to tell the truth and shame the devil

shaming the devil: the sequel (the comment section)







“There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil.”
~Walter Lippman, a real journalist


The Huffington Post is at it again. They don't even try to pretend to be objective in reporting the "news". In fact, every time someone sends me a link to a pit bull story on HuffPo or the PuffHo as I have come to think of it, they appear to have crossed the line from journalism into public relations even further. I'm convinced that they would not recognize journalistic integrity if it kicked them in the pants.

The most recent attempt to polish the turd image of america's gripping dog comes in the form of a vicious attack on Merritt Clifton and the dog attack data he has been tracking for 30 years. It is much easier to shoot the messenger than transform that ugly message into something that does not scare the hell out of the average american.

DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER based his scathing analysis on an impromptu video recorded "interview" of Clifton last summer by the nutters three: JOSH LIDDY, JEFF THEMAN and KIM WOLF. The video opens with a question from WOLF. You only need to suffer through the first minute of these nutters trying to play gotcha! for the purposes of this piece.

KIM WOLF: "Can I ask you a question in the meantime while you are shutting that off?"

Brenda Barnett: "Sure"

KIM WOLF: "I'm curious about yer um statistics cuz I'm a geriatric social worker, so public safety n, n, reducing risk is very very important to me cuz I work with the vulneral set of the population but I'm curious why yer statistics have never been peer reviewed, especially by..."  
i thought phonetic spelling was appropriate here;-)

Merritt Clifton answers: "Actually, they have been. They have been. I'm in over a hundred peer reviewed publications."

KIM WOLF: "In a scientific journal?"

Merritt Clifton: "That is correct."

KIM WOLF: "The AVMA publication that recently came out is contradicting what you've said."

Merritt Clifton" "That article is actually authored by paid professional pit bull advocates."

More on that AVMA publication later, for now, I'll focus on Clifton's answer, "I'm in over a hundred peer reviewed publications."

DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER'S critique is based on Clifton AUTHORING over 100 peer reviewed articles. DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER twists Clifton's words,"I have more than a hundred peer-reviewed publications." That is an incredibly brazen lie but you don't need to take my word on this. Just click on the link that DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER so generously provided and decide for yourself.

DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER then goes on to include the opinions of four highly educated experts that he consulted to deconstruct the statement, "I have more than a hundred peer-reviewed publications." Not surprisingly, their comments were harsh and they should be harsh, if that was what Clifton actually said. When I read this HuffPo propaganda piece, I assumed the four experts were unwilling dupes in DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER'S smear campaign. I assumed that he deliberately misled the four experts in much the same way that he is deliberately misleading the over emotional politically correct liberal readers of the HuffPo. Then I googled the experts.

I decided to google them and post their faculty websites with contact information with the hope of creating some discomfort for being manipulated by DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER and just maybe the four experts would pressure the HuffPo for a retraction and an apology to Clifton. You know, cuz of all that academic integrity they have and need to maintain. But as I googled the experts, my position began to shift.

Let's meet DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER'S cadre of expert dupes.

Dr. Mark Hogarth, Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University
(note there is a misspelled word on this prestigious university website)
Nothing I found on-line was cause for concern but I had to ask myself, of all of the professors on the North American continent, why was this particular professor consulted?

Rafael Newman, translator for hire with a PhD from Princeton
Rafael Newman was the first of the four to set my spidey sense a-tingling. Newman attended high school and college in Canada, so I assume he is Canadian. His linkedin page states that he is a freelance writer and while he lives in Switzerland, his phone number is Canadian and his email is German. Newman seems to be a rather obscure character and an unlikely candidate for this job. I found myself thinking, Why him?

Professor Amy Kaler, Sociology, University of Alberta
Amy was my fave. There she was in all nutter glory, facebook friends with DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER. Yeah, I suppose she could have been duped... nah, never mind.

Professor Michael E. Harkin, Anthropology, University of Wyoming
Again, nothing I found on-line was cause for concern except for his connection to Canada, I must ask myself, WHY this particular professor?

DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER has an expert statistician at the ready to inspect Clifton's raw data. I would like to encourage Clifton to do just that on one condition, that the evil genius KAREN DELISE fork over her raw data for scrutiny as well. The expert statistician, Mike McCaffrey of the University of Toronto does not appear to have personal ties to DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER but I did notice that McCaffrey is a softie when it comes to dogs but geese, not so much.

Mike McCaffrey,  Lecturer at the Faculty of information who specializes in reference work and government information, University of Toronto


I saved the best for last, the article authored by paid professional pit bull advocates.


