David Peppers, Cheyenne's father, talks about the unbearable loss of this daughter.
Father Wants New Laws
UPDATE 01/15/09: David Peppers, Cheyenne's father, told WALB that he does not want anyone else to go through what he's gone through. He hopes to prevent the immense pain he has suffered since his daughter's death. He says big changes need to come to Thomas County. He wants laws in place for people who own dangerous dogs like pit bulls and consequences for owners of dogs that seriously hurt people. "It needs to be changed. There's too many kids dying," said Peppers.
Peppers and several other locals want commissioners to enforce new laws. "We've got to have an ordinance to where those dogs are registered at vets, a spay and neuter type thing needs to happen. These dogs need to be checked on a regular basis. How they're pinned, how they're tethered up," he said. Peppers and his wife are divorced. His little girl lived with her mother and stepfather in Thomasville, at the home where three pit bulls killed Cheyenne in their backyard.
01/06/09: Humane Society Distorts the Truth
Thomasville, GA - A 5-year old girl was killed by her family's pit bulls while she played in her yard. Behind a fence marked with a "Beware of Dog" sign, Cheyenne Peppers was killed by the dogs. Animal control says one of the pit bulls was loose in the yard and the other two were chained. Melvin Johnson of the Thomasville Police Department said, "The child was possibly playing on the trampoline. The female dog who was pregnant possibly started the attack on the child."
The two other pit bulls were close behind. They apparently broke free of their chains and joined in the attack of the little girl. Executive Director of the Thomas County Humane Society, Carol Jones, was quick to excuse the deadly behavior of the pit bulls. She said, "You need to remember that a dog is a dog and its going to act like a dog especially in a pack situation and that's what these animals did." Once again, another humane worker horrifically distorts the truth about pit bulls.
In a 3-year period (Jan. 2006 to Dec. 2008), pit bulls killed 52 Americans. This is equivalent to a pit bull killing an American every 21 days.
According to Jones' logic, any family with 3 dogs -- be they chihuahuas or labradors -- stands the same risk of a fatal dog attack as a family with 3 pit bulls. If Jones' logic was accurate, dogs would kill thousands of children each year, not the actual average of about 25-35. In the face of a fatal pit bull attack, Carol Jones is hoodwinking the people and elected officials of Thomas County by propagating "pit bull apology" distortions instead of the truth. This behavior is unconscionable.
She adds later in the article, "I just want to remind people they need to be cautious of their family pets. They can turn on you at any time, and it doesn't matter what kind of dog. You think they are wonderful. You don't think your dog would do anything like that but believe me they will!" Not only has Executive Director Carol Jones been added to the DogsBite.org Hall of Shame, we ask that she step down from her position. American citizens will not tolerate these distortions any longer.
Please watch the video clip that depicts Jones comparing a pit bull attack to a chihuahua attack as if the two are equivalent. She says, "A chihuahua, a great dane, it really does not matter...a pit bull..."
Related articles:
01/07/09: Fatal and Serious Dog Attacks in Georgia
This woman has overdosed on the kool aid.
She doesn’t seem at all credible in this video. She appears more like a feeble minded senior citizen who lives with 27 cats and who has been hired to greet customers at Fred Meyer.
This quote is my favorite:
“You don’t think your dog would do anything like that but believe me they will.”
Hmmm…I don’t find a single chihuahua or chihuahua mix fatality in the pit nutter idol’s book, Fatal Dog Attacks, The Stories Behind the Statistics.
How could that be?
18 days since the last one…
Another human aggressive pit breeding cell. Any other breeding community would be horrified.
Mother Jones sounds just like Mother Jenks out in Ventura County CA.
I wonder if they have “damage control after a Pit Bull fatality” training at the No Kill Wine and Dine meetings? They all parrot the same talking points almost verbatim.
This so called domesticated dog broke it’s chain to kill it’s own pack member” and this kennel blind nutter brings up chihuahuas!
The A/C profession needs to be held accountable…These dogs had previous animal control complaints and they did nothing to break the cycle which led to this attrocity.
Breaking containment and administering a Level 5/6 mauling is the trademark of the pit bull. Yet, the very people who have the duty to prevent them are actually enabling them!
The A/C world has a massive human factors(safety) and ethics problem.
They are hellbent on denying that phenotypical characteristics are behind most of these incidents. Like little handmaidens they desperately spew the dog industry talking points.
