Vicious dogs have been busy since the last Death and Excuses post. Get comfy, this is a long post.
Rita Pepe, age 93, of Branford CT was attacked by a pit bull owned by a family friend on April 13th. Mrs. Pepe was out for a walk when she was attacked. She died of complications of her injuries on May 25th. Per the New Haven Register "
The April 13 police report states that after Booker’s owner, Matthew Radulski, took the dog for a walk, he walked back inside his house. He reportedly told police that once he took the leash off of Booker the dog ran out the back door. Police state that Radulski ran after the dog and discovered a group of people standing at the corner of Harbor Street and McKinnel Court, just steps from his house. The group was yelling for help and Radulski told police he saw Booker circling Rita Pepe. Radulski added that he was forced to strike Booker over the head numerous times with a rock in order to get him away from Pepe.
Booker's owner, and a family friend of Rita Pepe told reporters that he was devastated but"it's just one of those freak things."
Booker had been adopted from the town's Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter last September. Laura Burban, Shelter Director would not comment when asked if Booker had been euthanized. The original listing for Booker stated "he is a friendly dog who loves to play." Shelter staff stated he "never expressed a propensity for violence and underwent extensive evaluations conducted by staff and trainers." Booker was returned to the shelter after the attack.
Rita Pepe
Laura Burban, Director of the Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter is on record with this victim blaming statement
"One of the hardest things to do is to rehabilitate a vicious animal," says Laura, who was once attacked by a pit bull. "It's hard to find trainers, facilities; people who'll adopt. It's easier to euthanize…than sit at a computer for five hours and find a place for that pit bull with an attitude. But it can be done and then other shelters will see they can do it, too."
Ms. Burban described the attack on Pepe in this quote from the
Branford Eagle "
Burban, who is well-trained in dog behavior, said the dog “was focused on that woman. And later I found out she was walking with a cane. I wonder if he felt threatened because of the cane, that the cane was a threat and he went after the cane. I just don’t know what was going through his head.”
As for the 911 calls describing the dog as biting other people, she said the dog was lunging after the two men who intervened to save the woman’s life. The rescuers fended off the dog. Booker did not bite them though it may have appeared that way to witnesses.
One more outrageous quote from Shelter Director Burban "
One of the sons with whom we spoke said: “I don’t know what triggered the dog to act. With that breed anything is possible.”
Burban disagreed.
“Everyone is focusing on his breed. This was a dog issue, not a breed issue,” Burban said. “This was specifically his issue. What people don’t recognize is that there are golden retrievers and yellow labs that bite every day and don’t get this kind of media attention,” she said.
“Do they do the same damage? If you looked up some of the stories you would see that golden retrievers have killed children and done all kinds of other terrible things. But we never hear about it.”
Here is a link to the Dan Cosgrove Animal Center's mission statement. It begins with the words "to protect the public" but it appears that the safety of the public is not Mrs. Burban's concern. What did Burban do with Booker? Why is Burban making public policy decisions given her personal commitment to saving known dangerous dogs, in this case a dog that has killed a human?
This is Booker, if you see this dog call your local police.
* * *
6/8/14
Springfield Twp Michigan
Holden William Garrison, age two and a half months, was attacked by a family dog. Holden was transported to a local hospital and airlifted to William Beaumont Hospital where he died.
At the time of the attack Holden was being held by an 18 year old uncle who was sitting on a couch. The dog, identified as a Catahoula Cattle Hound, jumped on the couch and was pushed off. The dog jumped back onto the couch and attacked the infant's head and neck. Interestingly, the dog's name was "Precious." It appears that Precious has been euthanized.
William Garrision
* * *
7/20/2014
Dayton Ohio
Jonathan Quarles Jr., age seven months, was killed by his step grandmother's pit bull. For more information
please see this post. The dog had a recent history of attack. On April 25th Montgomery County Animal Resource Center employees responded to a complaint that a postal service employee had been attacked by the dog. "
“…A large dog came from around the right side of the house and charged the letter carrier,” USPS spokesman David Van Allen said in an email. “The dog tried to bite the carrier’s leg, but the carrier was able to get his mail satchel between his leg and the dog, preventing being bitten.”
