by No Dogs Allowed
Galesburg, IL - The pit bull that killed 7-year-old Ryan Maxwell on March 2 failed to meet the legal definition of “dangerous,” despite the owners being cited four times in nine months.
And while the pit’s owner Ashiya Ferguson denies her dog was neglected or behaved aggressively, neighbors describe the dog as “scary.”
One of Ashiya Ferguson’s neighbors – who spoke anonymously to media – said this about the killer pit: “That dog was big and powerful, and there was no way to defend yourself against it. It looked like it didn’t matter if you had a fence or not.”
Another neighbor, who spoke to a reporter on condition of anonymity, said he avoided walking on Whiting Avenue, where the pit bull resided, for fear of attack: “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 man added. “We stopped walking on Whiting because of it.”
But owner Ashiya Ferguson said she didn’t know why people feared her pit bull “Ghost”: “The dogs were raised by me, and I never raised any dog to be mean or violent,” said Ms. Ferguson. “That dog was raised up right along with my own children, and that dog never had any problems with any children.”
Ms. Ferguson said she co-owned the dogs with Jereme Carter, who has been charged in the shooting death of Terrell Allen. Ms. Ferguson and Mr. Carter also have two convictions each of possessing stolen firearms.
The couple had been cited for exposing their dogs to freezing temperatures on February 8; following the fatal attack on 7-year-old Ryan Maxwell on March 2, Ms. Ferguson contacted the Knox County Humane Society and asked them to take one of her pit bulls.
“The owner told us to take it,” said Knox County Humane Society Director Erin Buckmaster. “It wasn’t aggressive, but it was pretty hungry, and its ribs were showing.”
Ms. Ferguson has sworn she will never own another pit bull again.
No charges have been filed against Ms. Ferguson or Mr. Carter in the death of 7-year-old pit bull mauling victim Ryan Maxwell.
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There’s something direly wrong with the definition of ‘legally dangerous’ then. It seems like dog owners, and pit owners in particular, can have strike after strike against them and the law does nothing but hand them more paper tickets or give them more speeches until someone gets killed.
I’m sure she’s right — she DIDN’T raise the dogs to be violent. It’s in their nature. That’s what pit nutters have got to learn… but they keep living in denial.