If civil liability ever gets tied to breeding standards, things get very uncomfortable for breeders and the dog registries which control the breeding standards.
“You need to remember that a dog is a dog and its going to act like a dog especially in a pack situation and that’s what these animals did.”
If that were true, dog parks and dog shows would be killing fields. Dogs as a general rule enjoy being with people and have no reason to harm them. When the bred-in genetic reaction to stimuli is to bite and hold until dead, people are going to die with that type of dog.
During the trial in 2005 between the City & County of Denver and the State of Colorado, Denver's expert witness, Dr. Peter L. Borchelt – a certified applied animal behaviorist, testified about the issue of dog pack attacks upon humans. Dr. Borchelt co-authored the only expert treatise on the topic, and his testimony was this:
For non-pit bulls, adding an additional dog to an attack upon a human would multiply the level of danger for the human. (1, 2, 3, etc.)
For pit bulls, adding an additional pit bull to an attack upon a human would create an EXPONENTIAL increase in the level of danger for the victim. (1, 4, 9, 16, 25, etc)
This is because Pit Bulls are tenacious, strong, and with their bite/hold/shake behaviors, any adult would be in serious danger with just one pit bull attacking them…..a 5-year old child would have no chance against multiple pit bulls.
If ANYONE has any doubt about this absolute truth, I challenge them to review the latest expertise treatise from the Detroit City Coroner in "Forensic Medicine", reviewing the death of several children in the Detroit area – all who were killed by pit bulls.
As a father of two children, aged 6 and 2, my heart goes out to the family. Truly, no pit bull owner expects their child to suffer at the hands of their beloved pets. Poor kid. Imagine how painful death by mauling would be. Absolutely heart-wrenching.
Pit bulls are a man-made problem. The traits pit bulls possess are because of man. The problem calls for a man-made solution…extermination.
Don
Honestly, I have a wide and diverse group of friends, and about 75% of them have dogs, several have multiple dogs. In most homes, the dogs are living with children. The dogs are often “unsupervised” with children, as they are in 99% of American homes, when mom goes downstairs to throw a load of laundry in, etc. I have never, in my long lifetime, known of any family dog, or group of dogs, that has suddenly attacked a child in the home. I know it happens occasionally, but considering the number of kids and dogs growing up together, its excedingly rare…unless the family dog is a pit bull.
Its time to cut the crap…calling my sweet setter a killer, who is just waiting for his moment, when he can jump up and rip my throat out…is simply ridiculous. I’m tired of mentally ill humane workers apologizing for pit bulls by trying to convince the public that all dogs are equally dangerous. These dogs are being bred FOR aggressive temperaments by the majority of breeders, we can’t act suprised when they attack a child.
I believe the banning of pit bulls from a community ties into the “broken windows” theory of crime prevention. That is, pit bulls, like broken windows, send a message that a community has been handed over to the criminals. We have discussed here the fact that pit bulls in a neighborhood lower property values; they have become a symbol of urban decay, and indicate the presence of drug dealers and gangs.
Keep pit bulls out of a community, and you also keep the dog fighters out; and dog fighting is closely associated with other criminal activity. Breeding pit bulls is also a source of income for thugs, so remove pit bulls, the thugs will live elsewhere.
The slippery slope argument against this theory is that, when you ban pit bulls, the thugs and criminals simply turn to other breeds of aggressive muscle dogs. This has not happened in Denver….you can check the “found” section of the Denver Dumb Friends website, where loose and wandering dogs are picked up by AC. Where pit bulls are legal, they are virtually always flooding AC and local shelters. When you look at the Dumb Friends found section, you won’t see Filas, Presas, Cane Corsos, or Rotts being picked up by AC.
Communities have a lot to gain by banning or otherwise regulating pit bulls…increased public safety, and an improved quality of life for its citizens. There is no real down side to living in a pit bull free community; the vast majority of people are only too glad to be rid of their pit bull owning neighbors.
Gee, I thought they have to be trained to do this.
I grew up with Great Danes. We had one very dog aggressive/animal aggressive unspayed female. I used to sleep with her, climb all over her. When she was bred, she happily shared her puppies and whelping box with me. My parents couldn’t keep me out there. Never a growl, never an aggressive look, never a moment of hesitation whatsoever on her part when we, adults and kids approached her or her puppies.
This insane notion of blaming ALL dogs, especially sexually intact dogs or dogs with puppies, of being capable of this behavior is mind boggling.