Kimico Hardy, the owner of the pit bull was cited for failing to have a license and was given education. Hardy bought a license for her dog 5 days later. It appears that the "education" given to Hardy did not change much. On June 3rd neighbor Isabell Crickmore was walking her Beagle past Hardy's house when the pit bull ran out of the house and attacked the Beagle. Crickmore's dog required eleven staples to his leg. Hardy did not pay the vet bill. Mrs Crickmore stated of the attack that killed Jonathan Quarles Jr.
“It could’ve all been avoided,” “Something needs to be done. That dog definitely needs to go for sure now.”
Isabelle Crickmore, complained that the same dog attacked her Beagle.
Mrs. Crickmore is correct. HB 14, the law that sold to the Ohio Legislature as "finally giving dog wardens the tools to deal with dangerous dogs" should have triggered action after the first attack, and again after the second attack. Even after two documented attacks Hardy's dog had never been designated as dangerous by County Dog Warden Mark Kumpf, a huge supporter of HB 14. "It could have been avoided."
Two previous attacks by this pit bull did not trigger action by Montgomery County Dog Warden Mark Kumpf. The third attack killed a baby.
Homicide detectives are working the case.
Historical note, no charges have ever been brought in the Dayton Ohio mauling death of Klonda Richey, killed by her neighbor's dogs in February. Richey had dozens of complaints against the dogs.
* * *
7/20/14
Riverview Florida
Four year old Logan Sheppard was killed by two pit bulls owned by his aunt and uncle. Logan and his mother Stephanie Grouix, had walked to the home of sister. Logan was given a bowl of ice cream while the adults went into another room to smoke pot. A fifteen year old relative was in charge of babysitting. The pit bulls were reportedly put into a pen in the yard.
Neighbors doubt this, they report that the dogs were frequently loose on the fenced property. When the adults heard Logan scream they realized that he was no longer in the house. Logan's screams also drew the attention of police, nearby conducting a traffic stop. When police arrived the pit bulls were standing over Logan's body. Logan was dead at the scene.
Logan's family also owned pit bulls, his father had three pits.
His mother identified herself on her Facebook page as a proud pit bull owner. The death was ruled an accident, there will be no charges. The Lexus Project was unable to file papers in time to save these dogs,
the dogs were put down.
Logan Sheppard
* * *
7/23/2014
Metamora MI
Forty six year old Craig Sytsma was attacked by two Cane Corsos with previous bite histories as he was jogging. A neighbor who was cutting his grass told police he waved to Sytsma as he jogged by and on his next pass with the mower
he saw Sytsma in a ditch being mauled by the dogs. Police were called to the area for a complaint of gunshots fired but found that a neighbor had fired a gun to scare the dogs off their victim. Craig Sytsma's last words per the first responder giving CPR were "I'm bleeding out, I'm dying." Sytsma was transported to a local hospital but did not survive. The dogs were taken to Lapeer County Animal Control. Per the Detroit Free Press "
One of two dogs that fatally mauled a Livonia man this week as he jogged along a road in southern Lapeer County had been involved in at least one prior attack, according to a woman who said she sued the owners after being bitten two years ago" ".She said she filed a lawsuit against the owners, which has been settled. She said the owners have no fence around their house, which was one of the stipulations in the lawsuit."
Valbonica Lucaj in court. Sebastiano Quagliata in court.
The story becomes more complicated. The owners of the Cane Corsos, a married couple, she from Albania, he from Italy, both were in the country illegally. Valbona Lucaj paid an immigration official a $3000 bribe for granting her asylum, her husband arrived in this country as a tourist and simply never left.
