New Mexico: Newspaper reporter seems to make light of pit bull attacking small child

NEW MEXICO -- Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies have made several trips to Ravens Wing in Alto recently to deal with reports of a potentially violent repeat offender prowling the neighborhood.

The first alarming report came in on Jan. 3 from a woman who said a dog she described as a black and white pit bull had bitten her 10-year-old son.

“Upon arrival, it was learned that the dog did not bite the child,” the responding officer wrote in his report. “It did, however, get the child’s coat.”

The deputy took the four-legged subject into custody and drove it to an animal shelter.

So because it didn't actually break the skin of the child, it's no big deal? To be a small child, a 5th grader, and have this pit bull come running after you, jumping on you and biting you... and for the reporter to do what seems like a "puff piece" is odd. I don't think it's funny at all. And I don't think the mother of this little boy would either.

The video below shows an animal control officer being attacked by dogs. He is clearly in a panic and the police are waiting for a safe opportunity to shoot the dogs without hitting the officer. It doesn't appear that he was actually bitten - but does that mean these dogs aren't dangerous??

But hardly more than a week had passed when the same woman called again. The pit bull was back, she said, looking just as pit bullish as ever. A deputy returned and picked the dog up again for another trip to detention.

Nearly a week passed with no further word of the recidivist. But then on Jan. 17 a third call came from a house just a few doors down on Ravens Wing from the first reporting party.

In this video, a Rottweiler mix gets loose and attacks a police officer. As terrifying as this was to the officer, he is armed with a Taser and a gun. I imagine this is what it was like for this poor child.




There were now two loose dogs on Ravens Wing, one of them small and tan but the other described as “a gray, brindle colored pit bull.”  This time, the neighbor had trapped them. Was this pit bull a different dog? Or the same one but described by a better witness? Whichever, the dogs went to the shelter.

The very next day there was still another call from a Ravens Wing address. Now there were three dogs. The caller said they were a blue heeler, a chocolate lab and “another black dog.” A deputy responded as usual, but the gang was gone before he arrived. They are clearly getting smarter.

(Ruidoso News - Jan 28, 2016)