Tragic story. A 24 yr. sister tried to rescue her 9 yr brother from foster care, but ended up

[pnwmom]

being responsible for his death -- after leaving him alone with her three pit bulls.

She probably couldn't afford any childcare for him, and school was out of session. So she made a fatal mistake.

To put this in context: the mother of these two died of a drug overdose while living on the streets.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-boy-9-mauled-to-death-by-sisters-pit-bulls/

Alexandria Griffin-Heady remains under investigation as she copes with the brutal death of Tyler Trammell Huston.

Neighbors in the quiet Linda neighborhood say Griffin-Heady recently moved into the small trailer, wanting to better her life and eventually pull her little brother out of the foster system.

In one picture, she's cuddling with her three pit bulls, and in another she's hugging her brother. But what looked happy on the outside was complicated, the boy's uncle said.

"With the circumstances of Ally not being mature enough, not able to handle a 9-year-old," Donald Thorpe said. "She's just barely 24 herself."

He says Tyler lived a hard life, moving in and out of foster homes after his mom died of a drug overdose homeless on the streets of Sacramento.

[LisaL]

1. She didn't have custody of the child.

She was only approved for weekend visits. If she couldn't afford child care and had to work on weekend, she should have left the child with his custodians.
I bet when she got approved for weekend visits she didn't admit her plan was to live the child at home alone with three dogs.

[pnwmom]

2. She probably didn't tell them her plan. But in her defense, she was the 24 year old daughter

of a homeless drug addict who had died.

I think this is a heartbreaking story and she was probably doing the best she could in terrible circumstances.

[get the red out]

4. I wish a home-visit by social services had been necessary

God knows this young woman loved her brother, and wanted to give him a family bond. But there needs to be more checks and balances, which for which there is never the money in social services to implement.

I wish she had at least thought to crate the dogs while she was gone.

[LisaL]

6. Child was already in custody of social services (in foster care).

Sister got approved for visits, even though her own aunt says she warned CPS that child wasn't safe in the care of his sister.

[LisaL]

5. Road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Should she have been approved for weekend visits at all considering she lived in a trailer with 3 large dogs? It also sounds like the dogs weren't spayed or neutered. Apparently the dog was a female with her two offspring.
Leaving the dog intact increases aggression.

Her own aunt says she warned CPS that she thought that the child wasn't safe with his sister.

"Badeker said Tyler was living in a foster home under the supervision of Sacramento County Child Protective Services at the time of his death. She said she repeatedly told the agency she thought Tyler was unsafe with his sister, who was granted unsupervised overnight visits with the boy after she moved from Florida several months ago."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article53003700.html#storylink=cpy
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article53003700.html

[nomorenomore08]

21. I can attest that having recently given birth, can make an otherwise docile dog turn aggressive.

In this case, it was a 70-lb. blue pit bull who suddenly decided she didn't want me around her or her puppies. While I managed to escape injury, things were pretty scary for a bit there.

[LisaL]

24. Yes, female dogs can be very protective of their pups.

However, in this case, pups were already grown into young adult dogs (one male, one female).
All three dogs were not spayed or neutered. It's not a good situation any way I look at it.

[LisaL]

7. From reading various sources, dogs were one female and her two young adult offspring, one female and

one male. Dogs weren't spayed or neutered. It makes for a very dangerous combination of dogs in a small space (a trailer).
Also, dogs might have had a history.
Whoever in CPS approved this woman for overnight visits?

"However, several relatives told KCRA 3 that the dogs had previously attacked other people."

http://www.kcra.com/news/local-news/news-sierra/charges-weighed-in-fatal-dog-mauling-of-yuba-county-boy/37280190

[cali]

8. She's responsible for his death. No reasonable person would leave

a kid alone with three large dogs, let alone pit bulls.

[Lee-Lee]

9. She had misplaced priorities for sure- 3 dogs are expensive

And if her priority was really on helping her brother she shouldn't have taken in 3 dogs that she had to feed and care for on top of that.

She was 24. An adult, well into adulthood. She and she alone is responsible for this.

[cali]

10. No not entirely. child services had custody.

[LisaL]

11. I believe she got the dogs before she started making attempts to adopt the boy.

But it sure doesn't sound like this woman ever was in a proper position to care for any pit bulls.
For one, she didn't have a home with a yard.
Dogs weren't spayed or neutered.
What made CPS think she could properly care for a child?

