MICHIGAN -- I was brutally attacked by a pit bull 3/1/18 it was horrific. It has not only affected me physically and mentally but also financially. Medical bills, medical supplies, medications, gas, and food at the hospitals.
I have to start wound care and go to a plastic surgeon, physical therapy and numerous doctors. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated and would definitely help me be able to continue to get medical and household needs met. I would also appreciate prayers. Much love to everyone and many many thanks for your help... God bless...
Update 1
Just to let everyone know,, the person who done this to me with her pit bull Has been on my gofundme page harassing people and lying about this traumatizing ordeal. I apologize to anyone who has had to deal with her harassment. I can't speak on this matter due to legal action. Thank you for all your love and continued support.. XO
Update 2
Let me apologize for the people who have been harassing and contacting you Via my gofundme page. It's the friends of the girl who's dog done this to me and they are lying to keep the dog from being put down... Just block them.. Again I truly apologize for their actions and lies...
*Hellen Brown Peagler - The hand is severely bruised from beating the dog in the head. She finally got her off by hitting her in the snout.
MICHIGAN -- A local woman was charged with killing or torturing an animal Jan. 25 after police allege she stabbed her son’s dog just after midnight Thursday.
Police responded to the home of Diane Gay (aka Diane Gay Eland, Diane Eland) after receiving a complaint that she had stabbed the dog.
Arenac County Undersheriff Don McIntyre said the incident was reported at 12:34 a.m. and upon deputies arriving at the scene, Gay allegedly told them she had stabbed the dog.
According to court documents, an 8-inch fillet knife was located underneath a couch in the home and seized as evidence.
Police reportedly followed a trail of blood and located the deceased dog outside with an apparent stab wound to the abdomen, court documents state.
Arenac County Animal Control was contacted to retrieve the deceased dog so it could be further examined.
Court documents state Gay submitted to a preliminary breath test at the scene and yielded a 0.257 blood alcohol level.
According to this chart, if we assume Diane Eland is 140 pounds, 3 drinks in one hour would put her at about .11 BAC, which is considered legally intoxicated. She had a .257, which means she had the equivalent of 9 drinks in her when police tested her. One drink equals a shot of liquor, 12 ounces of beer or 5 ounces of wine so clearly she'd been drinking a lot.
Killing or torturing an animal is a felony charge with a maximum penalty of four years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine. Gay is scheduled for a probable cause hearing Feb. 5 at 1:30 p.m. She is currently being lodged in the Arenac County Jail.
Note: Online records state that she is 69 years old (born in 1948) and also list the address as being in Shelby Township (the article mentioned Standish Township, Michigan). Also, although you initially think this was domestic-related, there are a lot of unanswered questions. Did the dog attack her, unprovoked and she defended herself? A lot of times adult children move back to their parents' home and bring their dogs with them - and we've read plenty of stories where the elderly parent is attacked and/or killed by that dog. Was she abusing the dog? Was she drunk and got in a fight with her adult son and stabbed the dog in a rage? Like I said, lots of unanswered questions... but I'm guessing since they got a felony charge of Animal Cruelty, they believe the dog didn't do anything to her to warrant being stabbed to death.
McIntyre said people or families who feel they cannot adequately care for an animal should contact the Arenac County Animal Shelter.
“We have a second-to-none animal shelter that is almost 100 percent no-kill,” he said. “They find them new homes. That’s an option for folks who feel like they don’t have any options.”
MICHIGAN -- A routine traffic stop quickly turned dangerous, reports said, when officers were confronted by the dog that was running free in the 800 block of E. First St.
Monroe police shot and killed a charging pit bull that shook off pepper spray and continued its pursuit of an officer before being stopped by gunshots on E. First St. Saturday.
A routine traffic stop quickly turned dangerous, reports said, when officers were confronted by the dog that was running free in the 800 block of E. First.
Officers spoke to a man, 54, who said he had to use his bicycle to fend off an attack from the dog. The dog’s owner attempted to catch his pet along E. First St. without success.
Reports said the dog turned its attention to an officer and charged. Officers described the charging dog as having its ears pinned back and its teeth showing while barking aggressively.
The dog was sprayed with an irritant and retreated. But then it turned around and charged toward another officer.
Fearing for his safety, the officer drew his service pistol and fired four times. Police officials said the dog was hit once. It died shortly afterward.
FRENZIED MOB GOES CRAZY AFTER PIBBLE IS SHOT AND KILLED
Reports said people were screaming and yelling profanities at the officers after the dog was shot.
