Exploiting Victims, Pitbull Style

I will be updating in the future about the story of Kevin, the little four year old boy brutally mauled by a vicious pitbull named Mickey, the insanity that followed, the lies perpetuated to further the canine world's bloodiest propaganda, and the outrageous culmination of what can only be described as an absolute abortion (and I hate using that word in an abstract sense, but it's the only one that 'fits') of justice.

However, it is so deep, so complex, and there is so much material to present, that that will be a while yet in coming.  dogsbite.org, Craven Desires, and affiliates in their extensive blogrolls have done a wonderful job thus far of covering the issue.  I am making this post before I go heavier because this one is more urgent.  It's imperative to warn people of scams immediately.

The Facebook group FOR THE LOVE OF KEVIN* is NOT a genuine victim support page.  I repeat; the Facebook group FOR THE LOVE OF KEVIN is a RUSE, designed to draw in people curious about the issue and perpetuate forth more pitbull apologia, silencing those that would call them out on it.  This would certainly not be the first time pit zealots have created identical victim pages for the purposes of disseminating misinformation to the general public (that's a whole other post in the making, believe-you-me), and disturbingly, it won't be the last.
 * https://www.facebook.com/welovekevinvincente

Quite telling is the fact that comments by victim advocates and those sensitive to the issue were aggressively stripped.  Despite claims that the page is not about pitbull advocacy, in a thread where victim advocates had only a handful of sensitive and to the point comments asking for a little discretion, the only comments that were allowed to remain where those of another commenter issuing forth post after post of pitbull propaganda--posts which had nothing to do with Kevin or anything else but breed advocacy.  The multitude of these off-topic posts remain untouched. The group's function is not following its stated form.

I will summarize with my personal FB post issued to warn people about the Facebook group FOR THE LOVE OF KEVIN *
*yes, I am purposely repeating the name of the group to boost it's relevance in search engines--I want to warn as many people as possible that the Facebook group FOR THE LOVE OF KEVIN is a ruse, a scam, and a gross exploitation of a family already too abused and misrepresented (when represented at all)

What's really going on at the For the Love of Kevin facebook group??
WARNING!!

I've been one of the biggest supporters of the Facebook For the Love of Kevin group. I have shared links to it all over the place, outside of Facebook, even. I have directed people there so they can learn the truth about what really happened, and so they can proffer assistance to a family who *really* needs and deserves it.

However, when a thinly veiled attempt at pitbull apologia started spamming a victim's page with pitbull propaganda... and I called her out on it, albeit POLITELY, my focus being on staying on topic and supporting Kevin and his family...
I was kicked from the group.

I would seriously reconsider what you share there, guys, and I'm starting to wonder just who the mod is there and what they're really up to. This is unbelievable. I'm beyond disgusted, and flabbergasted. I mean, have I missed something? Is it now the sane thing to do to post pictures of pitbulls and kids all over the page of a CHILD pitbull VICTIM? Is that classy now?

As an aside... can anyone here speak Spanish and get into contact with Kevin's mother? The only thing we have from her is translated bits from TV interviews. I'm wondering if the family is actually getting anything from these so-called support groups soliciting donations. I wouldn't donate a red cent more till we get to the bottom of this.

EDIT; it does not appear to be a direct kick, but that the mod was so obsessive and incensed about the thread they were deleting comments by me and others immediately upon submission, which gave the illusion of being blocked. The image was removed* but supplanted by childish accusations of hate--over issuing that pitbull victims often feel re-traumatized by the images of pitbulls and children (especially families who've had their own children savaged and even killed by these dogs, some of which were doppelgangers of the one in the photo in question). Concern for the emotional and mental well-being of the people who can empathize with KEVIN--who the page is s'posed to be about--the MOST=hate?

I really must've touched on a nerve. That sort of extremism comes from someone who's been unwillingly outed and has to cover their tracks, but has no real means of rebuttal other than going ad hominem at the truth-sayer.

*EDITEDITEDIT the image was not removed, just displaced further down the feed by a decent post of Kevin and Flor AND the puerile you-are-haters paragraph-long-rant (also a bit telling in a group where just about every update that is not about thinly veiled pit-a-ganda is rarely composed of more than a sentence or two)

Well, I may get kicked yet, since I piped in after a request for Kevin's family's contact info, wanting to be sure anything issued forth is ACTUALLY going to the family, and the group seems a bit shady to me...
I think we'll have a definitive answer in the group's recourse. Kick=they are a SCAM.

