Pit Bull Kills Owner’s 4-Year-Old Daughter
Police say a pit bull fatally attacked a 4-year-old girl who was watching television in a southern Louisiana apartment and injured the girl’s mother when the woman pulled her daughter away.
Houma Police Chief Todd Duplantis says that 27-year-old Megan Touchet barricaded herself and her daughter, Mia DeRouen, into a bedroom Tuesday evening and called 911. He says she handed her child out a second-floor apartment window to a rescue worker on a balcony.
He said Wednesday that officers shot and killed the dog, which was still being aggressive.
Duplantis did not know whether the girl was on a sofa or chair or on the floor when she was attacked.
She was bitten on the face and head. Touchet remained hospitalized Wednesday.
Story Here:
Pit Bull Kills Owner’s 4-Year-Old Daughter in La.
This story hits really close to home for me. My youngest Daughter, Lisa, is the sister in law to Mia’s God Mother. This beautiful little girl was a member of our extended family and what I am about to say may cause me to lose some friends and/or readers, but I have to tell you, quite frankly, I just don’t give a DAMN.
Indeed, other breeds of dogs DO bite, but Pitbulls are killers, KNOWN killers!
You hear all the stories about *it’s how the dog was raised* and that is exactly what it is, a story!
This was a family *pet*, a poor choice in MY opinion, and I have to tell you, I have NO USE for any parent that would keep a Pit as a *family pet*.
I know, some of you are dog lovers, I am too, but Pits are, regardless of what anyone says, an inherently vicious dog, and yes, I know, *YOU* have/had a Pit that was so gentle and loving and never did something like that. Well, all that means is the dog didn’t *SNAP*, that’s it. That particular dog was an exception to the rule!
If you have any desire to help this family you can help by paying a small portion of the funeral costs for this beautiful little girl.
Mia DeRouen’s Funeral Expenses by David Thibodeaux - GoFundMe
Family and friends of the DeRouen & Touchet families have come together to help raise money for the funeral expenses of their precious little girl Mia. This unimaginable tragedy has affected the lives of so many people, the only thing we can do at this time is offer prayers, bear our shoulders to lean on, and give forward to help alleviate the costly expenses of this unexpected tragedy. Please keep the families of this beautiful angel in your prayers, and thank you for your gracious support.
Let me say this, in ALL honesty, a case such as this makes me doubt the *grand scheme* of things. How can a *merciful* God allow such a heinous thing to occur? How can such a violent and dangerous breed of dogs be allowed to LIVE?
EDIT TO ADD: Funeral services set for girl killed by pit bull | KATC.com |
I feel the same way Fred, how can you have a dog that is known for aggressive behavior without being provoked around your child? I love dogs, my dog is a Jack Russel Terrier and he would defend my kids against anyone that tried to harm them no matter what but, I don’t have to waste my time wondering if he will “Explode” in anger and hurt them. It’s not a sense of good or bad parenting, it is a sense of common sense when choosing what type of animal you want around your toddlers/babies. God Bless this family and hopefully someone somewhere learned a lesson from this horrific incident.
Fred we agree. Pit Bulls have no place in the home/family especially in an Apartment where they get no exercise. With them it is not how they were raised from a put but how they were bred to be vicious. I have had Rottweilers as many as 8 at a time. And with them it IS how they were raised from Pups-not so with Pit Bulls. Folks should have more sense, most especially when children are in the home. Kids, especially at 4, cannot defend themselves-adults can and MAY survive an attack.
Another case where we agree
I totally agree with you as does my vet. Anyone with children is an idiot if they own a pit bull. Even if there are no children in the house a pit bull is a liability. I totally trust my Golden Retrievers to never bite a person. I only wish that poor little girl’s parents had a breed of dog they could trust.
I feel bad for the family, but a very poor choice was made for a family pet. Pit Bull dogs are great guard dogs, but have been bred to be inherently vicious. Pit Bull dogs were bred a very, very long time ago to fight in packs against bulls in a ring or pit.