Officers attempted to speak to the individuals but, according to reports, they refused to come to the door and only screamed and cursed at the officers through a window.
The dog owner, police said, yelled threats and profanities toward the officers. Police said the dog had not been vaccinated or licensed.
The man who reportedly had to use his bike to stop an attack from the dog reported to police that someone had thrown a large brick through his living room window.
MICHIGAN -- Nearly a year after a 2-year-old Cass County girl was mauled by a pit bull, a six-person jury found the first suspect in the case not guilty; but he pleaded guilty for other charges.
“I’ll be very frank: I’ve done this for 35 years, and we’ll certainly respect the process and so forth, but this is the most befuddling decision that I’ve seen in 35 years from a jury,” said Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz.
His strong words came Thursday afternoon after a jury of four women and two men found Justin Smith not guilty of four counts.
Smith owned a pit bull named Kryptonite, who became the center of an awful dog attack that left a little girl with life-changing injuries.
Arial Harrison, then 2-years-old, and her brother Anthony were attacked by a neighbor’s pit bull while playing in a backyard in April 2017.
Days after the attack, Kryptonite was euthanized.
Arial received the worst injuries – losing both of her ears and most of her scalp.
Smith was charged with eleven 90-day misdemeanors after the attack.
He pleaded guilty to seven of them at the start of his trial: five counts of his dog running at large; one count of failure to vaccinate his dog; and one count for failing to have a dog license.
But the six-person jury found Smith not guilty of the remaining four charges: three counts of dog bite; and one count of interfering with enforcement.
Smith is set to be sentenced on February 26. But that will not be the end of this story.
Vashaun Morgan will stand trial on February 27 for his involvement in the case.
He faces 17 charges, all similar to Smith’s.
ABC57 reached out to Arial’s father on Thursday after the trial, but have not heard back.
MICHIGAN -- An injured dog spent the night out in the bitter cold, but he's been given a second chance after an animal rescue group found him.
The dog has been through a lot. They believe he was hit by a car, then frozen to the ground, yet somehow he survived.
They are trying to find out where he belongs.
"This is not a stray dog. This is somebody's loved pet," said Bill Heatley, founder of Streethearts Animal Rescue.
"He has a fractured femur. His leg bone is broken very high up, and I can't fix it. He would need anesthesia to have more X-rays done to completely determine whether anything else is broken," said Dr. Lawrence Ehrman with Veterinary Medical Hospital.
His ordeal began on New Year's Eve, when a witness says he was hit by a car in a Flint neighborhood.
"She heard the impact, looked out, heard the dog cry, looked out, ran to her backyard. As soon as he entered her backyard, he went and laid down at the back of the yard and didn't move for over 24 hours," Heatley said.
She called 911. The dispatcher called Heatley, who found the dog badly injured but still alive.
"When I got to the point where I meant to move him, I had wrapped him. And I went to lift the blanket and it wouldn't move," Heatley said. "I actually had to peel him off the ice."
Once he was safely removed from the ice, the dog was rushed to a veterinary hospital.
"The first consideration with this dog was organ damage or failure, and thankfully the veterinarians both say because of his very thick heavy coat, that probably saved him," Heatley said.
"We've just been taking care of him, giving him pain medication, let him relax making sure he eats and awaiting decisions on what goes on from here," Ehrman said.
As the dog they named Feliz continues to recover, Heatley is hoping his owner comes forward or they find him a new home.
In the meantime, they will continue to try to save other animals from suffering a worse fate than Feliz.
"The sad thing ... is that's one dog that we found," Heatley said. "There are a multitude of dog out here in the city of Flint and cats, they're not being found, that we don't know about."
They are hoping the owner comes forward, and they also have set up a Youcaring page to help with Feliz's medical bills, which are expected to run into the thousands.
On the Youcaring page, the rescue group saidFeliz is expected undergo surgery on Thursday to try to save his leg.
MICHIGAN -- An older male cat left outside the Humane Society of Midland County overnight nearly froze to death.
The organization posted on Facebook that someone dropped off the cat trapped inside a plastic tote outside the main entrance of its facility at 4371 E. Ashman St.
It was -11 degrees Fahrenheit that night; with the windchill it felt
like -17 degrees Fahrenheit. This poor cat is lucky he didn't freeze to
death, locked inside this plastic tote with nothing to keep him warm.
An employee found him Friday morning with feces frozen to his body.
"Leaving him like this in these elements could have killed him," the post says.
