Trends Reviews and Recaps

I recently learned Philadelphia writers and bloggers Jennifer Weiner and Adam Bonin’s dog Wendell was attacked and seriously wounded by a poorly restrained and unattended Siberian husky in the city’s Queen Village neighborhood on Sunday.

As Weiner notes on her blog, SnarkSpot (Bonin’s blog is Throwing Things), the owner of the husky is something of a snake:

He shrugged [off Wendell’s obvious injuries]. “You’ve got a [expletive deleted] responsibility! When you see a dog tied up, you cross the [expletive deleted] street!”

Um, no, actually, sir, you’ve got a responsibility. If your dog goes after other dogs, you put a muzzle on it, or you don’t leave it out where it can get at other dogs.

My sympathies to Jennifer, Adam, and Wendell. An attack like this is traumatizing to a pet owner and when it’s compounded by the stupidity of the other party, it’s nothing less than enraging.

I’ve been through this before. Two years ago in New York a pit bull broke his muzzle, which I swear was no stronger than bailing twine, ran a good 10 feet, and attacked my bulldog, Mildred. All hell broke loose on the corner of 7th Ave. and 18th St., with people screaming and crying and berating the clueless owners of the pit bull. Hell, even the mailman -- and those guys usually hate all dogs -- was in their faces.

As with Wendell’s attack, the gruesome twosome blamed Mildred and me for the incident: “You see a pit bull, man, you stay back, fool.” Gee, I don’t know, I thought 10 feet was far enough, you numbskulls. (Fortunately, Mildred was unhurt. None of the bites broke through her skin. I guess all those folds really are good for something.)

Head over to SnarkSpot for a more thorough run down of this crime, including a description of the husky’s owner. If you live in the area and think you might know this creep, contact Jennifer. He needs to be identified and held responsible.

[Note: This post was published earlier today at The Rittenhouse Review.]