Generation after generation of these dogs has been refined by selecting the strongest males and females and breeding for superior dogs. That is fine if you are fighting them, but that temperament doesn’t make them family pets of any kind. On that point, God didn’t make them the way they are, man did. Pit bulls started as something else, and were bred to what they are today. One of the greatest gifts God gave man as choice, to choose between good and bad in all things. I believe God allows things like this to happen at times to force us, man, to look at our choices and judge our selves before He does. God grieves when things go wrong and people get hurt or killed unnecessarily, but he still gives us choice in matters. The blame is on the parents for having the dog as a pet. Would anyone keep a Hyena, even if they had it since it was born? I’m sure someone has, and regretted it later. They are not pets.
Pit Bull dogs are utility dogs, not to be handled by the weak or frail. They have to be managed with an iron fist, because that is what they understand. They are not pets.
There are too many links to list of where a loving family pit bull, has turned and killed a member of the family that was a child and even an adult. I have good friends who swear by these dogs but I don’t trust those dogs at all. There’s documented cases where a pit bull picked out one particular child out of a group and went after that child, passing by all other children to get at this particular one and then only thing that will stop it is to basically kill it.
I had a neighbor who had a pit bull who would sometimes get out. I knocked on his door and told him I didn’t trust his dog (he almost attacked our lab); he would be liable if the dog attacked anyone and his dog could easily kill a child. He then took the dog somewhere and shot him.
Fred,
There was a time when I would have disagreed and said that it was nurture…not nature. That pit bulls can be just as gentle as other dogs and it is all how they are raised.
Well, I was wrong. My wife and I are animal people, and one day adopted what we thought was a lab mix at the animal shelter. We got this dog at about 8-10 weeks…a small little puppy. It was loved and cared for and not raised vicious at all. We had a home of two other dogs, and a cat. Well, two or three years later, that lab puppy grew up and looked more and more like a pit bull than a lab. It grew the “block” head, the small ears, and looked just like a pit bull. We weren’t happy about this, but figured since it was raised as a pup, it would not be a problem.
Well, next thing we knew, our cat was killed. At first, we did not know how, but eventually learned it was shaken to death. Not a bloody kill, but dead just the same. We wanted to believe it wasn’t our beloved dog, but we should have looked at the warnings. Months later, I started finding torn up squirrels and possums in our yard. (We live in the sticks). Again, I didn’t want to think it was our pitbull. Months later, a stray cat started hanging out by our home, and we enticed it over weeks with food to trust us. Sure enough, I found it torn up on the yard. It was just barely a kitten.
Weeks later, I saw are dogs playing, and the pit got so mad, it picked up the smallest dog, our Yorkie, and shook it violently. Thankfully, I was there to save here. I was still in denial, chalked it up to a single event, and did not obey the signs. I paid for that. Finally, and stupidly still in denial, I came home one day and found on smallest dog dead. To put in as politely as I can, it was not a pretty scene. Picture CSI and Dexter on steroids. I had to “clean” up the entire house before my wife came home. It was not until later, after the clean up was taken care of, that it hit me, and I broke down. I knew that at that moment, we had lost two dogs. One dead, and one that needed to gone forever.
This pitbull was raised from a pup. It was in a good home, not beaten, not starved, nothing. It was absoltely excellent with my wife and I. As loving and caring as any loyal dog, and maybe more. But we were alphas to her.
I now know that there is something to these dogs. There is a vicious monster locked inside that will eventually come out. And when it does, any “prey” nearby is done for. This urge to them is like hunger or sex…it is that strong for them.
I suppose if you want a pit bull, that is fine. But any small animals or children are at risk. Yes…I agree with you…it is a matter or when and that is it. Sadly, 3/4 of the dogs in the pound and shelters are pitbulls. And yes they are great dogs. But they have a disire bred into them to kill. Like Bruce Banner, they may be nice, but one day, they will get mad and they will be onstoppable. They will seek blood and violence.
I will
I have no doubt or ANY misconceptions about a Pit… If I had my way that is one breed that would suffer genocide..
I have nothing good to say about pit bulls and agree with everyone’s comments.
I could not imagine losing a child to such an animal.
In my opinion God gives each of us a choice….its what we do with that choice thats makes the difference, again my opinion.
Before i retired as Chief of Police, my officers dispatched several pit bulls when they were attacked answering calls for service….
I was thankful no officer was injured in those attacks..
