This is the question my husband asked me when he got home tonight. Here's what happened.
A thirty something man my husband knows married a few months ago. They have four small dogs, several cats, reptiles, etc. Two weeks ago, they decided to foster a pitbull. This dog had been at the shelter for over a year. They were told by the shelter that the dog had become aggressive.
I have fostered, transported, etc and can attest to the fact that just about any breed of dog can become aggressive so I'm not making a statement about the breed. However, if someone told me that the dog was aggressive, I would not bring it into my house, especially with cats.
Over the course of these two weeks, the man said certain things that alarmed us but he seemed entirely blind to. First was that they took the dog in because they felt sorry for him. Sorry. Not good enough. Second was that the dog really liked his wife because he would put his head in her lap and would not let her get up! That is Behavior 101. We just shook our heads and said that someone was going to get hurt.
Yesterday, the dog mauled his wife. They called the shelter and while someone was on their way to get the dog, he killed one of the cats. They immediately put him down.
There were so many people involved in this travesty that I can't even begin to say where this all went wrong. Clearly the shelter had no business placing this dog in the first place but what were these people thinking taking him? And cats? Really?
Anyway, his wife will be OK but that's my husband's takeaway on this. "Was I ever that naive?"