christmas" is exactly why I don't think dogs should be left outside unattended -- it sounds like both these dogs were in their own yards, but no one was going to be home for a while (you said your sister was about to leave for school). Any number of things could have happened to either dog with no one home. And dogs don't always stay put either -- a lot of them dig, which is what it seems like "Christmas" was doing.