71 year old Donna Conrad was killed last week by one of her pet dogs. The woman was found dead by local authorities with deep puncture wounds in her head and throat.
The dog believed to be involved is her Doberman Pincher. There was another dog at the scene that is not believed to have been involved.
Because there were no witnesses to the attack, there is little information about the circumstances that led up to the attack -- and there has been only 1 media outlet that has covered the incident -- a small TV station out of Nothern Texas.
Incidents like this are tragic, but very rare. And there is always a set of circumstances that led up to the incident (even if these circumstances are not known). If we are to address issues of aggressive dogs, we must focus our attention on uncovering these circumstances (that usually relate back to poor dog ownership practices) and not focus on the type/breed of dog involved, as breed is never a determining factor in dog attacks.
and you can BET if it was a pit bull (or anything approximating such) it would be ALL over the media. Agree that the issue is the owner not the dog and most certaintly breed has NOTHING to do with it.
Posted by: selkie | September 22, 2011 at 12:20 PM
Killed by a Doberman...so what.
Isn`t that what the Media is saying?
My sincere condolences to her family and friends.
Posted by: J.M. | September 22, 2011 at 01:33 PM
This could be an interesting one to follow, local to DC:
http://www.wusa9.com/news/article/168067/158/Police-Dog-May-Have-Been-Used-As-Weapon
Posted by: Dianne R. | September 22, 2011 at 04:02 PM
You got that right Selkie! I would say 170 media outlets would have went to town on it if it resembled a 'pit bull' type dog.
My condolences to her family.
Posted by: Tonya | September 22, 2011 at 07:28 PM
Speaking of this, have you seen the madness going on in Australia?
http://www.dogstardaily.com/blogs/advocacy-overdrive-australias-dogs-are-under-siege-please-send-help
http://goodfordogs.org/blog/2011/09/03/checklist-for-dog-snatchers/
It's just nuts!
Posted by: Shoshannah Forbes | September 24, 2011 at 12:30 PM
As an owner of two pitbulls I completely understand the point that owners should be looked at in all cases. With Mrs Conrad, however, this was not the case. I knew both her and her daughter and they were very good/responsible breeders. Obviously, we will never know what circumstances led to this tragic even but rest assured these dogs were very well taken care of. My sincere condolences to Keri and the rest of their family.
Posted by: AP | September 28, 2011 at 08:01 AM