craven email: Confessions of a Wolfdog Owner

After reading every word on Craven Desires I feel compelled to share my own menacing dog story.

I grew up in a very rural town in Alaska. When I was about 13 years old, I wanted nothing more in the world than a wolfdog of my very own. This was in the mid-80s, a time before internet, when access to the world's knowledge was limited to what could be found at your local library. The only library to be found in my town was at the elementary school. I did love to read, though, so my head was filled with the heroes of Lad a Dog (in which Lad's wolfy behavior is frequently emphasized), Kavik the Wolfdog, White Fang, Journey of Natty Gann and so forth. Not to mention the similar wild or feral 'friends' found in stories like Gentle Ben or Plague Dogs.

By the time my parents gave in to my incessant whining I thought I knew just about everything there was to know about wolves, dogs and wolfdogs. My wolfdog and I would form a legendary bond and together we would tame the wilds of Alaska, just like Jack London. And so, for a mere $180, I bought myself a wild beast.

Lulu, as she came to be known, was purchased from a local fellow who bred wolfdogs to supplement his income. He had somehow acquired two full-blood wolves from a zoo in Minnesota years before; the rest of his dogs were various breeds of huskies. Lulu was the offspring of the male wolf and a MacKenzie River husky. The huskies all lived on chains, the wolves were in kennels that wouldn't have looked out of place in a zoo. I still remember those wolves, pacing, pacing, pacing, those golden eyes windows into foreign souls that I knew intuitively, even at age 13, I could never truly understand.

But Lulu wasn't like that. She was a curious, blue-eyed little puppy that only wanted to play and explore the world. With the luxury of time that only kids have, I spent every day working and playing with her. In most respects she was great---very obedient, could do every trick in the book and then some, and so on and so forth.

In other ways she was not so great, especially as she got older. By the time she was 6 months old she was extremely neurotic and fearful of anything strange, especially unfamiliar people. She was also impossible to contain; she could climb like a cat and dig like a badger. Her neck ruff was so thick she could easily slip any collar, unless it was tight enough to choke her. As free-ranging dogs weren't unusual around there, I just let her roam.

We had our first physical fight before she was a year old. I bent down to pick up her empty food dish and with a quick snarl she bit my face. It was not a bad bite and it was very fast, but it did leave a scar on the bridge of my nose. Thanks to all my wolfdog book-learnin' I was of the belief that this was a normal attempt to challenge my dominance. I made up some story about running into a tree so my parents wouldn't take Lulu away. We had countless minor 'disputes' like that over the following years.

Not long after the face bite, Lulu killed all my gerbils. Not long after that, she killed one of our chickens. I hid the corpse and began working with her daily to teach her to not attack our chickens, ducks, rabbits, etc. It actually seemed to work, to my knowledge she never attacked our animals again.

Other peoples' animals though... that was a totally different story. I found her outside playing with dead cats a few times; didn't think too much of that because that's what dogs do, right? Certainly wasn't the first time a husky-type dog killed a neighborhood cat, and I didn't much like cats anyway. I always hid the bodies though, fearing the response of adults.

Then one day I found her in the yard playing with a dead dog. This was something I knew would definitely not be okay with anyone. It was a little Jack Russel-looking dog, so ripped to shreds its limbs were barely connected to its body. I buried that dog deep in the woods.

She also regularly brought home wild animals; rabbits, squirrels, birds, etc. One day she had a dead ferret; I still have no explanation for that. Did she snatch out of someone's house?

Bit by bit complaints started coming in from other neighbors about Lulu threatening or attacking their animals in their own yards. I defended Lulu fiercely, lying about her being with me or whatever to try to take blame off her. My parents built a 6-foot high chain link fence to try to contain her, but she climbed it with ease and her murder sprees continued, while I continued to do my best to hide the evidence. I had quite the little pet cemetery going in the woods behind my house.

This wasn't a daily thing; it happened maybe once or twice a month sometimes, other times several months would go by with no problems. She was great when she was with me, would barely even acknowledge other animals were present. She would always come when called, no matter what was going on, and heeled like a champion if asked. The trouble was when she was on her own---and between school, sleep and, as I got older, social activities, that came to be the majority of the time.

One day I came home from school to find Lulu on the porch, muzzle covered in blood. Something snapped in me and I was filled with rage; after all my hopes and dreams and work this stupid dog just would not stop. I was tired of burying dead critters in the woods. I grabbed her roughly by the scruff of the neck and tried to drag her inside the house. She twisted her head and slashed my arm from elbow to wrist. So much blood... I was scared shitless and had my parents been home it probably would have been a completely different story. But they weren't home, the bleeding stopped, and I justified Lulu's actions in my head. I wore long sleeve shirts for a few weeks and yet again hid the damage from my parents.

When she bit my best friend on the thigh as he tried to stop her from following us inside his house, I convinced him to hide the injury too.

Finally Lulu was caught 'red handed' killing a dog tied in its owner's fenced yard. The owners put Lulu in their garage until animal control came; my parents said the only way that dog was getting out of the pound was if I found another home for her. So I did... some fellow who lived 40 miles out of town and raised sled dogs agreed to take her. I have no clue what happened to her after that.

Through all this I felt Lulu was the victim; she was just doing what a wild, spirited wolf does. I felt nothing but contempt for the pathetic little pussy dogs she killed. Her threats and attacks on me were even seen positively; she saw me as an equal, not a mean, domineering 'master'. The only fear involved was that someone would take my poor misunderstood wolf away and contain her, where her soul would surely die of captivity. I long resented that tattle-tell neighbor and my parents for making me get rid of her. It was many years before I started to see the whole thing in a different light.

