'Emotional support animal' mauls 5 year old at Portland Airport, lawsuit claims - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www-foxnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.foxnews.com/travel/emotional-support-animal-mauls-5-year-old-at-portland-airport-lawsuit-claims.amp?amp_js_v=0.1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Ftravel%2Femotional-support-animal-mauls-5-year-old-at-portland-airport-lawsuit-claims A mom has filed a $1.1 million lawsuit against the owner of a pit bull and Alaska Airlines after the animal allegedly mauled her 5-year-old’s face at the Portland International Airport. The lawsuit, filed Monday in Multnomah County by Mirna Gonzalez on behalf of her daughter, Gabriela Gonzalez, claims Michelle Brannan, the dog’s owner, should have known her animal had “vicious propensities” and that Alaska Airlines allowed her to bring a dangerous dog into the gate waiting area without being confined or trained. Gabriella, then aged 5, was waiting at the gate when Brannan entered the area with her pit bull, which was not kept in a crate, kennel or other secure container, the lawsuit claims. The child allegedly gained permission from Brannan to pet the dog. While she was petting the animal, it bit her, causing serious injuries. It was not immediately clear what happened to the dog after the incident.

Reminder that this is the dog that makes up 6% of the dog population, yet is responsible for 68% of dog attacks. There is a reason these dogs are banned in some places.

I feel like as an owner of the dog you would be aware of what could make it violent? Like how you just get to know the personality of a dog after having one for a good amount of time. It's really shitty and I think the owner shouldn't have brought that dog anywhere near a super public place like an airport knowing that at least a few people will ask to pet your dog. Especially if you know that the dog doesn't always react positively to being pet. It's shitty on both sides because pitbulls already have enough bad media about them.

Also family history as well, if it's parents were abused it's got a higher chance of being more aggressive.

Of course it was a pitbull

I'm sure pitbulls can be very sweet creatures, but there must be way more suitable options when it comes to support animals.

Not necessarily, it could have been Moloch, who (like pitbulls) is also well-known for eating children.

Emotional support pitbull sounds like an Onion article phrase or skit phrase

I'm certainly not against emotional support animals, but the way the pretty generous notion of allowing them even health & safety is overlooked for their presence is fucking annoying. People are abusing the shit out of it just to bring their fucking pets into restricted places.

"i bet its a pitbull" *click article* "oh wow im so surprised" incoming wave of moronic "its not the dog its the owner! MY pibble is so sweet and loving" - which is what every owner of a child mauler says, sometimes even directly AFTER theres been an incident involving their dog. I'm not sure what kind of cognitive dissonance is taking place when people readily accept that through selective breeding we can rapidly induce major morphological and behavioral trait changes in dogs, but believe that its impossible that such processes could and have resulted in a breed of dog that is unpredictably aggressive. These dogs are disproportionately represented in attacks across the world, but apparently and conveniently this can only be because they are also disproportionately attractive to bad people who abuse them and mistreat them. Yeah sure. Plenty of wonderful, responsible owners have been taken by complete surprise and horror when their pitbull mauls somebody or someone's pet, or even attacks the loving owner. Thats precisely the thing that makes pitbulls a problem: they are unpredictable. Many of the breeds involved in biting incidents are pretty predictable - if the dog is aggressive its usually like that all of the time. For example, the shepherds i used to own, were great with me and the family but they were aggressive towards strangers - this behaviour was consistent, so it is predictable. Thus i know what will happen ahead of time, every time and can prepare for that. I know when walking them to give wide berth to other people. I dont let them off the leash. If i have to go to the vet, i know i need to pack muzzles. Etc. Pitbulls on the other hand are unpredictable. They're loving, exceptionally affectionate dogs... until they aren't. Thats what makes them particularly dangerous, not all the rest of the shit which is a consideration after the fact. Imagine your horror and disblief when you find out that sweet dog you've had for 5 years and has been exceptionally tolerant of all manner of people inside your home and outside, has freaked out one day and permanently disfigured someone's child.

The ASPCA says that pit bulls aren't inherently more aggressive than other breeds, but are frequently bought or adopted by people who train them to be aggressive, and their size and strength means a pit bull attack is more likely to result in an ER visit than a chihuahua attack. They say the main issue with pit bulls isn't them being aggressive against people, but less sociable with other dogs. I'm not really a dog person, but if experts say the problem is with the people who adopt and train pit bulls rather than the breed itself, it seems unfair to blame the dog.

