Elderly woman killed by dogs in South Carolina

This is a sad story that has gotten a lot of media attention, but very few details to this point. 

According to reports, 66 year old Sirlinda Hayes, was standing in her front yard tending to her garden when she was attacked by 2 at-large Rottweilers. Hayes tragically died of her injuries. The owner of the dogs quickly came to her aid and was apparently also injured and was taken to the hospital to have those injuries treated.

Although the neighbors report that the dogs often got loose, they say they had never had compliants about the dogs before.

The attack happened in the community of Dillon, SC, a small community of about 6500 people. It is a poor community, with 26% of the population living below the poverty line (double the national average) and 14% living at an income less than 50% of the poverty line (again, double the national average). What is amazing is that this is the second fatality in this small community in less than 6 months -- and the 3rd fatality in the past 4 years.  This is absolutely staggering given that there are only 30 or so fatal dog attacks a year in the entire United States, and for one tiny community to have 2 in a six month period points to a much larger societal problem here.

This story has been picked up by over 250 news outlets nationally.

Comments

[YesBiscuit!]

Perhaps not surprisingly, Billy read an article on this (I don't know where) which said the dogs were Pitbulls. He said the entire article was about Pitbulls killing people in SC. I guess they just figured they'd toss this tragedy in too since - Rotts, Pits - eh, what's the diff? Wonder what else they got wrong?

[kmk]

oh Brent, Brent, Brent...Mr. Ray of Sunshine!

This remind me a little of the Kansas City, KS/Jimmie Mae McConnell fatality.

Those dogs also started out as Rottweilers and went through several breed transformations before they were finally "pit bulls", or at least one of them was.

[Jennie]

The Huffington Post originally called them pit bulls. And they did write an article about pit bulls killing people in South Carolina, although this was the only death they mentioned by pit bulls. They threw in the Japanese Akita mauling, then dredged up a 3 year old that got bit in the head by a "pit bull." That was the extent of their "everyone needs to get the heck outta SC because the pits are killing anything that moves" article.

They have finally corrected their mistake, but the comments are now lumping rotts in with pits. Did you know that we're all AK-47 touting, gun loving nutjobs? Yeah, I didn't get that memo when we got our pit mix so we don't have a gun in our household. We also weren't told that we had to move to the ghetto so we're still living in an upperclass neighborhood. Our bad. I think my husband will hold tight to the house though. I can't see talking him into moving. But I may be able to get him to buy a gun, yo. I know. I need to work on my lingo. Or slang. Or whateva my homeboys call it these days.