I was a stupid, selfish kid, but I was also a victim to some extent of the whole romancing dangerous dogs thing. I devoured those wolfdog stories and took every word to heart, and at no point did anyone bother to show me a different kind of reality. Standing up for your dog by any means necessary was just what you do, everyone knows that... just like everyone knows you stand by your best (human) friend even if he kills someone. That's the code, at least at 13.

I see so much of my former attitude reflected in pit bull advocates, and quite frankly it scares me more than their dogs. It is so staggeringly immature and unrealistic, but I remember how very real that world was for me. Anyone outside of it was the crazy one, and, being crazy, they had no value and warranted no consideration. They were pussies; I was the one embracing life and adventure and nature red in tooth and claw. The difference is I outgrew it; these people in their 40s and 50s advocating friendly neighborhood pit bulls and other naturally savage dogs have some serious developmental issues going on.

And that is my story. Do with it what you will.

--A former wolfdog fanatic

Pit Nutter True Confessions: My "Service Dog," Boulder, Tried to Kill My Neighbor's Kid

       I have a confession to make: I read the pit bull forums from time to time.  They are a wealth of information, and let me tell you, it's incredible what these people talk about amongst themselves.  I find the interesting threads by searching for things like "my dog attacked me," "my dog killed another dog," "sued by neighbor," "go to court," "my dog killed my other dog," "afraid of my dog," and "my dog bit me/my child/neighbor." The stories!

           Well, I recently came across one that I felt I had to share.  It deserves, I feel, a greater audience than the pitbull-forum echo chamber.

         Where to begin....?  The frightening, serious, narrowly avoided attack on the neighbor's tiny boy?  The fact that this pit bull was "deliberately chosen" by the owner to be a (fake) "service dog" for her autistic daughter, and presumably passed off as a legitimate service dog in public?  That the owner carefully and deliberately obfuscated the reason her dangerous "service dog" had to be put to sleep, out of a desire to escape the "judgement" of others, and protect the image and reputation of pit bulls?  That several of her nutter friends in the forum chime in to admit that they've had to euthanize their dangerous pit bulls in the past? It goes on and on.  Let's take a look:

          First, meet "jaxcullen," the owner of a pit bull named Boulder.  Jaxcullen begins the thread with her story: her 16-month old "autism service dog" hit puberty and turned on right on schedule, becoming "increasingly aggressive to everything" except the members of her immediate family.  Boulder just scared the shit out of her by going after her neighbor's little boy as he walked beside the fence: 

     "The boy was making NO threatening behavior whatsoever.  He wasn't making noises or in any kind of posture that would say he was a threat.  Wasn't walking too slow or running.  Boulder charged him.  I am so very grateful he was on his lead.  It's the only thing that stopped him from attacking the boy.  He was totally fine one moment, and then he just erupted.  He charged and hit the boards so hard, I thought he broke them..Even after I had him by the collar, he still was acting like the by was the only thing he saw.  He was in a frenzy."

          Jaxcullen sounds sincerely confused in this post, wondering why on earth Boulder would do such a thing:  "Boulder's seen him a million times.  He's my son's size, so why that didn't transfer to him that this size human is not a threat, I'll never know."   I am not an expert in pit bull psychology, lady, but the answer seems completely self-evident to me: Boulder didn't see that kid as a threat in any way.  Even a pit bull is not STUPID enough to find a familiar, helpless 5-year-old human minding his own business THREATENING.  Boulder saw the kid as easy, tasty, obvious prey.  Yum yum, Jaxcullen.

          To her credit, Jaxcullen knows immediately what she has to do: Boulder must be put down as quickly as possible.  She doesn't try to weasel out of this painful decision, or minimize Boulder's lethal potential.  Boulder's gotta die.  She says she would have shot him on the spot, but since the man of the house, Frank, is on probation (gosh, what a shocker! A felon with a pit bull!  Never seen that one before!), there are no longer guns in the household.  Frank had to surrender them.  So, Jaxcullen immediately books Boulder a date with the vet for the needle.

     Jaxcullen spends a restless night tortured by questions about why Boulder turned out the way that he did, and what, if anything, she could have done about it.  My favorite: "Once the hindsight vision set in last night and we discussed his traits now that he's matured, I was able to really accept this is a dog that was bred to be a very dangerous dog.  If I lived alone in a place no one ever visited, he and I would live out our years blissfully together.  For me...for my kids who he adores...he's the most wonderful dog in the world.  For all others, he is a significant threat, and I can't stand the idea of having this knowledge now, having the thoughts today of what he would've done had the lead not stopped him. DA, I can handle/manage...even HA to an extent...an unprovoking child that isn't a stranger to him?  No way."  

  

           What I want to know is, how does Jaxcullen keep her head from exploding from cognitive dissonance? All three of these thoughts somehow occupy the same space in her brain: "Boulder was bred to be a very dangerous dog," "Boulder would never hurt me or my children" "This very dangerous dog is an excellent candidate for service dog to an autistic child."  I think I broke my fucking brain just typing that.  

      

            The reason Jaxcullen can think these things is because she's drunk the nutter kool-aid.  Jaxcullen here is the definition of an ideologue.  

       Here, Jaxcullen says that the first vet she called refused to put Boulder to sleep because he was healthy.  Jaxcullen has to call another one.  Again, to her credit, she knows that he must die and not be surrendered to some "idiot advocacy agency that thinks they can rehabilitate him."  

           Here, Jaxcullen spends Boulder's last day on earth with him and tries to make it a good one.  Final photos, special treats, she is very sad.  I would be touched if I did not believe that Boulder would eventually maim or kill this woman or a member of her household if she kept him alive. 

