Who Failed Tyler?

“Boy Mauled to death in Linda Trailer by pit bulls”.

by Monica Vaughan

A 9-year-old boy was mauled to death by three pit bull dogs when he was left alone in his sister’s trailer home, the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department said Monday

Who failed Tyler? Obviously, it’s easier to focus on the dogs, because this tragedy is so horrific.  The very idea of a 9 year old boy being left alone trying to fend off 3 attacking dogs makes anyone sick to their stomach. As usual, when information starts to trickle onto the internet, as with most dog bite fatality cases you start seeing just how preventable this horrible death was.

Who was Tyler?

Tyler Trammall-Huston, 9 year-old foster child, who lost his mother in 2011 and has been moving through foster care separated from his siblings.

He was dealt an unfair hand and paid the price of the poor choices the adults in his life have made, but according to his foster mother, Gloria Hudson, he seemed excited to be able to be with his older sister.

Tyler Trammell-Huston, had been staying with his sister on weekends with the permission of Sacramento County Child Protective Services. During his winter break from school, he had spent two or three weeks with her, in her small travel trailer south of Marysville. Hudson said a judge was supposed to decide later this month whether he could move in with his sister full time, provided she got an apartment.

 

A Broken System?

What child wouldn’t be, but was it the best and safest choice for Tyler? Obviously it wasn’t. Even though CPS was notified that the sister was considered “unstable” and the living environment, a small trailer with no working bathroom and according to reports from relatives that one of the dogs, had a history of aggression that included attacking other people screams negligence by all the adults involved in this case.

This isn’t the first time that a Child Protective Service have fallen under fire after a child has died while under their care and supervision. “Between 2008 and 2011, more than seventy children who passed through the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services have died due to child abuse or neglect.” writes the Invisible Children Website

In 2014, Sacramento CPS were repeatedly warned about the abuse that 3 year old Airabella Mello lived with before she was drowned in a back yard pool. Just like with Tyler, CPS was notified multiple times and they failed to act in the best interest of the child and it isn’t an isolated incident. The Case of William Philya, which includes 10 reports of abuse and neglect that was filed with the Sacramento County CPS, Jadianna Larsen,  which had reports starting back from just 2 days after her birth in 2008 and continued until her death in 2015 where her body was found burned in Glenn County on the same day she was reported missing out of Sacramento County. Sadly, this isn’t something new or rare it seems with the Sacramento County CPS, in 2009 the Sacramento Bee wrote an article about the CPS being slammed in an audit showing that at least four children have died after CPS “bungled their cases and misses clear opportunities to remove them from danger.”

 

(Jadianna Larsen Courtesy of the Sacramento Bee)

There is no question that ultimately,  Alexandria Griffin-Heady, the dogs owners and half sister of Tyler is responsible for the death of her brother. Considering that she had been breeding her pit bull mixes (mutts) and still had plans on breeding her dogs, knowingly kept aggressive dogs that supposedly attacked other people (according to relatives) and leaving her 9 year old brother in unsafe conditions it’s a no brainer that something tragic was bound to happen and yes, she should absolutely be tried, convicted and sitting in jail.  How the Sacramento CPS could not see this, I have no idea, but it’s not surprising considering how easily they turned a blind eye to the previous children that have died in their care.

Sadly, Tyler is yet another statistic for the Sacramento CPS and it will be far easier and beneficial for Sacramento CPS and BSL Advocates  to turn this into a dog issue and not focus on the real issue, the obviously broken Sacramento Child Protective Service. The bottom line is: Tyler would still be alive if CPS had done their job, not just Tyler but so would countless of other children under their care who have been killed in horrific manners.

 

Resources:

http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/cps/article24550858.html

http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/the-public-eye/article2594803.html

http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/the-public-eye/article2602498.html

http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/cps/article2572310.html

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2014/02/20/70-child-abuse-deaths-in-californias-child-protection-system/#sthash.sGlzhtEI.dpbs

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article53264680.html

 

 

Heart Break

As a parent, our number one job is to protect our child from anything that could possibly ever hurt them. Unfortunately, that isn’t always possible, especially in a age were the internet keeps things circulating over and over.

A grieving Fiancé and father has a tough choice to make. Which will hurt his child the most? The truth or the misconceptions? At the end of the day, when his daughter sits down and googles the death of her mother, what will she faced with?  The broken story that never seems to make any sense to her  or the misconception that her mother found life so heart wrenching and painful that she was unable to face it anymore and sacrificed herself to a brutal death just to end it all?