I saw on 60 minutes where prosecutors are starting to charge drunk drivers who kill, with murder. There is a charge called DEPRAVED INDIFFERENCE. It is defined here:
http://definitions.uslegal.com/d/depraved-indifference/
To constitute depraved indifference, the defendant’s conduct must be ‘so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime. Depraved indifference focuses on the risk created by the defendant’s conduct, not the injuries actually resulting.
These parents whose children are killed as a result of being exposed to a family dog who has shown aggression previously, should be charged with MURDER.
Carol Jones is COMPLETELY untrained and has zero background in the field (other than what sounds like a visit to a loony No KIll)
http://www.timesenterprise.com/local/local_story_360205157.html
These kinds of people are a complete liability to the county. They are lawsuits waiting to happen.
These dogs were reported many times. Carol Jones did nothing. She has that child’s blood on her hands.
Felony, your post should be bookmarked on this site. “Depraved Indifference’ describes the attitude of so many pit bull owners whose dogs attack and injure or kill. This information needs to be shared with victims of dog attacks. Prosecutors need to start charging owners of aggressive pit bulls with “depraved indifference” and sending them to prison.
GOOD FIND!
http://www.timesenterprise.com/local/local_story_360205157.html
“Last year was a year of recovery for me from a pretty horrendous experience (health-related) and I’ve realized that life is pretty fragile,” she said.
Fragile? Kind of like a 5 year old girl playing in her yard on a trampoline with 3 pit bulls?
“I think I had been on the job 10 days and had taken one of the trucks with some dogs on it to Pebble Hill Plantation. I didn’t realize the tail gate did not latch properly – there was something wrong with it – and I was halfway down Pinetree Boulevard when I realized I was missing a dog. Imagine my chagrin, having to call animal control and tell them I’d lost a dog in that way! As it turned out, the crate had fallen off in the middle of Smith Avenue near the Jail-Justice Center. Some workers saw it, called the authorities and the dog was OK.”
Totally incompetent!
“She has experience in the non-profit world and has a lot of veterinary experience, including working in a veterinary hospital and selling pharmaceuticals to them,” Jones said of her successor.
Oh Boy! A pharmaceutical industry pimp! We will need to keep an eye on this shelter.
How sad that the shelter’s only option was this careless half witted moron. Can you imagine the candidates that she beat out?
Betcha there is a skeleton in her closet too and that is what is the real driving force behind her “retirement”.
Just great, another child. The only victim here is the child, even if there weren’t dogs chained in the backyard, 5 is too young to be outside alone. You’d think with dogs they would have been more careful. Even with a different large breed of dog, 2 risk factors are chained/intact dogs. These dogs should have been taken and euthanized before.
If other breeds committed level 5/6 maulings at the rate of Pit Bulls, the lifeflight helicopters would blacken out the sun!
STOP BSL, BREED SAFER PIT BULLS!
“Oh Boy! A pharmaceutical industry pimp! We will need to keep an eye on this shelter.”
I wonder how many doses of Euthasol this nutter sold over the years?
http://www.wbko.com/news/headlines/37126784.html
Another one that blames Cocker Spaniels and thinks its all how you raise them.
I don’t understand Mrs Jones logic. If ALL dogs are ticking time bombs waiting to kill and maul 5 year old girls, why did she work for the humane society whose intent is to find homes for these animals?
Dogs bite, that is true. But pit bulls kill. I recently adopted a dog from a rescue organization. One night we were trying to email/call the representative of the organization and could not get in touch with her despite many attempts. The next day she emailed me and said she was really sorry, but the night before they had a foster dog who had broken out of its chain link fence and KILLED another foster dog. She said the dogs owner was in jail and she had been begged to foster this dog. She was told the dog had never shown any signs of aggression before the night prior.
I emailed her back and said, “sorry to sound biased, but this was a pit bull?” Wanna guess what her response was? “how did you know that?”
I live in N NV and in a very rural community. There are a lot of pits running around loose. When my husband walks our dog I am always scared that there will be an attack. I found an aggresive pit mix sitting on my front porch last week!!! When I walked up it growled at me and luckily ran away to the neighbors house where it “lives.” Nobody should have to fear a wild, malicious dog in their community. All I did was walk up to my own front door, and now I have to watch for loose dogs like this.
My heart goes out to this family who lost a child. I cannot imagine the terror this child went through. Or what this child’s family feels now.No one should have to go through something like that.