Deportation proceedings against the couple have been underway since 2005. Apparently the previous attacks have largely been ignored by local officials. Per the
Detroit Free Press "
In the two years leading up to when their dogs mauled to death a jogger, a Metamora couple faced little legal consequences as their dogs attacked and bit walkers and terrorized the neighborhood, according to records obtained by the Free Press. Indeed, when Valbona Lucaj, 44, and Sebastiano Quagliata, 45, were issued two civil infraction tickets in 2013 after their dogs charged an older man and bit him in the leg, they didn’t show up for court. Ultimately, they paid $280 in fines, and the case was closed. A Free Press review of police, court and animal control records, along with interviews of neighbors, found authorities took little action in the face of a growing menace."
Craig Sytsma
The couple has been charged with second degree murder. A total of three adult Cane Corsos owned by Lucaj and her husband have been euthanized. Eight puppies of the same breed were taken from the property but will not be euthanized. They are expected to be transported to a
Cane Corso Rescue in Texas. The offspring of dogs so vicious that they were implicated in multiple attacks and a fatal mauling, what could go wrong? Per MichiganLive "
Investigators sought out several prior people who purchased puppies from the couple and succeeded in talking with several.
One man said he purchased a dog roughly seven weeks before the incident and, according to police reports, Quagliata made several statements to him including:
- "Quagliata would not refer to himself as a breeder but stated that he (had) been doing this for 10 years."
- "Quagliata stated that these were aggressive dogs and he raised them to be very aggressive."
- After an inquiry to see the parents of the puppies, "Quagliata declined the request stating that nobody can get close to them. Quatliata made reference that if anyone gets on his property, they don't leave."
Texas really needs these puppies.
Animal Control is paid to protect the safety of the public. Incompetence, or reluctance to do the actual job led to the death of this good man.
* * *
8/4/2014
Madison Twp Ohio
Cindy Whisman, age 59, was killed in her own back yard by her adult daughter's pit bull. Mrs. Whisman was babysitting for her daughter's child at the time of her death. Neighbors witnessed the attack, one came to her aid
brandishing a walking stick to beat the dog back but Whisman was dead at the scene. For more information on this attack please click
here.
Pit bull owner Julie Whisman, daughter of the deceased. Julie had second thoughts about signing off on the euthanization of her pit bull. Thankfully common sense prevailed.
Polo was euthanized 8/7/2014.
Historical note, this is the ninth dog mauling fatality in the state of Ohio since the passage of HB 14 in 2012. In the previous 25 years Ohio had six fatal dog attacks. HB 14 was sold to the Ohio Legislature as the way to "finally give dog wardens the tools to deal with dangerous dogs." Epic fail.
* * *
8/7/2014
Fanning Springs Florida
Joel Chirieleison, age six, was killed by two pit bulls owned by his aunt. The child was staying at the home of his aunt, Heather Claar, along with his grandfather who lives in Ohio but was in Florida on vacation.
Joel had gone outside to play. Claar's pit bulls had been let out in the yard and Claar was preparing to visit other family. It was reported that Joel was out of his aunt's sight for 10 to 15 minutes. Claar looked outside and saw Joel on the ground. The child was dead at the scene. A total of six dogs were removed from the property, the two pit bulls suspected of the attack, and four others found in pens on the property. There were no witnesses to the attack. Joel was not a stranger to the pit bulls and had been around them regularly. There have no reports of problems with any of the dogs. For video please click
here.
Joel Chirieleison.
* * *
8/9/2014
St. Charles County MO
Deriah Solem, age 22 months, was attacked by the family pit bull on 8/7/2014, she died on 8/9/2014 at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. The 80 pound pit bull mix had no recorded bite history but the family stated that the dog had become aggressive. The pit bull had been shut in a back bedroom while Deriah's grandmother fed her and her two brothers. It is unclear how the pit bull got out of the bedroom or why it attacked the toddler. Deriah was bitten in the face, neck, back, and abdomen. The grandmother, while attempting to assist Deriah, was also injured, she lost the tips of two fingers on each hand. The grandmother shouted to the boys, ages 5 and 8, to get out of the house in case the pit bull turned on them too. The boys ran to the home of the next door neighbor, Jonathan Banta. Banta stated "
“I ran over to the house, and the dog was on top of the little girl, and her grandma had her hands around the dog’s neck trying to pry it off,” he said.