I have learned now that while those who speak about one’s miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.- C.S Lewis

I wish I could give this father some answers and I could sit here and ponder what I would do if I were in his shoes, but I’m not. As a parent, we have to decide what is best for OUR own children and his adorable daughter is not mine, just like mine are not his and it is not my right to make that choice for him.  As his grieving family attempt to avoid the media, they find that they can’t hide from it. They find the hate and the disrespect from people who never knew their family suffocating and their concern has always been, “What will her daughter think when she finds these comments when she gets older?” and it’s a good question. What will she think? Knowing the family that surrounds the little girl, I think the girl will know the truth, or at least the version of the truth that she needs to know and I think that child will be surrounded by so much love and the ever knowing knowledge of just how much her mother loved her.

At the end of the day, it will be up to the father to have that discussion with his daughter, but he knows one thing, through all of the heartbreak and grief, he thinks of who has lost and just how important she was to him and to their daughter.

” I don’t want her to get a bad name. I want her remembered for the good she brought to mine and my daughters life.”

 

Her Name was Becca.

 

Her name was Becca.  She was 22 years old, a loving fiancé, an adoring mother to an 18-month old daughter, a close sister, a cousin and a daughter.  She was filled with so much life, filled with so much love and had the capability to do and be anything she wanted to do and at 22 years old, why wouldn’t you be filled with so much…life?

Becca was brutally killed December 3, 2015 after a devastating dog attack. As a mother, my heart breaks, not just for the young daughter she left behind but for Becca.  As a mother, one of my dreams in life is to live long enough to watch them grow into amazing women who will make a difference in the world, be it small or large and I am sure that Becca and I shared that dream.

I will be honest, I barely slept at all last night after writing a story about her tragic death. I kept looking at my 2 ½ year old who was continuously kicking me in the throat because she wanted to sleep like a toddler ninja that took up 68% of my bed and the urge to pick her up and cradle her was overwhelming. I know, deep down inside as a mother, that the last thoughts that Becca had as she laid on the cold hard ground dying was about her beautiful daughter Molly. I can only hope that those images in her fading mind where her daughters infectious laugh, those bright blue eyes and the smile that could make the heart of the Grinch grow two sizes bigger. I pray that as she took her last breath, she thought of the games of peek a boo and playing catch with a beach ball in the dining room and I can only hope that with her death, we all learn something that a tragedy like this can teach us. Compassion.

This death shouldn’t be about a fight over Breed Specific Legislation, but like many controversial issues, it never is that simple and I think this tragedy shines a light on the ugly belief system that fuels the Pro- BSL Advocacy and shockingly,  Dogsbite.org Colleen Lynn sets the tone for this as she herself labels the grieving fiancé as a “super nutter” because he spoke out and refuse to try to destroy a whole breed of dogs because of the actions of a few. Dogsbite.org, a “public education website” dedicated to advocating for Breed Specific Legislation and the extermination of all pit bull, pit bull type dogs and a every growing list of breeds of dogs they deem to be dangers.  

According to Colleen Lynn, Dogsbite.org champions the rights of victims through their research, education and advocacy, even going as far as stating: “Victims of serious and fatal dog maulings, families and friends, health and public safety officials and the concerned public need advocates too. We advocate for you.”  Yet their online behavior screams just the opposite, which seems to be selective at the best and the requirements are simple:

Join in their fight for the banning and extermination of pit bull/pit bull mixes or what they deem pit bulls.

This is the side of the BSL Advocacy, the self-proclaimed “victim’s advocacy” that the public needs to see. Their advocacy isn’t about making our community a safer place or allowing the grieving families to attempt to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives in a safe and protected atmosphere, it’s about keeping the victim’s family in this violent and vicious circle of continuous pain to break them down and submit to their cause, to break them down to such a weakened state that the victims’ families just can’t not find the strength the fight the onslaught of abuse that the “victim’s advocate” heap onto the family.

“Apparently when you have a family of pit bull breeders…. they will do/say anything to keep that business thriving. Even when a beautiful life has been stolen. Disgusting. The fiancé needs to be LOCKED away. That child needs to be protected!! I PRAY.”- Jennifer Martin Kim

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“This guy OWNS a Pit Bull?!?!?  His kid is next, it’s just a matter of time…” Joy Bailey

 

“And yes, you do destroy a whole breed because of a few bad seeds because there are safer breeds available. We do this with humans too. Every Nazi was rounded up and executed.”- James Hassinger

“Her grieving fiancé needs a lesson in grammar and spelling check.