           But already, in the back of her mind, she is preparing herself for the judgement of others, and what they would think and say about Boulder and why he must be put to sleep:  "I can already see the judgement that will come my way from the unknowing, as if crating is bad or caused this or as if I didn't work with him enough.  That part kind of sucks....".   I guess that's what she calls people who just won't understand the circumstances of her predicament, or something: "the unknowing."  

         This is when the thread takes a shocking, grotesque turn: her nutter forum buddies start chiming in, offering moral support and personal stories of having had similar experiences with their own pit bulls!

           This guy "still cries" about having to dirt nap his pit, Baloo: "This situation is sucky and I wish it didn't have to happen, but it does.  No matter what others say, it had to happen."

         This crazy asshole admits that he has "been through this same situation...more than once, in fact."  Incredibly, he goes on to assert that "any APBT with a correct temperament for the breed" would be as loving and patient with the autistic daughter as Boulder is.

        Jaxcullen responds with more jaw-dropping nutter speak: "Quite true, and the reason I sought out the breed in the first place for her service dog...this experience hasn't deterred us, and both Frank and I agree, we'll only ever have bull breeds in our home, even still."

        How emotionally entrenched in pit bull advocacy and its myths do you have to be to not see this terrifying near-mauling experience as a wake-up call?  

      More nutters chime in to commiserate about having to put their dangerous, aggressive pit bulls to sleep.  Apparently, none of them think there is anything shockingly wrong with the big picture, here.  None of them seem to think this is very weird, much less unacceptable and abnormal canine behavior, or a bizarre dog-owning experience.  

          Some rescue nutter: "It never gets easier for us we are crushed everthing (sic) a trip to the vet becomes clear with one of our guys.  But to truly save the breeds we love....we know that there is no other choice."

          Another nutter, Nala Barone: "I too had to do the unthinkable to our 2 yr old pit mix was DA and we managed this as best we could, however...our Luca became HA.  I couldn't imagine him ever hurting or biting anyone-but he did bite my neighbor.  We..tried for awhile to seclude him/manage him and couldn't imagine him ever hurting one of us but something snapped in him and he could not recover."  I wonder what Luca finally did after he "snapped" that scared this nutter badly enough to change his mind?

         Yet ANOTHER nutter: "Been there once and it wasn't an easy decision, but I made the right one."  All of these jerks have been through this, and they all still choose to own pit bulls!

      Jaxcullen thanks everyone for their support during this difficult time.  Then she shares the statement she intends to make to the "general public" about why Boulder is put to sleep:  "Boulder had a genetic condition that had begun to present over the past several months, had a significant increase over these past few weeks, and would've only progressed worse as time went on."  

        No fucking mention of the fact that Boulder tried to eat the little boy.  No mention of danger or aggression, even though she had previously admitted to herself that he was "bred to be a very dangerous dog."  None of that.  Just this great big obfuscation, this lie by omission.  Why?  So that it "keeps his memory focused on all the beautiful things he was for us instead of the storm that began inside him over these past few months."  

     

          In other words: to respect his memory (why?) and to protect the reputation and public image of pit bulls, and to avoid facing the scrutiny and questions of others, "the unknowing," who might question her about her parenting decision to make a  lethal animal a "service dog" for her disabled child.  Jaxcullen has egg on her face, and she doesn't want anyone to focus on it for long. 

      And last, but certainly not least, we have the final entry to this kicker of a forum thread.  It's a shocking ending right out of a horror movie: the scene when everyone discovers how close they actually came to death: the wife pops the hood and discovers that her now-incarcerated husband cut the break lines on her car...or, the church congregation finds a massive unexploded bomb hidden beneath the church organ, and the only reason it had failed to explode is because the alarm clock being used as a timer ran out of battery juice....

          Jaxcullen tells the forum that she just found out that the cable tie-out that she used to keep her dangerous child-hunting fucking abomination of a dog Boulder  contained in the yard was flimsy and Boulder could have snapped it at any time.  Since they dirt-napped their mutant, they used the cable for their other dog (presumably also a mutant) who is considerably smaller and weaker than Boulder was.  This dog snapped the cable.  

           Jaxcullen has an inkling of what this means, and this is the lesson she takes away from it: "We'll never put another bull breed dog on a cable again.  Fortunately, no tragedy occurred, but we were so close....There's a reason responsible owners use chains, and in hindsight, simply 'there by the grace of God go I' that we didn't have a news story on our hands.  The cable was a poor poor choice, and we sit with a solemn understanding of that today." 

            So that's the lesson she derives from all this: the cable was a poor, poor choice.  

            If I was her neighbor and I read this, I think I'd have a heart attack.  

            I wasn't terribly angry at Jaxcullen when I read this thread.  Mostly, I was just shocked at her nuttery and her very strange and bad (to my mind) parenting decisions.  Stunned at how blind her ideology had made her.  But this?  This final entry really pissed me off.  Fuck you, Jaxcullen, for putting your neighbors and other members of your community at risk because of your stupid, selfish decision to have your ugly dangerous dogs.  And you really should get a job in PR if you're not in the industry now--look at how well you evade dealing directly with the PROBLEM here, the ugly, awful truth: "Fortunately, no tragedy occurred" instead of "Fortunately, my dangerous-as-hell violent homicidal dog, which I selfishly decided to own, did not break from his containment, which I stupidly and incompetently chose for him, and go on to slaughter, in painful and nightmarish fashion, one of my blameless neighbors."

