Posted on 11/07/2009 11:51:39 AM PST by Chet 99
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Mother Says Pit Bull Owners Want Child's Memorial Removed
LEVERITT'S CHAPEL -- The owners of two pit bulls that mauled to death a 10-year-old Leveritt's Chapel boy demanded a memorial to the child be removed, according to his mother.
Serenia Clinton will attend a brief ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the spot of her son's death across from his school on County Road 133 to witness removal of the memorial.
The memorial started out as a cross made of poster board with Justin Clinton's name on it and signed by his fifth-grade classmates at Leveritt's Chapel School, but is now a wooden cross stuck in a pot with flowers.
It is located on property leased by the owners of the pit bull dogs that fatally attacked Justin Clinton on June 15, his mother said.
Ricky George and Christi George reportedly complained to Ms. Clinton's attorney that many people go to the memorial and it is disturbing to them. The couple demanded that the memorial be removed. The couple could not be reached for comment Friday.
"The district attorney is trying to find a place to put the memorial," Ms. Clinton said.
She added, "Our family has been touched by the love and prayers of our community when they established this small make-shift memorial for Justin. � We hope that this incident will bring attention to the vicious nature of this breed of dog and the need for responsible dog owners to safely secure these dangerous animals.
"I hope that even without this small memorial, people will not forget Justin and the lessons to the public about the likelihood of substantial harm to life and health caused by this breed."
I have no love for pit bulls, and as an act of repentance and sorrow, it might be nice for the dog owners to suck it up and live with this.
But
People have a right to control their property. If I'm leasing some land, and if you put something on that land, and if I don't like what you just did -- then I ought to have the right to put it in a dumpster.
It's a sad day for the country when your neighbors have more control over your land than you do.
They are “disturbed” by folks visiting the memorial.
ME, ME, ME, ME!
It is all about MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
What a couple of self-centered “bleeps.”
Too effing bad!
They didn’t lose a child!
WOrds fail me!
If that was my child, there would be no complaints from across the street, because Hell has no cell service.
If those jack asses had controlled their property there would not be a dead boy.
Were the dogs put to sleep? If not the parents of the child must kill them.
I don't want to go there.
I’ve never seen the point of these memorial things. We have some along roadsides where people got into accidents and died as a result, but what’s the point of putting a cross or flowers there? These people have graves. I’m sure this child has a grave. Shouldn’t that be the memorial site?
Not that I’m all boo hoo’ed out for the pitbull owners. A little consideration on their part would be decent.
“If those jack asses had controlled their property there would not be a dead boy.”
Ditto, kudos, you said exactly what I was going to say.
If they had an ounce of decency they’d move. Just lucky it wasn’t a freeper’s kid, because they’d move whether they wanted to or not.
I'm therefore assuming (until someone posts more information disproving that assumption) that this was a case of an unfortunate accident, for which the pitbull owners were not at fault (not even due to negligence).
Under such circumstances, the pitbull owners would indeed be well within their rights (and even within the bounds of propriety) to demand that the memorial be removed from their property.
Regards,
I think being forced to look at that memorial each and every day, and confront what they are responsible for, is the least these scumbags could do.
If I were the dog owners, I would have had the dogs put to death (if it has not already been done) and would have gladly gave a spot for a memorial for those that lost their child.
How shameful and indifferent can we be?
BUMP what you said. These scumbags should be grateful the victim wasn’t the child of.... somebody who would get “justice”.
i’m sorry but, i am sick of all these memorials that i see on sides of roads where people died... it’s ridiculous... doesn’t this child have a memorial site at a cemetery? four kids in our town crashed into a light pole while driving 90 miles in the rain in front of a school... now there is a cross there... a kid was hit by a car at 11:00 at night while he was intoxicated on his skateboard... now we have a memorial there... people put up a memorial where a little girl was kidnapped and murdered and the family of the little girl asked that the memorial be removed... good for them... what is it with all these death markers? is it that we as a society no longer know how to mourn? i don’t understand it...
I don’t think the breed is inherently viscous and do agree that owners ought to bear responsibility for whatever their animals do. But moreover, where is the slightest bit of compassion here? Maybe these memorials are irritating to some, but for heavens sake, can’t you selfish a$$holes think about these grieving parents just a little bit? The owners actions are just sickening.
no bad dogs only bad owners ping
Sounds like the kid was skateboarding on the street when attacked.
http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20090615/NEWS01/906159958/0/FRONTPAGE
If these persons had any decency, at all, they would have built their own memorial for Justin. It is a shame persons are not held accountable for the actions of their dangerous pets.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Breed Deaths/Maulings
German shepherd and mix 24/47
Husky and mix 5/10
Labrador and mix 11/31
Pit bull terrier and mix 410/636
Rottweiler and mix 115/241
Total: 658/1323
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dangerous Dog Breed Statistics
http://www.edgarsnyder.com/dog-bite/statistics.html
Dangerous Dog Breed Statistics
Analyzing a sampling of press accounts from Canada and the USA during 1982-2007, researchers pinpointed the dog breeds that are most likely to cause death or serious injury. This research study concluded that, unlike any other breed of dog, Pitbulls attacked adults almost as often as they attacked children. The researchers found that Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, and Wolf-Dog Hybrids combined to account for:
77% of attacks that caused bodily harm to the injured dog bite victims.
