a ruckus in florida

UPDATE! ruckus is dirt nappin' :-)

"Lying, deceiving, and manipulation are natural talents for psychopaths.
With their powers of imagination in gear and focused on themselves, psychopaths appear amazingly unfazed by the possibility –or even by the certainty– of being found out. When caught in a lie or challenged with the truth, they are seldom perplexed or embarrassed -- they simply change their stories or attempt to rework the facts so that they appear to be consistent with the lie. The results are a series of contradictory statements and a thoroughly confused listener."  
Dr Robert Hare 

last wednesday, a 27 year old female loaded up her 3 year old son and her 5 year old daughter in her toyota mini van and headed for SECOND CHANCE RESCUE in bunnell florida for her volunteer shift. she left her children in the van with the windows down and went inside to perform her duties. it is unclear how long her children were left in the mini van but at some point, one of the shelter dogs named RUCKUS broke out of his kennel and escaped outside where he jumped through the open window of the mini van and attacked her son. the 27 year old volunteer pried the dog off of her son's head and took him back to his kennel where he escaped again. RUCKUS returned to the toyota mini van and attacked her daughter. the 27 year old volunteer described the attacking dog as a "pit".

the above account is taken from the witness statement in the police report. the rescue has its own version which they uploaded to their facebook page in an effort to set the record straight, ie damage control of pibble's image. by the end of the day, they thought it might be wise to delete it, who knows why, legal reasons, hateful attention from many, including yours truly.

For those of you who just saw the news about the dog attack, we would like for you to know exactly what happened because we all know damn well that all the media cares about is a juicy story that exploits people. We have had 100's of supporters contact channel 2 to help us in our times of need, and they dont even return a call, however, something like this happens, and reporters are everywhere trying to get this on the news. A week ago, a homeless man showed up out our gate with a LAB BOXER mix and he was losing his car that he has lived in with the dog. He had gone to the Humane Society and could not afford the $150 drop off fee, so like everyone else, they show up at our rescue and either throw the dog over the fence or beg us to take the dog. The dog was friendly and vetted so we agreed to take it. Last night, one of our volunteers and her children were there, and she was letting him out to potty like she has all week and he bit them. He did NOT break out of his cage like the news said. We are doing everything we can to help her and her family. She is very upset, one because her and her child got hurt, and 2, that the news wants to exploit her family. Everyone is ok. This is not to say that it is not a big deal, because we value our volunteers so much and will do whatever we can for them. The fact is though, that if these Humane Societies were not charging a drop off fee, we would not be known as the dumping ground for unwanted animals. People use to not want to drop their pets off there because they did not want them to die and now they dont because they can't afford it. If so many backyard breeders did not get away with breeding and breeding and breeding, there would not be so many dogs born with their wires crossed liked this one. DOGS DO NOT ATTACK FOR NO REASON. This dog HAD to have has something chemically wrong with him to do what he did. The dog will now be euthanized. Once again, not the dogs fault. What kind of life did this dog have living in a car with a homeless man? What was his life like before this? No one knows, but the media just wants to say PIT BULL attack, when it was NOT even a pit bull. Our heart breaks for the mother and child that was involved. However, she knows that when you are at a rescue, with dogs that have been abused and dumped, you can't assume 100% safety at all times.

(WHY CAN'T NUTTERS USE PARAGRAPH BREAKS?!)


SECOND CHANCE RESCUE volunteer transporter CHRISTOPHER VEGAN-MURPHY copied and pasted the rescue's official statement on his facebook page. he puts forth the ole perfect storm excuse while his friends railed against the evil media for sensationalizing the attack.

meanwhile, flagler live picked up the story and that's where things really got interesting. rather than paraphrase the lies and denials, i'll just copy and paste two paragraphs.

Second Chance Rescue disputes that the dog is a pit bull, calling it a mixed labrador instead. Amy Carotenuto, director of the Flagler Humane Society, where the dog is being quarantined for 10 days before it is euthanized, said that absent a birth certificate–which the dog does not have–it is impossible to say precisely what sort of dog it is. “I bet there’s not a pure-bred bone in him,” Carotenuto said. “Some people might say he is a pit bull,” she said, because of his 40-pound frame and appearance, but “whatever he is, he is a lot of different breeds.”

Carotenuto stressed: “The issue is the same no matter what breed he is. He is a 40-some pound dog that put some hurt on some kids.”

of course, i had to find out who is in charge at SECOND CHANCE RESCUE. the head honcho is pit bull owner DEBI ROOT. i think it is safe to assume that any statements made to the press are coming from PRESIDENT ROOT.

you can see the rest of her babies HERE, 5 pits and 2 poms.

flagler humane society has custody of the attacker and director AMY CAROTENUTO is just a little too aggressive in minimizing the pit bull aspect and deflecting blame. i decided that she warranted further investigation as well.

and what a surprise... ANOTHER pit bull owner!

and a rabid one at that!

so, here is what we know. we have a "dog" that breaks containment TWICE. jumps through an open car window to attack once, then through the open door to attack a second time and sends 3 people to the hospital. we have two women, both pit bull owners, one who is clearly a zealot and incapable of being objective on the topic, insisting the attacker is not a pit bull. seriously, what are the odds that ROOT and CAROTENUTO are telling the truth?

another piece of the puzzle was put in place when a photo of the accused was released.

okay, even though you and i knew this would be a pit bull just based on the attack style, this is not the most conclusive photo ever taken. there is the remote possibility that these two women who own 10 pit bulls between them and work with dogs for a living, could have BOTH honestly misidentified RUCKUS as lab boxer mix. or SECOND CHANCE RESCUE could have taken the word of the homeless man when surrendered RUCKUS that he was a lab boxer mix. possible but not probable. we still require definitive proof before we can absolutely state that beyond a shadow of a doubt ROOT and CAROTENUTO are lying.

BINGO! the smoking gun.

here are three of several adoption listings for RUCKUS.
one - apbt/lab
two - apbt
three - apbt/lab with photos and the happy "ADOPTED" announcement (wtf?)

DEBRA ROOT should be charged with obstruction for providing false information to the police and  AMY WADE CAROTENUTO should be fired from her position as director at flagler humane society. and i sincerely hope the authorities are considering charging the 27 year old volunteer for leaving her children in the vehicle unattended.



FLAGLERLIVE

DEBI ROOT

AMY CAROTENUTO

CHRISTOPHER VEGAN-MURPHY  (my new fan! if he wasn't into dudes and watching dogs poop, i think we could have something special)

POLICE REPORT


special thanks to my secret squirrel ;-)