I will cherry pick a few gems and comment.

"The study found that "Most DBRFs (dog-bite-related fatalities) were characterized by coincident, preventable factors; breed was not one of these."

The study FOUND exactly what it was looking for and breed was not on the list. This is really not hard to understand. Look, if the cattle industry funds heart attack or cancer studies and they don't design their study to LOOK at meat as a possible culprit, they won't find it. This is not rocket science man.

If you watch another couple of minutes of the Clifton video on Josh Liddy's blog, you'll see him refer to this very paper: "That article is actually authored by paid professional pit bull activists."

That's a pretty serious accusation. Liddy sounds unconvinced. So let's examine it.

BRAVO DOOFUS! Although not verbatim, I'll give you points for accurately conveying the meaning of Clifton's statement! But yes, LET'S FUCKING EXAMINE THAT. And thank you for linking to it, you saved me a step.

 

KAREN DELISE
The evil genius needs no introduction.

DONALD CLEARY
He has been on Berkey's payroll for as long as Clifton has been collecting dog attack data.

AMY MARDER

 

The lead authors on this article are Gary Patronek VMD, PhD, and Jeffrey J. Sacks, MD, MPH. Dr. Patronek's PhD is in Epidemiology. Dr. Sacks is an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: the official body in the United States devoted to the study and containment of epidemics. Sacks writes about dog-bite issues not simply for JAVMA, but for the CDC itself.

Sacks WROTE about dog-bite issues for the CDC. PAST TENSE. It has been over a decade doofus.

Clifton's charge is that an epidemiologist with the CDC -- a doctor tasked with the study of dog-bite prevention, nationwide -- is for sale. And has been bought by crazed dog lovers bent on making America less safe.

Well, Sacks is working with Jane Berkey puppets, DELISE, CLEARY and MARDER, so I'd say that is that is a very real possibility.


ANTHONY DOUGLAS COOPER is just one of the huffington post's many shameless whores for pit bulls.

Arianna Huffington, wtf are you doing over there? Your schlog has begun to resemble the tobacco industry's public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton.


some interesting reading:
Principles of Journalism Pew Research

A rather negative book review on Animals 24/7 of Galunker, pit bull propaganda whose target audience is preschoolers written by none other than DOUGLAS ANTHONY COOPER.
hmm... is it possible that someone has an ax to grind?


postscript If NCRC's PUBLISHED mission statement is "preserving the human-canine bond" what do you suppose their UNpublished mission statement is? Three guesses.
 

profile of a responsible pit bull owner

UPDATE
CARLA ANN THOMAS is not currently in the slammer. she is operating under the name CARLA PARRAVANI. i wonder if the AKC is aware of this alias? 

CARLA has been active on both her personal facebook page and the page she set up for BOOM, the mutant dressed in chicks and bunnies below, the same mutant who attacks other dogs at events, without provocation or warning. CARLA has been trying to help a teacher out with a school project. the teacher is attempting to show her junior high students just how fast a photo can be shared on the internet. ISYN! for the time lapse photography equivalent of the project, CARLA should have had the teacher hold up this photo of a tricked out BOOM.

CARLA'S friend list is an impressive who's who of dog fighting and pit bull advocacy. it reinforces the old adage Birds of Feather; emily patrick, ed faron, murph mcadams, allie renar, dahlia canes and more than a few names that i recognized as crazed fur mommies but the one name that really stood out - LEDY VANKAVAGE. LEDY once again living up to her reputation on google as being associated with HARMING dogs, not helping them.

UPDATE
someone just notified me that they did not realize the pit bulldog (BOOM) mentioned in this dear craven letter was the same pit bulldog (BOOM) featured in the huffpo. my mistake for not updating the blog post and just allowing that critical piece of information to sit in the comments.

this is CARLA ANN THOMAS' pit bulldog BOOM.

UPDATE!
i received an email from someone who has experience with CARLA ANN THOMAS and her dogs.

Dear Craven,

It's a small world. I knew Carla Ann Thomas. These charges of animal cruelty are shocking as she does present herself as utterly dedicated to her dogs but looks apparently are deceiving.

In 2011, I attended the same K9 club as Carla Ann Thomas.  One day, during flyball practice her pit bull dog, Boom, just completed a flyball run and then attacked another dog. It was instantaneous and unprovoked.  Everyone saw everything.  Boom's victim had finished the run before Boom.  At the end of Boom's run, he spotted another dog.  The other dog was looking down sniffing something on the floor, minding its own business.