73% of attacks that harmed children.
83% of attacks that injured adults.
70% of attacks that resulted in death.
77% of attacks that maimed the dog attack victims.
Another study looked at data obtained from incidents where victims were mauled by dogs during 1982-2006 and found that Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Perro de Presa Canario, and their mixes caused 65% of the dog bite deaths during that time period in the United States.
Some sources claim that the six types of dogs commonly identified as the most dangerous or vicious dog breeds are Akitas, Chow-Chows, Doberman Pinschers, Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, and Wolf-Dog Hybrids.
A study looked at a selection of dog bite incidents from 2006-2008 in the United States. Out of the 88 dog attacks studied:
Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, and American Bulldogs were responsible for 77% of all deaths.
Pit Bulls were responsible for 59% of all deaths.
Pit Bulls killed more adults than children.
Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada
September 1982 to November 13, 2006
– Merritt Clifton —
http://www.dogbitelaw.com/Dog%20Attacks%201982%20to%202006%20Clifton.pdf
If the dogs were adequately contained on the owner’s property, and a person jumped a fence and was injured or killed, should the owner be held responsible?
www.democraticunderground.com/
I think you would just love it.
“I’ve never seen the point of these memorial things.”
I see quite a few of them around, well tended, seasonal decorations and all. I used to wonder why so many of them if there is a burial site. Then I realized so many more people are cremating the dead rather than burying them. I wonder if that is the case with many of these and that is the only place they have to pay their respects. Don’t know for sure, just speculating.
If the pit bull owners were in prison where they belong, the memorial would be less of an issue.
why weren’t the owners put to sleep?
that doesn’t seem the case here.
I agree with that. I’m merely pointing out the slippery slope when we find a really heart-rending story that convinces us that the neighbors have a perfect right to determine what we can and cannot do on our land.
I don’t want to go there.
Leaseholders have limited rights to use of the land. Ultimately the owner has say. This is something that would be subject to state law as to who has how much right in this matter.
As a practical matter, I would not blame the parents of the murdered child for garnishing the memorial with the skulls of the aggressors.
Agreed. My hypothetical question was in response to the statement:
“owners ought to bear responsibility for whatever their animals do”
The ones that I know of personally, including my SIL in Carolina, the folks weren’t cremated. My SIL is buried here.
I suppose they’re just there because the family needs them to be there for some reason. These property owners should have given them a timetable. Like two years and then it has to go.
Let me add, that if the victim was in fact out in the street when attacked, I hold the owners 100% responsible.
the article linked within the thread somewhere stated he was skateboarding up and down the street.
Alrighty then.
The large, urban cemeteries near us have small flat mow-over markers, and appear to have no character, no personalization. So, no, I guess the cemetery doesn’t cut it as a memorial place, really.
I think the roadside memorial trend may be a cousin of the car window memorial trend, where people put someone’s name and birth and death dates on the back window of their truck or car.
I think this is a poor substitute for having local, permanent, small cemeteries like the ones they have in small towns, where people can plant flowers or sit on a bench. Nonetheless, I’m amazed that, despite the cemetery problem, people’s love seems to bubble up and be expressed in other ways. Apparently we humans are irrepressible when we care deeply.
It’s their property. Regardless of how you feel, and losing a child is a terrible thing, you cannot put things up haphazardly on other’s property and expect them to put up with it. The dog’s owners probably also fee extreme guilt, but the bottom line is: This is their property, find another place for the memorial.
Ricky George and Christi George reportedly complained to Ms. Clinton’s attorney that many people go to the memorial and it is disturbing to them. The couple demanded that the memorial be removed. The couple could not be reached for comment Friday.
~~~
Hopefully they’ll be run out of the county,,,
Lotta folks in that area were pissed when that boy was killed...
“I hope that even without this small memorial, people will not forget Justin and the lessons to the public about the likelihood of substantial harm to life and health caused by this breed.”
It’s not the breed. It’s the owners.
Agreed. And I think regardless of whether it’s their property or not, they don’t seem to have the ability to control their “property” leaving the property, who cares what they think about the memorial? It’s an inconvenience, if nothing more. If dog owners could be inconvenienced even more, perhaps they could learn a little responsibility to prevent tragedies like this from happening. I say keep the memorial there to remind those “people” what their actions were responsible for.
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