DAXTON BORCHARDT - 14 months - / Accused: Susan Iwiki, baby sitter - Walworth, WI

tinalovesnick wrote:Pit bull not labeled 'dangerous'ARIEL CHEUNG 03/10/2013 7:00 AM
The pit bull that killed 7-year-old Ryan Maxwell last week was involved in at least four incidents with law enforcement officials since June 2012, but none resulted in the dog being labeled as dangerous.

And while owner Ashiya Ferguson denies the pit bull was vicious or neglected, neighbors say they steered clear of the “scary” animal.

“That dog was big and powerful, and there was no way to defend yourself against it,” one neighbor said. “It looked like it didn’t matter if you had a fence or not.”

(The neighbors would speak to the newspaper only on condition of anonymity.)

Another neighbor went so far as to avoid Whiting Avenue because of the dog, he said.

“The big pit bull was scary,” he said. “When you walked on Whiting, you could see it snap to attention and run out the length of the chain he was attached to.

“It was frightening,” the neighbor added. “We stopped walking on Whiting because of it.”

Ferguson was at a loss to explain why neighbors were afraid of the dog, adding that she raised the pit bull, named Ghost, as a family dog.

“The dogs were raised by me, and I never raised any dog to be mean or violent,” Ferguson said. “That dog was raised up right along with my own children, and that dog never had any problems with any children.”

Law enforcement officials were first made aware of Ghost on June 16, 2012, when Monmouth police were called to the 400 block of South 8th Street in reference to a dog at large.

When they arrived, officers found two pit bulls running loose in the area, and the dogs eventually ran back to 409 S. 8th St. and sat on the back porch, according to the police report.

Officers initially were unable to locate the dog owner, but eventually spoke with resident Jereme J. Carter, who said the dogs belonged to him and had escaped from their kennel.

Carter was issued a citation for animals at large, according to the report.

Ferguson said she and Carter raised Ghost together.

“The dog belonged to me and Jereme Carter,” Ferguson said. “He and I bought and raised it from the time it was a puppy.”

Two months after the Monmouth incident, Carter was arrested and charged with the shooting death of Terrell Allen on Mulberry Street in Galesburg.

Allen was shot just before 11 p.m. Aug. 27 and died at the scene. Later that night, Ferguson was in a parked car in front of her and Carter’s South 8th Street residence when an unknown number of subjects opened fire and struck the vehicle with 11 bullets.

Carter was arrested two days later, and Monmouth police received a call for a well-being check for his dogs in the days following his arrest.

When the Monmouth animal control officer responded to the residence, she found the dogs had food and water and were in their kennel.

A few days later, in early September, Ferguson and the two dogs moved to her mother’s Whiting Avenue residence in Galesburg.

During the winter, the Galesburg animal control officer responded to two complaints that the dogs were left out in the cold, one on Dec. 20, 2012, and the second on Feb. 8.

However, when the officer arrived, the dogs were no longer outside, which meant officials could take no further action, said Knox County Humane Society Director Erin Buckmaster.

“We don’t have the license to go into somebody’s house,” she said. “As soon as they see us coming, they put the dogs in the house, out of sight, and (the officer) can’t do anything about it.”

Ferguson said she was just letting the dogs out for a little bit, and that she always did her best to care for the pets.

“We didn’t neglect our dogs,” she said. “Our dogs were indoor dogs. They were not left outside and they were not neglected.”

And her mother added that she would not have allowed violent dogs in her Whiting Avenue home under any circumstance.

“If I had ever heard of the dogs intimidating people or threatening people, they would have been gone,” said Susan Ferguson. “There are children who live here, too, and I would have never stood for having children in that kind of danger.”

Following the dog attack March 2, Ferguson insisted the Humane Society take the second pit bull.

“The owner told us to take it,” Buckmaster said. “It wasn’t aggressive, but it was pretty hungry, and its ribs were showing.”

And Ferguson said she doesn’t intend to get another dog anytime soon.

“I will never own another pit bull again,” Ferguson said. “There’s no way I could — I can’t look at those dogs anymore.”

The attack remains under investigation. No charges have been filed.

http://m.galesburg.com/regmail/pm_104981/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=tn3hMN5e


Very conflicting article here.

tinalovesnick wrote:And I just realized I stumbled on a completely different case while searing on little Daxton. :-(

This article is for 7 year old Ryan Maxwell.