When Wally Roberts saw the mangled body of Deborah Pernell, he knew instantly she had been killed in her bed by his Pit Bull Terrier, Napoleon.
'Debbie's body was all chewed up,' Roberts recalled. 'Her entire face had been chewed away. Her scalp was gone. Napoleon was standing beside the bed. He was covered with blood. There was this look on his face that said, 'I fouled up real bad.''
Napoleon, who paid with his own life for the fatal attack, was of a breed that critics charge are killer dogs beyond redemption. They demand legislation to control them.
Ironically, their unsavory reputation has boosted the popularity of the dogs originally bred to fight each other in pits.
In many parts of the United States, they still are bred to fight and do, although dogfighting is illegal in all states and a felony offense in 26. But, like most victims of attacks by Pit Bulls, Pernell was killed last February in Phoenix, Ariz., by one kept as a pet, not to fight.
'Napoleon was my best friend,' said Roberts, 43, who works at a graphics design studio. He is a physical fitness buff who races mountain bikes as a hobby.
Roberts bought Napoleon in 1981 from a Chicago breeder. Napoleon, who grew to 75 pounds, was registered by the American Kennel Club as an American Staffordshire Terrier, the breed name preferred by the AKC, which opposes dogfighting.
But the Staffordshire is the same breed as the American Pit Bull Terrier, once bred exclusively to fight and still known for its courage, strength and powerful jaws.
'The fighting has got out of hand,' Roberts said. 'A different dog is emerging. Some people are breeding these dogs just to fight. There's too much inbreeding.'
Although Napoleon bit at least two people before he attacked Pernell, 33, who was living in Roberts' home, the dog's owner insists the killing was 'a freak accident.'
'When I came into the bedroom, I thought at first she had blown her head off with my pistol,' Roberts said. 'There was blood all over the place. Napoleon was standing right beside her. He just looked at me like he knew he had blown it. I don't think I'll ever be able to lose that picture in my mind of finding Debbie that way. I have nightmares about it.'
Roberts said he feels remorse but not guilt or responsibility for Pernell's death.
'I met with a priest,' he said. 'He told me to feel the pain but not the guilt. I had nothing to do with what happened.'
Some of the pain Roberts feels is because authorities had to 'put down' Napoleon.
'I miss my dog a lot,' he said. 'He really was my best friend.'
Then, Roberts added, 'Of course, I miss my friend Debbie, too. She was a good lady.'
Robert Baker's specialty for the Humane Society of the United States is tipping off law enforcement officers on when and where dogfights are to be held. It is dangerous undercover work that has taught him a lot about Pit Bull Terriers and the kind of people who own them.
'Attacks on humans are increasing in direct proportion to the growing popularity of the breed,' Baker said in an interview at the Society's headquarters in Washington.
He has no national statistics but is keeping an ever-thickening file folder crammed with accounts of the attacks.
In the latest reported incident, on March 28, Helen Harder, 87, was attacked by a Pit Bull while raking leaves in her yard at Independence, Mo. One of two Pit Bulls leaped a fence from a yard next door and and bit her on the face and throat in an attack that lasted just 30 seconds and left her with a broken leg.
Baker finds it ironic that news coverage of the Society's long opposition to dogfighting has made the Pit Bull Terrier more popular.
'People started buying them for the sole purpose of having the meanest dog on the block,' he said. 'It's a macho thing. The ones who don't fight their dogs own them for the same reasons as the people who do. Because of the growing popularity of the breed, we now find Pit Bulls running around loose and people being torn apart.'
Baker concedes that Pit Bulls may be no more likely to attack humans than some other breeds. 'The problem is the severity of the attacks,' he said. 'When a Pit Bull attacks a human, the damage is devastating.'
Marcellus Hampton died horribly at the age of 11 after tripping while playing on his front porch in Cincinnati and falling within reach of his family's Pit Bull named Buddy, who was chained to the side of the house.
'The dog grabbed him by the head and dragged him up and down the steps,' a witness reported. 'Then the dog had him by the throat.'
Buddy's powerful bite severed the boy's carotid artery, main supplier of blood to the head.
That 1983 killing and other attacks prompted the City Council to approve an ordinance banning the sale of Pit Bull Terriers and requiring that they be kept fenced in or muzzled and on a leash. A proposal that would have banned the breed from Cincinnati was defeated.
Hollywood, Fla., got Pit Bull control legislation after a series of attacks, including an incident in which an elderly woman was left naked and bleeding after her two dogs turned on her. That legislation was overturned in the courts but many other communities now have tough ordinances to control the breed.
Such legislation is bitterly attacked by the breed's supporters, such as Ralph Greenwood of Salt Lake City, president of the American Dog Breeders Association.
His organization, which Baker and others in the Humane Society charge is 'a front for dogfighting,' registers the breed under the name American Pit Bull Terrier.
'Dogfighting is against the law,' Greenwood said, spelling out his organization's official position. 'We don't sanction or encourage anything illegal. We have no way of knowing if the dogs we register are fighters.'
As for his personal view of dogfighting, Greenwood does not consider the practice cruel.
'It's like racing horses,' he said. 'It's been built up into more than it is.'
Pit bulls love to fight, Greenwood insisted.
Fighting dogs have been known to die in the pit with their tails still up and wagging, which some take as evidence that they are bred to a 'blood sport' they love.
Pit bulls do not even growl when they fight, sometimes for several hours. Losers do not always die in the pit but sometimes winners, as well as losers, die of their wounds. Five-time winners are dubbed grand champions and command top stud fees.
Sometimes losers are shot by disgruntled owners. Wounded dogs rarely are taken to veterinarians for fear the owners will be reported.
Greenwood scoffs at Humane Society charges that trainers of fighting dogs attach live kittens to 'catmills' to cultivate blood lust in their animals.
