Virginia Beach Police responded to the home in the Pembroke Manor neighborhood to assist Animal Enforcement around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday evening.
Officers arrived to find the woman suffering from severe bites and lacerations as a result of the attack.
The investigation revealed that a 50-pound, 1-year-old American Pit Bull Terrier attacked the woman after they removed its shock collar. It ran into the woman's bedroom, jumped on her, knocked her down and attacked her.
The woman's daughter and granddaughter tried in vain to pull the pit bull off of her, but it was relentless in its attack on the elderly woman.
The woman's granddaughter told 13News Now that the family adopted the dog Wednesday, the same day as the attack, from Forever Home Rehabilitation Center. Initially, the dog showed no aggressive tendencies.
The woman was transported to a local hospital with life threatening injuries. However, she died as a result of her injuries early Thursday morning.
Forever Home Rehabilitation Center provided 13News Now with this statement:
We send out our deepest condolences to the Patterson family who adopted Blue. Blue went through our 3 month board and train program, and was a favorite amongst all of the staff members and volunteers. Blue loved other dogs, and didn't know a stranger. He never showed any aggression while at our training facility, and passed his final evaluation with flying colors before being adopted out to the Patterson family. Trainers spent yesterday morning checking over Blue's new home and going over training with Blue's new owner. There were 2 other dogs in Blue's new home, who Blue immediately bonded with.The dog is currently in quarantine at the Virginia Beach Animal Care and Adoption Center.
We do not know what events transpired in the moments before this tragedy occurred with Blue's owners mother, and none of us could have ever predicted this horrible event. We are devastated for the Patterson family and our thoughts and prayers go out to them.
The case remains under active investigation by Virginia Beach Police and the Virginia Beach Animal Enforcement Unit.
This "rescue" needs to be investigated and charged criminally if its found out that their "behavior testing" is lax or that they had prior knowledge that this dog had aggression issues. Why was it given to them? Why was it at the shelter? Had it attacked someone or someone's pet and the owner surrendered it in lieu of charges? Did they fob this vicious dog onto someone else, change its name and give it a sob story to encourage an unsuspecting victim to adopt it?
RESCUE CLAIMS THEY CAN MAGICALLY "FIX" AGGRESSIVE DOGS
Forever Home Rescue & Rehabilitation Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to rehabilitate dogs in shelters that will be overlooked by potential adopters. Rescue dogs that show fear, stress, anxiety, nervousness and cage presence that potential adopters will over look. We also help family companions in homes that are misunderstood due to severe behavioral issues. Our organization was founded in early 2009. We have rehabilitated dogs all along the east coast due to problems that appear unsolvable. Rescues, shelters, and families alike have turned to FHRC when they have run out of all options. We restore hope and prove that most dogs can, indeed, be trained, properly socialized, rehabilitated and placed in loving, understanding homes. FHRC provides the tools, guidance and skills necessary to achieve balance.
The goal of FHRC is to rehabilitate dogs that have not had proper socialization and training. FHRC accepts dogs that are misunderstood in a shelter/rescue environment and are close to being euthanized. We work with owners who have uncontrollable behavior issues with their companions to provide the family with a chance of becoming well- balanced.
What makes them experts? What training do they have? What proof do they have that they have someone vetted and qualified to make a decision that a dog deemed "unadoptable" for aggression issues at a shelter is suddenly a lovable, problem-free dog ready for adoption? Saying you've been around dogs 20 years is not enough. Saying you did dog training while you worked at Petco is not enough. Who are these people? Why are shelters handing them dogs they've deemed too much of a liability to put on the adoption floor?? These shelters need to be investigated and prosecuted. If they deem a dog too aggressive to put on their own adoption floor, there is no reason for them to ever hand this dog off to some fly-by-night rescue.
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The fact that this newly adopted dog had a shock collar tells me something was wrong already.
ReplyDeleteThey also are not a non-profit as they claim to be.
ReplyDelete