Pit Bull Lofts and The Most Pet-friendly Buildings in Downtown Los Angeles

German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Pit Bulls… Oh My!  —  They are almost always gentle, loving creatures. Almost always.

Large dogs at Alta Lofts
Large dogs at Alta Lofts

For those who want to avoid the story of a pit bull attack, skip to the Pet Friendly Lofts section.  Some will really hate this blog post because it sounds like an angry rant. Maybe it is — because my life has been strongly impacted by a serious injury from another mishandled pit bull down the street. Even so, this is not about bad dogs.  It is about enjoying loft living by preventing injury and death caused by dangerous dogs with dangerous owners. #petfriendly

While anyone with children and small pets will likely understand what I’m saying, some readers will get defensive and aggressive like an angry wolf. I saw how Alta residents reacted when I recently discussed this topic on the Alta Lofts Community Yahoo Group.  First, the lady who dropped her pit bull’s leash, letting the dog loose at Alta (because she had other more important matters to attend to) apologized to me in person (after she was caught on video breaking the HOA rules). Later, she would sadly show her true colors.  #lofts #dtla

Safety with dogs is about the dog handler
Safety with dogs is about the dog handler  —  Corey in Los Angeles, 1973

After I mentioned online that Alta homeowners should think twice about tacitly approving of guard dogs, large aggressive dogs and fighting breeds, the mishandling pit bull owner saw the post urging safety HOA rules enforcement.  She began attacking me personally, blaming me, even absurdly accusing me of attacking a pit bull. The truth is that my puppy and I were attacked by a pit bull that ran up to us as we were simply walking 15 feet away, bit me and mauled my chihuahua.

After the pit bull horrifyingly ran up and began biting us, the “gentle” beast attempted a classic pit bull lock grip on my small dog.  The enormous mouth of the leaping pit bull bit down on my puppy causing him to scream in agony. I knew I had to use all of my might to push back in order to save my pup.  It worked, I was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.  Without my extreme force to destabilize the pit bull at that point, the horror scene would have ended with my puppy’s slow, painful death in the jaws of the pit bull. It’s painful to imagine. Loving lap dogs are killed like this all the time.

Because I persisted for several days discussing Alta’s unusual acceptance of aggressive dogs on Alta Lofts Community Yahoo Groups, the mishandler’s friend joined in to attack me personally, even trying to attack my real estate career.  Then another Alta Yahoo Groups reader, a former client, complained that I was ranting, and demanded that I stop discussing it on the Alta lofts community forum.  Thank God I have my own blog where I can rant as much as I want because these are life-or-death topics.  Thanks for reading and caring.  Please tell us what you think and leave a comment.

While I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE large dogs, and have usually owned large dogs, my thoughts are with the owners of small pets.  They have the most to lose from mishandled big dogs. The irresponsible pet-owners are the primary danger.

Wikipedia agrees with me as the dog fatality page linked below has a huge amount of research. It clearly shows that large, fighting breeds and guard dog breeds require special handling and the right environment that they don’t always get.

The ultimate problem is the dog handlers. When pit bull owners carelessly put down the leash, their “gentle” giants sometimes attack, injure and kill neighbors, small women, children and especially small pets like my puppy-baby Zzyzx the Wuppy.  The dog handler (and often property owner such as the HOA) is liable for allowing their property to lead to any injury or damages.

I may or may not tolerate pit bulls, but Mutant Spider Dogs are defiantly out of the question!
I may or may not tolerate pit bulls, but Mutant Spider Dogs are defiantly OUT OF THE QUESTION at Alta Lofts!!

Now, back to getting serious. Forget about offering sympathy or not for my worsening injury. That is not the point of this “rant.” The point is about safety, and preventing attacks that result from ill-equipped dog handlers and human error.  Putting down the pit bull leash is a warning sign that the pit bull is not being handled correctly, and possibly has not been trained correctly. That mishandled pit bull is more likely to be one of the few that will attack and cause serious injury or death of a small loved one.

Pit Bulls and Mastiffs lead the way with the largest number of deaths.  Even though pit bulls cause a disproportionate number of deaths, they should not be singled out unfairly.  HOAs should be concerned with ALL dogs capable of killing a neighbor or pet. This includes large guard dogs, large-aggressive, dogs and large fighting breeds. The focus also needs to be on the dog owners and handlers. Homeowners associations such as Alta Lofts that allow the fighting breeds should think twice, and should check with their HOA insurance carrier to see what the insurance company says about dogs on the property.

Find 823 references to fatal dog attacks at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_States

Dogs and lofts can live happily ever after.