The cat was treated for hypothermia and is expected to make a full recovery, according to the Humane Society.
A sign in the window right outside where the cat was left warns against leaving animals unattended and even threatens legal action.
"We understand it's often hard to know what to do with stray animals but in these weather conditions this is never the answer!" the organization's Facebook post says.
The Humane Society pointed out the Midland Police Department will transport stray animals in need during the winter and volunteers are willing to pick up animals after hours.
Anyone in Midland County who finds an animal in distress in the evening, overnight or on weekends should call the Midland County Central Dispatch nonemergency number at (989) 839-6464 or message the Humane Society's Facebook page to ask for a referral.
MICHIGAN -- A man and woman are facing felony charges after surrendering two severely starved and malnourished dogs to the Humane Society of Genesee County.
A third dog living in the home died of starvation and was partially eaten by the other two dogs, according to Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell.
This six-month-old dog, still just a puppy, was still alive when these photos were taken
He was so far gone, though, he had to be euthanized after his organs shut down. There was no saving him. In his short six months on this earth, he knew nothing but pain and suffering thanks to Jennifer and Martell.
The Genesee County Sheriff's Office opened an animal cruelty investigation after the dogs, which had bones clearly visible under their skin, were dropped off.
Pickell said police discovered the dogs were living in the basement of a residence filled with urine, feces and trash.
This two-year-old Pit Bull mix was the lone survivor
Jennifer Koos, 36, a woman living in the home, told police she has been struggling with a heroin addiction and admitted that the dogs would sometimes go weeks between feedings, Pickell said.
"When you see their bodies, just the rib cage is and the rest of their bodies it's obvious it's a horrible horrible situation," Pickell said.
The three dogs were locked down in this basement. When
one dog finally died of starvation, the other dogs at it to survive
Her live-in boyfriend, Martell Dyke, 27, told police he "threw pizza into the basement" for the dogs "once in a while".
Koos told police she was aware that the third dog had died and the other two dogs were beginning to eat it. She CLAIMED her drug addiction kept her from "dealing with" the situation.
"They left the dog in the basement, so the other two dogs could feed off the dog. The only thing we have left is the carcass," Sheriff Pickell said.
Based on reports from sheriff deputies, the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office charged both Koos and Dyke with one count each of felony animal killing or torturing.
They were in court for arraignment on Wednesday, where both pleaded not guilty. If convicted, both face up to four years in prison.
Don't get too excited. I guarantee they'll be given probation. Maybe a couple days in the county jail; they're certainly not going to be sentenced to prison.
"My hope is this case will be a warning to others, that our county takes animal cruelty issues seriously, and will take action against those who abuse these pets," Pickell said in a Facebook post.
The lone surviving dog is still recovering
Coco is now coming back. She has gained a lot of weight in her two weeks here. She's playful, loving, and dreaming of her future furever home.
"She still has a few pounds to put on," Holmes says, "To get her to a healthy weight, because you can still feel the backbones, the hip bones. "
The process of bringing a dog back from this type of neglect is often complex, and can take weeks or even months, if there is organ damage.
Holmes says they have to learn how to eat all over again, "They get fed several times a day, small meals. Because if you put a big bowl of food in front of them, they'll just eat that whole bowl of food and not be able to keep it down. That's not good for them either."
Cases like this are, sadly, not unusual. But, there are things you can do, especially if you suspect a friend, relative, or neighbor's pet is suffering abuse and/or neglect. Report it right away.
"This does not have to happen to animals," Holmes says, "In this day in age, there are so many places you can reach out to."
A neighbor who didn't want to be identified said it was evident Koos wasn't fit to be a pet owner.
"She came up to me and she said to me one time. She said, 'You know how you just want -- when you get a pet, you just want them to run away?' And, she said these pets won't go anywhere," the neighbor said. "And I thought, well should you even have a pet if you can't take care of it?"
She could have opened the door to the basement and kicked them outside of her house - at least they would've had a chance. Instead, she and her boyfriend sat there shooting or snorting drugs... they didn't forget to eat though. They don't look emaciated, do they? They certainly fed themselves between hits of heroin.
The neighbor used to see the dogs when they ran into her yard a few times, but she says that was months ago.
"I didn't even know she still had them because you never see any sign of them coming outside, you know, to use the bathroom or I mean I just never saw them," the neighbor added.
Sheirff Pickell said four years isn't a tough enough penalty for this type of abuse. He's been lobbying in Lansing for stricter sentences when it comes to animal abuse.