I watched a lady throw a fit at Five Guys the other day because they asked her if she could not bring her dog into the store because they serve food and such, it was some little chihuahua like dog and it wasn't wearing a vest or anything, just a generic looking dog. She bitched and moaned about it being her emotional support dog and they let it slide because they aren't paid enough for this. Later I heard it screaming the shriek of "put me down please" to which she casually did and let it just fucking shit and piss right there on the floor. This was followed by her not cleaning up the dogs mess with supplies she should be carrying with her, not even asking for stuff to clean up her dog's mess, oh no not even just letting the employees know her dog shit and pissed on the floor. What she did defies everything even remotely reasonable. She fucking picks her dog up and just fucking leaves like a bat out of hell. She didn't even get her food. So naturally I took her license plate number and gave it to the employees, dumb bitch parked not only in front of the store directly but also in a handicapped spot without a permit. So yeah tbh people are abusing it to hell and back, it's to the point where most psychiatrists refuse to even entertain the idea of service/emotional support animals because of the stigma and how people act with them.

so...we are more focused on the type of dog it was, rather than a person taking advantage of the support animal thing...? Rule 1 of Pits. They aren't dogs for kids. Don't allow kids near em, otherwise they are great dogs. By kids I mean any child that is below a teen.

I think this person on Quora describes the pitbull attack issue quite well. https://www.quora.com/Are-pitbulls-responsible-for-most-attacks Essentially, only fatal attacks are represented which obscure the science behind the breeds most likely to bite. Further, as there's no real statistical baseline for breeds, the dogs described in these attacks are coined "pit bull type", and stereotyping could place a big emphasis on the amount of "pit bulls" being reported. As stated in the response, the UK actually banned pitbulls and other seemingly dangerous breeds in 1991, and the number of reported dog attacks have actually increased since.

This study lumps Pitts with a bunch of other breeds like Rottweilers. Pitbulls dont attack more often than other dogs, its just their attacks cause more harm then a poodle for instance.

I heard another problem is that pit bulls were bred to chomp onto things and not let go, which makes maiming far likelier

This read like a "blacks make up 15% of the population but commit 80% of crime"-type post and it threw me off on whether it was a joke or not.

Except dogs aren't people

Yeah, I know, I was just pointing out how he similarity threw me off.

The variation I've heard is they naturally have poor bite control. That their no less likely to bite then other more common breeds. Because of the poor bite control they bite down with considerable force every time. You have to make a training effort to teach them to use their mouth gently, other wise a little scary nip becomes a mauling.

Yeah but you don't see how there could be anything to learn from the fact that ignorant generalizations are dangerous? Anything at all that might be relevant here?

emotional support animals are not trained, not licensed, and placed under enormous stress. Actual disability/support animals are trained for this reason and even they're not immune to the stress.

You're really pulling that "despite only being 13% of the U.S. population" shit? Seriously? But yeah pitbulls do tend to be less sociable than other breeds and if it were to be an emotional support animal for someone it would need a lot of training,something the owner didn't seem to realize.

See this is why I carry an emotional support snapping turtle. Easy to transport, not fast enough in most cases to easily escape, and nobody's gonna bother the dude carrying a sentient finger remover. Even better is I can paint random bullshit on his shell to further the intimidation factor.

Here come the the local facepunch dog professionals to offer nothing to the thread other than 'I KNEW IT WAS A PITBULL/DISGUSTING DOG' I think you'll find the only people who spout that kinda stuff are usually alarmist over the top people who'll jump on anything and shove there opinion down your throat in a manner that's always unpleasant and implies the animal is a sin walking the earth, I've had people scream at me to get my dog put down and told it was a fucking pitbull when it was a french bull dog thanks to this uneducated hate train for these dogs. That said I don't think people should be using pit bull terrier's as comfort animals they are a dog that requires training and discipline and this owner was probably a dickhead, if you want someone to blame you blame the owner for ruining what could have been a decent animal with there lack of incentive or willingness to train the animal. Also very lucky little girl, the injuries are don't look too bad but lucky she kept her life thank the lort for that.

Yikes lads, careful with this rhetoric

Some interesting info: last year Delta Airlines announced they no longer accept pit bull type dogs as service or support animals. https://www.delta.com/us/en/accessible-travel-services/service-animals

Well when you've had your own dog mauled repeatedly by these kinds of shitty fighting dogs, and when they continuously end up in the news for attacking people, you start to notice a pattern. Dogs aren't humans, they work a lot more on instinct and you can absolutely breed for temperament. Stop acting like it's the some sort of dog racism to point this out.

You just ignored catbarf's post that completely rebuts yours, btw. I know, reading the thread before posting in it is hard.

They only ever said they don't tend to attack people, although I'd argue that stats suggest otherwise. They absolutely admit their aggression to other dogs and that aggression can be bred into dogs, even though they feel it can be trained out of them. So unless you very specifically train it out of them, yes they can become aggressive more easily than other dogs. Nobody suggests personalities can't be bred into dogs.