Child Protective Services: Pt 1

You have a family that seemingly put this dog over this girl's safety.
John Welsh, Riverside County Dept of Animal Services

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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

The three year old daughter of Jonathan Diaz was attacked by his brother's pit bull.  The child suffered a "disfiguring bite" and received 150 stitches on the left side of her face. This was the second time the child had been attacked by the dog in two months. The pit bull was unlicensed, unneutered, and Diaz could not provide records of inoculations.

Family members told police the child was attacked by a stray dog, and Diaz removed the pit bull from the house to hide it from authorities. "There was a lot of purposeful misinformation that law enforcement received," according to Riverside County Animal Services.

Diaz is currently in jail awaiting drug charges, and has been arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment.The Diaz case may seem to be a rare, isolated event. Sadly, this is not the truth. (See the links below).

According to the March 2012 Dog Attack Deaths and Maimings, 52% of the disfiguring attacks on children are by pit bulls, even though they comprise only 3.3% of the dog population.*  Many of these attacks come from well-cared for family pets which have not previously demonstrated aggressive behavior.

Why are tragic events involving pit bull attacks on children escalating?

Public sentiment is in favor of stronger restrictions on fighting breeds, yet pit bull advocacy groups protect these breeds and insist they are suitable family pets. Pit bull advocacy groups intimidate legislators with squads of full-time attorneys and massive public relations campaigns. When it comes to fighting breeds, we can no longer depend on conflicted animal welfare groups nor on legislators vulnerable to the powerful pit bull lobby to protect our children.

We must find another way to protect children in homes which harbor fighting breeds; Child Protective Services (CPS) can lead the way. We urge CPS and Family Service organizations to recognize the existence of a fighting breed dog in a family situation as child endangerment.

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Sources: Father arrested pit bull bites 3 yo daughter (Mar 9, 2012)
              Dog bite leads to child endangerment arrest
              Mom arrested after pit bull attack on daughter (Mar 12, 2012)
              Baby fatally mauled by pit bull

Related post: Letter to Oregon Dept of Child Services

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

Google News: Today's pit bull attacks

Shock and Awe

When pit bulls attack the responses expressed by owners fall into one of two categories. Many owners defend their dogs with explanations that, in essence, ignore the reality that has just transpired. Often the owners' explanations deflect the responsibility onto the victim of the attack, suggesting the victim is responsible. This bizarre response is thoroughly documented here.

The excerpts below, collected from recent news stories, are representative of a second kind of response. the stunned acknowledgement of a painful truth.

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"It's crazy! He's never been like this before," she said. Her young granddaughter could be heard screaming in the background. "I don't know why he attacked him. He's never given him a problem. I don't know."
     from Father dies after attack by son's pit bull (now archived by Google News)

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"I feel really weird, upset, complicated, confused. My hands are tied."

     from Pit bull kills boy's pet dog

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“Makes you wonder how you can raise a dog all the way from a puppy and love it and be in the house every day and what would make it turn on its owner.”

    from Pit bull attacks owner

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"He hasn't done this before."

    from Escape Artists

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"I have an emergency. My dog has gone crazy. He's attacked both of us. I need an ambulance. Please, somebody come shoot this dog. . . . "

     from Family Pets

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These raw expressions suggest that the speakers have experienced a transformative experience. The speakers have experienced an unwelcome revelation that has destroyed an underpinning of their faith.

This phenomenon is repeated so often that SRUV is suggesting a term to define the experience: Sudden Acknowledgement Syndrome.

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Related post: Discredited sources

A Prayer

As we have noted elsewhere in these pages, there are a limited number of arguments for advocates to rely on, which we hear over and over.

• Judge the deed, not the breed
• Punish the deed, not the breed
• It's not the dog, it's the owner
• There are no bad dogs; only bad owners
• It's all how they're raised
• and above all, All dogs bite

These phrases are so common that even those who have no interest in dogs are aware of them; they resonate through the collective conscience like advertising jingles, which is what they are. The speakers believe these phrases carry content, but they are bled of all meaning and they are sometimes uttered in the most inappropriate circumstances. They fill a verbal vacuum much the way auto-complete fills in the blanks in your email program.

The use of these phrases has interested SRUV because the speakers believe they still have the power to alter opinion. We have arrived at a point in the pit bull controversy when this kind of speech, consisting almost entirely of phrases plucked from a reservoir of belief, takes the place of original thought. The phrases are repeated until they assume an incantatory, ritualized meaning, and work in the same way a prayer or magic spell is believed to work.

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Just after 9pm on Friday, May 27th,  "Honey" Jubeark ran from her house screaming “Help! He ate my baby! He ate my baby!”

Within minutes after news of Jayelin Graham's death was posted,  pit bull advocates were flooding the internet with comments. Many of the posters seemed disinterested in the child's death and used the occasion to defend their breed of obsession.

I have copied below a comment, and below that, a response to the first comment. (Note: the comment on the Golden Retriever has taken on aspects of an urban myth and is recounted using a variety of breeds including dachshunds.)

• Anthony Barry

no such thing as a bad dog just bad owners.. Pitbulls are beautiful

dogs and a great breed. It takes assholes like this guy to make the

breed look bad. I say we just put him in a cage with a bear and

let the bear rip his head off. Poor child never had a chance with

a monster parent like that.

• Corey Hackett • Burlington, Vermont
it's all about how they're raised/trained. Some of the smartest/
gentlest dogs I know (known) have been Pits and Rotty's...
I work with a woman who was just attacked by a vicious
golden retriver... it's all on their environment...

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These comments were posted in response to a news story about the death of a human child. Nearly every thought in these two comments is a variation of the five statements at the top of this post. Literally thousands of additional posts echo these two.