Girl with Down syndrome killed by Rottweiler

By TOM OPDYKE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/12/07

The backyard gate that was supposed to be locked was ajar, the garage's back door was open.

While mother Florence Pauley and her two other children slept, tiny Tiffany wandered out of the house early Thursday and into the damp morning.

Nobody knows what happened next, but authorities and family members think Tiffany walked about 200 yards up the street from her wood-framed ranch home and into an unfenced yard where at least five dogs were kept.

She walked to the back of the yard, past two other chained dogs to a Rottweiler on a 15-foot chain. Tiffany, 5, has a miniature French poodle of her own, and her family thinks she may have tried to pet the Rottweiler.

In the coming hours, no one reported hearing barking or a child's cry.

Neighbors and police would comb the neighborhood looking for the girl with Down syndrome, but they didn't find her body until about 1 p.m. She was lying near the dog, under a tree.

A neighbor helping with the search had knocked on the door of Robert Turner, who owns the dogs, and explained they were looking for Tiffany and wanted to look in his back yard. As the searchers walked around the house, Turner stepped out onto his deck.

"When I got right there, I saw her laying over there. I ran to her. She was just laying there," said Turner, who owns the dogs.

Carroll County Sheriff's deputies said the girl appeared to have been mauled. An autopsy will be performed Friday.

Turner said authorities took the 10-year-old Rottweiler named Foxie and the two other dogs, a Labrador retriever/chow mix and a pit bull mix. He said he was allowed to keep two other dogs because they were in kennels.

Lt. Guy Pope said no decision has been made on charges. The three dogs are being kept at animal control shelter.

Turner said his dogs had never caused trouble before.

"My kids play with them dogs all the time and never get hurt," Turner said. He said his four children are ages 11, 7, 3 and 8 months old.

Turner's mother, Patricia Cook, said her son always kept the dogs chained and cared for them. "Nothing wrong happened here," Cook said.

Tiffany's grandmother, Annette Steere, said the family is trying to piece together what led to the tragedy. She said Tiffany had never wandered away before.

Tiffany had not developed verbal skills, Steere said, but "had a smile of grace."

Steere, of McDonough, said the little girl was missing when the family awakened that morning. Tiffany's brother, 7, and sister, 12, hadn't heard her leave.

The girl was reported missing at 11 a.m. from the family's home on Cypress Circle in a neighborhood off Newnan Road; a curling subdivision of clapboard houses behind a chemical plant.

"She woke up and just wandered out. Nobody knows what time or for how long," Steere said. She said the family usually keeps the back door closed and the fence gate locked.

Turner said he had moved to Cypress Circle home three months ago and did not know the girl or her family.

Next-door neighbor Andre Kotze said the dogs barked anytime he was out in his own yard and sometimes were a nuisance at night.

"If there was a squirrel walking in my yard, they'd be barking," Kotze said.

Just two doors down the street at the Pauley home, relatives stood guard at the door as the engines of media trucks rumbled outside.

"I guess this was an act of God," Steere said. "I can't say anything else. She was the sweetest, loving child."

Tiffany would've turned six next month.

Sheriff's Office: Rottweiler Kills 5-Year-Old

July 12, 2007
http://www.cbs46.com/news/13670841/detail.html

(Link has news video as well as 911 tape, very sad.)

CARROLLTON, Ga. -- A 5-year-old girl was killed by a dog in Carrollton Thursday, sheriff's deputies said.

Tiffany Pauley was reported missing just after 11 a.m. The body was found by neighbors around 1:30 p.m. at a house on Cypress Circle, a few doors down from where Pauley lived, deputies said.

Pauley, who suffered from Down syndrome, was attacked by a rottweiler that was chained, deputies said.Patricia Cook, the dog owner's mother, said the dog's owner was the one who found the child in the back yard of his house.

"He is torn up because he found the child out there laying in the back yard," Cook said. "The child didn't have clothes or anything on. The child was just laying there."

Animal control officers have taken control of the dog as well as a pit bull and a German shepherd also staying at the home.

Cook said the family has never had any problems with the dog before Thursday.

"He's got small children too," Cook said. "They go out and play with the dog. It's just tragic what happened. It's a bad accident."

Carroll County Sheriff Terry Langley would not say if anyone had complained about the dogs in the past.

"There were other dogs," Langley said. "A couple of smaller dogs that were in a cage and another dog on a chain were found. The body was there in the area of the chain for the rottweiler, and that's the reason we believe now that some other dogs have been taken into custody as well. One of the dogs is a pit bull, one was a rottweiler and one was some part German shepherd."

Langley said the investigation is ongoing and warned other parents about keeping a watchful eye over their children.

"I'm not here to judge what has happened until I see the full investigation," Langley said. "A child can get away from you, and you want people to be observant, particularly with small children and particularly if they do know that large dogs are in the neighborhood."

Cook offered her condolences to Pauley's family.

"I would just like to say we are sorry for what happened and you're in our prayers," Cook said. "We are so terribly sorry. God be with you."

Mother of child killed by Rottweiller on probation for meth possession

By RHONDA COOK, TOM OPDYKE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/13/07

The mother of a 5-year-old girl mauled to death by a neighbor's Rottweiler was on probation for possession of methamphetamine, Carroll County prosecutors confirmed Friday.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Jeff Hunt said Florence Pauley's previous problem with drugs may have nothing to do with her daughter's death.

Tiffany, a child with Down Syndrome, apparently wandered away from her home Thursday while her mother and two siblings slept. She walked past two other dogs chained in the neighbor's yard to get to a 10-year-old Rottweiler, Foxie, tethered with a 15-foot chain.

The investigation into Florence Pauley's drug use is continuing, Hunt said.

