Media shows bias against pit bulls
South Elgin, Aug. 2005: A woman takes her daughter's dog for a walk. The dog wags her tail as she trots along, her leather leash hanging loosely between them.
Suddenly two dogs chained inside a parked pick-up truck fiercely growl and bark. Startled at first, she realizes the dogs are secured and continues walking, her dog happily sniffing along the ground.
The barking becomes more vicious. Turning, the woman freezes in fear. One of the huge dogs, off its chain, is headed straight toward her and her much smaller dog.
As the large, angry dog nears, the woman's hand instinctively goes up protecting her daughter's dog. Her hand is bitten. The owner, desperate to pull the big dog off, screams, "Release!"
It growls and takes another bite, this time causing the owner to lose her entire fingernail.
A nearby worker manages to pry the big dog's mouth open and free the smaller dog whose ear is punctured and bleeding. The owner of the large dog, the woman and the smaller dog require medical attention.
Sound like the Tuesday, Jan. 29 Daily Herald front page story titled, "Caught in dogfight"?
It involved a frightening attack of a smaller dog being walked by its owner's mother and two chained dogs, one of whom broke loose.
The woman in the story above was me. The dog that attacked us weighed 120 pounds and my daughter's dog that was attacked is a mixed breed 50-pound pit bull.
Why wouldn't the above story also be sensationalized on the front page of the Daily Herald? Because that story doesn't fuel the fear the media promotes against pit bulls.
Ellen Kamysz
Bartlett