Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Child Protective Services: Pt 2


I felt like my son didn't matter. That, that dog is more important.
Gerald Eaves, in Pit bull attacks 7 year old

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Revised 10pm March 21

To: US DHHS, Administration for Children and Families
      Region 1: Mary Ann Higgins
      Region 2: Joyce Thomas
      Region 3: David Lett
      Region 4: Carlis Williams
      Region 5: Kent Wilcox
      Region 6: Leon R McCowan
      Region 7:  Patricia Brown
      Region 8: Thomas Sullivan
      Region 9: Sharon Fujii
      Region 10:  Steve Henigson
      Child Welfare League of America, American Humane Association, and dozens of state Child Protective Services officials, and others

One week ago SRUV reported on the pit bull attack on the three-year old daughter of Jonathan Diaz, and his subsequent efforts to protect the dog. We also noted that the Diaz case is far from unique. The attacks listed below, all of which occurred during the week since the previous post, represent only a sampling of the attacks on children. In several of the attacks over the past week, the attacking dog had a known aggressive history.


The roll call of pit bull attacks on children is exploding exponentially.  According to statistics gathered over the last 30 years, 61% of the pit bull attacks on children have occurred in the past 10 years;  37% in the past four years;  24% in the past two years.*

SRUV has struggled to understand why pit bull advocacy groups continue to insist that fighting breeds are like any other dog. And why they continue to place fighting dogs in homes as family pets.

Fortunately, all of the victims of the attacks listed on this page survived. Many of these pit bull attacks are disfiguring attacks, with economic costs ranging to the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars; the human cost is incalculable.


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Related Post: Child Protective Services, Pt 1

Google News: Today's pit bull attacks

* Statistics are from Dog Attack Deaths & Maimings (Mar 8, 2012), published by Animal People.