July 21st, 2010 by Editor

If you’ve been following the spate of Elgin, Illinois “pit bull” “attacks” for the last year or so, you may have found the sheer number of these incidents unbelievable.  You know, unbelievable, as in “too dubious or improbable to be believed.”  If you’ve been following our posts for the last 6 months, you know we have strong suspicions, as do others, that these “pit bull” “attacks” have been set-ups.  After all, it’s more plausible at this point that these “attacks” have been set up rather than that all of a sudden there have been more “pit bull” “attacks” in a little over a year in Elgin than there have been in the last 10.  I’m not a statistician, but based on the low number of dog bites/attacks  in the previous seven or eight years in Elgin, the probability of there being this many “pit bull” “attacks” in the last year as a matter of mere happenstance is bound to be quite low.

The latest “pit bull” incident, which occurred on the evening of July 17, involved Elgin resident Faustino Gonzalez whose “pit bull” purportedly jumped at police officers dispatched to investigate a report of a loose “pit bull.” (Not a loose dog, a loose “pit bull.” I guess bystanders are now breed experts as well, except that “pit bull” is not a breed.)  Both the Daily Herald and the Courier News were quick to point out that the dog was a “pit bull” (though it is unknown what breed the dog actually was), that Gonzalez had been drinking, that the dog “jumped” or “leapt” at officers, and that Gonzalez was an illegal immigrant who had already been deported as a felon.  Read the rest of this entry »

June 26th, 2010 by Editor

Councilman Prigge (and perhaps others on the Elgin, Illinois City Council) must be thinking “Third time’s a charm” after the Daily Herald reported in an article yesterday that Elgin Mayor Ed Schock fought off a “pit bull” “attack” Thursday evening.  I won’t include excerpts from the article, because really, I think Elgin residents have learned by now that some in the media, at least as far as “pit bull” “attacks” go, can’t be trusted.

Indeed, does anybody else find this latest “pit bull” “attack” suspicious?  Here again we have another “pit bull” incident within weeks and even months of prior incidents in Elgin.  And again, the media is reporting it as an “attack” when the dogs in question did not bite, just like the May 28 Festival Park incident wherein the victim was reported as having been bitten, when he was merely scratched.  That alone shows that the media is blowing these incidents out of proportion. (And no, that does not excuse owner irresponsibility should it be determined that the owner was irresponsible.)  Are some in the media that much in the lap of the Elgin City Council?  Are they that much a part of Prigge’s banwaggoning?  Or has the agenda changed now?  Yes, what is the Elgin City Council after now we wonder? Read the rest of this entry »

June 5th, 2010 by Editor

The latest from Elgin2030.

Tony is so right that the media writes what it’s told to write.  Some of the articles coming out about the Festival Park incident sound like press releases instead of investigative reporting.  Still, it is a positive that the council refused to pursue BSL. 

I’m sorry to say, however, that we cannot agree with the push for dog licensure in the city of Elgin, especially after what Councilman Prigge has tried to pull.  To understand why we oppose licensure for dogs, please read a position statement on dog licensure.  

June 4th, 2010 by Editor

Elgin, Illinois, City Council members this week discussed what to do after an incident in which a 9-year-old boy was apparently pinched by one of two “pit bulls” a week ago today in Elgin’s Festival Park.  I say “pinched” because that’s what the Chicago Tribune called it.  Interesting that this incident went from an “attack,” to a “bite,” to a “pinching,” as if the media is now back-pedaling.  Will we soon find out that the dogs, barely out of their puppy phase, were just trying to play with the boy?  It’s also interesting too that while the owner of the dogs, Ms. Sonia Torres, is asking how the dogs got out of their cages while on her property, which sounds like she too thinks they were stolen, the Tribune is reporting today that the dogs “escaped from their cages.”  Yet, this is how the scene was described by the Courier News on June 1:

Torres had left her house to pick up her kids and upon her return found the gates to the dog’s cages open and a hole in her fence.

Sounds like they were stolen, and yet Ms. Torres was charged with having two dogs at large?  Why? Read the rest of this entry »

June 1st, 2010 by Editor

Why do I love the smell of a set-up in the morning?  Because it makes it easier to expose shady wrongdoings which stink to high heaven.  Anyone else getting the feeling that there’s something really rotten in Elgin, Illinois, based on Elgin’s most recent “pit bull” incident?  The Courier News made sure to include a photo in their report today about the two dogs involved in an incident in Festival Park on Friday just so we’d know they were “pit bulls,” though we still don’t definitively know what breed the dogs actually were.  The two dogs were free-roaming on Friday, when they were found a mile from their home.

