Happy ending met een traan. Shiba’s Karma en Chance en baby Miya

In december 2013 las ik via Facebook een vreselijk bericht. In Ohio hadden 2 shiba’s de baby van hun baasjes gedood. De kranten en websites kopten de verschrikkelijke titel “Ohio Family Dogs Kill Baby With Rough Play” en “How Dangerous Is A Shiba Inu?!” Weerzinwekkend en treurig. Voor meer hierover kijk je naar deze blogpost die ik vorig jaar schreef hierover.

Het verhaal was dat de vader op de bank in slaap was gevallen terwijl zijn 3 maanden te vroeg geboren dochtertje op zijn buik lag. Miya zou gevallen zijn en vervolgens door de honden zijn gedood.

Al snel had ik allerlei bedenkingen bij dit verhaal. Hoe kon het dat de vader in slaap gevallen was? Waar was de moeder? Hebben de honden het kindje “vermoord” of willen redden? Ik ben in contact gekomen met de oprichter van Shiba Saviors Worldwide (opgericht direct na dit incident!)  en heb het verhaal een tijd lang op de voet gevolgd.

Shiba's Karma en Chance en baby Miya
Het logo dat ik voor Johns organisatie ontworpen heb.

De organisatie “Shiba Saviors Worldwide” heeft zich maandenlang bezig gehouden met de inbeslagname van beide honden en geprobeerd ze hieruit te krijgen, zodat ze door een nieuwe baas geadopteerd konden worden.

Eindelijk, in november 2014, kwam dan het goede bericht: Chance (wiens echte naam Sampson is), 1 van de shiba’s is eindelijk vrijgelaten. Helaas is zijn broertje Karma (Cooper), die daadwerkelijk bij de kleine en de vader in de ruimte was, al eerder dat jaar geeuthaniseerd.

Het heeft bijna een jaar geduurd om de waarheid boven tafel te krijgen.

John Graziamo (www.shibasaviors.weebly.com)  schrijft in november 2014 hoe alles écht verlopen is op die verdrietige dag in 2013:

HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE!!
It is with great honor that I can finally announce, WE WON our case and Chance was released today at 1:00PM November 4th, 2014. We have nicknamed him Chance, however his real name is Sampson!
On December 10th, 2013 I woke to read an article from an Ohio news station that 2 Shibas were taken into custody for the sad death on a 3 month premature baby Miya Gibson. After months of speculation of what happened that morning, we finally have an answer to what happened that morning.
That morning a 911 call was made by Miya’s mother that her 3 month premature baby was with her husband on the couch. Her husband was working 3 jobs to pay the medical bills for Miya who had a very hard birth. The father wanted to hold his daughter between his shifts and accidentally fell asleep with Miya on his chest. The father fell asleep and baby Miya accidentally fell off his chest onto the floor. At this point there was one dog in the room with him. That dog was Karma (Sampsons brother) a 2 year old Shiba Inu. Karma real name was Cooper. Karma tried to pick up the baby and ended up puncturing the lung of the baby, causing it to pass away shortly after it arrived at the hospital. Chance was asleep with his mom in her room. We have found out that since day one the parents have placed 100% of the blame on themselves and zero on the dogs. That is why the dogs were never even mentioned in the 911 call.
Despite the parents explaining there was only one dog in the room with the dad and Miya, the police demanded both dogs be taken into custody and have been in the Franklin County Animal Shelter since December 10, 2013.

With conflicting news reports and police reports we were lost as to what really happened. Initial reports say both dogs were with the baby and thought she was a toy and were playing with her without any aggression. We came to find out only Cooper was the only dog in the room with the baby. I, myself am guilty of speculation as I just couldn’t fathom a Shiba being that aggressive with a baby to kill it. I instantly told myself, that this has to be an accident, these dogs couldn’t go without a voice. I created Shiba Saviors Worldwide so we could go to court and represent these dogs in court. It has been such an uphill battle. We were set with a trial date of March 2015. This summer, the prosecutor had Karma put to sleep without any notice to the court or Shiba Saviors Worldwide. Karma was never to be put down, despite being in the room with the baby. SSW is actively pursuing a lawsuit against the prosecutor for her illegal misconduct.

The mother Sabrena Gibson hired our legal team this summer as well and we all fought together to win this battle. She took total blame for the accident and has also been fighting for the release of the dogs. After hearing her story and our attorney meeting with her, we now understand the full story and understand the pain it has caused. This was an accident, a tragic accident and this is our happy ending to a tragic accident. Sabrena was also legally banned from seeing Sampson. She was there to see his release today and he remembered her after 11 months in a shelter. The room was filled with tears of happiness.

Shiba's Karma en Chance en baby Miya
Chance op de dag dat hij door zijn nieuwe baasjes geadopteerd werd:)

Many people have joined together to donate funds for the legal fees of these 2 dogs. A global petition I created has over 3700 signatures from all around the world. People have sent donations to the shelter, dog beds, treats and toys. Thank you so much for every donation, every bit helped these dogs.

As planned, he will be going to Mike Harig, our dog trainer we hired in the beginning of all of this. Mike will help rehabilitate Chance and see how he is. We know we have to treat Chance with sensitivity as he must be so scared from the shelter. Plus, Chance has lost his lifelong brother Karma.

I am so thankful for the continued support during this case. At the beginning a few people said there is no way of winning this case and saving these dogs. Despite the constant uphill battle we never gave up. I owe a huge THANK YOU to my team. Our wonderful attorneys at Holland & Muirden especially Dana Pannella. You are a hero. Also the help from Shirley Francis and Britt McCall has been overwhelming.

As a Shiba has never been in a case like this before, history was made today. As we have had time to mount the loss of Cooper (Karma), we can now celebrate the release and future happy life Sampson will get to live

Thank you all so much,
John Gramazio
Shiba Saviors Worldwide President.