Banta had left his cellphone at home and said he was unable to use the grandmother’s because in her panic she couldn’t remember her password, so he ran back home and told his fiancee to call an ambulance.
“I grabbed a steak knife – that’s all I could find at the time — went back over there, and the dog still wouldn’t get off, so I stabbed it multiple times." For video of an interview with Banta please click
here.The 10 year old pit bull was euthanized per family request.
* * *
8/13/2014
Goulds Florida
Javon Jade Jr., age 4, was killed by a pit bull owned by his father. Police were called to the home for a missing child report. Javon's body was found in the fenced yard, his teddy bear was sound near the body. Per
CBSMiami "
Neighbors told CBS4’s Gary Nelson that the boy was staying with his father, Javon Dade, Sr. in the home and the family had at least two dogs who they described as being very aggressive. They said when the family’s dogs were out in the yard they didn’t go near the fence.
“They always bark so we try to keep them away because they’re pit bulls,” neighbor Janet Howard said."
Goulds is located in Miami-Dade County and pit bulls are banned there. Miami-Dade Animal Services went into breed misidentification overdrive naming the male dog a pit bull and five other dogs on the property as "
terrier mixes," and later
American Bulldog x Lab mixes,
Terrier x Boxer mixes.
The family had been living on the property for only a few months, the landlord stated that the dogs were on his property without his knowledge and when he became aware of the pit bulls last week they were ordered out within seven days. After Javon's death the dogs were taken to the Miami-Dade Animal Services shelter where Dahlia Canes showed up to make a statement of defence for the pit bulls.
Here are the dogs, they are all pit bulls. Get real. The male is a pit bull, two of the dogs are females and three are puppies. You can't get American Bulldog x Lab mixes or Terrier x Boxer mixes from a cross that includes a pit bull as the sire.
Head pit bull advocate in Miami-Dade, Dahlia Canes had this to say "
“It is not about the breed,” said Dahlia Canes, the director of the Miami Coalition Against Breed Specific Legislation. “Every dog is an individual just like we are. They should evaluate them as individuals.”
We will talk about Ms. Canes statement a bit later.
For video please click
here.
* * *
We are going to take a short detour to get a bit more understanding of Canes statement about evaluating the dogs as individuals and not considering their breed, their DNA, their genetic heritage.
This is an Ohio blog and two of the fatalities in this post were in Ohio so we will start here. A recent
Newark Advocate article was written about the efforts of Andrea Langley, pit bull advocate, of Heath Ohio who has recently created a change.org petition to the Licking County Commissioners to "stop euthanizing every pit bull entering the Licking County Shelter after three days. Allow them to be adopted. Allow rescue organizations access to any pit bull."
Now there are some sticky spots in Mrs. Langley's request. The Licking County Dog Warden, John Silva, stated that while state law mandates a 72 hour hold the shelter does not euthanize strays until five days have elapsed, the average is six days. The shelter has a 91% live release rate and industry standard considers any shelter with a 90% live release to be "'no-kill." In addition, pit bulls may be returned to their owners, puppies and young dogs are released to rescues. Silva went on to say "However, we do not put pit bulls up for adoption. The liability is obvious. Since the department has no way of knowing the history and training of older pit bulls, they are not adopted out from the shelter. News reports from across the state and nation still support the pit bull's reputation as often harming, mauling, or killing people." "You go back to risk management. We were founded for public safety."