Oh, and he probably should do a little scientific research before making claims that the attack has nothing to do with the breed”- Rebecca Tomaszewski

“He’s a piece of shit. Maybe he threw his lady over the fence…. doesn’t sound like a great relationship to me?  What a f****ing fiasco during the attack; no real action so the Pit Mix joins in the fun too”- Lesley Karen Luscombe

“She was probably escaping from this idiot’s violence. He’s probably happy the dogs finished off the job he started. And I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if he ran her or tossed her into that yard.” – Stacy Westover

“This twerp is the perfect size for an overhead swing and a head first slam into a garbage can, followed by the question, “Still feeling accomplished mother fucker?”- Jimmy Younger

“White trash, possibly abuser!!!” – Sandrine Sandy Georges

 

I wish I could say “Becca is in a better place” and mean it. As a mother, the best place I could think of would be with my family and I know that is where she would want to be. Heaven on earth was walking the beach with Molly’s hand in hers. I grieve for Becca and I grieve for the light extinguished far too soon.

Grief, Healing and a Hope for the Future.

The month of December is filled with over packed malls, toy commercials bombarding the air waves, family gatherings and a sense of excitement for most as the 25th day of December approaches but for one family in Port Huron Michigan, they are standing together attempting to make sense of a horrible tragedy that ruthlessly ripped a loved family member away from them.

“We were standing down by the river, she was wearing a long pink skirt on it and the wind blowing in her hair. It was then I knew I had found the one.”- Matt Gratton

Matt Gratton, does not even know where to begin. Never once did he imagine that he would planning a funeral for the love of his life, the mother of their beautiful daughter and without his family’s help he would feel even more lost.. if that’s even possible.

December 3rd, 2015- his young fiancee Becca Hardy was mauled to death by two dogs a few houses down from her home.

“PORT HURON, Mich. (WJBK) – A 22-year-old woman has died after she was attacked by two dogs in Port Huron on Thursday.” (WJBK)

Becca, according to her loving fiancé and her family was an amazing young woman and a loving mother to the couples 18th month old daughter, Molly and her family can’t help but think of those happy memories. Her Aunt Shell, grief stricken shares, “Becca was an amazing mother, she would take Molly everywhere with her. The park, the beach and visiting family.” Fiancé Matt Gratton shares, “We would play peek a boo with our daughter and regularly sit in the dining room and play catch with the beach ball.”

“The first time I ever met Becca was one night at my dads.” Matt remembers fondly, his grief apparent as he struggles a bit.   “Her Mom and my Dad are friends. She was younger, only 17yrs old at the time and I had just stopped at my dads to hang out for a bit and she fell asleep in a chair. I set up a bed for her tucked her in and went home like a proper gentleman. It wasn’t that big of a deal to me its just the person I am”.

Matt pauses for a moment, “We survived everything designed to tear relationships apart and only came out closer. Our relationship had its problems but all do.  True love is sticking together through thick and thin and that’s exactly what we did. We had actually started trying for our second child recently because our daughter is growing up to quick for our liking.”

Guilt, agony, shock and anger came over the father and Fiancé as he waited for his soon to be wife to arrive at the hospital, beating the ambulance there.
“My first thought was who is going to teach our daughter all the things a mommy is supposed to teach her? I immediately blamed myself for not being there to protect her and was flooded with a million what ifs…things I could or should have done differently. I just basically wanted to go back in time and change it but I cant.”

Amazing enough, Matt or other family members do not blame the breed (s) of dogs responsible for the attack.
“One thing I definitely want to say is I feel these people are so set on hating these animals that they’re losing sight of the actual tragedy that occurred. All the comments on the local news page sights are people fighting about how I should hate all these dogs for the deeds of a few not one (other than supporters like yourself) has even offered their condolences. They’ve lost sight of the bigger picture. My daughter has to grow up without a mother now. I lost the girl I was gonna marry and all they think about is spewing their hatred for the breed.”

By no means does he or other family members  feel that the owner should  get off the hook for this tragedy either.
” Yes I feel the owners should be charged there is a difference in training your dog to protect without doing bodily harm”,  Michelle (Aunt Shell)  explains and Matt agrees, “I’m angry about it. I feel if they were gonna teach a dog to protect they should have done more to keep something like this from happening.”

Matt doesn’t know what the future holds because for the moment,  their family is still in shock at the tragic event that snuffed out such a bright and warm light in their lives. Sadly, with the media exposure, it has caught the attention of Colleen Lynn, founder of Dogsbite.org and her fellow group members who have started their ruthless verbal attack on the family, even to the point of accusing Matt of making up the tragedy.