CLICK HERE TO READ THE THREAD IN ITS ENTIREITY AT PITBULL-CHAT (at least until it's pulled and sent down the memory-hole)

swagger in, slither out

profile of a dangerous dog lobbyist.

on 12.19.13 LISA CAMUSO left the following comment:

LOLOL...You guys are priceless...!Not a clue, any of you? SO sad...but easily herded, I would imagine.Can any of you figure out why anti-pit bull people run and hide when I offer to debate them on canine behavior, training, breeds and dog bites? I'm a little stumped as all of you are so outspoken and self-proclaimed experts, posting charts and statistics as if you gave birth to a new solar system...So, when any of you are ready after your quick Google search for propaganda to use as ammunition....let me know...I have been a bully breed owner for over 20 yrs. I train, I've worked my dogs....and I was a legislative director for several all breed working dog organization. Oh, and I co-authored dangerous dog ordinances in several cities....Ready for me???? (Morons getting ready to ban me from this page in 3,2 .......1 ! )

of course i published her comment immediately and accepted her challenge. i continually checked for her reply, eagerly awaiting her public thrashing. hours went by, then days and LISA MARIE CAMUSO, dog trainer extraordinaire and hot shot "legislative director" and co-author to the pit bull stars was a no show. :-(

so i looked for her.

i found her barren facebook page. her profile pic consisted of her dedication to the party of truth and a couple of comments, there were no photos, friend list, likes, nothing to substantiate her grandiose claims.

i don't think i have ever encountered such hubris in a nutter before. color me intrigued and disappointed. since LISA MARIE CAMUSO didn't return to put me in place and since massachusetts is of special interest to me and since i had an hour to kill... google to the rescue.

let's see...
• 20+ years experience as "bully breed" owner
• dog bite diva (move over karen)
• expert dog trainer & behaviorist
• co-author of dangerous dog laws

there is no way to prove or to disprove that she has over 20 years experience as a bully breed owner, she is 50 years old, so it is at least a possibility, unlike some of these 22 year old dog groomers who claim to have 20 years experience as vet tech, breeders and dog trainers.

i didn't find anything to demonstrate LISA'S superior knowledge of dog bites and since she didn't return to educate me, i will assume that her special knowledge is simply a regurgitation of KAREN DELISE'S schtick: intact resident dogs that no one can identify, yadda, yadda, yadda.

i was able to glean LISA MARIE CAMUSO'S skill level as dog trainer/behaviorist though, thanks to an old PBF thread.

 be sure to click on these to view larger and enjoy!

here is another example of her superior dog training skills.

as to her claim of co-author of dangerous dog laws, i suspect there is quite a bit of exaggeration there. LISA MARIE CAMUSO did appear to be the legislative liaison for the american working dog federation but according to the 2008 minutes, her involvement might have consisted only of attending meetings and hearings. i have yet to find her named as an author. LISA MARIE CAMUSO may have had some success imposing her unfettered dangerous dog agenda on our greedy, spineless, weak kneed, lily-livered, chicken-hearted, yellow-bellied elected officials. the unfortunate reality of american politics is that the special interest groups are running show thanks to the greedy, spineless, weak kneed, lily-livered, chicken-hearted, yellow-bellied fucktards that we elect to office. no reason why the lobbyists for dangerous dogs should not enjoy the same privileges as monsanto and the predatory banks. money talks. i found plenty of examples of LISA MARIE CAMUSO acting as conduit to the rest of nutterdom whenever BSL was being considered.

think i am being to hard on politicians? check out the council minutes from methuen, mass in 2006. during a public discussion on muzzling PIT BULLS in the city, a couple of nutter sisters showed up to protest muzzles, as did LISA CAMUSO of franklin and HOLLY STUMP of ipswich (another professional pit bull lobbyist), and some nutter by the name of BONNIE. the city did not require BONNIE to state her full name or full address but happily indulged her fanaticism.

my google search of LISA MARIE CAMUSO shed more light on her character than the specialized skill set she boasted of.

i found LISA MARIE CAMUSO trying to tell a "little white lie" to a kentucky hunting forum but it back fired. the good old boys appear to be sharper than our elected officials. link one and link two.

little white liar LISA CAMUSO tried to whip the hunters up in a fear frenzy with the promise that their beagles, labs and retrievers were in danger of being banned under a law being considered in louisville. when in reality, the law targets "any dog that is owned for the purpose of harming or fighting another animal".

"A total of 7 breeds of dogs are specifically named as "dangerous" and subject to mandatory spay/neuter.
Intact dogs of those breeds, which include American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Dogo Argentinos, Cane Corsos, Presa Canarios, Dogue de Bordeauxs and American Pit Bull Terriers are subject to special permits, insurance requirements, muzzling in public and special enclosure rules.
A special permit must be bought to own an intact dog of any of these breeds, and Councilwoman Cheri Hamilton has already announced her intention to add more breeds in future!"

(more breeds in the future likely consisted of bandogs, american bulldogs and all of their ugly mutations.)

LISA MARIE CAMUSO concluded her histrionic plea to kentucky hunters with names and contact information of the 26 louisville council members.

the hunters respond:

where is the part about outlawing hunting dogs.
I'm not calling you a liar but where is your proof on your allegations this is pretty harsh stuff and needs some sort of substantiation regarding your statements about one person.

Never knew a pitbull or any of the other does you listed were hunting dogs...

I agree and say this in no way is for hunting dogs...like said my lab is a retriever. The dogs listed are banned in alot of places around the U.S. Presa Canarios are pit bulls on steriods, Dogo Argentinos are pretty vicious too, as the others can be. I know most are used as guard dogs mostly. I know people that have a few of the listed breeds.