Pet Friendly Lofts
Pet Friendly Lofts

PET-FRIENDLY LOFTS

Alta Lofts is not the only building with plenty of dogs.  Get a free list of pet-friendly buildings in Downtown Los Angeles. Fill out the online form:

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Corey with large aggressive dog
Corey with large aggressive dog. Los Angeles, 1974

About the Author:  In addition to being the publisher of the L.A. Loft Blog, Corey Chambers is a life-long animal lover.  While always placing people first, Corey has helped to train and handle award-winning show dogs, including large, aggressive dogs for more than 45 years. Tell Corey what you think.

 

Copyright © This free information provided courtesy L.A. Loft Blog and LAcondoInfo.com with information provided by Corey Chambers, Realty Source Inc, BRE#01889449 We are not associated with the homeowner’s association or developer. For more information, contact (213) 880-9910 or visit LAcondoInfo.com Licensed in California. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. Properties subject to prior sale or rental. This is not a solicitation if buyer or seller is already under contract with another broker.  |  COMMENT

Downtown Dog Dangers: Elevator Leash Hanging – Don’t Let This Happen to Your Pooch

Downtown Los Angeles has plenty of dangers for people and pets, and some of them are less obvious, but more deadly than others.

Preventing Downtown disasters - Elevator dog leash safety
Preventing Downtown disasters – Elevator dog leash safety

Pet-friendly tall loft buildings and high-rise towers with views are awesome places to live, but they have their hidden dangers. Residences have had fingers broken by elevators doors, and worse. Dogs have no way to understand the inherent dangers of elevators, so they need extra protection around elevator doors in the form of extra caution, especially when they have a leash around their neck.  #petfriendly #dtla #lofts

Zzyzx the wuppy enjoys a rawhide after surviving another harrowing ordeal
Zzyzx the wuppy enjoys a rawhide after surviving another harrowing ordeal

Zzyzx the wuppy has nine lives, but not all dogs are so lucky.  The intelligent, human-like little pup has survived being abandoned on the street, nearly starved to death, high drops onto his face, being slammed in heavy closing doors, agonizing back problems, near misses by speeding cars, even a mauling by a pit bull.  The aggressive, expressive chihuahua mix makes it abundantly clear that he hates to be left at home alone, so he is sometimes brought with along to showings of lofts in Downtown Los Angeles.

SB Grand Building
SB Grand Building

Just a couple weeks ago, Zzyzx was walked into an elevator at the SB Grand amid a dumb mistake by his master trying to carry a ladder onto the elevator at the same time.  This led to a disastrous distraction as it caused Zzyzx to walk out of the elevator just as the door was closing.  The door could have closed on him, hurting his thin, fragile bones. But, the instant that I saw the door closing onto the leash as I was in the elevator holding the other end of the leash, I could tell that my loving puppy’s life was in serious danger, and I would give my right arm to save him.  I jumped toward the elevator buttons, thinking about how the elevator will go up and pull my little lap dog with thousands of pounds of force, and possibly a truly horrible outcome. I also knew that finding the right button that would successfully open the door would only be hit and miss proposition, as I use elevators in 75 different Downtown buildings daily, and often fail to press the right button at the right time only to have the elevator take off to an unknown floor to pick up a passenger.  Extremely scared, I looked for a stop button. There was none.  In a flash, I pressed the emergency call button and poked what was hopefully the door open button.  I did not expect it to work.  I feared for the worse as a vision of my puppy-baby’s mangled body flashed in my mind.  Anything could happen. Luck has is that the door opened because nobody had called the elevator.  Zzyzx was safe.

After that scary event, I took to Youtube when I got home to find that my fears were unfortunately correct.  While most dogs that get their leash trapped by an elevator door survive after the leash is snapped by the forceful elevator car pulling on the snagged leash, some dogs are hanged to death when the elevator car pulls the dog up to the top of the doorway and the dog sometimes gets stuck there to strangle.  If the door had not opened for me and Zzyzx, he would have been pulled up 7 feet into the air, then dropped onto concrete when the leash snapped, injuring him, or worse.  Thank God he survived yet another harrowing ordeal. It is hoped that this tale helps to prevent harm to anyone’s loving pet.

The L.A. Loft Blog recently helped prevent financial disasters by putting a local fraudster behind bars after some powerful blog posts, and hopefully, this article will help prevent a hairy pal from getting hanged.

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Extra care is required for leashed dogs in elevators
Extra caution is required for leashed dogs in elevators

Copyright © This free information provided courtesy L.A. Loft Blog and LAcondoInfo.com with information provided by Corey Chambers, Realty Source Inc, BRE#01889449 We are not associated with the homeowner’s association or developer. For more information, contact (213) 880-9910 or visit LAcondoInfo.com  Licensed in California. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. Properties subject to prior sale or rental. This is not a solicitation if buyer or seller is already under contract with another broker.