Crime-Safety-Security
Newsletter
10 June 2008

Folklore and fables – from vampire and wolfman legends to tales of The Brothers’ Grimm – tell us of ogres, fiends, and monsters. Today we call them violent criminals. They’ve always plagued us and – as long as passions, madness, and evil exist – always will. Let’s blow away a predator's biggest advantage: the naïveté of the prey.

Do you know how to deal with a dog attack if ever you need to save yourself or a loved one? Here's how:

125 POUND DOG ATTACKS GIRL
A five year old girl has been hospitalized with severe injuries after suffering a violent dog attack. Selena Burks and several other children were playing when the 125-pound animal attacked. The young girl suffered crushed ribs, a punctured lung and a punctured liver. ... Witnesses say the heroic efforts of an 11-year old boy who kicked the dog possibly spared the girl from suffering further injuries.
Excerpted from WTVY-TV (AL) – 08 April 2008

Margaret Hargrove, 73 years old, was taking her Scottish Terrier for his nightly stroll. Suddenly, a pit bull attacked her dog and clamped its jaws around the terrier's head and Margaret dived into the fray. She had no luck trying to pry the pit bull's jaws apart. "There I was, wallowing in the street on top of two dogs," she said. "I could see my dog dying right there." ... Margaret decided to fight jaws with jaws. "I reached over and bit as hard as I could at the nape of her neck, and she went, ‘Yip!'" she said. The pit bull let go of the terrier and backed off, but came back, fangs flashing. Margaret bit it again. Just then, a neighbor ran up and whacked the dog with a baseball bat. It ran home. "I didn't realize how scary it was until it was over," she said. "Another two minutes and my dog would have been dead." She needed four stitches in her arm, and her dog needed a few, too.
Excerpted from The New York Post – 17 June 2001 [She’s lucky someone with a baseball bat came to her rescue.]

The Humane Society says children are more likely victims because they behave in ways that dogs find disturbing, like running, yelling or making sudden moves, and less likely to be perceived as dominant because of their small size.

10-year-old Kenny survived an attack by a huge Mastiff. As the dog lunged at his throat, Kenny instinctively threw up his arm. The dog latched onto his forearm as Kenny remembered his father's advice, "Plunge your thumb deep into the dog's eye." Kenny burst the dog's eyeball like a grape. The dog released him and fell whimpering to the ground just as Kenny's older brother arrived with a pipe and beat the vicious dog to death.

Usually, a dog's body language indicates it's about to attack by standing still with a stiffly upright tail while barking and snarling. An especially attack-prone dog usually will not back away, and in fact may try to circle around and attack from a different angle.

Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says that our impulse is to run when threatened by a dog. That’s the worst response – it triggers the chase instinct in dogs (and knocking down a runner from behind is easy).

Instead, stand still and act calm. Don't stare into its eyes because dogs consider that an aggressive challenge, so just look in its general direction and watch it with your peripheral vision. Oftentimes it will eventually lose interest and wander away.

Make fists so the dog won't bite off a finger and cross your forearms across your chest. Be ready to protect your most vulnerable anatomy – the front of your torso from your groin to your throat – often a dog's primary target. Let the dog sniff you. In a low voice say, "No!” Stay still until the dog leaves. Back away slowly until it's out of sight.

An ultrasonic dog repellent is useless on a vicious dog, but pepper spray usually works. See www.GuardDog.net.

If a dog does attack you, try to "feed" it your jacket, bike equipment, briefcase, or purse as a distraction while you back slowly away toward safety. If you’re knocked down or fall, curl into a ball and keep your arms wrapped around your ears, face, and neck (with your hands curled into fists). Try not to scream or roll around.

If a vicious dog has clamped onto you, do not try to wrench yourself free – that’ll just add to the damage.

One myth says to use a free hand to grab the dog’s jaw and nose, pinning the nostrils shut. It can’t breathe with its mouth full and nostrils shut, so must release you. Unfortunately, that’ll be a very brief solution – until it immediately resumes its attack. Since a vicious dog can severely injure or even kill you, an aggressive defense may well be necessary.

A second myth says putting your thumb into a dog’s mouth and pressing down on its tongue (while curling your fingers into a fist around its jaw) engages the dog’s gag reflex making it unable to bite down. However, that may well be very dangerous for your thumb.

