Sixteen month old Destiny Marie Knox is dead after being attacked by a dog. The information coming in about the story is spotty, at best, at this point, but here is what we think we know.
Destiny was supposedly staying at a babysitter's mobile home off County Road 87 just outside of New Ablany, MS. The dog was one of at least 5 'pit bulls' on the property that were always left chained up outside. However, the dog somehow slipped out of its collar as the family was bringing groceries into the house, got through the open door, and attacked the young toddler.
While the story itself is tragic, what may be more tragic is the reaction of the officials that were interviewed that are already taling about "legislation" and "dog laws". But none of that will fix the problem we have here.
New Albany, like much of Missisissippi, has a very high percentage of its population living below poverty level (Mississippi as a whole is nearly 20%, New Albany is just below that). And this isn't the first incident of a significant tragedy along this stretch of County road 87 outside of New Ablany. Eighteen months ago, a child was killed due to child abuse along the same county road. Also on the property, which happened to also be a puppy mill, were over 180 dogs -- many of which were also victims of cruelty.
While it is "easy" for officials to blame a particular breed of dog in this incident, it's much more difficult for them to acknowledge a larger social issue at play here -- one that is at play in many parts of the country. In pockets across the US, we have have groups of people who are low-income and poorly educated....and many of these areas suffer a lot from violence. It appears that this stretch of County Road 87 is no different. And while we can talk things like dog breeds, it is really a distraction from the much larger issue -- which is that as a part of the overall lack of education that comes in these poor areas, so follows the lack of education on how we should properly keep our pets. Chaining continues to show itself as a horrible way to keep a dog as its primary form of containment -- and often leads to other issues -- including, often, aggression -- especially among those it has not been socialized with (in this case, a toddler who was not a member of the home).
Until we start realizing tragedies like this for what they are, a small part of a larger social issue, we will never make any progress in solving the problem. Breed of dog does not matter...but how the dogs are cared for does.
My heart goes out to all of the families involved in this tragedy.
I'll post more updates as they become available. At this point, only the Tupelo Newspaper and two of the local Tupelo TV stations are covering the incident, so information is coming in pretty slowly.
The Humane Society of the United States thinks it’s time animals have a representative in the White House — a human one.
Both the society and the Humane Society Legislative Fund are asking the Obama Administration to appoint an Animal Protection Liaison who would work with the executive agencies and Congress to advance animal protection policies.
The liaison would get involved in matters such as protecting dogs from abuse at large-scale puppy mills, enforcing the federal laws against animal fighting and inhumane slaughter and defending the international ban on commercial whaling.
“These are just some of the critical animal protection issues that depend on the active involvement of federal agencies — in fact, there are 18 different agencies that oversee animal welfare!” HSUS says.
“We have developed a change agenda for animals, which outlines 100 immediate steps the Obama Administration can take to help animals — including millions of pets, farm animals, laboratory animals, and wildlife. With your help, we can ensure the Administration is addressing these critical animal protection issues in an ongoing and sustained way.”
The Humane Society is urging people to sign the online petition to ask President Obama to appoint an Animal Protection Liaison.
It was a tough night for local politicians who favored Breed Specific Legislation throughout the country yesterday.
In Whitehall, OH, Jaquelin Thompson was voted out of office on a recall vote with 75% of voters saying she should be removed from office. Thompson was responsible for not once, but twice, trying to ban pit bulls in the community of Whitehall. She was removed from office two years before her term was up. Also in Whitehall, the only other council member who voted in favor of a ban on 'pit bulls' when it came up for a vote last year, Leslie LaCorte, was also voted out of office in favor of Van Gregg. LaCorte got only 41% of the vote.
(Special thanks to my friends at Help Fido for their Twitter updates last night to keep me up to speed on the latest news in Whitehall).
Meanwhile in Sioux City, IA, incumbant Jim Rixner who supported the city's breed ban last fall was voted out of office. Even Rixner admits that the new dog ordinance most likely cost him the election:
"The vote was split because people were angry about dog ordinances and the Chamber's furious effort to make sure I didn't get re-elected," said Rixner, who was running for his second term on council.
Both he and Rappolt received endorsements from labor organizations, but Rixner said he believes a lot of people "plunked" for Rappolt "because they wanted to see the (vicious) dog ordinance changed."
Rixner supported passage of a stricter vicious dog law and endorsed the pit bull ban, defending both votes during the campaign."
