[HighVoltageAPBT]

Anyone remember the pit bull attacking a horse story in Ohio recently? Read this ! of course the REAL story wasnt told!!!

PLEASE CONTACT THESE PEOPLE TODAY!


As you all know, the Plain Dealer and Fox 8 News ran stories regarding a pit bull "attack" on a horse in the metro parks. Most of you should know that the owner of the dog contacted me to let me know that her dog did not attack the horse. The dog got off leash and the horse started bucking. The woman got hit by a tree branch and the dog and the horse took off running. The rangers spoke to the owners and determined that this was just animal against animal and that it was not unusual and nothing to be worried about.

After the horse owner saw that the dog was a pit, she started threatening the dog owner. The pit was hurt pretty badly and the horse needed stitches and had cuts from running through the woods. The woman started insisting that the dog bit her. After she was asked to prove it, the doctor reported that she was not bit; it was just an abrasion. Well, as stated above, this woman contacted as many news stations and the plain dealer to get the story out.

Since she was caught in the lie, she has apologized to the dog owner and has retracted her statement. Of course, she hasn't done so publicly. In addition, neither of the sources of the story have retracted the story. This story has been very damaging for pit bull dogs and we need to demand a public retraction.

We want Fox Channel 8 and the Plain Dealer to know they were very irresponsible when the released the unsubstantiated story. We want a public apology and the true story out in public. People need to know that this isn't the first story that has been unsubstantiated and completely based on false information.

By this email, I am asking the dog owner to please contact all of these stations and entities and to get on the news and tell the true story. Please get the rangers to speak out and get that horrible horse owner to apologize on tv. This is horrendous and needs to be corrected.

I am asking that each of you contact the journalist that wrote the story for the Plain Dealer and Fox Channel 8 separately telling them how irresponsible they were and that you desire a public retraction and an accurate story to be released. For each email, please copy the people listed under "copy these people." If we all send emails, it may make a difference.

Plain Dealer journalist - jhorton@plaind.com
Channel 8 - fox8news@fox8cleveland.com

Copy these people
llai@woio.com
dstrzelczyk@woio.com
sobrien@woio.com
regan@newsnet5.com
newsmanagers@wews.com
colleen@newsnet5.com
benedict@newsnet5.com
monicarobins@wkyc.com
katherineboyd@wkyc.com
jennifermurphy@wkyc.com
kristinanderson@wkyc.com
emcintyr@plaind.com
cquinn@plaind.com
cseper@plaind.com
rbrett@plaind.com
zlewis@plaind.com
dclifton@plaind.com

Here are links to the stories:

http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/...Y&pageId=1.1.1

http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer...270.xml&coll=2
******************************
Shana Klein, President
For the Love of PITS
P.O. Box 19292
Cleveland, Ohio 44119
www.fortheloveofpits.org

[Purple]

Holy friggin chit! Hand it to the news media to capitalize on a vicious pit bull attack.

[Turner]

oh yes the joys of our world

[Deputy Dog]

Speaking of news media and such, I just came back from a forum on Topix.net that was started as a commentary about a newspaper reporter for some town in Colorado that took it on herself to publish a list of all the people in that area that owned pit bulls. The forum has evolved in a pit bull hate vs. supporter thread. I love to go there and tweak the haters from time to time. If anyone else is interested, its in the journalism forum. Just look for the "Pit Bull Owners Angry After Addresses Published" thread. What a hoot!!

[JoeFeezy]

Don't you love american media. They are more worried about the shock factor than the actual news.

[monkeys23]

Thats so lame that the media capitalizes on it being a pit bull.... Any dog can do that kind of stuff and it doesn't even sound like it was the dog's fault in this case. Sounds like a spooky horse to me, which probably triggered the dog's chase instinct, which in turn led to both getting a little banged up. Big deal and get over it.

My step-dad used to have a cowdog pup who was taught to kill sheep (actually they usually just fatally injured the ewe) by his older heeler Francie. He didn't have the heart (nor were they caught in the act) to off either of them, but Francie got Chuck into going after my horse (who liked dogs before this and used to play with my border collie). They tried to bite him while I was riding a couple of times, which was pretty annoying, but when they went after him seriously in the pasture Smokey kicked Chucky and shattered his front shoulder blade. Totally the dogs fault, and we had to put Chuck down since us farm people don't have the money to spend on amputation or metal plates for dogs.
Moral of the story: Lets not blame the breed. Stuff happens.

[LuvinBullies]

This is the letter I wrote to the journalist -I simply duplicated it and edited it appropriately to send to Fox news as well. I cc'd everyone on the list as well.


As someone who vividly remembers the cardinal rules of journalism from college, I am shocked and dismayed at the innacuracies reported in the Plain Dealer story ("Pit Bull attacks horse" piece).
Since the woman who initially made the complaints about the "Pit Bull" has retracted her statement regarding the dog, the burden lies now with you, the journalist, to release a corrected version of this story. You must understand this: stories like yours are getting people's dogs destroyed across the country. Pets are being taken from loving homes and all people seem to listen to are embellished -if not completely fabricated- "Pit Bull" tales.
Break the mold, do what is right, report the truth, and stop chomping at the bit to print shock value stories before facts are thoroughly investigated.

At best this story is remedial reporting, at worst this story treads near defamation toward the owner of the dog.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to reading the corrected version of the story.

Beth Yale
Georgia