Boom had grabbed the other dog's paw and basically crushed it.  The poor dog yelped but Carla was fast.  The fascinating thing about it was the she grabbed her dog by the loose skin on the nape of the neck and at the same time, she grabbed him by the loose skin of the rear of the dog.  Being that the dog was not more than 35 lbs at that time, tough, rough, and buff Carla was able to easily perform this maneuver and quickly whisked Boom away.  There was not too much damage done to the little dog, as Carla swooped in to grab Boom and lifted him off his feet and he released.  Maybe she practiced that maneuver with him a few times?  I don't know but it was a very quick, stern, and methodical maneuver.  She whisked her pit bull dog out of the training area and disappeared.

The victim, just a normal dog, tan with white patches, was simply standing around and didn't see the threat coming.  At least a dozen people witnessed the attack, so Carla couldn't legitimately claim her pit bull was provoked, although she may have. I don't know.  I never went back to that K9 club.  I am a petite older woman and I didn't feel safe around dogs that are capable of such quick and explosive aggression.

CORRECTION: the second animal cruelty arrest appears to be her THIRD. this is her SECOND.

BRIGIT, you chose a real loser to defend. 

JUST IN!
according to the AKC, effective april 13, 2013 CARLA ANN THOMAS has been suspended for 15 years and fined $3000. (i'll need to consult with one of the AKC drones that i am cahoots with in order to understand what this means)

UPDATE
a second animal cruelty charge has been brought against Ms Nutter on 11.01.12 in pinellas county.

the updates are coming fast and furious.  

 
CARLA ANN THOMAS aka Ultimate K9 loves loves loves her dogs. you might even say that she lives for her dogs. and her dogs die for her. 

CARLA had a fly ball competition to go to, so on a friday afternoon, she left her akita in her pet food store, with a bowl of water, food, set the thermostat on 80 (yes eighty degrees, that is not a typo), pointed the fan at the dog and left him there for the weekend so she could play with her pit bulls. note, this occurred in st petersburg florida, the internet shows that the temp highs exceeded 80 that weekend. she returned to a dead dog and was charged with animal neglect and found guilty.

i love love love this video. THOMAS blames her landlord for turning off the AC, she said he has done it before. the landlord denied her accusation. but i am wondering, why would she leave her dog alone in her pet food store if her landlord has a history of cutting the power? and why on earth would she set the AC to 80º? her vet defends her stating "she loves her dogs, she loves them better than people." yeah, i'll bet she does, they always do! and i think it is cute how THOMAS talks to the media holding her mini pin rather than one of her many mutants. i don't think that was an accident. she was likely to get more sympathy with the public, you know, cuz it is so easy to hate pit bull owners. you can see a photo of all of her dogs here. wow, she must be another dog whisperer. akita, dogo, GSD, staffy bull, intact male pit bulls, mini pin and what is that... a pomeranian or a long haired chihuahua? yes, she must be the dog whisperer.

if you are set up to stream netflix movies, you can see CARLA ANN THOMAS at 43:00 putting her pit bull, JAEGER through the ATTS motions in the propaganda training film BEYOND THE MYTH. really LIBBEY, you couldn't find a NON criminal for this spot?

and here they are after the ATTS, celebrating another pittie triumph over golden retrievers.





















 
what is with these PB freaks that they are always picking up these dogs? i just don't get it.


let's take a closer look at JAEGER, another impressively titled gripping dog.

Jaeger is ADBA and UKC registered.
He is an incredible athlete with extremely high drive. He loves to run, swim, jump, and retrieve. He opens and closes doors and refrigerators, and he will retrieve just about anything for you. He loves to bring you the remote and phone or pick up dropped keys, change, papers, etc.
He is 21 inches tall and weighs 58lbs.
in addition to a HERDING INSTINCT TITLE, he has been "safe dog" certified by the ADBA (another sham of a test) and received his CGC and ATTS. JAEGER also has flyball, weight pull, conformation, rally and agility titles and plays around with lure coursing and schutzhund, although no titles apparently, maybe he wouldn't release quick enough?. since he can open and close doors, he is a CERTIFIED SERVICE DOG. obviously. and what good is a pit bull if you can't take him AND his testicles to the hospital so he can snuggle with cancer patients? yep, he is a CERTIFIED THERAPY DOG!