These politicians have followed others around the country, in places like Kansas City, MO; Merriam, KS; Raytown, MO; Overland Park, KS; and Omaha, NE who have been voted out of office shortly after their irresponsible dog legislation was passed -- or, after they proposed a ban on particular breeds of dogs in their city and it did not pass.
People are becoming increasingly aware of the realitities of Breed Bans - -and that they are costly to cities, impossible to enforce, ineffective, and not based on rational decision-making. It ignores all science and the public positions of every single nationally-respected organization that has expertise in canine/human interactions.
And because of this, people are beginning to consistently vote politicians out of office who favor this irresponsible legislation. And I've written about it before, but I do think that BSL can serve as a pretty solid litmus test for candidates.
And hats off to the people in these communities who are taking a stand against irresponsible legislation and the politicians who support it. We can make a difference by being involved politically and getting politcians in office who are animal-friendly.
If you're not involved politically, you are no longer a victim of what politicians do to you, you're a participant.
Two brothers accused of burning to death the pit bull who became known as Phoenix will face felony charges as adults.
Travers Johnson and Tremayne Johnson, both 17, appeared Tuesday in juvenile court in Baltimore, where a judge ruled they will be tried as adults, WBAL reported.
The teens are charged with dousing the dog with gasoline, then setting her on fire on May 27 in the 1700 block of Calhoun Street in southwest Baltimore. The 2-year-old pit bull suffered burns over 98 percent of her body.
The dog, rescued by a police officer, died four days later at a Pennsylvania animal hospital. Her death led to the formation of a city task force to review animal cruelty laws.
Attorney Caroline Griffin, who chairs the animal abuse task force, observed yesterday’s court proceedings.
“What impressed me was how seriously the state’s attorney’s office is taking this case, as well as the court. The court listened to testimony for hours,” she said. “Juveniles who commit these type of crimes are just so much more likely to commit violent crime in the future, and I think people are aware of that, and that’s why this case is so important.”
Prosecutors said both brothers were involved with gangs, had chronic truancy issues and previous probation violations. Both also face drug charges.
Assistant state’s attorney Jennifer Rallo told the judge that video and witness accounts prove the brothers tortured and mutilated Phoenix. She said the brothers used a vacant home at 1616 Gilmore St. to keep pit pulls, and that police found signs of dogs and gang activity there.
Defense attorneys wanted the case to stay in the juvenile system, where they said rehabilitation services and programs were available. They argued that Tremayne Johnson has health issues and suffers from depression and brain tumors for which he recently underwent brain surgery.
It’s not unusual for landlords and condo associations to be picky about pets in ways that aren’t always best for the people who love them. Pet limits on species type, their weights and their numbers are standard fare when you live in small-box, close-quarter housing. And we all get that. You can’t exactly expect neighbors to get along when someone wants to run a rescue out of his 800 sf efficiency on the top floor of a highrise.
But consider that sometimes these rules and regs go too far. So much so that they often neglect to consider the pets themselves and, consequently, what’s in everyone’s best interest––human and animal. Because, much like fences, good pets make good neighbors. And you won’t find good pets in abundance where the regulations aren’t geared to the ultimate goal: satisfying the behavioral needs of our companion animals.
I raise this topic on the heels of a recent round of condo association discussions that took place at a friend’s fancy waterfront digs. Based on the actions (or rather, inactions) of neighbors who would allow indiscriminate poopings in public spaces (sans scooping), his condo association voted to limit the number of pets in each unit to just one animal.
Grandfather clauses notwithstanding, this didn’t make my friend happy. His two pets need one another, he claims. Any two future pets would not be immune from this need. His busy schedule (and that of most modernized humans) means that keeping a minimum of two pets is essential to their behavioral well-being. He asserts that basic animal welfare principles back him up:
Pets need company. And it’s unreasonable to expect that owners live as homebodies to meet their pets needs. Not within the context of our culture. Not when the concept of conspecific housing is a basic tenet of animal welfare for so many pack or pride-based species.
In other words, such a limitation is unfair to the animals. Moreover, he rightly contends, the unintended consequences of maintaining solitary pets will make a significant dent to the comfort of the community when it recognizes that separation anxiety, much more common to solitary pets, will likely present a noise problem when pets voice their dismay at their isolation.
I wholly agree with my friend. Especially since it’s clear to me that altering a two pet rule to just one will make very little difference to the stool volume in the area as long as those who would flout condo laws on scooping continue to do so. Sometimes you just can’t regulate neighborliness.
As with so many onerous pet rules in our society, it’s the owners’ behavior that deserves to be individually addressed––especially when blanket rules would adversely affect animal welfare as a whole.
