I've been wanting to write these articles less frequently as with my current time limitations, I'd much rather focus on the positive of dogs, and of things going on at our shelter, than on tragedies. Dogs are such an important part of the lives of many of us and I love celebrating the dogs in our lives.
However, a simple fact remains that the bond between dogs and humans is still broken at times when politicians pass laws based on the hysteria of the moment instead of looking deeper into the causes of high profile fatal attacks. This trend has certainly improved, as many cities are now looking and comprehensive animal control laws and enforcement that are focusing on the behavior of owners and dogs, and not on what dogs look like. This is great news to be sure.
So I'm going to do a little catching up this week, as we had several incidents that should be discussed (plus, I have a couple from early January I'm going to add to the end). The incidents follow the typical story lines and include multiple of the following: unsupervised children, dogs that are resident dogs (vs family dogs) and thus not well-socialized with the family, dogs roaming at large, low-income areas where other social issues exist, and dogs with a history of aggressive actions and have gotten loose from their kenneling before.
Kenneth Santillan, Paterson, NJ
There's still a lot of information that will hopefully come out of this one, but in Paterson, NJ, a 115 lbs Bull Mastiff went after two 13 year old boys. The boys fled in opposite directions -- one boy had a bite on his hand, the other was found dead in a wooded area behind the dog's home. When the dog's owner came out to get the dog while officials were there, the dog bit the owner on the hand also -- and the owner stabbed the dog multiple times before animal control took the dog.
Neighbor's have reported that the dog had jumped over the fence before and bitten a child previously and that it was often somewhat aggressive. Neighbors report that the dog lived in the back yard of the home and never came indoors except for during Hurricane Sandy, including this winter's freezing temperatures. One neighbor noted that kids would often provoke the dog and try to get it to jump over the fence.
At this point, authorities are not commenting on whether or not the dog was provoked in this case, but it's particularly worth noting that it is important to impart on children the importance of respecting dogs and specifically not to taunt them. It also helps demonstrate that dogs that are left alone in a back yard where they cannon flea from taunting, etc can often become very defensive and will act out on their own accord.
Two year old child, Killeen, TX
Not much is known about this one either, so I'll update as more reports come in.
Based on the current media reports, a two year old boy was tragically killed in Killeen, TX. The young toddler was walking home from the park with an 8 year old girl and an 18 year old boy when the dog, described as a bull mastiff, ran from out of a garage and attacked the children. The dog apparently went after the 8 year old girl first, but once people came to help her, the dog turned on the 2 year old and inflicted fatal injuries.
Four year old child, Tallassee, AL
In Tallassee, AL, a four year old girl was alone outside playing in her own yard when two dogs who were roaming at large attacked the young girl. The girl's grandfather went out to check on her and found one of the dogs, described as a "white german shepherd mix" on top of the young girld. The two dogs fled when the grandfather came outside. The other dog, which may or may not have been involved in the incident is being described as a "lab mix".
The young girl succumbed to her injuries.
Neighbors say the owners of the German Shepherd mix tried to keep the dog pinned up, but it often got out. Other neighbors have reported that the dog had previously eaten their chickens and was known to be aggressive toward people. It's also worth noting that there is no leash law in Tallasee.
Tallassee, AL is an area of very high poverty, with more than 43% of its residents living below the poverty line. I've noted before that in areas with high poverty tend to have significant breakdowns in their social structures and that the dog attacks tend to be a symptom of the struggling social structure. That appears to be the case here, where an inability to be able to maintain proper fencing seems to be an ongoing problem here.
Braelynn Coulter, High Point, NC
There isn't a lot of information about theis incident, but Braelynn Coulter wa s 3 year old girl that was tragically killed by the family pet. The dog is being described as a "pit bull," and by most reports, appears to have been an indoor family pet (unlike most of the other dogs described here). It is worth noting that one of the major sections of a 10 year dog bite fatality study was that dogs that lived with the family were less likely to be involved in dog attack fatalities than outdoor dogs that lacked the human interaction to properly be able to read human behaviors.
The dog was said to have been aggressive before - -having broken through a fence to attack (and kill) a neighbor's dog. No information about the events that led up to the fatal attack on young Braelynn have been made available.
This story is from a couple of weeks ago, but 2 year old Je'veah Mayes wandered outside the home unattended, and walked up to a dog that was chained in the back yard. The dog, described as a 'pit bull' was being watched for a friend. The toddler walked up to the chained dog (the two do not appear to have been socialized together) and was tragically mauled by the dog.
It is also worth noting that the dog was a momma dog that also had two puppies with her that she may have been trying to protect.