'That's riduculous,' he snorted. 'Can you imagine a boxing trainer taking his fighter to a crippled children's hospital to work out with the kids?'
'You can't make a dog do what he doesn't want to do,' Greenwood said. 'These dogs fight silently. They don't snap and growl. They just fight for the love of fighting.'
Using treadmills to increase a dog's stamina is not cruel, Greenwood said.
'It's just an exercise machine,' he said. 'If it's wrong, it's wrong for you to go to the gym.'
Greenwood blames the press for the breed's poor reputation.
'If an Australian Shepherd kills a baby in a crib, that's one tiny article,' he said. 'If it's a Pit Bull attack, the press makes a big thing of it. There are biting dogs in any breed. If a dog bites, he ought to be put down.'
Greenwood contends Pit Bulls 'are good with children.'
'Ninety percent of dog problems are people problems,' he said. 'If a dog is trained not to be aggressive, he'll be okay.'
As for dogs trained to fight, 'An animal trained to fight one species doesn't go after people,' he said.
Greenwood insists Pit Bulls can make safe pets.
'These dogs aren't for everyone,' he said. 'They have to be trained. Some people couldn't teach Rin Tin Tin to shake hands,'
The staunch defender of the breed said, 'Teddy Roosevelt had one in the White House. Remember 'The Little Rascals' in the movies and their dog Pete. That was a pit bull. Gen. Patton had one in World War II.'
He said the Pit Bull 'has always been a little outlaw animal but a lot of people love him.'
Animal Shelter officials in Aurora, Colo., are seeking court permission to destroy a Pit Bull that recently attacked a 3-year-old boy, seven months after the dog bit a 2-year-old boy and two adults who came to his rescue.
In the second attack, 75-pound Frankie inflicted 30 puncture and rip wounds on the child, who still is in a hospital in fair condition. Three people, including Frankie's owner, face misdemeanor charges in connection with the attack.
Although there was no evidence that Frankie was a fighting dog, the Colorado House recently voted to strengthen its anti-dogfighting measure.
'Outlaw bikers have gotten into dogfighting,' said state Rep. John Herzog of Colorado Springs. 'There's big gambling money. Up to $50,000 can be bet on a single fight.'
Herzog said he hopes the new legislation will lead to the arrest of major dogfighters in Colorado who already have been identified. Under the new law, law enforcement officers would not have to actually witness clandestine dogfights to make arrests.
In Harper, Kan., a man was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and placed on five years' probation last year after his two Pit Bulls mauled to death his 67-year-old neighbor. He was the first person in the state's history to be held criminally responsible for a death caused by a pet.
Evidence disclosed that David S. Reynolds had let the dogs out of his house unattended.
'Judging from the trail of blood and drag marks on Grace Parsons' back,' the prosecutor said, 'they were apparently trying to drag the body home.'
Some of the accounts of Pit Bull attacks disclose heroic attempts by bystanders to rescue victims.
Christine Maestas, 22, suffered bites when she drove away a Pit Bull that mauled a 7-year-old girl in Albuquerque, N.M.
'Cristine realized the dog was dragging the girl down the street,' said her husband, Anthony. 'She ran out and tried to shoo the dog away, but he turned on Christine and started biting her.'
A witness said the dog was dragging the child 'like a rag doll.'
After the child escaped, the woman took refuge atop a parked car.
Don Evert of Medford, Ore., said he broke a 'good solid 2-by-4' over the head of his female Pit Bull named Sprocket in an unsuccessful effort to dissuade her from killing cats. So far, he said, Sprocket has killed about 50.
'She's good with people,' said Sprocket. 'She likes kids.'
The Boston Herald reports attacks by Pit Bulls have become a major problem throughout New England, with more than 50 attacks last year in Boston alone.
'The increase in Pit Bull attacks is staggering,' said John Walsh, director of the World Society for the Protection of Animals. 'In my opinion, owning one is just a form of blatant exhibitionism. These dogs are walking time bombs. Pound for pound, the Pit Bull has greater jaw strength than any animal on earth.'
Chris Greenidge, 25, of Cambridge, Mass., who owns Pit Bulls, agrees with much of the legislation to control the breed.
'There's a lot of riff-raff that owns the dogs,' he told the Herald. 'Many of these people are idiots who get the dogs for the wrong reasons. They shouldn't be allowed to own any pet, let alone a Pit Bull. When you have this breed of dog, you have to be extremely responsible. The dogs are much too formidable to allow the owner to be anything else.'
In the summer of 1983, two pit pulls dragged 11-year-old Jorge Cuartas from his bicycle on a Miami street and bit him more than 100 times. His left foot was nearly severed and had to be amputated.
'If you had seen the injuries,' said the boy's doctor, 'you probably wouldn't have believed they had been done by a dog.'
State troopers caught one of the two dogs soon after the attack. Vaughn Garbarek, director of Dade County Animal Services, said his office was flooded with more than 100 calls a day from people who wanted to adopt the animal.
Animal Control Officer Daniel Smith in Santa Clara, Calif., believes he knows why people want to own Pit Bulls.
'Some people view it as a macho pet,' he said. 'A few people out there want to own the macho dog of the time. At this time, it's the Pit Bull.'
Such people may not know that last year a baby was attacked in his crib by his family's Pit Bull in Davie, Fla.
Daniel Lloyd Smith suffered severe lacerations and several broken ribs. He died at Miami Children's Hospital five hours after the attack. He was nine week old.
The dog's owner, Linda Jacques, spent no time defending the killer. As she put it, 'I wish I could have shot that dog then and there.' adv sun april 7
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He said the Pit Bull 'has always been a little outlaw animal but a lot of people love him.'