[pnwmom]

12. Her homeless mother had died. The dog could even have belonged to her,

for all we know. Homeless women in particular can feel safer with a dog. This woman might have learned feeling from her mother.

I don't understand why people are being so judgmental on her. She's had such a terrible life, she hasn't had a decent upbringing, and now her mistake, at the age of 24, has led to another tragedy.

[LisaL]

15. Her mother died in 2011.

I very much doubt the dogs, two of whom are under 2 years of age, belonged to that deceased mother.
As to why people are being judgmental, I don't find it hard to understand.
The little boy was reportedly doing well in foster care. He was in a safe place. There was no reason as far as I can tell to remove him from foster care and put him into a situation where he was left in a trailer alone with 3 pit bulls, who were neither spayed nor neutered.

[pnwmom]

17. I think the criticism is due more to social services than to the young woman

who lost her own mother at the age of 20, and whose brother had been stuck in foster care since he was five.

And his life in foster care was hard, according to those who knew him.

He says Tyler lived a hard life, moving in and out of foster homes after his mom died of a drug overdose homeless on the streets of Sacramento.

[LisaL]

18. By this woman's own admission, Tyler was doing well in foster care.

"Tyler was doing well in the foster system, she said, but she thought his life would be better if he were surrounded by his biological family, including siblings and aunts and uncles."

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/latest-news/article53467220.html#storylink=cpy

[Shrike47]

30. I disagree. He was safe in foster care, dead now. She should not have had the dogs.

[XemaSab]

33. What's she supposed to do?

Take the dogs to the pound just because she has her brother there?

She could not have expected this to happen.

[LisaL]

34. Well, her dogs killed her brother.

So it might have been a good idea to either not have her brother there, or take the dogs somewhere else before bringing the brother there. Or at the very least not to leave him alone with the dogs while she went to work.

[Egnever]

35. You bet

Fuck the dogs, of course she could have expected this to happen. I highly doubt this was the first aggression those dogs showed.

I found a new home for a dog I dearly loved simply because it had shown aggressiveness to other dogs, when I had a baby on the way. To this day I miss that dog but there is no way I was taking a chance with my kid.

[pnwmom]

13. Think about it. She is a 24 year old raised with no father and a mother who was

a homeless drug addict.

To say that "she and she alone is responsible for this" ignores the fact that our whole society let these children down, probably for their whole lives.

[LisaL]

19. What do you see as society's role when a drug addicted woman keeps producing

children she can't property take care of? Should society sterilize her?
Seems to me society did what it could, putting some children in foster care and adopting some out.

[Drahthaardogs]

25. No. Her parents let her down.

Her mom valued her drugs more than her kids and kept reproducing. Her father abandoned his kids. Society did not do this. A drug addict and a bum of a dad did this. How the hell do you make this societies' fault?

[pintobean]

14. This is so terribly sad.

This young woman made some really bad choices. Her brother paid for that with his life, and she will have to live with the consequences for the rest of her life.
I don't think charging her with a crime solves anything. I wish her well.

[etherealtruth]

16. It's horrible all the way around

You have to wonder if either of them really had a chance

[LisaL]

32. I am guessing they won't charge her unless they find evidence she knew that dogs were dangerous.

There have been conflicting reports on whether dogs had history of aggression.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. very sad. why didn't uncle step in to help out?

[nomorenomore08]

22. ...

[Snobblevitch]

23. I know of a family in which

the mother of a ten year old boy died suddenly. The boy's 23 year old single sister really wanted to take him in, but the family knew she was not able to properly care for him. Luckily, a brother to the deceased mother took him in. It was a difficult transition for the family, but that boy is now 32 years old with a great job and owns his own home.

[LisaL]

27. Sounds similar to this situation. Family members knew that 24 year old wasn't able to care for the

child, despite wanting to do so. Unfortunately for whatever reason a more mature relative hasn't stepped up to adopt the child (as far as I can tell). CPS should have not given this 24 year old unsupervised visitations, and I have no idea why they did.

[Snobblevitch]

29. I don't know anything about the dynamics of the family in this story.

The mother who died to whom I was referring had an unstable life. She was a fairly lousy mother. But her parents and siblings were good people. The brother and his wife were the godparents' to the young boy and did what needed to be done for him. It wasn't easy, but was the right thing to do.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. Horrible, horrible story.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

28. Did the reporter/police/child services take the pit bull test first???? n/m

[LisaL]

31. What is a pit bull test? Never heard of it.