Dog bite fatality story -- and a case for media bias

A few weeks ago, I posted a brief in the Weekly Roundup about a story where a woman was attacked by her dog in the back yard of her home.  It turns out that the woman, Barbara Chambers, has died following the attack due to complications from the injuries she sustained.

There are no media reports about her death. There is a mention of it left in the comments section of the original story, and I was able to confirm the story with someone who knows Barbara well -- as well as find her obituary in last week's Dallas Morning News -- but there have been no news reports of her death.

Two things about this story have really stood out to me.

First, this attack really is sad for so many reasons. Ms. Chambers dedicated her life to working with dogs, and there is a sad irony that her life would end this way. Meanwhile, the attack itself doesn't fit the typical profile of a fatal dog attack. Most fatal dog attacks fit into convenient profiles -- children left alone with dogs, dogs that are used for guarding purposes, or dogs that are completely abandoned or mistreated -- or poorly trained where the owner has disregarded past aggressive behavior.

But none of those fit here. The dog was a show dog. A well trained, well bred, well cared-for, awared winning show dog.  And for reasons unknown to anyone, the dog, a Great Dane, attacked his owner.  It's tragic.  And is certainly the outlier for how these attacks usually happen.

The second part that strikes me is the complete lack of media exposure on this. While the initial attack received a few short stories, there has been no follow up...and no stories about this woman's death.  While a couple of other 'pit bull' attacks in Texas earlier this year generated 300+ news reports apiece, a fatal attack by a Great Dane is apparently considered completely unnewsworthy.

I've stated numerous times before that the media has been majorly responsible for how we view dogs and dog attacks. For too long, they have been reporting stories as if breed is determining factor (it's not) and been over-reporting the misdeeds by some breeds of dogs (often incorrectly) and completely not reporting the misdeeds by other breeds that are deemed "less newsworthy".  It is cases like this that showcase the reality that anyone who bases their statistics and point of view on dogs based solely on media reports is going to have a completely skewed point of view on dogs and dog bites -- and will have completely skewed data if they are simply compiling news reports and trying to pass them off as "statistical" information.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of Ms. Chambers as they deal with this tragedy.

Comments

[MichelleD]

I SOOO wish they would have done a necropsy on the dog. I'd bet anything there was a medical problem that led to this attack or maybe it was on medication that could have caused it (long term use of Ivermec for mange has been known to) or maybe poison.

RIP Barbara Chambers. Condolences to your family.

[Rinalia]

That sucks. I'm so sorry for Barbara and her family. My thoughts are with them. :(

[Carianne]

Ugh, that is horrific. Will this hit the dog bite statistics that CDC reports? Does DogBites.org pick this up? I am really beginning to question reality around dog bite statistics in general.

[Brent]

Carianne, I'd guess that both will eventually end up with it - but the hate group website will only get it if they get it off of my blog. But I really do think that this illustrates how inaccurate any "study" based solely on media reports would be because this one was completely not covered by the media. Which is why you really have to watch where data comes from and why people like Karen Delise have much more reliable information than the folks who rely solely on media reports.

Michelle, I think most of the folks down there wish a necropsy had been done. There has to be a reason for this attack...but we'll likely never know what happened in this one...

[Barb]

This is such a sad story. Sad for Mrs. Chambers, sad for her family, and yes sad for the dog too - by all accounts he was a real sweetheart and something medically must have gone spectacularly wrong to make this happen. The breeders and co-owners of the dog tried very hard to get a necropsy done, they would have paid for anything. But AC insisted on sending the brain for rabies testing and that was that.

I don't know if this will show up statistically as a dog bite fatality since she technically died of an infection. But of course she wouldn't have gotten that if not for her injuries.

It is a good example of not only how biased the media is, but also how INCONSISTENTLY biased they can be. Except for bully breeds - I've never heard of a case where they minimized or ignored a story involving a bully.

But contrast the minimal coverage this story got to the sensational coverage in the story of the 91 year old woman who was knocked down by Danes. Same breed, but the non-event was sensationalized while the truly serious attack was treated in a very restrained manner.

It is really scary how completely the media can manipulate the information we receive, and influence what we THINK we know!

[Fred]

Getting dog bite facts, or even just dog facts in general, from the mainstream media is like getting lottery ticket numbers from a ouija board.

What I find interesting about this story is that the posted comments are, for the most part, pretty much on the ball, asking the only real pertinent question: why?

[MichelleD]

It should be listed as a dog attack fatality as Jimmie Mae McConnel is listed that way...and she died from a heart attack and had a known heart condition. None of the bites she received were life threatening. She was also working in her garden around the time so that could have contributed.

The AC refusing a necropsy is complete negligence. Makes you wonder if there was a cover up of some sort...

[PoochesForPeace]

Im not sure if your type of blogs really do this..but I gave your blog an award on my wall!!

[MrPitBull]

Appreciate your well presented article. You are right on with your observation. Sadly the media along with a few unqualified owners are responsible for most of the hysteria that unfairly surrounds the breed. As an example, someone above included an article about a pitbull that attacked their owner. No doubt the fact it is was a pitbull made it worthy of front page news. Not long ago here in Michigan USA, a man was mauled to death by three dogs. The headline simply read "Local man found in trailer dead". The smaller by-line read; "Mauled to death by three dogs". Just skimming the paper you would have missed it. I knew instantly that no "Pit Bulls" were involved, otherwise the Headline would have read "PitBulls Maul Local man to death" and the by-line would have been "local officials talk of Ban". I tried to locate the article that was in a small town newspaper and all I could find was some passing reference and can not find the article.

I have a lot of information on my site on this subject as I have a passion for this breed. I think many will find this information enlightening: http://mrpitbull.com/PitbullTemperament.html and for those who said they like the looks of them: http://mrpitbull.com/Pitbulls.html I hope you enjoy.

[C. Kauffman]

Barbara was a friend of mine for over 20 years. The poodle involved in the incident with the Dane was a standard poodle, which is a fairly large dog, and Barbara had mentioned to me on occasion that the Dane and the poodle did not always get along with each other and had to be "broken up" from time to time. I see that there's a lot of speculation as to what might have been medically wrong with the Dane, but I suspect that this tragic accident was nothing more than Barbara trying to break up a dog fight and coming out on the short end of it. At this point we will never know for sure, but I'm inclined to believe that this is what happened. I saw nothing about the story in the media but I am thankful that her employer was kind enough to track me down so that I could be with her and her family at the hospital in the days before she passed away. I miss her a lot.

[Brent Toellner]

C.

I'm sorry about your loss. I've heard from a lot of people who knew Barbara and she seems like a great person. I had not heard about the dogs not getting along well -- that would actually almost make the scenerio makes sense.

It's a tragic loss...

[c.kauffman]

Brent:

Thank you for your kind words. I'm sure Barb's family appreciates them as well.

Sincerely,
Carole Kauffman

[MICHELLESHROTER]

that was my mom i love and miss her so very much. i love you and want you back

[MichelleD]

I'm so sorry Michelle...

[Beau]

Sad story