My "fanatacism"

By: Jenny R

It's been... well interesting sounds too benign, but I cannot think of an adequate substitute right now, so I'll just say; It's been an interesting road, this one. 

This speaking out about pitbulls, and sharing information that--because of blind animal fanaticism--is quite hard-won?  Thank God that is slowly shifting, but it takes the active time, energy, thought, heart, and conscious effort of passionate people to put that information out there where others can access it.  I feel powerfully compelled to be a part of that.  It's not too hard the superimpose the mental visage of the children of my loved ones with the agonized babes filling hospitals and graves because of this menace. 

Shouldn't people have a right to know about such a proliferating danger?  A right to know about the REALITY of what could happen, has happened, and continues to happen on aREGULAR BASIS?  A right to know about what they're bringing into their homes?  A right to know what they may be stepping into in another person's home?

This is the land in which every consumable product must disclose every last little potentiality, even if it's a .02% chance of passing gas if you mix half a Tylenol tablet with ___insertproductnamehere___ a few hours later.  A time-delayed farting episode is MUST-KNOW-INFO but we need to keep regular and devastating canine violence hush-hush?  You deserve to know!!omgeleventies!!11 if eating a sack of certain potato chips causes (albeit temporary!) anal leakage, to--y'know--preserve the integrity of your tighty-whiteys and personal dignity, but it's "extreme" to insist sharing the risk of serious injury, disfigurement, dismemberment, and death? in the interest of preserving life and limb?While we're obligated to provide the most absurd warning labels such as:

The original purpose of warning labels was to protect consumers from unforeseen dangers.  Nowadays they are a farcical statement of the obvious or ABSURD, while absent where they are most desperately needed.

**note, the original source of these goofy and absurd labels is an amusing article byForbes: http://www.forbes.com/2011/02/23/dumbest-warning-labels-entrepreneurs-sales-marketing-warning-labels**

...A right to know that every deceived/in the dark/lazy/ignorant/fanatical dog owner that risks their fighting breed bursting off with leash (and owner, should they not let go) trailing behind--unmuzzled!, escaping confinement (including measures like windows, tall fences, large, solid crates, second story balconies, chain-link fences, and even metal cages! see the containment post), wandering around neighborhoods, and even invading homes*is risking the life and limb of every person that animal encounters?  This is a country in which every plastic bag and hair scrunchie has a warning label of some sort, and yet warning about documented animal menace is extreme? Is "fanatical"?  Is "hateful"?  Let's throw in "meanie-butt" too, for good measure.

*this is not a sick joke or isolated incident, either.  A multitude of people and their pets have been assaulted by pitbulls breaking through doors, forcing their way in when someone opens their door, slamming through dog-doors, etc..  More than one family has come home to find their dead pet scattered throughout or a mangled heap at the end of blood trails going down flesh-Spackled, fur clumped, blood-sprayed walls.

Well, that's certainly what a surprising amount of "friends" and family thought about it, though they waited to respond about it till I shared the heart-breaking story of the Arizona toddler killed by his grandparents' pitbull, and issued that I had come to the decision I would not allow my children in domiciles harboring any fighting-breed dogs.  That triggered a furious swarm of red-hot redundancy and outrage, and it was shocking to me that two of the most hostile pit-proponents have small children--around the same ages as the most recent pitbull fatalities!  I was flabbergasted.  Not one word about the deceased baby.  No concern for a cold, dead, innocent little life, as helpless as our own precious angels.

Priority number one? The ill-begotten reputation* of a dog-breed, for them, took precedent over the loss of an innocent human life.  And insist the "decent thing to do" is to relentlessly defend his killer, even unto violating personal boundaries and incessant ad hominem attacks. Nice.

*because, let's face it, an animal that regularly tears people and animals apart with no provocation does not merit a reputation as a good and safe domestic pet.

This is why I don't believe they actually read a lick of what I shared.  How could anybody face such proliferating horrors (if ONLY these were "isolated incidents" like the nutters claim them to be) and STILL deny danger?  Still question my concerns and decision to take EVERY precaution to keep my kids from the possibility of joining these victims?  Still call me an ignorant hater as they (allegedly) look into irrefutable evidence of gore and suffering inflicted upon innocents time and again? 