JAEGER at a flyball tournament :-)

THOMAS claims JAEGER passed his TD test at the age of 8 months, yet according to Therapy Dogs International, dogs must be at least one year of age and the "handler must be of good character." woops.

well, i was wrong. CARLA was not lying about JAEGER being in a reading program. she does take this thing and his testicles to read WITH kids! remember, this is a dog that CARLA freely admits she is not always in control of his drive.

CARLA ANN THOMAS throws a vest on this thing and takes him into the public so he can kiss children. a dog that she admits, she can NOT "turn his drive down or off". she is grossly misrepresenting her gripping dog to the public. and getting away with it.

BEHOLD, a REAL woman.
a real woman with an ego the size of the state of floriduh.

isn't that, dare i say it... prejudicial?



with the help of CARLA ANN THOMAS, the pit bulls were herding farm dogs myth has been debunked HERE. at the link, you will see a genuine purebred american pit bull terrier "earn" his herding instinct certificate. you won't want to miss the excitement!

Feel free to share any of my pictures or videos. I wouldn't post them if I didn't want people to see them. You can check out videos of my other dogs on youtube also.

why thank you CARLA, i will take you up on that!


please visit CARLA the rescuer, breeding operation: SUPER PIT BULLS and meet JAEGER (stud for hire), HENNESSY (stud for hire), BOOM, SNIPER, STEALTH, ENVY and PATRON


The Myth of the Herding Pit Bull Farm Dog

CARLA ANN THOMAS

tampabay.com

wtsp.com

JAEGER'S pedigree

Pit bull and children photos can't prove pit bulls are safe or owners are sane

The twelve year olds over at HuffPo have decided to leave their dangerous propaganda piece up and have added more photos despite having inadvertently proven how dangerous and misleading these photos of children and pit bulls are.  The kids at HuffPo accidentally included a photo of a child hugging a pit bull that later killed that child.  They don't seem to understand or care that they're encouraging dangerous behavior or that they've proven that capturing one moment in time proves exactly nothing.

The flub also has failed to deter parents from submitting for publication absolutely horrific photos of children riding, lying on, hugging on, or being posed with pit bulls.  They don't seem to notice that most of those pit bulls are not only not engaged with the child, but they look annoyed or distressed by the positions these parents are putting their children and their pit in.

So, after the fun we had with the "One of These Things is Not Like the Others" game, I'm proposing a new guessing game called "Which Pit is a HuffPo Submission and Which Pit Killed a Human Being."

We'll start with an easy one:

This is Nephi Selu on the right, of course, and this is the photo the HuffPo kids accidently included in their slideshow.  He was killed this year by his pit bull named Kava.  This is how his family described their relationship: "All of this is definitely a shock because it's almost like two best friends that turned on... like one best friend turned on the other."

Here is another pair of photos - which is a HuffPo photo submission and which is a  pit bull that killed the crawler pictured with it?

The boy on the left is Tyzhel McWilliams.  He was killed by the dog pictured with him, Zulu.  His mother judged Zulu as an individual and found him to be a nurturer and she "expressed disbelief that the pit bull that seemed to watch over the infant like a protective parent would ultimately end the baby’s life."

In this pair of photos, which is a HuffPo submission and which of these tolerant, smiling white pit bulls later killed a human being?

The pit bull in the photo on the right jumped its fence to kill an elderly neighbor  in his own yard.

Which is a HuffPo submission and which is a pit bull that killed a human being?

The pit bulls on the right killed a 10 year old boy after this photo was taken.  The boy, Justin Clinton, had known and played with the pit bulls since they were tiny puppies.

Which is a HuffPo submission and which pit bull later killed the child leading it on a loose leash?

The boy on the right is Nicholas Faibish who was killed by, Rex,  the pit bull on the right.

How about this pair?  Which is a HuffPo fur mommy submission and which child was killed by the pit bull snuggling with the child on the couch?

This one is a bit of a trick because the boy on the right is also Nicholas Faibish.  These photos of Nick look just like the HuffPo fur mommies' photos.  What the fur mommies are trying to show is that these photos prove that pit bulls can be part of normal families.  And it is haunting to know just how dangerously insane Maureen Faibish, Nick's mom, is and look at these photos of what looks like a normal kid with his not-aggressive-at-the-moment pit bull.  If you have the time, you can read her side of the story of Nick's death HERE.  In her side of the story, she wants us to know that mostly, this was a "freak accident," that was certainly not her fault and no one should conclude from this that pit bulls are unsafe and no one should get rid of their pit bull just because her son was brutally killed by hers.

