Updated: 4/2/11 - The final autopsy report for Larry Armstrong has indicated that the cause of death was from dog bites even though initial reports indicated he may have been hit by a car. So I have included him as fatality #34 and updated the other numbers.
Updated: I have updated this since it was originally written because I had neglected to tag the incident (#7) in Conyers, GA as a fatality and missed it when I went back through my reports. I have added the story to the overall report.
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This is my least favorite post I do every year because I don't like dwelling on the negative stuff, but because there is a lot of misleading information out there on this topic that I feel like having all of the attacks in a central location will at least allow people to have easy access to the actual data.
Before I get into the information, there are a couple of things that I want to note:
1) Fatal incidents are extremely rare. With about 75 million dogs in the US, and 32 fatal dog attacks each year, they are such a statistically anomaly that decisions on "breed" aggression should not be based on such rare incidents. By comparison, the US Population is 300 million (4x the dog population) and saw over 16,000 murders (500x the number of dog-related deaths). If only humans could be close to as safe as dogs.
2) When you look at fatal incidents, the circumstances surrounding them usually follow a few sets of circumstances that will become obvious when you read. It is my hope that by seeing the circumstances behind the attacks we can eliminate many future attacks so these tragedies can be avoided. Other sources that cover these attacks tend to focus solely on the type of dog involved which is erroneous because you can't judge the acts of dogs without factoring in the role of people in the attacks.
3) If people track bite information only by breed, without tracking the information by circumstances, the only correlation they can come up with for attacks is by breed and have missed the most obvious conclusion. Even if every fatal attack was caused by the same type of dog, these attacks are so rare that it would be impossible to cast the actions of an entire breed (which likely number in the millions) based on the actions of a handful of dogs.
4) The vast majority of my data, including breed ID, comes from media sources, so they come with the inherent ID issues that come from visual breed identification and from media mis-reporting.
5) The difference in media exposure for the different breeds of dogs is extremely notable.
So with that, here are the years attacks in the United States (and one from Canada as well). The attacks are listed chronologically -- and links go to my original writeup with one excption -- which is an attack that I didn't ever do an individual writeup on.
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1) Omar Martinez, 3, Apple Valley, CA - pit bull - The young boy and his father were in the back yard playing with the family's 'pit bull'. The boy's father went inside the home for a bit, leaving the young child alone with the dog -- and during this time the dog attacked the boy and killed him. The story was picked up in more than 250 media outlets (most of which never noted the boy was left alone). Apple Valley is an area that has a poverty level 50% higher than the national average.
2) Johnny Wilson, 56, Chicago, IL - Mixed Breed -The man was found dead inside his family home after being attacked by up to six dogs that lived in the home. According to the reports, the dogs were often fearful of the man and had been aggressive to him just two weeks prior. The dogs were reported by police to be 'pit bulls', but the Chicago Animal Care and Control Commissioner changed the breed ID to "mixed breeds". The story was covered in more than 250 media outlets (but only the Chicago Tribune followed up with the change in breed ID).
3) Anastasia Bingham, 5, Terry, MS - Unknown- The girl was attacked by at least one of a group of stray dogs that had been roaming the neighborhood. Neighbors called animal control multiple times about the free-roaming dogs, but nothing was ever done. Officials initially declared that a 'pit bull' was responsible for the attack, but DNA evidence of the dog they thought was responsible for the attack didn't match the DNA evidence on the victim. It never became completely clear what dog was responsible for the attack This incident occurred in another high-poverty area. The story was reported by 20 media outlets.
4) Robert Hocker, 11 days, Independence, MN - Siberian Husky - The infant was left in a car seat on a bed unattended and the dog bit the child on the head. The child died of the injuries. The story was picked up by 30 media outlets.
5) Christine Staab, 37, Philadelphia - pit bulls - The woman had a drug addiction and came home to her parent's house 'high'. She got into an argument with her mother, and during the argument a lamp got knocked over and one of the 6 dogs in the house (all described as 'pit bulls') attacked the woman and she died. The zip code where the incident took place has a poverty rate nearly 3x the state average. The story was picked up by 13 media outlets.
6) Jane Doe, 3, Ocala, FL - American Bulldog - The toddler went into the back yard unattended and into a pen where four American Bulldogs were kept. The girl became entangled in the chain of one of the dogs that was chained to a tree. The girl was then killed by that chained dog. The story was reported in 8 media outlets, 6 of them incorrectly called the dogs 'pit bulls' even though the mother was a registered breeder of American Bulldogs.
7) Jane Doe, 5 days, Conyers, GA - "pit bull" - The newborn infant was left alone in its bassinet. The mother heard the baby crying and went to go check on the child. When she got into the other room, she found the dog on top of the newborn. The child died from the bite wounds a while later.