When I discuss this issue, it is not with nameless, faceless, emotion-only-based, abstract concepts flitting around my head, it is with FACTS like THIS in mind-->

5 year old Saleena, face disfigured

child that nearly suffered ex-sanguination (read: DEATH) from the neck, in intensive care

the simple act of smelling flowers, or sneezing, or crinkling her nose... is no longer going to be a natural, easy process for this child

Natylee Murphy is lucky to be alive, but faces hardships ahead that may not make her feel the same. Being a normal teenager can feel alienating enough; now put a disfigured face and stigma on top of that.

One bite cracked this girl's eye-socket and threatened her sight

This child's earlobe had to be surgically re-attached

This little girl was saved by one of those oh-so-dangerous-viscious chihuahua's pit-fans are always going on about... despite her caregiver's attempts to save her, the pit attacking redoubled it's efforts at the one moment she got loose. It was only after her chihuahua boldly ran right up to the pitbull and distracted it that she could be extracted to safety.

She still suffered extensive wounds, and nearly lost her eyesight. Now this little dog is what you would call loyal--defying all instinct, reason, and self-preservation in the face of attacking, violent death. Realistically, it's a miracle this little dog didn't become another 'bit' in kibbles-n-bits, but he refused to desert his charge anyway. THAT's loyalty. Not a mere growl at someone who *might* be a threat. Certainly not attacking your family. Certainly not severing your owner's arms. Certainly not killing and partially eating your owner and/or their children.

The stuff of pit-nutter advocacy... babies sitting all over pitbulls and so forth, as if the fact that they aren't in pieces *yet* is proof positive they will never face danger from the animal. This is little baby Tyzhel, before the family's "nanny dog" brutally killed him.

The dogsbite.org child-victim banner. As much as people want to decry the site as "fake" and "having an agenda" (because safety advocacy even unto facing viscous slander and personal attacks, even losing people you thought long-time friends... is some sort of evil, self-serving agenda, apparently), no one can refute the reality of what happened to all of these innocent children and their families. No amount of speculation and bald-faced, lying revisionism changes the facts of what occurred.

And these... these are just scratching the surface of devastating attacks against children.  There are so many more lacking photo-evidence of assault, and it seems rather sadistic that the nutters refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy/brutality of an attack without it.  I can't even begin to imagine how soul crushing it must be for the families to recount such a horrific end... I myself found it extremely difficult to talk about the violent experiences I had with my ex, because I couldn't bear thinking about them.  Thinking about them felt like re-living them, for a long time.  ...and that was just about me.  Not my child.  I survived.  Mostly intact. It's a wonder a person can face that sort of emotional decimation enough to speak a whisper of their experience, nevertheless speak out, and speak often, and recount that never-ending, living nightmare.  That's why I'm so powerfully moved by the story of Daxton Borchardt.  Of the courage it took his father to speak out, face attacks, again and again and again....

We don't know the horrific visage of Daxton's ravaged little body.  But we can see in our own children the same angelic cherub every loving parent sees in their child... such a sweet, perfect little face....

http://blog.dogsbite.org/2013/07/beyond-the-interview-essay-of-a-fatal-pit-bull-mauling.html This is a MUST READ, even if nothing else. This is a story of former pitbull sympathizers/compatriots. This is the experience of people once like you, people not "haters". This is the sad and increasing reality for families just like yours!

...and then, now, now we have this harrowing narrative of what he and his family suffered, far too vivid, every bit as disturbing as everything else shown here;

"Believing the myth, 'It's not the breed, it's all how you raise them,' is what left us without a son," Jeff said."Before his son's death, Jeff said that he used to believe that a dog's behavior was determined by the way it was raised. He no longer believes this myth -- a falsehood widely cited by pit bull advocates and humane groups. The dogs that Susan owned with her boyfriend had no history of aggression. The couple raised the two pit bulls from puppyhood. The dogs were not abused or neglected and both were sterilized. "Something made the dogs snap on that day," Jeff said. ...

>snip

"He cannot forget how his son looked after the prolonged attack. "There were unimaginable bruises and bites all over his legs, his arms and his body -- his head," Jeff said. He added, "[The pit bulls] had one goal in mind and that was to murder my baby." Jeff hopes that by sharing Dax's story with as many people as he can, new damaging pit bull maulings and fatalities can be prevented. He said that if his stepping forward today saves just one life then going through this pain is worth it....

