Tige liked to play with balloons too.
Jessup, the animal control officer in Olympia, uses two pit bulls to train police and animal control officers on surviving dogs attacks.
Unlike dogs who are nippers and rippers, her pit bulls are typically "grippers" who bite down and hang onto their victims.
At the workshop, animal control officers learned to avoid the animals' gripping jaws by using fences, vehicles or even a rabies pole, a four foot long stick with a wire noose.
Under no circumstances should anyone ever lie down or play dead around an attacking dog, Niemczyk.
Even if the animal bites an arm, that is better than an attack on the neck or head, she said.
By the end of the day, Dread had knocked down two male officers, tore at Nienczyk's arm and taught a few lessons.
QUESTIONS
IF ALL dogs bite and IF pit bulls are no more dangerous than labs or cocker spaniels, WHY do they need pit bulls for this seminar? Doesn't the use of pit bulls help feed the fear mongering that pit bulls are more dangerous? Why not use boxers or collies? OR, could it be that the instructor (Diane Nutter Jessup) needed a dog that had the ability to KNOCK DOWN an adult male police officer to demonstrate how critical it is that you should never be in the prostrate position with a biting dog? OR, was this just another stunt in an effort to show how wonderful pit bulls are?
Spokesman-Review August 3, 1988