8) Ashlynn Dawn Anderson, 4, Oregon -Rottweiler - The girl was outside in her front yard unattended and apparently one of the dogs owned by the family escaped the back yard and attacked the girl in in the front yard. The story was picked up by 250+ media outlets -- in large part because the girl is the step-daughter of Jesse Browning of the TV series Ax Men.
9) Justin Lopez, 8 months, Perkins, OK - Rottweiler - Two dogs given to the family only the day before were brought indoors because of bad weather. At some point, one or both dogs attacked and killed the 8 month old boy. The only adult in the home at the time slept through the attack. The attack occured on Tribal lands, so poverty, sadly, is likely a factor. The attack was reported in 179 media outlets.
10) Thomas Carter, Jr, 7 days old, Pasco, FL - 'mixed breed pit bull' - The young boy was asleep on the bed with his mother when the 100 lbs dog attacked the infant while the boy's 16 year old mother slept through the incident. She wasn't even aware of the attack until neighbors knocked on the door around noon. The case was eventually turned over the social services. This small neighborhood in Pasco, Moon Lake, was the site of another fatal dog attack 6 months earlier and is an area with a very high poverty level. The story was reported 240+ media outlets.
11) Krystal Brink, 3, Napakiak, AK - "sled dog" - The young toddler wandered away from the home she was visiting and wandered up to a group of 7 dogs chained in the back yard (this would be a common way to keep sled dogs which would also be a necessary form of transportation in this area). The story was covered in 300 media outlets.
12) Nathan Aguirre, 2, San Bernardino, CA - Pit Bulls - The boy was outside in the yard with his father and the dog when the father went inside briefly, leaving the child alone with two dogs in the back yard. For unknown reasons, one of the dogs attacked and killed the young boy. The area where the attack took place had a 50% higher than average poverty rate.
13) Savannah Gragg, 9, Kokomo, IN - Pit Bull - According to the reports, the girl opened the door to the residence to let out the family 'pit bull' when the dog jumped on her, knocked her down and bit her in the neck, lacerating the girl's trachea which eventually killed her. The story was picked up by 10 media outlets.
14) Jane Doe, 3 weeks, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec - Husky - The 17 year old mother and the 37 year old grandmother went outside together to have a cigarette, leaving the newborn inside alone with the two Huskies that live in the family's home.
15) Michael Winters, 29, Henrietta Township, OH - pack of dogs - The 29 year old man was apparently attacked by one or more of the more than a dozen "mostly large mutts" that the man and his father kept on the property. The story was picked up by around 100 media outlets.
16) Kyle Holland, 5, Lincoln Park MI - Husky mix - The boy's mother put the young boy to bed around 10:30 at night, and then found the boy dead in his room the next morning from injuries from a dog attack. The mother said the dog is a Husky/GSD mix. The mother's boyfriend was arrested for drug possession when drugs were found in the man's car and in the home during the investigation.
17) William Parker, 71, Memphis, TN - Pit Bulls - Two dogs that had been in an attack incident a couple of days before, were again allowed to roam at-large and attacked Parker, who suffered cardiac arrest during the attack (however, because of the severity of injuries suffered, it remains a bite fatality vs blamed solely on the heart attack). The attack happened in a very poverty laiden area of Memphis.
18) Jacob Bisbee, 2, Concord, CA - Pit bull - The family kept three of the 5 dogs they owned in the garage (the other two stayed in the back yard) and the toddler opened the door to the garage and was attacked by one of the dogs. The dog that is believed to have killed the boy had shown aggression to both of the young children in the home previously and had killed another family dog. The story was picked up by over 260 media outlets.
19) Aaron Carlson, 2, San Diego, CA - German Shepherd mix - The boy's mother was asleep downstairs and the dog was with young Aaron and his 3 siblings, aged 7, 5 and 3 -- and the youngest was attacked and killed. The attacked occurred in military base housing while the father was deployed and was picked up by 80 news outlets.
20) Tracey Brazzell Payne, 46, Macon, GA - 'pit bulls' - Apparently a neighboring house was vacated and a pack of dogs were abandoned in the back yard of that home for more than 2 weeks. The dogs had bitten another man already as they were left to fend for themselves, and several other people reported having been bitten by the dogs but no one called authorities. While these dogs were blamed for the attack in the media, subsequent police investigations have led to a lot of doubt if they were the dogs actually involved in the attack. The area has a very high poverty rate.
21) Jerry Yates, 69, Calavaras County, CA - pit bulls - Mr. Yates was out on his farm when two dogs owned by a woman that rented a trailer jumped a small fence and attacked Yates. The dogs had shown previous signs of aggression.