Read the rest of this entry »

May 31st, 2010 by Editor

Update, June 1, 2010: According to a media report, it appears that the dogs in question were free-roaming through no fault of the owner.  The dogs were discovered missing from their cages upon the owner’s return home and there was an apparent hole in the fence.  As the owner herself has said, there should be a full investigation into this incident, including finger-printing of the empty cages and the hole in the fence, to determine the culprits of this crime and just who it was who put that 9-year-old boy’s life in jeopardy. 

The people in Elgin, Illinois, must be thinking, “Here we go again!” after the Daily Herald reported yesterday on another supposed “pit bull” incident in which a boy, 9, in Elgin’s Festival Park was bitten by one of two free-roaming supposed “pit bulls.”  Naturally, Councilman John Prigge is chomping at the bit and will almost certainly try to get something breed-specific passed, moving against the will of the majority of Elgin’s citizens again.  Prigge is like the Terminator; he won’t stop until, I guess, he sees a lot of dead dogs. (And isn’t that what breed-specific laws always amount to: a lot of dead dogs?)  Read the rest of this entry »

April 16th, 2010 by Editor

April 14th, 2010 by Editor

The Chicago Tribune seems to have waited until today, which also happens to be the day the Elgin City Council convenes, to publish the article, Elgin’s new animal law won’t cover 2 recent dog bites.  The article is about just that: two recent incidents involving dogs in Elgin.  Funny, because the Courier News reported on these incidents almost 10 days ago in their Police Blotter.  So why now Tribune?

Also of note is that while the Courier News reported that one of the dogs in question in one of the attacks was a “loose dog of unknown breed,” the Tribune reported that the dog was a “pit bull mix.” Even more curious is that Kristie Hilton, who identified herself as an employee of the Elgin Police Department, posted on Facebook saying the dog in question was a Rhodesian Ridgeback/Boxer mix (two breeds commonly and erroneously called “pit bulls”).

But the final cherry on this lying, smearing crap of a sundae is that Councilman John Prigge will almost certainly use this fabrication to start pounding the “pit bull” ban drum yet again.  He promised as much after expressing hope that there would be another incident:

We need to have another occurrence to happen…and then there’s no turning back.

We predicted there would be some fabricated “pit bull” attack, the pretense of which would be used to push a breed-specific amendment to Elgin’s existing animal control ordinance. (And the other incident supposedly involved a Rottweiler, so will Prigge add even more breeds to his breed-specific hit list?)  The Lord knows how much we wanted to be wrong, but since we’ve seen this modus operandi time and time again, we knew it would happen just this way. 

There is no doubt now that Elgin is a target city for breed-specific legislation (BSL).  So, does that mean Prigge has been promised something (like say a generous campaign contribution for the next political office for which he intends to campaign) by the cockroach powers that be if he can get BSL passed?  This is, after all, Illinois, home of Al Capone, pay-to-play politics, and corrupt government.  Would any of us be surprised?   It also wouldn’t be the first time the Tribune has engaged in a smear campaign against “pit bulls” to aid in the passage of some onerous legislation like a breed ban.    

March 17th, 2010 by Editor

In the March 16, 2010, Daily Herald article Elgin councilman says pit bull laws inevitable, Elgin City Councilman John Prigge once again puffs himself out like a blowfish and gives full rein to his bravado.  He says:

I do believe something’s going to happen…I think it’s inevitable. I just pray to God it’s not a tragedy…We need to have another occurrence to happen – hopefully it’s not a tragedy – and then there’s no turning back.

“We need to have another occurrence to happen”???  Did he just promise another “pit bull” attack, or is he just hoping for one???  What, is he going to stage one to get his way???  Read the rest of this entry »

March 11th, 2010 by Editor

I’ve had hours now to sit and read various blogs and news articles about how so-and-so or this or that organization defeated the Elgin “pit bull” proposal.  Councilman Prigge — blustery and self-entitled as ever — was the first to say it was he who was removing his own breed-specific proposal from consideration.  Prigge claims he had the votes, but of course, silly rabbit, we know had he had the votes, and had some on the council not had serious misgivings, he would have been there full-throttle pushing his poorly-written, vague and ridiculous breed-specific ordinance to its end.  Read the rest of this entry »