"At this point, I don't know what bearing that will have," Hunt said.

Pauley had served just a few months of her three-year probation sentence for possession of methamphetamine. Hunt said there were no immediate plans to revoke Pauley's probation or to arrest her.

Hunt also said it was too soon to say what will happen to Foxie. For now the dog is quarantined at the county animal shelter, along with two other dogs that were on chains behind Robert Turner's house on Cypress Circle in Carrollton.

Tiffany's family told police the garage door and the backyard gates were usually locked but on Thursday the little girl passed through them to get to Turner's house about 200 yards away. The girl was reported missing about 11 a.m.

Turner found the girl's body at about 1 p.m. under a tree near the dog just after neighbors knocked on his door to tell them they were searching for the missing child.

Authorities and family members think Tiffany had walked up the street from her wood-framed ranch home and onto the Turner property. Tiffany, 5, had a miniature French poodle of her own, and her family thinks she may have tried to pet the Rottweiler.

No one reported hearing barking or a child's cry.

"When I got right there, I saw her laying over there. I ran to her. She was just laying there," said Turner.

An autopsy was to be performed Friday. Lt. Guy Pope said no decision has been made on charges.

Turner said his dogs had never caused trouble before.

"My kids play with them dogs all the time and never get hurt," Turner said. He said his four children are ages 11, 7, 3 and 8 months old.

Turner's mother, Patricia Cook, said her son always kept the dogs chained and cared for them.

"Nothing wrong happened here," Cook said.

Tiffany's grandmother, Annette Steere, said Tiffany had never wandered away before.

Tiffany had not developed verbal skills, Steere said, but "had a smile of grace."

Steere, of McDonough, said the little girl was missing when the family awakened that morning. Tiffany's brother, 7, and sister, 12, hadn't heard her leave.

"She woke up and just wandered out. Nobody knows what time or for how long," Steere said. She said the family usually keeps the back door closed and the fence gate locked.

Turner said he had moved to Cypress Circle home three months ago and did not know the girl or her family.

Next-door neighbor Andre Kotze said the dogs barked any time he was out in his own yard and sometimes were a nuisance at night.

"If there was a squirrel walking in my yard, they'd be barking," Kotze said.

Two doors down the street at the Pauley home, relatives stood guard at the door as the engines of media trucks rumbled outside.

"I guess this was an act of God," Steere said. "I can't say anything else. She was the sweetest, loving child."

Tiffany would've turned six next month.

 

Chained, unhappy, pets turn dangerous

By TAMMY GRIMES
Published on: 07/19/07

http://www.ajc.com/opinion

Dogs Deserve Better, a nonprofit working to end the suffering endured by dogs kept chained or penned for life, had more than 100 people in 36 states and Canada chain themselves to doghouses as part of the organization's Chain Off 2007 event. Criticized as "not important, foolish" by some commentators, our campaign turned deadly serious only 12 days later when 5-year-old Tiffany Pauley lost her life to a chained Rottweiler in Atlanta.

Atlanta had been the site of the largest Chain Off; 15 people chained themselves to doghouses in Piedmont Park for up to 30 hours June 30-July 1 to bring awareness to the horrible life of chained dogs and the threat that these unhappy animals can pose to children.

Tiffany, a child with Down syndrome, had wandered off from her home and was found hours later lying dead under a tree near the Rottweiler in a neighbor's yard. Three chained dogs were removed from the home and two penned dogs remain on the property.

We chained ourselves to doghouses to not only advocate for the dogs, but for innocent children such as Tiffany who may wander into their path. As I read the articles about Tiffany, I was enveloped with a staggering sadness at a loss that could have been so easily preventable, if only America understood the dangers in chaining a large breed dog; if only Americans were forced to take responsibility for their "family pets."

These dogs, unsocialized, unneutered, unhappy, become the equivalent of a loaded weapon in a neighborhood backyard. I am most disturbed by the quote in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article in which the mother of the dogs' owner said, "Nothing wrong happened here."

Nothing wrong happened here? A child just lost her life and no one sees the irresponsibility inherent in leaving a Rottweiler, a shepherd and a pit mix chained in the backyard where any child can easily gain access to them. Lawmakers must wake up to the dangers inherent in chaining a dog, as it becomes more and more apparent that people who chain their dogs will not.

Last year, California became the first state to pass a statewide law specifically limiting the amount of time a dog may be tethered to a stationary object. Texas passed a bill in June setting tighter restrictions on chaining, and anti-tethering bills are under consideration in North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. More than 100 local governments, including Gwinnett and DeKalb counties and the city of Gainesville, either ban or limit how long a dog may be chained, recognizing that dogs are intelligent, social, active animals that suffer greatly if kept chained or penned for their lives.

Yards must be fenced for both the protection of the dog and the protection of our nation's youth. When we mistreat our animals, the human race pays the price in the end.

 

Mother of 5-year-old mauled
by dog faces neglect charge

Associated Press - July 17, 2007 9:14 PM ET

CARROLLTON, Ga. (AP) - The mother of a 5-year-old with Down syndrome who wandered from her Carroll County home and was killed by a neighbor's dog was ordered held without bond today.

Authorities in Carroll County arrested 41-year-old Florence Pauley of Clem yesterday on charges of reckless conduct and involuntary manslaughter.

Sheriff's Captain Shane Taylor says Pauley took methamphetamine the morning of her daughter's disappearance.

Taylor says it affected her ability to properly supervise daughter Tiffany Pauley, who wandered to an unfenced yard on Thursday and was found dead near a chained Rottweiler.

Taylor says Pauley pleaded guilty in April to possession of methamphetamine and was sentenced to probabtion. She also pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and child endangerment after Carrollton police stopped her with her children in the car a few years ago.

The dog is to be euthanized.