22) Taylor Becker, 4, Iron Ridge, WI - Boxer - The girl wandered outside a family friend's house and up to a Boxer that was chained in the back yard. Neighbors report that the dog had shown signs of aggression before and the dog bit the girl and she died very quickly from blood loss. The story was picked up by 79 news outlets.
23) Jason Walker, 7, Varna, IL - Pack of dogs - The young boy was attacked by a pack of four dogs (described as 3 'pit bulls' and a mixed breeed) that were roaming at large in a very rural area. One of the dogs was reportedly aggressive on previous occassions. The story was picked up by 39 news sources.
24) Mattie Daugherty, 85, Etowah, TN - pit bull - There are few details about this attack. The woman was outside with family and went inside to check on the dog. When she didn't come out immediately, the family went in to check on her and found that she had been killed by the dog.
25) Justin Valentin, 4 days old, Jacksonville, FL - pit bull - The new parents had just brought the child home from the hospital and left the child alone in a room together with the family's pet 'pit bull' for "just a few seconds" when the dog tragically bit the child. The story was picked up in over 200 media outlets including national media.
26) Kaden Muckleroy, 2, Rusk Co, TX - mixed breed - The boy went outside unattended into the back yard where the family kept up to 40 mixed breed dogs and one of the dogs broke free from a chain and attacked and killed the young boy. While the media continued to call the dog a pit bull, the authorities in the area have always referred to the dog as a mixed breed.
27) Cason Bryant, 5, Phenix City, AL - mixed breeds - The boy was being watched by a baby sitter when he darted outside into the family's back yard unattended. While the family owned a dog themselves, another 11 dogs slipped under a fence and several of the dozen dogs were responsible for attacking the young boy. Authorities called the dogs 'mixed breeds' and specifically called out that none of the dogs were 'pit bulls'. Phenix City is a small community with nearly double the poverty rate of the rest of the country.
28) Christina Casey, 53, Moreno Valley, CA - "mixed breeds'- The woman had complained about the neighbor's dogs before, and was 2 days away from moving away from them. However, the two dogs dug under the fence to the yard of the home she was renting and attacked her -- neighbors found her body in the back yard. The dogs were called 'pit bull/Weimaraner mix" dogs -- which means they could be just that, or "blue pit bulls", or Neopolitan Mastiff mixes... or whatever. The media of course just called them 'pit bulls'.
29) Justin Lane, 25, Dillon, SC - 'pit bull' - The young man was found dead on his couch with wounds from a dog attack. Over 25% of the city's residents live below the poverty line -- more than double the national average. Only 7 media outlets picked up this story.
30) Reverand John Reynolds, 84, Williamsburg, MO - 'pit bulls' - Reynolds was found dead in a pen with 17 'pit bulls' in it. Although no real information is available, it seems most likely that two or more of the dogs got into a scrap (which the man's son reported had happened before) and Reynolds was likely injured trying to break up the spat.
31) Shirley Lou Bird, 79, Ida Grove, IA - German Shepherd - The dog was owned by Ms. Bird and had been very aggressive toward her in the past. The dog bit her, she was on blood thinners, and bled to death in her bathtub where she tried to clean out her wounds. The story was covered by 20 news sources.
32) Edward Mitchell, 67, Murrietta, CA - pit bull - The man, who had reportedly been very rough on the dogs in the past, was attacked by his son's 'pit bull' while he was disciplining the dog. The man died two months after the original attack.
33) Janet Vaughn, 3 months, Houston, TX - Rottweiler or Rottweiler mix - The young child was left in a swing in the living room. The mother brought a Rottweiler in to give it a bath when one of the other 8 dogs owned by the family pushed a back door open and attacked the newborn. The dogs were called a variety of different breeds (including Chows, which look nothing like Rottweilers), but the Rottweiler description seems to be the most reliable based on the photos of the dogs.
34) Larry Armstrong, 55, Sundance, NM - Pack of wild dogs - The man was found dead surrounded by a large pack of wild dogs on Native Lands. The dogs were described as skinny and aggressive by first responders. The story was picked up by 115 news outlets.
Cases intentionally excluded:
Ethel Horton, 65, Lee, SC - While initial media reports said the woman died because of a dog attack, according the coroner's report, dog attack was neither a primary or underlying cause of death because the woman had an enlarged heart and died of a heart attack.
Carolyn Baker, 63, Cuyahoga County, OH - Initial media reports indicated that the woman was killed by her Rottweiler. However, coroner's reported that Baker actually died of cardiovascular disease (she had previously had a stroke and a heart attack) and then died in the winter cold -- and now it seems likely that the marks from the dog was the dog trying to help Baker, not attack her.
