Who exactly is Pam Peebles? Well, at first glance you'll see that she is the director of Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control & Adoption Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. However, if you do a bit more searching you'll see several articles in which she promotes, defends and excuses pit bull behavior.
January 20, 2012 article titled "Woman recovering after being [attacked] by her two dogs", Pam Peebles is mentioned:
Often, pit bulls get a bad rap, but Director of Thomas J. O'Connor, Pam Peebles says this wasn't a case of animals attacking humans on purpose.
"Dogs have different responses, they have different triggers than us. We just kind of hope they'll act like little humans, but they're a different species and this was just a case of dogs being dogs," Peebles told CBS 3 Springfield.In February 2012, Peebles was interviewed again for an article titled "Pit bull that mauled owner has been euthanized" and stated:
“We don’t find any more levels of aggression in pit bulls than in Chihuahuas,” Peebles said.In a June 13, 2012 article titled "Pit Bull Attacks Raise Questions About Dog Breed", Pam Peebles is quoted again:
Pam Peebles, Executive Director of the TJ O’Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center says pit bulls get a bad reputation because they often grow up without being properly trained, aren’t sprayed/neutered and are either isolated or left outside for long periods of time. She adds other types of dogs can be just as aggressive.
“Right now at TJO we have a beautiful Golden Retriever that hospitalized a woman for three days. It was a severe attack. We don’t here about him nor do we want to,” said Peebles.Referencing the latest attack by a pit bull on a child in Massachusetts, the comments section provided a plethora of information about other people's opinions of Pam Peebles:
Pam Peebles has no business in the position of animal control officer. No matter what happens, she ALWAYS excuses the dog and blames the victim – particularly when the dog is a pit bull! Even when the child, the mother and police say the beast was running loose, Ms. Peebles still contends the dog was "chained" and blames the child for "wandering too close."
Furthermore, there is no evidence whatsoever the dog was "chained" and "abused." These allegations are totally subjective, yet Peebles is presenting them as fact. We all know she would never have allowed this monster and its offspring to be euthanized if she hadn't been pressured into doing it.
Just to demonstrate what an untruthful person Peebles is when it comes to pit bulls, in the recent story about the Pittsfield boy attacked by pit bulls, Peebles claimed she had a golden retriever at her facility that “sent a woman to the hospital for three days,” but the attack wasn’t reported because the incident did not involve a pit bull. However, I read on another site that someone called the facility and discovered Peebles wasn’t telling the truth.
Peebles has revised her account and is now saying the “bite,” not “attack,” by the golden retriever only “required an ER visit” – there’s a heck of a lot of difference between an “ER visit” and “three days in the hospital”! Peebles will say and do ANYTHING to defend pit bulls and the last thing people need for an animal control officer is a pit nutter!
