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dog mauls boy; fund for dog raises same amount as for boy


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dog's legal fund has received $5600 in donations. fund for the boy that was mauled has received $6000. poor kid is facing years of reconstructive surgery. dog killed another dog last year. why was it not put down then? avoidable tragedy.

 

(no, this is not a thread about that FA QB.)

 

 

 

 

 

Campaign to save dog in Arizona mauling

 

PHOENIX (AP) — A dog that mauled a 4-year-old Phoenix boy has received thousands of pleas for mercy through a Facebook campaign ahead of a court hearing to decide his fate.

A municipal court judge could rule at a March 25 hearing on whether Mickey, a pit bull that bit Kevin Vicente in the face, should be euthanized. Kevin received injuries that will require, according to doctors, months and possibly years of reconstructive surgeries.

Since the Feb. 20 attack, Mickey has become the object of a Facebook page that has gotten more than 40,000 likes and an online petition to spare his life.

Supporters say the campaign doesn't mean they value the dog's life above the child's.

"This is not Kevin versus Mickey," said attorney John Schill, who is representing the dog in the court petition. "Having Mickey killed is not going to take away Kevin's pain or injuries. The only thing this is going to do is kill a poor, innocent dog."

Pit bulls are viewed by some as a dangerous breed, a reputation their fans dispute.

Guadalupe Villa, who was at the scene of the attack, filed the vicious-animal petition to have the dog put down.

"I just looked at all this as this could have been my son, and I don't want it to be someone else," Villa said.

Schill said he is working pro bono at the request of The Lexus Project, a nonprofit that collects money to legally defend canines in danger of being euthanized. The organization has set up a trust for Mickey that has received more than $5,600, he said.

Schill said the person watching Kevin while his mother was at work should be held responsible.

"But for adults involved, this never would have happened," Schill said. "They're trying to put all the blame on Mickey."

Villa, whose boyfriend's mother was baby-sitting Kevin the day of the attack, said her friend is not to blame.

"She took amazing care of that little boy," said Villa, who claims in the petition that Mickey killed her dog last year.

According to Villa, Kevin picked up a bone lying on the ground near the dog, which was kept on a chain. That's when Mickey suddenly attacked Kevin, Villa said.

Villa said she can't understand the Facebook attention and doesn't see Mickey as a victim.

Kevin was hospitalized at Maricopa Medical Center with a broken eye socket, cheek bone and lower jaw bone, according to doctors.

Dr. Salvatore Lettieri, a Mayo Clinic physician and chief of cosmetic surgery at Maricopa Medical Center, said he was able to fix the broken bones and reattach the muscles that allow Kevin to open and close his eye.

"He still can't open his eye. We'll need to fix the tear duct drainage system — that is if he makes tears," Lettieri said.

Flor Medrano, a family friend, said Kevin continues to recover at a pediatric hospital in Phoenix but will return to Maricopa Medical Center later this week for more surgery on his eye.

Medrano also said a fundraising website has received about $6,000 in donations for the boy. The Maricopa Health Foundation also established a website that has received 50 donations.

The social media support for Mickey doesn't indicate that people care more about a dog than a child, Harold Herzog, a psychology professor at Western Carolina University who studies animal interaction.

He said it's likely that lovers of pit bulls, specifically, are driving Mickey's Facebook following. Pit bulls have been saddled with a bad rap — fair or not — of being one of the most dangerous dogs. A lot of that reputation is thanks to other mauling cases, Herzog said.

"I don't think this reflects that people like dogs more than they like kids. It's a reflection that ... this is yet another instance of their breed getting blame for something it didn't do," Herzog said. "'Blame the deed, not the breed.'"

Support for Mickey intensified after an employee at the Maricopa County Animal Control and Care Center, which has custody of the dog, wrote on Facebook that Mickey was "going night night."

Melissa Gable, a center spokeswoman, said the employee will face administrative action but declined to elaborate.

 

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/campaign-save-dog-arizona-mauling-case

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I feel terrible for the kid, but when you pick up a bone from a dog, you're asking for it. That child should have been nowhere near a dog without a parent or guardian nearby. Replace pitbull with cocker spaniel, you get the same outcome. You don't put your hands on a dogs food. 

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I feel terrible for the kid, but when you pick up a bone from a dog, you're asking for it. That child should have been nowhere near a dog without a parent or guardian nearby. Replace pitbull with cocker spaniel, you get the same outcome. You don't put your hands on a dogs food. 

 

incorrect

 

my friend had a rotty I knew from when he was a pup and we played real rough. he would make all kinds of ungodly noises, but whenever his jaws got around part of me, he would gently just let go.   I could do anything to axl.  he was well trained and knew his boundaries.  he was a massive rotty.  could have put me in the hospital.  I would steal his bones and chuck them and he would go chase them.

 

that dog can't be trusted and needs to be put down

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I feel terrible for the kid, but when you pick up a bone from a dog, you're asking for it. That child should have been nowhere near a dog without a parent or guardian nearby. Replace pitbull with cocker spaniel, you get the same outcome. You don't put your hands on a dogs food. 

 

That's bull. Train a dog properly and it shouldn't be attacking people at all, that also holds for pits. These aren't wild animals, they're domesticated and take their cues behaviorally from their owners.

 

That said this fund for the dog is nonsense and the dog certainly needs to be put down.

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Wonder how much time Mickey spent off the chain? Great life  - and tells me most all I need to know about his training. Should be something in place to keep the owners from owning again.

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I feel terrible for the kid, but when you pick up a bone from a dog, you're asking for it. That child should have been nowhere near a dog without a parent or guardian nearby. Replace pitbull with cocker spaniel, you get the same outcome. You don't put your hands on a dogs food. 

 

 

Not true. I have a pitbull who would let anyone take food from him, a bone and not even growl.  Its how you raise them.  People should donate money to put the owner down as well.  Personally the second the dog killed another dog he should have been put down.  Plain and simple.

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incorrect

 

my friend had a rotty I knew from when he was a pup and we played real rough. he would make all kinds of ungodly noises, but whenever his jaws got around part of me, he would gently just let go.   I could do anything to axl.  he was well trained and knew his boundaries.  he was a massive rotty.  could have put me in the hospital.  I would steal his bones and chuck them and he would go chase them.

 

that dog can't be trusted and needs to be put down

 

 

That's bull. Train a dog properly and it shouldn't be attacking people at all, that also holds for pits. These aren't wild animals, they're domesticated and take their cues behaviorally from their owners.

 

That said this fund for the dog is nonsense and the dog certainly needs to be put down.

 

 

Not true. I have a pitbull who would let anyone take food from him, a bone and not even growl.  Its how you raise them.  People should donate money to put the owner down as well.  Personally the second the dog killed another dog he should have been put down.  Plain and simple.

 

Don't disagree with you really. Training the dog is a huge part. I personally can put my hands in my dogs food, and every once in awhile I do just to make sure she's comfortable with it. However, an animal is still an animal. A child whom the dog doesn't know (or any person honestly) should not be around a dog without the dog's owner, and the child or adult should know that animals don't operate within the moral framework that we do. Human training from an early age is the only way that you can attempt to override a thousand years of animal programming. Even then, accidents happen. Ultimately yes it's the owners fault, but ignorance is also bliss. I don't think the kid is just going to wander up to a dog next time and try and take its food away. If a kid picked up a loaded gun and pulled the trigger, you wouldn't blame the gun for going off.

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