UPDATE; scam status confirmed.  Other Kevin supporters/victim advocates had the same experience, reading through no less than 20 other accounts of shady behavior and experiences between supporters and the group.  These harassed and silenced voices belong to kind and generous people with their own painful tragedies, who pointed out that images of pitbulls and children are often re-traumatizing and ignite flashbacks, panic attacks, night terrors, anxiety, and PTSD.  (And these flashbacks aren't the stuff of band-aids and soap--we're talking degloved (i.e. traumatically 'skinned'--what happened to KEVIN'S FACE) and/or severed body parts, exposed bone, dangling eyes, crushed bones/skulls, spines ripped out, decapitations...) 

...When confronted with the question of where their focus was, what's more important... Kevin, or a dog breed's reputation... they kicked and/or removed commenting ability from anyone sensitive to the pitbull issue (i.e.--Kevin's peers, fellow victims).  In doing so, it is crystal clear where the group's priorities are... and are not. 

They favor alienating those that help Kevin most to coddle and promote dangerously misleading conceptions about dog behavior and biology (of which, fighting breed dogs have a unique physiology--dog behaviorist and animal professional Alexandra Semyonova describes these scientific and universal traits most succintly in her books and (is quoted) exerpts on dogsbite.org and affiliated blogs). 

So, before you open your pocketbook to the FOR THE LOVE OF KEVIN Facebook group, remember that Kevin is NOT priority numero uno.  I recommend trying to contact the Vicente family directly if so inclined.  Unfortunately I do not yet have the means/info to do so.

like battered woman's syndrome... but with more denial and recklessness!

Wow... a day after I write about Kevin, Sport, and horrific pitbull attacks that result in blame, contempt, or apathy for the victims and a perverse, grossly disproportionate frenzy of favor for violent and unpredictable animals...

...comes a gruesome attack on the very sort of cold, ignorant, and/or immature human-specific-sadist that regularly advertises for the breed.  Her rhetoric is typical zealot propaganda tripe such as:

"[posting] on Facebook ... 'There's not [sic] such thing as a dangerous dog. Just a dangerous owner.'
"Another status was accompanied by a picture of a dog with its bottom in the air, reading: ‘To everyone who thinks that pitbulls are mean - you can kiss my hiney.’"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2577329/Woman-22-left-skull-exposed-horrific-mauling-suspected-pitbull-terrier-disused-quarry.html

Here we have a typical 'holier than thou' animal advocate that fails to address any of the REAL and RELEVANT issues of the breed, while sanctimoniously ignoring or mocking those possessing any real depth of investigation and/or experience about the issue, asserting how allegedly ignorant BSL advocates/pitbull realists are.  Among the universal attributes that emerge with type of person is an angry refusal to read ANYTHING that does not sync with what they want to believe (celebrity sound-bites and surface drivel from sites that *benefit* from advocating the breed). i.e. confirmation bias
Another trait is a propensity to wax on about how 'close-minded' and uneducated a safety advocate is.

So now, one (with a second victim as collateral, I might add) of those staunchly stubborn 'breed ambassadors' has had her chosen breed rip her scalp off and deeply lacerate her face.

will she still insist it is only bad owners that are the problem?
Will she sacrifice her personal character on the altar of pitbull advocacy?

The most disturbing thing is... she just might.
It's happened before. 
No, I'm not kidding.


http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?id=8605264

Bill Lesinki knew his friend's pitbull since its puppyhood.  Still, that penultimately meant nothing--despite claims that properly socialized pitbulls are no more dangerous than other dogs, or that they *must* be trained/abused to attack, Monster the pitbull attacked someone he was very familiar with, and had no prior incidents of aggression with this man.

"I was just in shock that the dog did this because I was just playing with the dog prior to him biting me - about five minutes prior to that," he said.

Lesinski was visiting his neighbor and, after playing with his pit bull, stopped to take a closer look at his neighbor's stereo.

"I bent over, crouched down to look at the subwoofer, when the dog lunged forward and grabbed me by the face and ripped the front of my face off," he said.

Lesinski's nose was torn off. He was taken to one hospital where doctors tried treating him. But by the time he was transferred to Northwestern Memorial, it was too late for plastic surgeons to re-attach it.

