Updated: 29 year old Ohio man dead from reported dog attack

Update:  Not a lot new, but a couple of new pieces of information.

Confirming  H. Houlihan's comments - the victim, Mr. Winters was sickly -- and had been diagnosed as having AIDS.

Officials are saying that most of the dogs were mostly "large mutts" - with one Rottweiler and one mastiff being present.

The two men typically took in unwanted animals from other people and treated them as rescues. Still no information about what may have triggered the attack, although most are guessing that it was some type of "pack mentality" situation.

This story has now been picked up by over 100 news sources.

Original:

A 29 year oldman, Michael Winters, was found dead today outside of his home - -dead from an apparent dog attack. The man's father, who also lived at the home, left the house at 11:30 am this morning and returned home around 12:15. At some point in between the son came home and was attacked by likely several of the dogs that lived on the property.  The man was pronounced dead at the scene with reportedly "hundreds" of dog bites on him.

The son is said to be familiar with the dogs and has spent a lot of time with them.  Depending on the reports, there were about a dozen dogs that lived on the property -- ranging from small dogs to large dogs and of multiple breeds. At this point we don't know but appears that multiple dogs of multiple types were involved. The dogs were reportedly well-cared for.

Obviously our hearts go out to the family as they deal with this tragedy. I'll update this more if more information gets released -- but given that there were no witnesses in the attack, it seems somewhat unlikely that we'll get much more.

Thus far, this story has been picked up by 8 media outlets in Ohio.

Comments

[Kim Krohn]

Oh, WHY does it have to be Ohio?

They're working so hard to get rid of the BSL in Toledo and change the state law that automatically deems "pit bulls" dangerous.

[H Houlahan]

A commenter on the news story who is a relative stated that the young man has been ill.

So I wonder if he was attacked, or if he died and was then bitten. Or if he could have had a seizure or some other event and that set off the pack of dogs?

[YesBiscuit!]

From the link: "Deputies rounded up the dogs and put them down, per the father’s request."

Don't they want to wait and confirm cause of death first? We just had a case recently where it was determined a woman died of natural causes and the dog then apparently tried to drag her. At first it looked like a dog attack but it was actually the dog attempting to help the owner.

[Brent]

YB - that other case was also in Ohio - but that doesn't appear to have happened here. A lot of comments about the severity of the injuries which wasn't the case before.

H - the man was apparently sick - I've updated the post to reflect that his father has noted that he had AIDS.

Kim - I don't think it's any coincidence that this happened in Ohio -- seems like whenever you focus solely on the wrong thing (like breeds of dogs instead of temperament) that ignorance can lead to incidents occurring. If anything, the fact that there were a dozen dogs potentially involved, all of various breeds/mixed breeds - only helps highlight the ignorance of the breed specific laws in the state IMO.

[Lisa in OH]

Last night, our local news here in Ohio, was reporting that the dogs were wolf-dogs. I seems that they have now back tracked and are calling them mutts

[Keira]

Have you read this article yet. http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/dog-breed-info-released-in-fatal-mauling

* 5 bull mastiffs
* 1 rottweiler
* 3 pit bull-boxer mixes
This are the dogs that were outside at the time. 2 were shot by police, the rest were euthanized in the garage.

[KateH]

Wow, the article comes right out and says the dogs were sent to the landfill. That kind of info is just about never, ever mentioned. Maybe it will cause some to ask whay happens to their dogs when they're euthanized.

BTW, unless there were photos taken of these dogs before death that more knowledgable dog people could see, I don't believe the breed IDs. AC officers are nortoriously ignorant (or purposely so) about breeds. Since it has been reported in several places that these were dogs that were "dropped off" nearby or came from the pound, I find it odd that there would be so many actual mastiffs and I wonder about how much 'pit' was in those 'boxers.'

[Lisa in OH]

Kate says "BTW, unless there were photos taken of these dogs before death that more knowledgable dog people could see, I don't believe the breed IDs" I wouldn't either especially since this occurred in Lorain County, which has a very high rate of BSL and anti pit bull sentiment

[MichelleD]

We will probably never really know what happened. Maybe two of the dogs got into a fight and Winters got in the middle of it? Would be interesting to see how many where male/female and reproductive status so see if there was a bitch in heat and unaltered males. It was in the middle of the day so Winters probably hadn't been drinking (not to disparage but dogs sometimes get spooked around people - even ones they know - that have been drinking).

boxer/pit bull mix - lol - yeah right - or maybe a small mastiff? Or maybe ALL of these dogs were mutts!!...oh fantastic - look at the comments on the link...now its about killer pit bulls and dog fighting.

[Joseph Dubrovich]

Yes, Michael had Hiv and many health issues BUT, he was NOT "sickly" . He was about 5'11'' and around 200 lbs with a very deep voice....natural causes could be but, are unlikely. Take note of "hundreds bites". Our hope is he had a seizure and didn't know what happened. I pray that we, his friends and family find out the truth.....but, we may never know

[Richard]

I have heard Michael actually died of a heart attack and not from the dogs.