I've often noted that young toddlers do not have the ability to read warning signals given by dogs. Thus, they can be very succeptable to attacks like this, particularly if a dog is chained and has no abilty to flee.
Kara Hartrick, Bloomington, IL
This story is from January:
Four year old Kara Hartrick was being babysat in her home by her grandmother. The young girl told her granmother that one of the three dogs in the home hurt her, so she began to try to separate the dogs from the girl. During that process, the dogs began to become aggressive and directed the aggression toward the young girl and began attacking her. The girl dended up dying from her injuries.
The family owned three dogs, 2 unaltered males, and one unaltered female. Authorities believe it was the two males that were responsible for the attack. All of the dogs are described as "pit bulls".
This is a truly tragic case where it appears that the person handling the dogs did not really know the dogs well and wasn't able to read particular behaviors well and it ended in tragedy.
Christina Burleson, 43, Houston, TX
This story if from early January:
The 43 year old Burleson was out for an early morning walk when she was tragically attacked by 3 dogs that were roaming at large. When people saw the woman in danger they came to help but unfortunately arrived too late. All three of the dogs were described as "pit bulls" and the owner of at least 2 of the dogs has been identified.
The attack follows the trend that most healthy adults that are involved in fatal incidents tend to be attacked by multiple dogs -- often roaming at large. While a healthy adult can usually defend themselves from a single attacking dog, a large group of dogs would provide significantly more risk.
The incident occurred in the 77061 Zip Code of Houston which has a 26% poverty rate -- nearly double the national average.
Hi Brent,
It seems odd to say 'thanks' for news such as this but I will anyhow. I penned a message to go with the link to your blog today and am posting it around hoping that people will read it who work in the animal welfare community and will decide that enough is enough and it's time to work harder to reduce these horrific tragedies. This is NOT a problem that can't be solved for sure but it's going to take some proactive action on the part of the animal welfare and legislative community to solve the problem.
Here's the message I sent along with the link to this blog:
I really hope that these tragedies as outlined in Brent Toellner's blog, KC DOG Blog, will serve as yet another glaring example why responsible dog ownership is so critically important. Sadly it appears to me that every single one of the deaths reported here were 100% preventable and avoidable and would never have happened if the human's, the owners, involved with each dog would have been much more responsible as a pet owner. I don't know how many more stories like this it will take to wake people up to the fact that dog's are not inherently vicious but become so when mishandled by humans who are either poor dog owners or don't have sufficient knowledge about canine behavior and how to read dogs.
Adding tragedy upon tragedy is the misconception by so many that when dogs attack and kill humans the only answer is simply to first of all kill the dog and then make a law in that community or state or country to ban ownership of all dogs that are or looks like they might be the breed of the dog that killed the human. Dog bans, in spite of all of the misinformation that is released by the governing bodies who implement them, do not reduce dog bites in a community but only reduce dog bites by the breed that is banned. Many communities with breed bans will report that their community is now safer but statistics reveal that the community is only safer from bites by the dogs that have been banned and that typically dog bites by other kinds of dogs increase.
There are NO dangerous dog breeds. There are large dogs. There are powerful dogs. There are dogs with a strong prey drive. There are dogs that aren't particularly kid friendly. There are dogs that are not well socialized. There are dogs that are untrained and who lack humane discipline that are out of control behavior-wise. But none are inherently dangerous because of their genetic make-up. There are however irresponsible and/or incapable dog owners who do not own a dog with due diligence but who take on a dog without really taking the time and effort to become educated about how to be a responsible dog owner and/or canine behavior and how to read canine body language. This is what needs to be the target of our concern and also of legislation; dog owners.
Dog owners in any community need to have easy access to spay/neuter services that are affordable, they need to have easy access to dog training classes that are affordable and most of all they need to be exposed to information that will at the very least peak their interest in learning how to be the best dog owner, and therefore dog owning neighbor, they possibly can regardless of their income bracket and/or living situation. Any animal shelter, public or private, worth it's salt should truly be making this a priority as a use of their time, their efforts and their budget. If more people spayed and neutered their pets less pets would end up in the shelter. If more people learned more about their dogs and how to help their dogs be safe around all other living things less pets would end up in the shelter. So to me it's a no brainer that this would be something that any shelter anywhere would benefit from highly and would find to be well worth the time, effort and money to implement. It is fairly obvious to me that it makes a whole lot more sense to plug the hole in the dike in order to lessen the steady stream of pets in need flooding into shelters or the judicial system as opposed to just running around with hands in the air complaining about it being too much...too many dogs...too many cats...not enough money...not enough responsible pet owners and not being able to save enough animals.
Posted by: Cheryl Huerta | March 03, 2014 at 02:39 PM