A passive defense may well be futile, if not deadly. You can strangle an attacking dog by pressing with all your might on the carotid arteries on both frontal sides of its throat (a few inches below its jaw's hinges). Its brain is quickly deprived of blood/oxygen and the dog will go limp within seconds (or die, if held longer). YOU NEED BOTH HANDS with your thumbs pressing while your fingers grasp the back of the dog's neck for leverage.

If you release the limp dog too soon, it will regain consciousness within seconds and perhaps attack again. Thus you may want to first bang its head against a solid surface to knock it out, or break its ribs by ramming its chest with your bent knee, or heel-stomp on its legs to break them so the dog will be less able to attack you further.

In 2002, a stray pit-bull dog attacked a two-year-old Detroit boy and began dragging him down the street. Horrified witnesses tried to intervene but the dog would attack them briefly then resume dragging the child. No police were nearby, six people were hurt, and the child seemed doomed until a passing motorist noticed the commotion, stopped, and shot the dog to death.

If a dog has clamped onto another person or dog, simply use the same grip but now you’ll be behind the dog and your thumbs will be on the back of its neck for leverage while your fingertips press on the carotid arteries.

Make sure you press on the carotid arteries on both frontal sides of its throat, rather than pressing on its windpipe in the center of its throat because that merely chokes it (depriving it of oxygen to its lungs) and takes 30-90 long seconds for the now violently convulsing beast to be rendered unconscious (or dead, if held longer).

What if the dog has already clamped onto one of your hands or arms? IF YOU CAN’T USE TWO HANDS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DOG’S THROAT, try to grab its collar or loose skin to wrestle it to the ground and kneel on its throat. Or, quickest of all, plunge your thumb deep into its eye to burst it! That'll probably stop its attack. If not, to most effectively defend yourself, strangle the beast!

Think of all the dog attack victims throughout history who would’ve benefited from what you’ve just learned in this newsletter.

PAROLE BOARD DECISION
A man who savagely raped and murdered a young woman 40 years ago is gaining more freedom. ... Lionel Llewellyn stopped his car near a bus stop in Calgary in 1968 and asked Robin Beynon for directions. When she leaned into the vehicle, Mr. Llewellyn shot her in the face with a pellet gun. He dragged her into the car and took her to where he raped her. ... "The autopsy said she would have lived through the rape but she choked to death on her panties because he stuffed them down her throat," said a relative. "He stuffed them with such force that it ripped her tongue off the bottom of her mouth." ... The board voted unanimously to continue Mr. Llewellyn's day parole, lift his evening curfew, and remove its requirement that he continue to undergo counseling even though the report states, "The overall picture is that you are personality disordered and at least a moderate to high risk to reoffend in a sexual and/or violent manner."
Excerpted from The Toronto Globe & Mail – 10 April 2008

A predatory killer should remain in a cage as long as the victim remains dead. These blithering idiots are freeing a monster to roam among innocent people. WHY?

Contact Us with any questions, comments, or requests. I’ll answer as many as possible in the next newsletter.

Contact Us for Michael Edward Loftus Sr to speak to your group.

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Pointing out a victim's possible missteps before she fell prey is not always a bad thing, according to Linda Fairstein, renowned author and former New York City sex crimes prosecutor. "If we can learn something from it, we can give her back some dignity," she says. "If we see what the risks are and what would prevent this from happening to someone else, then there's something that benefits the memory of that victim."
Excerpted from The New York Daily News – 24 August 2006

We’d be wise to learn from the little mistakes of victims. Usually, they didn’t know that predators are always hunting for carefree prey. As Dr. Anna Salter wrote in Predators, "Normal, healthy people distort reality to create a kinder, gentler world than really exists."

You don’t need a bulletproof vest, a bodyguard, or to sleep with one eye open – just a new attitude toward being S.A.F.E.:

Skeptical of anyone trying to get near you or trying to isolate you,
Aware of danger zones and escape strategies,
Flexible: being tricky, changing strategies as needed – and if worse comes to worst:
Exploding like a mad dog to fight for your life. Stun & run. See Fighting Options.

Whenever you’re tempted to be careless, ask yourself, "What could possibly happen?" The stories throughout this newsletter and web site show what could possibly happen – and how to avoid being easy prey.

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