How refreshing, a dog warden doing his job. Silva provided a chart showing stats for 2013 and 2014 to date. So far this year 14 pit bulls have been euthanized at the Licking County Shelter and 6 have been released to rescues. These numbers do not appear to require hysteria or petitions. Licking County County Commissioners are reluctant to change a policy that serves to protect the residents of Licking County.
Langley is not persuaded and this quote comes from the Newark Advocate " Langley maintains that all dogs can have a tendency to bite and that the local shelter is unfairly targeting pit bulls. "They're killing perfectly nice dogs. If the state of Ohio can change its stance (on pit bulls), I would think that a dog pound would too." Langley made no reference to the victims of pit bull attacks.
I wondered if Langley's omission of the recent deaths by pit bull attacks was unique to her viewpoint so I dug a little deeper.
Florida has two pit bull fatalities listed above.
Pit Bull Awareness of Florida has a Facebook page. Was there a discussion of what might be going wrong with seven pit bull fatalities in the United States since the end of May? Why no, nothing mentioned.
Central Florida Pit Bull Rescue has a page. Nothing here either.
Ohio has two pit bull fatalities listed above.
The Lucas County Pit Crew has a Facebook page. Nothing here but endless listings for available pit bulls.
The Cincinnati Pit Crew has a Facebook page. Nothing here but more listings for available pit bulls and fundraising events.
Pit bulls for Reynoldsburg has a Facebook page. Lots of complaints about Reynoldsburg City Council's recent vote to keep the breed ban but absolutely no mention of victims. Interestingly, the father of a four year old girl killed by a pit bull earlier this year made a comment on this page recently. His comment was deleted by the page administrator but a comment made in response to him was retained.
Animal Guardians for a Prosperous Parma has a Facebook page. This group also challenged a breed ban this year and lost. More complaints about the failure of City Council to listen to their "facts" but no mention of the suffering of victims.
Surely advocates on the national level would be more introspective. But no,
here is a link to Ledy Vankavage, lawyer and registered lobbyist for Best Friends Animal Society rejoicing over her pit bull win in Delaware. Here is her quote "
Whoohooo! Yesterday was a great day for Delaware dogs and cats. Our Best Friends Animal Society bill to get rid of the stigma of "dangerous" was signed into law along with 3 other bills. Governor Jack Markell and his team rock!"
Delaware
SB 425, signed into law 7/31/2014 now allows game bred, pit trained and tested pit bulls seized from dog fighting operations to be individually evaluated and placed with families as pets. Will these pit bulls be microchipped? Will the new owner know about the dog's breeding, training, and history? Who will be financially responsible for these pit bulls? Pit bull advocates seldom meet a pit bull that they do not feel can be rehabilitated. The Huffington Post article on this bill fails to mention pit bull victims but does mention that Ms. Vankavage has her sights on Michigan for a similar bill. Michigan has been swamped with pit bull attacks in recent months.
Vankavage calls these bills "common sense", she said "Since the Michael Vick dogs, we've learned that every dog should be evaluated as an individual and deserves a chance to be loved."
Innocent children deserve the chance to be grow up loved, healthy, and whole. Babysitting grandmothers deserve the chance to see these children grow up.
* * *
This post is very long so we will only use a few of the classic comments. No other breed requires this level of advocacy. Has anyone ever seen comments like these made about Beagles? Why would anyone think these comments were appropriate for news stories about the deaths of children and a grandmother?
Rumor has it that Have_Some_Common_Sense is a new identity for Clay Hundenshire, he also uses Fast Eddie, and Snowbird, plus heaven knows how many others. Clay sees a mauling death in breed ban area as a failure of the law. No, it indicates that pit bull owners do not obey laws and it perfectly illustrates the wisdom of the law. People die.
CHARLY
Youre right Christina evan though i dont own a pitbull i can see its just more media propaganda.better news if its a pitbull and did everyone forget the MIX part of this story wonder what else it was mixed with maybe on of the more loved killers lol