Dad "fighting to keep shared custody" pleads no contest to setting dog on fire in front of kids (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Notice how this case is treated as not much more than a lark, as a light-hearted human interest piece. Daddy JOHN W. FLEET III has the "ultimate stressful day?" What crap.

What we have here is an alcoholic abuser who managed to get shared custody of his two kids despite his personal shortcomings. (Anybody want to identify the judge?) It's quite clear to me that the mother had serious concerns about this arrangement, as she was trying to protect these kids from further contact with their drunken, erratic father who keeps a pit bull (statistically the most dangerous dog around children). So much for daddies being discriminated against.

So when the dog bites one of this kids, Daddy sets the dog on fire IN FRONT OF THE KIDS.

I'm not a big fan of pit bulls, but this is unbelievably disgusting. And the children were exposed to this unbelievable act of cruelty and trauma as well. Makes you wonder what other abusive acts Daddy has pulled with these kids that are not reported here.

Finally, Mom has the kids back in her sole care. But why does it always require a crisis for moms to take care of their own kids? We're lucky Daddy didn't decide to take out his "ultimate stressful day" on one of the kids.

By the way, had a mother pulled this stunt, nobody would be making light of it as the "ultimate stressful day." She would have quickly been labeled a mentally deranged nut.

http://articles.philly.com/2011-03-12/news/28683949_1_fleet-first-dog-bit-animal-cruelty

Father sent to jail for setting dog afire in front of children
March 12, 2011By Joseph A. Slobodzian, Inquirer Staff Writer

Jan. 28, 2010, was the ultimate stressful day for John W. Fleet III.

He was working full-time, his marriage was over, he was fighting to keep shared custody of his two children - and he was drinking too much.

Then the dog bit at his 11-year-old son.

"I took it out on the dog," Fleet, 34, told a Philadelphia judge Friday, an understatement considering that he set the five-month-old pit-bull mix on fire in front of his children.

Fleet pleaded no contest to animal cruelty, child endangerment, and corrupting a minor, and learned that he had accomplished just what he had been fighting to avoid: He lost his children.