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There were 34 different dog bite fatalities in 2010.
--- 9 different breeds of dogs, or mixes thereof (counting all "mixed breeds" as a separate breed).
--- 4 cases involved chained dogs
-- 12 cases were in areas impacted by high poverty rates
-- 6 cases involved pack of roaming dogs - another 4 involved a pack of dogs that were owned by the victim.
-- 5 involved newborns
-- at least 8 involved dogs with a noted history of aggression
The attacks fall into roughly 4 categories:
1) Children under 1 year of age - 6 incidents - 3 different breeds of dogs involved, with 'pit bulls', Rottweilers and Husky's each having 2 apiece. In five of the six incidents the infant was left alone with the dog, in the sixth, the parent was asleep on the bed with the child but slept through the attack.
2) Children aged 1-4 - 12 incidents - 7 different breeds involved - All of them involved the youngster being without adult supervision with the dog -- in four of the cases the child was left without supervision with the dog (2 outside, 2 indoors) and in 7 of the cases, the child wandered outside unattended (in four of those the child then wandered up to a chained dog).
3) Children over the age of 5 (I split the two stories about 5 year olds, because one fit with the situation that usually involves slightly younger children and the other was more representative of attacks on older children)- 3 incidents -- two of them involved a large group of roaming dogs in the area, the other was a singular owned dog in attack of an older girl (9) -- which is a very odd attack
4) Adults - 13 incidents -- 4 breeds of dogs - 5 by roaming packs of dogs, 4 by a large group of dogs owned by the victim (in one case drugs were involved), 3 were singular dogs that inflicted wounds on an elderly victim.
This set of circumstances has remained pretty steady from 2008 and 2009 - -only the types of dogs really change.
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When 10s of million of Americans make the decision to share their lives with animals with teeth, unfortunately, a small number of incidents is likely to be an outcome because everything in our lives comes with some risk.
That said, there are clearly some things that we, as a society, can do to help minimize the number of these tragedies:
1) Work with new parents to understand the importance of early and proper socialization (and supervision) for dogs with newborn infants. I'm thrilled that programs like Dogs & Storks -- which focus on educating parents in these situations -- are growing in popularity so people can learn easy tips on avoiding these rare tragedies.
2) Education on the importance of supervising children -- particularly in the presence of dogs. Nearly all of the toddler-aged attacks happened when the parent was not watching the child, and a striking number involved children that wandered out of the home unsupervised and up to dogs (and in this case, more than half of the incidents involved chained dogs).
3) Managing packs of free-roaming dogs - packs of dogs mentally behave differently than individual dogs and can be a threat. In several of the cases, there were known packs of dogs that were aggressive and causing problems and either the authorities were never called, or, when called, never responded. Incidentally, in both of the cases where the authorities were called and never responded, their reaction was to turn the focus on breed-specific laws instead of acknowledging that they were neglegent in doing their job.
4) Understanding that if your dog shows signs of aggression, you must be a responsible owner and work with a trainer to solve the problem. A dog's aggression will not just "go away" without work and training...and as Karen Delise likes to say, an severe act of aggression by a dog isn't ever its first sign of aggression, but is most certainly its last.
5) I have chosen to pull out poverty levels when they seem to apply. I do this not because I don't think low-income people make good pet owners (because I think they most often do), but only because poverty is often linked to lower education levels, and if people are undereducated in general, they likely are about dogs also. And I see a huge need for more programs that provide dog owner education in low-income neighborhoods to help overcome this knowledge gap.
Just remember, dogs are a part of our lives, and most of the time, a welcome friendly part. But sometimes it can go wrong. And with that, we need to judge the actions of the dog based on the circumstances surrounding the attack. Because dogs have become an integral part of our lives, it has now become impossible to judge dogs without judging the people involved in the incident as well.
Sheila -- I do make the assumption on low-income areas often needing education in caring for dogs -- and yes, I think it's fair to say, education on spay/neuter as well. I have not included spay/neuter info in my summary because a) the info tough to come by -- there are times, like with strays or when they specifically call out that the dog was used for breeding (if you click through to each of the articles I will usually call this out) and b) because I think many people mistakenly use the spay/neuter element as a causal factor in the attack -- which often leads to bad legislation being proposed. I may add it in for next year...we'll see. For more of my thoughts on the spay/neuter factor you can read that here:
http://btoellner.typepad.com/kcdogblog/2011/01/dog-attack-fatality-report-why-is-intact-status-not-part-of-the-report.html
Posted by: Brent | August 20, 2011 at 07:32 PM