Even Colleen Lynn, founder of Dogsbite.org labeling the grieving man a “Super Nutter” because he refuses to blame the multiple breeds that get labeled pit bull.

The grieving family of Becca are shocked by the hateful messages and comments. Michelle (Aunt Shell) shares, “My niece is asking for everyone to please stop being so nasty about my nieces death. She has three young sisters and a daughter that do not deserve to see rude mean marks about Becca”.

“If I could tell her one thing, I would tell her I’m sorry for not being there to protect her when she needed me I’d tell her if i could go back I would have never let her leave and would trade her places if I could. I’d tell her things will never be the same without her and I value every moment I did have with her now more than ever.”

Funeral arrangements are still being set up and the family has a gofundme set up to help with costs.

Deliberate Homicide

“DETROIT, MI — The Wayne County Medical Examiner on Thursday ruled the death of a 4-year-old boy, killed after being mauled by pit bulls, an “accident” caused by “multiple puncture wounds (Burns, 2015)”.

I can honestly say I am stunned….and angry. We, as a community should be standing up yelling “Hell, the f@ck NO.” We as a community should be demanding that the death of that child should be ruled a homicide and the owner of those dogs should be thrown in jail and charged with AT LEAST 2nd degree murder or involuntary manslaughter w/endangering children, of course I would prefer 1st degree charges.

Xavier Strickland was 4 years old. Xavier was heading to school, probably excited for what was going to go on in his classroom. Xavier Strickland never made it past 15500 Baylis in Detroit.

Reports of those dogs having been running at large, aggressive and previous issues with the neighborhood children and the medical examiner declares the child’s death an accident? Nope. Sorry, that’s wrong. Those dogs hurting or killing someone wasn’t a if but a when. The brutality of the mauling was deadly which is not surprising the victim was a 4 year old child, if the victim had been an adult, he might have stood a chance.

“He appeared irritated with police after learning they’d shot and killed one of his dogs (Burns, 2015)

The owner of the dogs seems irritated? He probably was, considering he probably was a back yard breeder (which explains the pregnant female dog.) and he just lost his profit. None of his dogs were vaccinated, registered or obviously fixed and he just had them contained in a poorly fenced yard. Again, how is anything about this child’s death accidental?

“The dogs were not registered and the owner could produce no proof of rabies vaccination, said Dan Austin, a spokesman for Mayor Mike Duggan’s office. He said the owner will be cited for those violations (Burns,2015)”

What they need to do is take those citations and tear those up and draw up murder charges and as a community we need to demand that. We need to force our justice system to take a tougher stance on negligent dog owners like the owners of these dogs.

For the medical examiner to call this child’s death an accident is insulting. The very definition of accident is:

1.  An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.
2.  An event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause.

The owner of these dogs were deliberately negligent. This child’s death wasn’t accident. The harsh reality is, if it wasn’t Xavier, it would have been someone else… How is that not murder?  This is why we as a community of pit bull “type” dogs need to speak up and our voices need to be louder than the BSL Advocates.  We have to demand that law enforcement step back and really look at the cases that involve fatal dog attacks.  Over and over again, with cases like Daxton Borchardt, Levi Watson, Beau Rutledge where there were apparent negligence that resulted in a child being killed are swept under the rug and labeled just a terrible “accident”. Sadly, many law enforcement officers have to take the word of those at the scene, since many times there are no witnesses, much like the case of Daxton Borchardt, Levi Watson and Beau Rutledge and we need to make it stop and if we don’t, our innocent dogs will always have a target on their back.

We, as pit bull/bully breed type dog owners will always be facing discrimination and forced to pay for the crimes of Susan Iwicki, Angela Rutledge and the irresponsible owner of these latest dogs if our voices are not heard. We have to say ENOUGH is ENOUGH and start forcing our Law Enforcement and the Judicial System to do their job and the first step would be changing this child’s autopsy report to murder.

1. Intent- Leaving the known aggressive dogs intentionally unsecured
2. Deliberation and Premeditation – Deliberately keeping aggressive dogs and knowingly breeding known aggressive dogs.
3. “Malice Aforethought”- More irritated that the police shot his dogs than the fact that his dogs just killed a child.

I don’t know about you…. but sounds like it fits a homicide charge.

Burns, G. (2015, December 3). Death of a 40-year old Detroit boy mauled by pit bulls ruled ‘accident. Retrieved December 3,2015, from www.mlive.com