There's a HUGE difference between a pit bull and a lab and it looks like they have failed to acknowledge that. Sounds like you guys have some Psycho's up there in Da Ville.

she displays a consistent pattern of deception and obfuscation.

where are you LISA MARIE CAMUSO (lisa quinn/liger woods/gogetmgidget)?

as vintage says "check back so we know that you have not been mauled or incarcerated." or maybe just let us know if your lithium kicked in.

ODE TO LISA

Joan of Barf for Pit bulls, Camuso
Appeared not for her big-tent roadshow
And left the simple villagers leaderless, and moronic
For patent nostrum teachings
much like a cheap colonic
A sheeple dip and tonic
To rid our minds of
Facts and phonics
We foolishiy believed were truth;
And as we milled with vacant minds
To learn about canine Frankensteins
The tattered stage curtain fluttered with fallacies breath
We awaited the Gospel that pit bulls abhorr death
But imbeceles must accept life as disappointments come:
Evaporating fast as deadly methane gas
Camuso was gone in 3...2....1.

the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long

Or a seventh as long compared to Leah Purcell. Purcell managed to run her dog rescue grifter operation for 28 years!

When Markwell was approached by some of the local color in Forks, WA for a pit bull, he told them, "Don't come around here anymore. Tell your friends the dogs are dangerous, but the owner's worse."

Foreshadow. lol.

Steve Markwell burst onto the dog rescue scene in 2009 armed with promises, grand pie in the sky plans and a handful of fairy dust to sprinkle into the lattes of gullible rescue angels only to find himself in a heap of legal trouble four years later.

Fast forward to 2015. This week MARKWELL admitted to violating the Charitable Solicitation Act and its Consumer Protection Act. The Washington state dog whisperer and one time speaker on the subject of breed specific legislation at the University of Washington Law School (page 4) in 2012 faces fines totaling $96,000 for 48 violations plus over $20,000 in legal fees after soliciting over $360,000 in donations to his house of horrors charity from 2009 to 2011. The judge could also order MARKWELL to return the money that he duped from fellow no kill kooks. MOMMY!

A few gullible political correct organizations pimped Markwell out and presented him as someone to respect and mimic but only Idea Mensch deleted the piece they ran on Markwell in 2009 (good thing i saved a pdf!). He is still listed as number 32 of 33 entrepreneurs who make this world a better place but his individual spotlight has been purged from their website. You would think that an honest organization would seize the moment to teach people of the dangers of con artists instead of sloppily trying to bury the truth. Even the famous psychopath researcher, Dr. Robert Hare admits that he can be fooled by these creatures.


KOMO

Peninsula Daily News

Markwell's bottom feeding attorney could not be reached for comment

OAS - life inside the sanctuary

High Praise in the LA Times

care2 explain yourself Markwell to your gullible followers?

Rackateer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations

pit nutter of the month: steve markwell - rescue angel, lion tamer, child of the universe, and a good candidate for B12 intervention
 

Canine Discrimination by Richard Prince

Please be sure to check out the latest edition on The Truth About Pit Bulls.

April 1945, aah, the good old days of critical thinking skills and political incorrectness.

Update: How Don Happened

Update 04/01  10:30 AM

        Well, they hit Craven Desire's Facebook.   Shannon Holt-Grieves left a comment and then immediately deleted it.  The others are still up at this time.

Update:  3/31/15   11:45 PM

         Shannon Holt-Grieves either deleted all her posts from Facebook or set them to private.  The videos of Don are also gone.

 
                                      *                                                 *                                            *


 Last week's Frankenmauler Roundup concluded with the outrageous case of DON, the adopted pit bull who attacked his new family two days after they took him home from Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Team (ACCT).  Don's final victims (WE HOPE) were mother Nicole Keppol, her 11 year old son, and her 10 year old daughter.  According to news reports, all three suffered puncture wounds and torn skin on their arms.  The son's injuries require reconstructive surgery.

        Last week we learned that Don was a graduate of the Pen Pals program, a program whose mission is to prioritize the adoption of dogs who, for one reason or another, have been passed over for adoption in the past and are languishing in the shelter.  Like Don, almost all of the dogs enrolled in Pen Pals are pit bulls or pit mixes.  It is not a coincidence that ACCT Philly received a $10k grant (in addition to significant publicity and promotion) from Best Friends Animal Society.  Readers of Craven Desires will be familiar with Best Friend's role in pit bull advocacy.  Best Friend's motto, "Save The All," is appropriate for this blog post: ACCT workers who promoted and facilitated Don's adoption have a "Save Them All" mindset towards the animals in their charge.  Only "Save Them All" dogma can explain why they chose to release a dog like Dan out onto an unsuspecting public instead of humanely euthanizing him.

         The questions are: besides the entire Pen Pals program, who was handling Don's adoption effort?  What did they know about Don?  In other words, who dropped the fucking ball?

         In a recent interview with the press, the executive director of  ACCT, Susan Cosby, said that Don had passed behavior screenings and was thought to be safe.  She said, "We do a behavior evaluation (but) it is a snapshot in time...no behavior evaluation can guarantee safety so it is never perfect, but we do our best."

        Well, people at ACCT knew a lot more about Don and his behavior than what was captured in a "snapshot in time."  Some people at ACCT knew all about Don.  Don was not some pit bull sleeper agent, successfully blending in as an optimal family pet and whiling away the time until he was activated to fulfill his nefarious purpose.