"Basically, I'm going to have to be like this for the next 9-12 months because of ... procedure after procedure that needs to be performed," he said.

He will need at least six surgeries to reconstruct his face which could rack up $200,000 in medical bills. Lesinski just started his own towing business and does not have insurance.

Still, he continues to regurgitate the tired 'it's not the dogs, it's the owners' deflection.  (I wonder what his long-time friend feels about that, since it implies he is a 'bad owner'...)


http://sruv-pitbulls.blogspot.com/2013/06/kansas-to-kalamazoo.html

Sorena and Justin Frostad are another example of how irrational and disturbing pitbull worship can be.  They took the ill advice of pitbull apologists and figured they could introduce their newborn, Ariona, to their pitbulls (in much the same fashion as one would do with other dogs).  They held their child close to the fence so that the dogs could sniff her and familiarize themselves with her scent.

With any other non-fighting breed this would be a perfectly reasonable course of action.  Unfortunately, one of their dogs acted out it's violent genetic heritage and suddenly snapped out--THROUGH the fence--and severed their 2-DAY-old daughter's leg.

"The parents of the mauled Coffeyville infant, Sorena and Justin Frostad, spoke with members of the press several days after the attack. During the interview they refused to answer questions about the pit bulls, and made no mention of the loss of their daughter's leg. In fact, they appeared not to acknowledge the lifelong repercussions of their daughter's missing limb, and their responsibility for the loss."

Even more disturbing is the mother's own written response, which insinuates that, since neither the breed nor herself is at fault, the severing of her baby's girl's leg was nothing more than an 'accident'... and that being the case, there is no cause--according to that un-logic--to stop her from exposing her daughter to pitbulls in the future.  Why else find it so absolutely crucial to continue being a part of the bloody cycle of propaganda and violence?

As a baby, Ariona won't remember the attack or the loss of her leg, but her future is riddled with guaranteed hardships and agony.  How will she feel about pitbulls in the future?  It would stand to reason that, quite reasonably, she would at the very least be compelled to avoid them.  Yet, there's a disturbing possibility she might not...


http://tbo.com/sun-city-center/fundraiser-set-for-amputee-in-sun-city-center-20131113/

Vaughan Chambers was savaged by a pitbull when she was 10 years old.  The dog clamped down to the bone and ripped away the overlaying skin and muscle.  She immediately received 286 stitches and ultimately wound up enduring more than 20 surgeries to save her leg. 
Still, that was all in vain. 

The problems persisted throughout her life, and at 39 years old, her lower left leg died and was immediately amputated below the knee. The prosthetic to replace it, alone, cost $14,800. Financial devastation is the promise of her initial encounter with pitbulls, just as it is for every pitbull attack survivor.

Despite all this, she is a fierce activist for pitbull propaganda.




http://blog.dogsbite.org/2011/08/2011-fatality-pregnant-pacifica-woman.html

Darla Nappora was a member of BADRAP, perhaps the largest organization manufacturing pitbull falsehoods in the name of deifying the breed.  Her own pitbulls killed her, and thusly also terminated the life of her unborn child.  Yet, when it is so obvious that such a fatal mauling is without rhyme or reason, her widower STILL continued to advocate for the breed that savagely killed his wife and unborn child.  Greg claimed his wife's death was nothing more than a "freak accident". 

"They are the most loving animals I have ever had in my life. Whatever happened right now was not the breed's fault," said Napora, who found his wife dead when he returned to the couple's Pacifica home from his construction job with plans to take her to lunch Thursday. "It was just a freak accident."

He even had the dog who ripped Darla's throat out buried with her, and made a spectacle of asserting he forgave the animal.



http://blog.dogsbite.org/2013/12/2013-dog-bite-fatality-valencia-county-woman-killed-by-pit-bull.html

Last year, Michal Nelson was killed by one of the family pets when she entered its pen to break up ice in the dog's water-bowl.  Her body--upon which the dog was perched--was discovered by one of her children.  Like Darla, the pitbull had ripped out Michal's neck.

Boyfriend Nicholas Hare excused, diminished, and dismissed her death, and was far more concerned with the loss of her killer and its peers; (emphasis added here)

Nicholas Hare
This something that came completely out of left field.
I mean, it was her time...
As horrible and tragic as it was, it was…
It's really hard to lose five family members in one day basically [referring to four pit bulls authorities euthanized due to their aggression and his girlfriend{'s death}], because they were our children for years and years.