Safia Gray Hussain*
INTRODUCTION
In 2001, Diane Whipple was attacked and killed by her neighbors' two
dogs just steps from her front door.
1 With a combined weight of 233
pounds, the dogs overpowered their owner and mauled Whipple for five
minutes before their owner was able to pull them off and into her
neighboring apartment.
2 The severity of the attack was evidenced by the
scene: Police and paramedics found Whipple lying naked in a pool of
blood, with bloody handprints covering the walls and bits of clothing and
leash littering the floor.
3 Whipple died seventy minutes after surgeons
attempted to repair torn arteries and lacerations up to one and one-half
inches deep in her throat.
4 The horrendous mauling made headlines across
the country and brought public attention to the threat posed by dangerous
dogs.
5
Such serious dog attacks are not uncommon. In Illinois, two children
were critically injured when three pit bulls escaped from a home and
attacked them.
6 In Oklahoma, a three-year-old boy lost his arm to four pit
bulls after reaching through a chain-link fence to pet the dogs.
7 Death
* J.D. Candidate, 2007, Fordham University School of Law. Many thanks to Professor
James Kainen for his guidance. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their
support and patience, and especially for their willingness to listen to numerous accounts of
dog attacks.
1. Michael Pefia et al., Powerful Dogs Maul Woman, Kill Her: S.F. Neighbors' Pets
Lunged Down Hallway, S.F. Chron., Jan. 27, 2001, at Al, available at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f-/c/a/2001/01/27/MN 1 39736.DTL.
2. Id.
3. 1d.
4. Id.
5. See Marco P. della Cava & Anita Manning, Killer Dogs and the Human Factor,
USA Today, Feb. 1, 2001, at ID; Ron Harris, Fatal Mauling Has Dog-Loving City in
Uproar, Chi. Sun-Times, Feb. 4, 2001, at 7, available at 2001 WL 4611281; Stephanie
McCrummen, Senseless: Manhasset Native Mauled to Death by 2 Dogs in California,
Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.), Jan. 29, 2001, at A3; Evelyn Nieves, A Bizarre Dog Attack
Shakes San Francisco, N.Y. Times, Feb. 1, 2001, at A14.
6. Marauding Pit Bulls Attack Six, CNN.com, Nov. 6, 2005 (on file with the Fordham
Law Review).
7. Mick Hinton, Pit Bull Ban Proposed: Lawmaker's Idea Draws Quick Opposition,
Tulsa World, July 17, 2005, at A13.
To view the entire pdf please follow the link....
http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4168&context=flr
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