        Presumably Don had passed a behavior evaluation when he was placed in a foster home where he lasted less than two days before attacking the household's resident pit bull, causing $700 worth of severe rips and tears to the other dog's face.  Selena Trailes, the foster, called ACCT to take Don back and was understandably shocked to learn that ACCT still intended to place Don in a home.  Trailes is worth quoting:

       "I said to her, 'That dog attacked my dog, what if it attacks a kid'  She said, 'Don't worry about it, he won't do that."
 
        and

        "I couldn't believe it.  That poor family, the kids--it could have been my kids.  How can someone sleep at night knowing that they adopted that dog out knowing that it viciously attacked my dog."   

           EXCELLENT QUESTION, Ms. Trailes!

          I wish we could ask Shannon Holt-Grieves, Don's pen pal.  (I'd give anything to know the name of the ACCT staff member who told Trailes "not to worry" about the possibility of Don attacking a child.  My money's on Holt-Grieves.)

Shannon Holt-Grieves, Don's Pen Pal (not pictured)

Shannon Holt-Grieves w/random pit bull

Shannon shows the love

 Shannon's Facebook contains multitudinous pictures and bios of pit bulls she's trying to adopt out or has adopted out in the past.  She's helped to place em far and wide, has Shannon.  Let's take a look at what she did for DON:

        First, we have this rather underwhelming adoption ad.  Looks to me like she was really scraping for something positive to say about ole Don.  As Dawn pointed out, "loves toys" and "housebroken" are not exactly glowing recommendations of a dog's dazzling personality and pet qualities (btw, another bio said that Don wasn't completely housebroken).

Well, at least he loves toys!

Another of Don's Glamour Shots

Shannon thinks Don is "awesome" 

        Pictures don't do this fine fellow justice.  Let's see how Don looks on video.

       Dawn noted that Don has testicles in these vids.  This one was published Feb 17, 2015




      Don jumps in her face a few times in this one:





Don, hyper as hell, published March 6 2015

        Don hasn't been neutered at the time these videos were taken.  What I want to know is, did ACCT Pen Pals and Shannon get him fixed when he was adopted, before he was sent home with his new family?

        It sounds inconceivable to me that he wouldn't be sterilized, but Shannon Holt-Grieves has placed intact pit bulls before.  This is one of Shannon's adopted pit bulls in his new home.  There are more pictures of un-neutered pit bulls in her Facebook.

   
         I truly hope these are isolated incidences and that ACCT routinely sterilizes its animals. How the hell does any animal, much less a pit bull, leave the shelter system without being sterilized?  ACCT can afford the Pen Pals program, but they can't afford to have their animals fixed?  They are drowning in pit bulls, and they release pit bulls capable of perpetuating the humane crisis and overpopulation problem?   Are you kidding me?  

        I found this on Shannon's timeline: she promotes the rehab of a known biter named Bruno.  I think Shannon wrote that story about Bruno there above his picture.  I don't see anything like that story on Bruno's GoFundMe page (they ended the GoFundMe, but you can still read the updates on the site.  A vet treating Bruno refused to complete the examination when Bruno made the feel unsafe.  Shannon seems to think that a dog like BRUNO is still adoptable material).

           The evidence shows that ACCT Pen Pals expended substantial time, effort, and resources to adopt out DON, a pit bull so devoid of lovable personality traits that staff resorted to using his housebreaking as a selling point in his marketing.  ACCT Pen Pals continued trying to place Don after Don attacked and severely injured a pet in Foster home and despite the fact that his foster home expressed concern that could hurt a child.  Don was not an oversight or an accident.  People at ACCT Pen Pals, include Shannon Holt-Grieves, knew that Don was violent and did their best to put him in a home--with children!!!--anyway.

          Here is another example of the "Save Them All" mindset, taken, again, from Shannon's Facebook.  My interpretation of the dialogue is that this white pit bull, Danger, is paired with another dog (presumably a pit bull) named "Sunny."  Sunny's "evals," which I take to mean her behavior evaluation, are "unfortunately, not great."  These ACCT people are still hoping to place these dogs for adoption and are very concerned about Sunny being "killed."  Click to enlarge:

           It is unconscionable that ACCT allowed Don and other dogs like him to be adopted.  I would go so far as to say that it is a violation of public trust and ACCT's obligation of responsibility towards the greater community.  

          I regret to report that nothing I found or read while researching this blog post leads me to believe ACCT will do its best to prevent placing another Don.  Quite the contrary, in fact.

Friday Frankenmauler Roundup: Neighbors from Hell, Mutant Mayhem, & Pit Grifters

     I couldn't think of a title for this edition of the Frankenmauler Roundup.  "Same Shit, Different Day Edition" is accurate--the pit bull crowd is nothing if not consistent--but it lacks the pizzazz I think is necessary to describe these stories of mayhem, narcissism, antisocial behavior, and Jerry Springer buffoonery.  Nor does same shit, different day describe the experiences of the victims.   It certainly wasn't same shit, different day for them.  I am confident that the victims will remember their encounters with these pit bulls and nutters for the rest of their lives (if they lived to tell the tale).

       Instead, it's the "Neighbors from Hell, Mutant Mayhem, & Pit Grifters Edition"  Discursive, but accurate.

     In La Pine, Oregon, a 27 year old mare had to be euthanized after being attacked in a fenced yard by two loose pit bulls, BAILEY (female) and BULLY (male).  The horse's owner, Richard Beck, fired a warning shot, but BULLY kept attacking, so Beck shot him.  BAILEY fled to her nearby home.  The dogs' owner, Tony Maxwell, surrendered BAILEY to animal control and was cited on two counts each of:  animal nuisance and killing, wounding, or injuring livestock.


