“’It’s crazy,’ Roland said, sighing. ‘I don’t walk outside anymore. No way.’” That’s a quote from an latimes.com’s article, Dallas has a stray dog problem — about 9,000 of them. And some killed a woman. And so . . .
Across the low-income, predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods of southern Dallas, so many stray, sometimes vicious dogs roam the streets that many residents have given up on going outside without a bat or pipe for protection. Some carry pepper spray, others ride in golf carts to outpace the canine cliques.
You may notice what’s missing from that list: firearms. Pepper spray? Sure. Excellent choice. Bat or pipe? Maybe not the best thing to carry in a high crime area given police patrols and all. And I wouldn’t want to be bashing dogs with a blunt instrument if I had a choice. But OK. Now if you’re facing this . . .
A tipping point came in May, when at least four dogs fatally attacked Antoinette Brown, 52, in an overgrown lot just across the street from Roland’s home. The mauling was so vicious — fang marks dotted her body and a chunk of her bicep was missing — that a police officer compared it to a shark attack . . .
Essicka Wilson, 40, said heard a desperate scream from outside her red-brick home in southern Dallas in July.
“Stooooooop!” she heard a woman shout. “Get away!”
Another attack. This time the woman survived.
A few days after the mauling, the family of the woman who was bitten dozens of times told Dallas television station WFAA that she had been released from the hospital and would recover.
Four-legged predators. Just another reason why minority communities — where this problem is prevalent — need to exercise their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.