So, I had a rather harrowing experience yesterday morning on transport.
I was at the transport site and all the pets were loaded and I was tallying up the paperwork with the pets and breaking down the numbers by sex in the cab of the box truck. All of a sudden I hear these really loud snapping and breaking noises and the truck starts to shake a little bit side to side. We had a few pits on board and one was a little hyperactive, this is usually normal. Some of the bigger dogs will try to bust out, but they usually give up after a few minutes, so I let it go on for a bit thinking that the dog will settle down. It doesn't and the snapping noises continue. I place my call and report the numbers to HQ and go around back to check on the commotion. I open the door to the back slowly and one of the pits, Lina has indeed broken out of her crate. She actually pulled the metal crate door inwards, bending the metal pegs and snapping off some of the plastic on the crate.
This in itself isn't that big of a deal, I've had dogs do a jailbreak before, all I need to do is get another crate, so I close and lock the door and go find Kris, the shelter manager/transport contact for that transport. I let her know what happened and she tells me to pull around to the crate storage area so we can get another crate. I head back to the cab and go around back of the truck, as I pass the back end of the truck I hear a loud bang and what sounds like frantic scraping noises coming from the back door of the truck. I assume that it's the pit trying to bust out of the back by ramming the back door. I hurry and move the truck to the storage area and Kris meets me there. I pull out a leash for the dog and I open the door.
Kris and I are utterly shocked as we see Lina savaging a cat from another crate! The cat, Pumpkin is in total shock and is sprawled helplessly on its back, mouth agape. Kris looks at me and says, "Do you want to grab the dog or the cat?!" I say, "Dog."...
So, I had a rather harrowing experience yesterday morning on transport.
I was at the transport site and all the pets were loaded and I was tallying up the paperwork with the pets and breaking down the numbers by sex in the cab of the box truck. All of a sudden I hear these really loud snapping and breaking noises and the truck starts to shake a little bit side to side. We had a few pits on board and one was a little hyperactive, this is usually normal. Some of the bigger dogs will try to bust out, but they usually give up after a few minutes, so I let it go on for a bit thinking that the dog will settle down. It doesn't and the snapping noises continue. I place my call and report the numbers to HQ and go around back to check on the commotion. I open the door to the back slowly and one of the pits, Lina has indeed broken out of her crate. She actually pulled the metal crate door inwards, bending the metal pegs and snapping off some of the plastic on the crate.
This in itself isn't that big of a deal, I've had dogs do a jailbreak before, all I need to do is get another crate, so I close and lock the door and go find Kris, the shelter manager/transport contact for that transport. I let her know what happened and she tells me to pull around to the crate storage area so we can get another crate. I head back to the cab and go around back of the truck, as I pass the back end of the truck I hear a loud bang and what sounds like frantic scraping noises coming from the back door of the truck. I assume that it's the pit trying to bust out of the back by ramming the back door. I hurry and move the truck to the storage area and Kris meets me there. I pull out a leash for the dog and I open the door.
Kris and I are utterly shocked as we see Lina savaging a cat from another crate! The cat, Pumpkin is in total shock and is sprawled helplessly on its back, mouth agape. Kris looks at me and says, "Do you want to grab the dog or the cat?!" I say, "Dog." I grab Lina's chest and push her away from Pumpkin, she hadn't clamped down on Pumpkin so that was enough for Kris to quickly grab Pumpkin and get her the hell out of there. Meanwhile, Lina is digging her claws into the metal of the truck bed, trying to get enough traction to overpower my hold on her and get back after the cat. She tries to knock me off balance by ramming against me, but I hold firm. She wasn't even remotely interested in me and completely focused on Pumpkin. Kris returns and clamps her hand down on Lina's mouth and lets me slip the leash around her. On the ground, Lina tries to bolt for the door that she saw Kris take Pumpkin into and I pull back on the leash.
As I'm processing what just happened, I hand the leash off to Kris and tell her that I will not transport that dog because of her break out risk and the fact that she had torn the door off of a cat carrier and pulled out a cat to kill it. It was horrifying an amazing what that dog did. I obtained some water and a towel to clean up the spilled blood and got back on the road.
Reflecting on my way back to the clinic, I put the pieces together and realize that the loud bang and scratching noises I heard on my way to move the truck wasn't the dog trying to break out, but it was the dog throwing the cat against the door and the cat trying to escape with it's life.
I called Kris later that afternoon to check up on Pumpkin. They had managed to get her to a vet quick enough so she could be treated for her wounds, and I saw her this afternoon recovering at the shelter. She looked really well for a kitty that had been viciously attacked by a pit 24 hours ago. Lina, as you might expect was put down later the previous day. I feel sorta bad, because she seemed like a nice enough dog when we loaded her, but yeah, after what happened later on, there was no argument.
That was probably the most intensely fucked up thing that's ever happened to me on transport. I'm just glad that Lina didn't turn on me. 50 lbs of angry pit is no place to be... for anything.
While this was a scary incident regarding a pit, I honestly don't hate or fear them as a whole. I've met too many wonderful, nice pitties on my transporting journeys to chalk one bad one up for an entire group of dogs. One of our techs has a few and they are some of the sweetest most energetic dogs I've met.
I was at the transport site and all the pets were loaded and I was tallying up the paperwork with the pets and breaking down the numbers by sex in the cab of the box truck. All of a sudden I hear these really loud snapping and breaking noises and the truck starts to shake a little bit side to side. We had a few pits on board and one was a little hyperactive, this is usually normal. Some of the bigger dogs will try to bust out, but they usually give up after a few minutes, so I let it go on for a bit thinking that the dog will settle down. It doesn't and the snapping noises continue. I place my call and report the numbers to HQ and go around back to check on the commotion. I open the door to the back slowly and one of the pits, Lina has indeed broken out of her crate. She actually pulled the metal crate door inwards, bending the metal pegs and snapping off some of the plastic on the crate.
This in itself isn't that big of a deal, I've had dogs do a jailbreak before, all I need to do is get another crate, so I close and lock the door and go find Kris, the shelter manager/transport contact for that transport. I let her know what happened and she tells me to pull around to the crate storage area so we can get another crate. I head back to the cab and go around back of the truck, as I pass the back end of the truck I hear a loud bang and what sounds like frantic scraping noises coming from the back door of the truck. I assume that it's the pit trying to bust out of the back by ramming the back door. I hurry and move the truck to the storage area and Kris meets me there. I pull out a leash for the dog and I open the door.
Kris and I are utterly shocked as we see Lina savaging a cat from another crate! The cat, Pumpkin is in total shock and is sprawled helplessly on its back, mouth agape. Kris looks at me and says, "Do you want to grab the dog or the cat?!" I say, "Dog."...