     In Deltona, FL  Shirley Farina, age 70, suffered injuries while trying to protect her two Yorkies, Casper and Cali, from being mauled to death in their own back yard.  Farina heard her dogs screaming outside and found them being attacked by two pit bulls belonging to her neighbor.  The pit bulls entered her yard by digging under the shared fence.  Farina managed get them off of one of her dogs, but then the pit bulls focused the other Yorkie.  She scooped up the little dog to shield it, at which point the pit bulls started to bite her arms.  She screamed for help and was aided by a neighbor, Jeff Lamey.
     
             "At first I thought it was a child screaming and then I heard a second scream and it was a scream of terror," Lamey said.  "I grabbed two big rocks, jumped the fence, ran over and landed two good shots that broke them loose."  The pit bulls stopped their attack and Farina brought her wounded pets inside to help them.

Casper and Cali RIP

            Farina suffered multiple bites to her hard, arm, and neck.  Casper and Cali did not survive their injuries.  Says Farina: "I've had them since they were babies and they were the love of my life."
 
            The mutants belonged to Farina's neighbor, DEMETRIA BREWER, 24

Neighbor of the Year Demetria Brewer

         Sheriff's Deputies confronted BREWER.  She refused to give them her name or date of birth and yelled at her boyfriend not answer questions, either.  BREWER was arrested on the charge of resisting an officer without violence and booked into the Volusia County Jail.  Her pit bulls were taken by animal control to be put down.

           
 Meanwhile, across the pond in Dover UK, Karen McDonald is still mourning the untimely loss of her dog Petal.  On Feb 17, the springer spaniel was out for her morning walk with McDonald when they had the bad luck of running into drug abuser and bad actor TROY SMITH and his pit bull SPIKE.

          Says McDonald: "I saw this dog come rushing towards us.  It went round the back of Petal and started biting her leg.  I couldn't do anything.  I stood there screaming for help.  I didn't know if the dog would go for me.  It was absolutely terrifying."

            SMITH eventually got SPIKE to release the little dog.  Concerned strangers rendered aid and Petal was rushed to the animal hospital.  The vet recommended that Petal be put down.

           SMITH and SPIKE were later apprehended by authorities in Market Square.  Rather than cooperate and make the inevitable consequences as painless as possible, both of them decided to continue being stupid violent assholes.  SPIKE (later described by kennel workers as "the most undesirable dog (we) had ever had") bit a PCSO on the thigh before being contained.  SMITH, an admitted long-term heroin user, was arrested and bit the finger of a police officer at the police station.  He also lied that he was HIV positive.

howdy, neighbor!

         SMITH, 42, pleaded guilty to assault, affray, violent behavior at a police station and owning a dog dangerously out of control.  On March 17 he was sentenced to 12 months in prison at Canterbury Crown Court.  SPIKE was dirt napped the day after the attack.

     

    Two people-pleasing nanny dogs went on a rampage in San Mateo back on January 21 (it's old news, but I couldn't resist...your humble correspondent found the story by googling "pit bull rampage").

         Shortly after 9:30 AM, police received a call from a "frantic" male who reported being  menaced by two large aggressive pit bulls, each weighing between 55 lbs and 75 lbs.  Police drove to the scene and along the way their radio blew up again: three more people called to report that the dogs were chasing people, including a city sanitation worker.

   

          The first officer to arrive on the scene followed the mutants in his car until they ran into a yard and attacked a landscaper, who used his leaf blower to fend them off. 

nanny was only playing

          The officer tried to distract the pit bulls by blowing his air horn.  It worked: the dogs turned their attention to him and  launched themselves, Cujo-like, against the door.  

           The pit bulls  ran in the direction of a local high school, prompting dispatchers to alert school officials to keep the students inside. Backup officers arrived and the police pursued the dogs, who then charged a woman pushing two children in a stroller.  Again, police distracted the animals with an air horn, but when the dogs changed direction towards a school for disabled children, an officer gave up trying to corner them and rammed them both with his car.

               One ugly mutant died instantly.  The other one decided that the party was OVER and fled for its home, located nearby.  Animal control officers came to the residence and captured the pit bull with the help of its dipshit owner.  While police were at the resident trying to get the dog, they were alerted to ANOTHER woman who'd been bitten by both dogs before the first report.  She suffered puncture wounds to her legs and biceps and was treated at the scene. 

              Police describe the dipshit owner(s) as "cooperative and remorseful," according to a local reporter.  

              I could not discover whether the owner(s) were charged.  Nor could I learn what happened to the surviving pit bull. 

            It was nanny dog mayhem redux in Stockton CA on March 13, when two pit bulls led police on a merry chase in the downtown area after attacking two men and killing a cat.  The first victim suffered bites to his hand.  The second man was attacked near city hall and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment, where he was then released.  

           Police and animal control chased the dogs for several blocks.  When the pit bulls moved towards one officer, the officer fired at one dog named HAZEL, injuring it in the leg.  The pit bulls ran and were taken into custody nearby.

           Meet the owner: pit nutter ROBERT HOUTZ.  HOUTZ came forward to claim his maulers and was allowed to take Hazel to an animal hospital.  

          You can see an interview with Houtz at this link.    Despite considerable evidence to the contrary, Houtz denies that his maulers are vicious: "It's not the breed.  It's the owners and how you train them.  They are not vicious.  I didn't train them that way."  I have no idea how Houtz explains the dead cat and two dog bite victims. Maybe the victims hallucinated their injuries. 

        

      HOUTZ was allowed to take his injured pit bull, HAZEL, to the animal hospital.  Incredibly, Stockton Animal Control returned MONEY, his other dog.  Houtz claims that Money is a service animal.  