My condolences Fred to you and your extended family…your in our prayers and thoughts.
Let me say I am so sorry for the family and Mia. Please realize people with free will created this, not God. But perhaps God reached out so Mia would not continue to suffer because of what people allowed to happen. They said this dog was 130 pounds, so it had to have been crossed with something like a Cane Corso, a breed selected to hunt people. When you get all kinds of idiots indiscriminately breeding a dog that has been selected for animal aggression, there is no telling what will be created.
My condolences, Fred. No matter what, pits are a bad choice for a family dog. And you know I’m a dog lover.
My sincere condolences to the family of Mia and your family. Last week I was in a beautiful park we have here in Cape Coral and met a woman walking her two dogs along with her two daughters. The Shitzsu was full grown and the other was a cute little grey puppy, a Pit Bull puppy. She and I will probably cross paths again and I will relay this story to her. I love dogs but agree with you about this breed.
I am so sorry Fred. I have no use for pit bulls or the breed. I am a dog lover but this is a breed that serves no purpose and when I see anyone with a pit, I am sure to take our dog and myself and move away from that dog and their person. I have had a couple of bad experiences with pit bulls and would not hesitate to shoot one.
My prayers are the least I can do and If I can, i will help out with the funeral costs.
So so sorry my friend for all concerned.
Why is it that so often the ONLY time God is “allowed” into our lives is when a tragedy occurs and it is somehow deemed “His fault?” We live in a fallen world where EVERYONE has been given free will by our Creator. Unlike our government He does not revoke or suspend that “right” at any time…Tragic, tragic, tragic situation-BUT God is not to blame. Earlier in the column you covered what a poor choice (the breed) is for a family pet…There’s that freewill thing, AND, part of your answer as to God and His *grand Scheme*. He is still seated on the throne! (The same place He was by the way, when HIS Perfect and Sinless Son was killed in a much more evil and heinous fashion)!
Praying for the family…
Just so you know, I was VERY angry and hurt when I made this post… I shouldn’t have said some things, and I now know that, but ya can’t un-say em, at least I don’t, I won’t go back and edit just to make me look good, but I DO know I was wrong and I apologize to ALL for saying it like I did…
Fred, I won’t get into the “God thing” or the “free will thing.” I think you know me well enough to know that both of those are things I’ve given a lot of thought to over the years, both for my own sake and for others’.
However, a word of warning. When I used to walk in the neighborhood, there was a pit bull that lived behind an 8 foot wooden slat fence on Evinrude just south of Schrade. The owners kept him staked “most of the time.” Even at that he would head for the end of his chain with all his might when I walked by. And you know that a pit bull is “muscle per pound” one of the strongest breeds of dog…if not THE strongest in that sense.
One morning as I was walking, the dog was off his chain and got all the way to the top of the 8 foot fence before he was stopped by a load of snake shot from a .38. I do not think he died from his injuries, and I was not even charged with unlawful discharge. The word of warning? There is one of those creatures still in the neighborhood.
Keep your powder dry.
In Fornicalia, gangbangers love pit bulls. It’s a sign of being “bad-assed.” Primarily black bangers. Spiked collars, the whole bit. You can tell it frequently backfires because, at least in Fornicalia, you can enter ANY SPCA or animal shelter in any county and find it populated mostly with adult pit bulls. That’s called a clue.
BZ
I hate pit bulls. They are popular with Black giys in my former neighborhood. As the “gangstas” walked by the damn thug dogs would eyeball me then strain at their leashes. Very intimidating which was what their owners want. Unknown to the thugs was that I stay armed. If one of those dogs attacked me I would have shot it with a hollowpoint. Maybe another hollowpoint for thug owner.
(where’s the thumbs up button?)
(y)
There you go! Responsible gun owners don’t shoot unless they are forced to, unlike the criminals who shoot because they want to. I don’t even hunt anymore because I believe that all any living being has is it’s life and it is not for me to take that away. That being said, I very much doubt I would have any trouble at all shooting a person who was threatening my life or the life of another innocent person.
Pit bull dogs should be totally eliminated. Period.
They have zero redeeming values.
A pit bull is like using a loaded and cocked revolver as a hockey puck.
Sooner or later, it will “go off” and hurt or kill someone.