But, a freak accident does not exclude laying blame on her own dead son for escaping the basement she'd locked him in with a shovel wedged against the door.  And if there's any more blame to go around, it should rest on her female pit bull in heat who was not allowing her male pit bull to mate which made Max, the intact male, aggressive.  These photographs don't suggest any of the dangerous insanity this boy lived with until he was killed by it.

As commenters on the first HuffPo story noticed, some of these HuffPo fur mommies could not hide their crazy either. "Our neighbor's new pit meeting our new baby."

Irnwlsn takes the cake, though:
"When we adopted Bowser in 2010, the shelter classified him as "Not adoptable to families with children."  We called BS and took a chance, and a year later when Bowser became a big brother, we proved them wrong."

Just so we're clear: the chance they took was with their child's well being and life and the reason they took chances with their child's life was to prove a point about a pit bull.  Fucking turds.

Helpful Advice:
Dogs don't like hugs

Children need to know that getting face-to-face with any dog can be extremely dangerous. In the dog’s world this can be considered confrontational. A child might do this many times to the family dog with no consequence; however, this is not a 100% predictor of future behavior. It concerns me that I frequently see pet industry advertising showing children face-to-face with dogs.

Dogs don't like hugs and kisses

The Not-So-Hidden dangers of Taking Photos of Pets and Kids  "And stop encouraging dangerous behavior by recording it and sharing it on Facebook just because you think it’s cute."

Why Supervising Dogs and Kids Doesn't Work (answer: because people are too insensitive to their dogs and too stupid to read up on dog behavior)

Why the Huffington Post is Shit!

Huffington Post Wins the Egregious Bonehead Irresponsible Pit Bull Pandering Award

HuffPo is notorious for unabashed pit bull pandering, but now they've gone too far and have proven that twelve year old nitwits are running the show.

In a predictable Pit Bull Awareness Day fluff piece called "Your Kids And Pit Bulls Love Each Other," they throw up a couple paragraphs that regurgitate Donna Reynold's admission that the whole Nanny Dog thing is a lie.  And then, like Donna in her original admission, the twelve year olds at HuffPo minimize the significance of the lie by saying that there are just tons of photos that "prove" pit bulls are great with kids.

The HuffPo morons went the extra mile and created a slideshow of 73 photos sent in by loyal pit lovin' HuffPo readers of their children irresponsibly being allowed to hug, lie on, sit on, and ride pit bulls that, at that moment, weren't attacking the kids.

Normally I would not encourage you to scroll through this obnoxious display of flagrant disregard for a child's safety in the pursuit of pit bull propagandizing, but this time I really insist you must.  You must get to photo 61.  You will all recognize that photo of a child draped over and hugging on a pit bull because you all know that child was killed by that pit bull this year.

UPDATE: As predicted.  The tweens in charge at HuffPo have taken down the offending photo but left up the piece proving they are too stupid or too callous to care that the photos are dangerous and misleading lies.

Photo 61 shows 6 year old Nephi Selu hugging on a 2 year old pit bull named Kave whom the family described as Nephi's best friend.  You may recall that reports suggested that the reason the pit bull killed Nephi because Nephi was "riding the dog like a horse."  And you may recall that nutters from every corner of nutterland commented that obviously these parents were irresponsible because you should never let your child ride any dog.  I was staggered by the inclusion of this photo among dozens of equally offensive photos of children riding pit bulls shared with the explicit message, "pit bulls are safe."

Obviously, even though we all recognize, remember, and mourn Nephi's death, the twelve year olds at HuffPo didn't recognize the photo because they refused to look at or quickly forgot accounts of this child's death when they included him in their "pictures prove pit bulls are safe" bullshit.  They don't.  The submitter of this photo knew, though.  R C Palyo included this comment with his photo submission: "pit bull loved this boy to death!"  Even with that, the 12 year olds at HuffPo didn't get it.  And they have proven without a doubt that they seriously do not care about the victims of pit bulls.

Donna Reynolds is the literal architect of the "Nanny dogs may be a lie, but photos prove the same thing anyway so we're still good" line of propaganda.  Huge backfire, Donna.  Maybe you should pay attention to the victims and instruct your millions of mindless minions to do the same.

It is up to us to remember the victims and spread the word about the dangerousness of pit bulls because pit loving sociopaths all too easily can disregard the victims of their propaganda.  For pit bull awareness day, please spread this far and wide - this ugly, ironic oversight that was possible only because these assholes refuse to pay attention to the people killed by pit bulls.

By the way, I haven't left a comment on HuffPo because comments are moderated and my comment will never see the light of day and they will simply remove the single photograph.  They won't remove the propaganda.