       This asshole assumes no personal responsibility whatsoever (and why should he, given that Stockton police say he faces no charges?).  He claims his mutants could not have climbed the fence and that "someone must have let them out."  He claims that his dogs are not vicious, despite the fact that they just attacked two members of the community ("My animals are innocent," he says, on camera).  

        But Houtz's neighbors can rest easy: when Money was returned to Houtz, animal control came by to check that the fences were secure.  They gave Houtz a stern talking to, according to Joe Silva, a police spokesman: "They told him what the consequences would be if the dogs got out again."  

         I got into more trouble than Houtz when I failed to return the license plates after selling my car.  

      

 Now, please allow me to introduce DAVID WUICH of Fox River Grove, Illinois.   Wuich was recently featured in his local paper, the Northwest Herald.  Here's his picture:

David Wuich walking CAPONE and WHISKEY(left)
click to enlarge

        Hmmm, what's wrong with that, you wonder!  Just a guy walking his dogs! Those pit bulls might be bad news waiting to happen, but maybe Wuich is a decent person, you know, the naive variety of pit nutter. 

        Nope.  DAVID WUICH is not just bad news waiting to happen.  

        He's already happened.  To multiple people.  More than once.  

       In 2007, Cristina Orton and her lab, Sammy, were the victim of a home invasion. (Readers of Craven Desires will know that home invasion attacks are a pit bull hallmark: unlike other dogs, these ugly maulers actually go inside the homes of strangers looking for prey.  It's fucking heinous, is what it is).   It was like a scene from a horror movie: she was putting groceries away when a pit bull broke through her patio screen and attacked Sammy.  Sammy survived, with 22 staples in his head and dozens of stitches. 

        The "Avon calling!" pit bull was named SHADY, and he was owned by a young pit nutter named DAVID WUICH.

         Wuich put Shady to sleep after he couldn't find a rescue to take the dog (a miracle!).  

        David Wuich is a bad neighbor with an extensive criminal record.  He has been committing crimes his entire adult life and he is not mellowing with age: his most recent charges are FELONY assault and harassment. 

   

Traffic Violations: think DUI, not speeding ticket

           Multiple DUI, restraining order, and domestic violence.  A battering stalker with neck tattoos.  And, of course, PIT BULLS.  

David Wuich gives the nutter salute on Facebook

David Wuich gives the nutter salute on TWITTER

    David Wuich's MySpace has many photos of his pit bulls, past and present.  There are at least 6 different pit bulls there.  I saved all the photos...here are just a few:

"My tattoo.  I just love pit bulls!" he writes

      Lest anyone think that this pit nutter is not a well-rounded individual, I present an example of David Wuich's ARTWORK:

He drew it himself!

    We can explore his other interests on his Pintrest account.  Let's see what he's pinned!

     Well, he likes this glass guitar bong!

Glass Guitar Bong

 David Wuich thinks this is a great recipe for snack food at the "Stonerbowl"...uh, I mean Superbowl.  Wuich gives these "stuffed stoned jalapeno poppers" 2 thumbs up!

David likes these for superbowl

David Wuich covets this key.  "I want one!" he writes

     David works as a kennel manager at an animal hospital.

NEXT UP:  Another day, another shelter-adopted pit bull goes canine IED on its new family!

    Adopted pibble DON lasted fewer than 72 hours in his loving new home in Northeast Philadelphia.  He attacked Nicole Keppol, 33, and both of her children, an 11 year old boy and a 10 year old girl.  The mother and daughter were treated at the hospital and released.  The son needs reconstructive surgery.

     How did this happen?  Did Keppol and family just go to the pound to get a dog, and bad luck had them pick the worst of the lot? Where did DON come from?

     DON was enrolled in the Pen Pal Program at the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Team Shelter ("ACCT").   The Pen Pal program's mission strikes me as counterintuitive (but, then, I'm not a pit nutter): they prioritize the adoption of dogs languishing in the shelter system.  The dogs that nobody wants to adopt, in other words.  The dogs that have been passed over or deliberately rejected in the past by potential adopters.
   
        The dogs in the Pen Pals Program are overwhelmingly pit bulls...and, what's more, they are the unpopular pit bulls. 

        This is how the Pen Pals Program describes it on their website: 

"These “long term homeless visitors” are overlooked for a variety of reasons such as the appearance of being depressed, or exhibiting anxiety that can be off-putting to potential adoptive families. Many are mixed blends of dogs that look like pit bull terriers that suffer from myths and stereotypes that betray their true loving individual personalities! The ACCT Life Saving Department’s Pen Pal Program aims to improve the quality of life for these dogs and prioritize their adoption."

      Who funds the Pen Pals Program?  BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY!!!       Click the link to read the entire blowjob of an article on the Best Friends website.  

 The Pen Pal Program dogs get "life skills coaching" and "enrichment activities" and doggie makeovers.  They are photographed with cute new collars.  A volunteer writes up a persuasive, appealing new bio for the dog, which is then aggressively marketed to potential adoptive families.

        Let's look at what the Pen Pal Program did for it's star graduate DON:
      "I'm a really good boy!  I have a killer smile!" sure you are, DON, sure you are

 
"Come to see me for yourself, and bring the whole family!"

     Check out DON's GLAMOR SHOTS! Pen Pals gave him a whole album.

   Soon, DON was adopted.  Here's his photo on his happy day.

  Here's DON in his loving new home, before the attack: "He's a happy dog and we are lucky to have him as part of our family," writes victim Nicole Keppol.  "Don is doing wonderfully."

Don in happier times

   Here's the news video about the attack.  DON's behind bars:


Nicole Keppol's facebook has been silent about DON since the attack.  I'm with Dawn: I hope it's because her lawyer is telling her to keep quiet.