Tennessee: Angel Bailey's post about her daughter's attack by a pit bull got me worked up this morning

TENNESSEE -- Earlier this year, Angel Bailey's seven-year-old daughter Sydney was severely mauled by a neighbor's pit bull - a pit bull named T-Bone who interacted with previously without issue. She'd petted and played with him and the dog knew her. She considered T-Bone to be her friend. 

One day T-Bone decided to try to kill her. 

Since then, Sydney's mom has become a 'truth advocate' - warning people about the dangers of bully breeds. Angel is not unlike Jeff Borchardt whose 14-month-old son Daxton Borchardt was attacked and killed by the babysitter's two pit bulls. 

Jeff Borchardt with his son Daxton

Jeff's beloved baby boy didn't survive, though, but both parents believe the same thing - these dogs are ticking time bombs and are inherently dangerous. 

Being a truth advocate brings a lot of hate by those who demand we accept these dogs into our communities, into our schools as 'therapy dogs', into our homes via the HSUS and other groups pushing them onto adopters at shelters telling us they're "wigglebutts" and that the only danger we face from them is the risk that they'll "lick you to death". They come up with cutsie names for them: Staffies, Pibbles, Pitties. They insist that they used to be "nanny dogs". They try to guilt-trip us by telling us it's akin to racism to not like pit bulls. 

St Bernards and Collies were the dogs of
choice as "nanny dogs" in art

Every time there is an attack and/or death - whether it's a child, an elderly person, a neighbor, the owner, another pet or livestock animal - we're instructed to "Blame the deed and not the breed!". We're told that the owner "must have trained it to be that way". They blame victims - saying they "provoked" the dog into attacking them. They even claim that these vicious dogs have a form of PTSD and attacked because of some trauma they suffered when they were a puppy. 

 

 

 

 

Do not be swayed. As Ronald Reagan said in his famous Evil Empire speech, "Sometimes their voices are louder than ours, but they are not yet a majority." 

Breed specific legislation (BSL) has been proven to reduce the number of pit bull attacks. The government has every right to dictate what kind of property you are allowed to own. Are you allowed to own an old WWII tank? Yes. Are you allowed to drive it down Main Street? No. Are you allowed to own a gun? Yes. Has the government determined that there are certain guns you are not allowed to own? Yes. The same with animals, which are considered property. In most states you can own a capuchin monkey, but you are not allowed to own a gorilla. 

Bully breed dogs are like pet tigers. Remember when that guy from the famous duo Siegfried & Roy was attacked and nearly killed by his tiger? They had lived with tigers for decades, been in thousands of shows with them - without issue. Until that one day. People have said over and over that their beloved pet "snapped", that he never acted like that before, that they had raised their dog with love in the home with other pets and children and socialized their dog to their friends and their dogs. And that day that that dog "snaps", the damage that is inflicted is 100x worse than most other breeds (although it is true that any dog can bite and even small dogs, as in the case of Evy Richardson and her uncle's Pug, it can be life-altering)

I've had too much coffee this morning which explains why I'm all amped up. But the point I was trying to make (several paragraphs ago) is that Angel Bailey had recently posted about the hate she'd been receiving for being a truth advocate. One of the people who commented in the thread is Roxanne Hartrich and what she has to say, in response to a woman who says you can't blame all pit bulls, is heart-wrenching:

Alexandria Faust - Yes there are bad pit bulls can't deny that but that's not all they are. You can't group all of one species together like that. That's just being ingnorant. What your going through I wouldn't wish on anyone. If you only wanna see hate and bad things that's all your gonna see

Kara Hartrich died January 17, 2014

Roxanne Miller Hartrich - Google Kara Hartrich... My husband swallowed this garbage u r spewing too.... my daughter was killed on her 4th birthday by the dogs that were her Xmas present the year before ..her very best friends.... these dogs r all ticking Time bombs .... point blank period.... u won't know until its too late and u r visiting your baby under ground screaming to the heavens I'm so sorry baby I didn't know...and in our case we really didn't .. but in yours mam u will have known because of people like us who continue to share our stories to try to save the next child as it is too late for ours....

Tick tick tick boom ... and 10 minutes later your child is shredded laying lifeless on your living room floor torn to pieces in from of her two year old sister and the grandmother who loved her more than life itself...

Roxanne Miller Hartrich - I had never before owning one known a people aggressive pit..or a dog aggressive one for that matter other than dog fighting on tv..never...I would have never brought one to my home

Further down in the thread, Jennifer Kim posted a photo of her son, Sport, who was also attacked by a pit bull - a pit bull which had been adopted out by the local animal shelter. She and her husband later filed a $250,000 lawsuit against the Blount County Animal Shelter, alleging that the shelter KNEW that the pit bull was vicious, but adopted it out anyway. 

I could go on and on about this whole "no kill" movement and how vicious dogs are being pushed out the door to adopters and how it's encouraging and causing more and more of these "rescue hoarders" to be created. But I've ranted long enough. If you want to know more about the "no kill" problems, click on the labels for "no kill shelter", "bad shelter", "bad rescue group" "dog from shelter", etc. and you'll find more than enough articles about the problem. 

Jennifer Martin Kim - He used to have a NORMAL LIFE

Emily Richardson - Or my daughter please tell me how this is from a loving, nurturing animal. Also- can you look at my daughter who starts more trauma therapy 18 months later tomorrow and convince her of that? Absolutely you can not. We are blessed she is alive, Sydney is alive and Jennifer's son as well as so many others. Ignorance and blatant disregard is the true culprit here

Earlier:

• Tennessee: Family files $250,000 lawsuit against Blount County Animal Shelter after they adopted out a known-vicious pit bull - which then tried to kill their seven-year-old son
• Wisconsin: Couple's life forever altered after two pit bulls kill toddler
• Tennessee: A year after her son was nearly killed by her sister's newly adopted pit bull, Jennifer Kim's family still traumatized
• Tennessee: Emily Richardson details the day her family's lives changed when her two-year-old daughter, Evy, was attacked by her uncle's Pug
• Tennessee: Pit bull attacks 8 year-old Maryville girl, 100+ stitches needed
• Tennessee: Mom recounts what it was like when her seven-year-old daughter was attacked by a pit bull, a pit bull she'd been around before and hadn't been afraid of - until it attacked her
• Tennessee: Mom says she won't back down from warning people about the dangers of pit bulls