Letters to the Editor
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@jebldmm
When I was five, I was attacked by a German Shepherd. I was skipping home from kindergarten with my papers with smiley faces in my hand. The dog ran from its yard across the street to bite.
At the time I was terrified, screaming, and my mother so angry! (this was about a block from home) I weighed about 40 pounds at the time.
However-however. The dog probably weighed close to 90 lbs. If it had decided to kill me, I would have been dead before anyone could have done anything. What it did was bite me on the butt, tearing my dress and bruising me (but not breaking the skin).
The dog was usually kept in the back yard and neighborhood kids (not me or my siblings, my mom was scared of dogs and we couldn't go over there) would tease it, waving papers and things into the yard, then jumping back screaming. I think, now that I am an adult and have had dogs, that that dog came over to nip the "puppy" and teach it not to do that. But I think they put it to sleep over the incident.
That, I think, is the difference between a German Shepherd and a pit bull. The shepherd wanted to teach, and in truth was quite protective of children. If the dog had been a pit bull, I would have been dead.