>snip

"This is the first time Jeff sees his son after the savage attack. In the WISN interview, Jeff said that he would never forget how his son looked afterward. "There were unimaginable bruises and bites all over his legs, his arms and his body," he said. If only that was all that was forever seared into the father's mind. In reality, one side of his son's face was entirely ripped off, his skull crushed and one eye dangled from its socket. His wife was not spared this horrific imagery either.

"Dax underwent a sustained, relentless mauling by two pit bulls that lasted up to 15 minutes. Total destruction ensued.

>snip

"When they reached the trauma room where their son died, Jeff said it was like walking into an accident scene. Blood was everywhere -- all over the floor and bed. His son's lifeless body lay mainly covered up, but still exposing his massive head injuries."

I implore anyone and everyone I know to read the entirety of that story, even if they readnothing else.  It is why I cannot believe the former-friend-pit-mob swarming me actuallyread a lick of anything I shared.  It's just too much to comprehend that anyone with anounce of humanity and reading comprehension could read all that, learn the facts, andstill insist on perpetuating the very myth (on my own page focusing on spreading awareness, no less! you bet your buns I blocked that garbage) that is responsible for Daxton's brutal murder.

As a mother, my breath caught in my chest reading that true and painful account.  I'm not sure if I took another breath before the end. (I am a speed reader, all you nit-pickers.)  ...and I'm just the reader.  So many other horrific stories go untold, and understandably so.  It's amazing any loving parent could stand after such a tragedy, nonetheless speak about it.   

The hard reality is; these recollections of narrative and imagery are only a drop in the bucket representing a much larger tragedy, and it continues this very moment.  Three small children, ages 5, 3, and 2--DEAD this week... and those are just the fatalities.  Attacks are a daily occurrence.  Grievous, permanent disfigurement and disability are not uncommon.

This 12yo boy is lucky he didn't lose his arm to his pitbull mix turning on him. Even so, the arm's existence is little more than cosmetic, at this point. He will never have full function again.

This teenage girl is lucky her attacker didn't shear deeper and get her femoral artery.

BOTH of this 11 year old girl's forearms are now little more than hamburger.

This woman's elbow was half torn out by a pitbull going after her son for the SECOND time. This could have been her eight year old little boy's face.

Many children are brutally scalped by pitbulls, and not all of them can have their scalp restored as well as this little one's was.

It's perfectly reasonable, rational, and even EXPECTED to protect your children fromlesser harms... sunblock for preventing sunburn, bug spray for preventing mosquito bites, knee and elbow pads to prevent pavement scrapes, warm clothes to prevent chill, cool clothes to prevent heat exhaustion, avoiding certain foods and medications and substances for optimal internal health and growth, hand-washing to prevent infection, moderating media to prevent nightmares and foul language, discipline to prevent social dysfunction and self-endangerment... it goes on and on and on.  All these things, so natural, so normal, so right.  No one questions it.

But I am a "fanatic" and "extreme" and a "hater" for taking precautionary measures to prevent any of the horrific maulings above from happening to my children?? (or WORSE)

THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why the "nutter" term exists.  Because it's "nuts" to defy all logic, reason, evidence, caution, and humanity in the interest of an unnecessary animal campaign.  Pitbulls are not necessary to the biosphere.  They are a personal choice. They are optional.  The buck stops at playing Russian Roulette with your own life.  Don't do it with my kids, and yes, I will be deeply disturbed when you not only insist I should, but you brag about doing it to your own helpless children.  ESPECIALLY when you have all the facts and evidence before you to know better.

So yes, you want to call me an extremist?  I had people bombing my page. Making ad hominem attacks.  Blowing up my phone.  Screaming in my face.  Slamming doors.  over a dog debate. over a dead child, and my determination not to have my child be the next one in the grave.  And I'M the unreasonable one? I'M over-reacting? I'M the "hater"?

Alrighty then. Fanatic it is.

Just keep in mind... of what I'M keeping in mind when I look at the issue.  and that there's the possibility that I might be speaking out of concern for you and your children as well, out of love, not hate.