Posted on 09/14/2007 5:04:52 AM PDT by Abathar
DETROIT -- An elderly man and a woman were mauled to death by pit bulls in Iosco Township, Mich., on Thursday afternoon, police said.
Michigan State Police were called to a farm and found a 90-year-old man mauled to death by dogs.
The Iosco Sheriff’s Department said the man’s 70-year-old son went to check on his father, who was visiting the property, and found him dead in the yard.
Police said there were still pit bulls in the yard when the son arrived.
Upon further investigation, MSP found dogs had also fatally mauled a 56-year-old woman who was jogging, just west of the property.
Investigators confiscated 10 pit bulls from a nearby residence.
MSP said there are still some dangerous dogs at large in the area.
The deaths are still under investigation by MSP.
Here’s another story with more details — sounds like a pack of stray dogs was roaming the area.
Second dog attack leaves two
Dog pack mauls jogger, 56, man, 91, in Livingston, day after Rottweiler kills baby.
George Hunter and Valerie Olander / The Detroit News
Vicious dogs attacked and killed two more people Thursday afternoon, even as police were continuing to probe the of a 4-month-old child who died the previous day when a Rottweiler pounced on her during a party at a private home in Warren.
In the Thursday incident in rural Iosco Township in Livingston County, police said a 91-year-old man and a woman, 56, who was apparently a passing jogger, were set upon by a marauding pack of at least 10 dogs on Crofoot Road.
Alex Gierlach, who also lives on Crofoot, said Thursday night that it was his brother Ed Gierlach who died in the attack.
...
Police have not confirmed the breed of dogs involved in the attack.
A relative of Gierlach’s on the scene said the jogger’s body was found about 100 feet from the house where Gierlach lived.
State Trooper Jeff Frasier said the dogs were rounded up after the attack and taken to the Livingston County Animal Shelter. Police said the dogs were found at a residence in the area.
Kelly King, a neighbor on nearby Elliot, said she had seen two stray dogs, a Doberman and a pit bull, on her street several days ago, and was concerned for the safety of her own pets.
Thursday’s attack comes a day after the of Kylie Cox in Warren. The baby was attacked Wednesday in a private home by a Rottweiler.
The dog was put to Thursday afternoon while relatives grieved for the infant.
The baby’s 17-year-old mother, Alexis Cox, left the child in the living room about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday to go into the kitchen to prepare the baby’s formula, “and the dog came out of nowhere,” said Kimberly Sundman, Alexis Cox’s aunt.
...
Dog was aggressive before
Chopper, the 120-pound Rottweiler who mauled Kylie, was euthanized by lethal injection at the Macomb County Animal Shelter, Chief Animal Control Officer Susan Jeroue said.
After the attack, the dog’s owner told police Chopper had been aggressive with children on at least one other occasion. Sundman said Alexis Cox was only a casual acquaintance of the dog’s owner.
Police are considering whether to bring charges against Alexis Cox, or the dog’s owner. Detectives Thursday were re-interviewing people who were at the party, Warren Police Sgt. Louis Galasso said.
...
“What presents somewhat of a problem is, we don’t know exactly who knew what. We know there was a party at the house, but the mother of the baby didn’t live there, and neither did the owner of the dog. So we don’t know if the mother even knew there was a dog at the house.”
...
According to Galasso, Kylie’s mother, who was not identified by police, brought the baby to the party still strapped to her car seat. When the woman left the living room to make formula for the baby, the 2-year-old dog suddenly attacked the child, Galasso said.
The dog pulled Kylie from the car seat and began violently shaking her, Galasso said. The 15 guests in the home began kicking the dog in an effort to get it to release the baby. The owner of the dog was finally able to free Kylie from its jaws, and the was taken to St. John Oakland Hospital, where she was pronounced of massive head trauma.
...
The lure of the Pitt Bull is that they are tough, mean and generate a ton of respect. They are typically owned by people who are neither tough nor generate any respect but desperately want to have those qualities.
It is insane not to consider any pit bull a danger. It’s double insanity not to consider an unknown pit bull doubly dangerous.
Good story.
"According to the Clifton study, pit bulls, Rottweilers, Presa Canarios and their mixes are responsible for 74% of attacks that were included in the study, 68% of the attacks upon children, 82% of the attacks upon adults, 65% of the deaths, and 68% of the maimings. In more than two-thirds of the cases included in the study, the life-threatening or fatal attack was apparently the first known dangerous behavior by the animal in question. "So while pit bulls aren't the only dogs that cause injuries they rank right up at the top. Other troublesome breeds were german shepards, chows, huskies, and dobermans.
One way to combat the problem is to charge the dog owner for the crime that his dog commits. If the dog bites someone charge the owner with aggrevated assault. If the dog kills someone charge the owner with murder. You can't just sue the owners, because most of them are judgement proof.
The study was http://www.dogbitelaw.com/Dog%20Attacks%201982%20to%202006%20Clifton.pdf
Someone forgot to tell those two that pits are really gentle creatures who wouldn’t hurt a flea and have never acted aggressively before in their lives. They must have just snapped because these two dead people provoked them before the attacks.
Nothing like getting smacked upside the head with reality to make some people listen.
If my neighbor brought one home, it’d be gone in a week.
The problem is that a jury won’t convict an owner usually for this kind of thing, and also, in many cases the owner really did have little warning that the animal was dangerous. I do think that prohibiting the breed is something that should be considered. We don’t let people keep tigers or wolves. Granted that pit bulls are not tigers or wolves, but they are quite dangerous nevertheless. People who like pit bulls should just get used to liking a different breed. There are plenty to choose from.
> The lure of the Pitt Bull is that they are tough, mean and generate a ton of respect. They are typically owned by people who are neither tough nor generate any respect but desperately want to have those qualities.
I understand they are particularly fond of radiator Kool-Aid...
That's what it wanted you to think. All that time it was boning the pastor's prize french poodle!
Not while it was happening, according to my other neighbor who witnessed it. There was a lot of screaming and blood, and the daughter who found mom being used as a chew toy is probably going to have some issues.
OMG....how sad. Pit Bulls should be OUTLAWED.
Not necessary. Just send a dog you want to get rid of over to visit with the neighbor’s dog, and when the pit bull tears him to bits, call animal control.
Sounds like another dogfighting ring.
I am glad she survived, and the story is a familiar one.
In an English journal, a writer commented that people get a Pitt Bull, and find them to be likeable and normal. “But then one day the dog’s eyes go glassy, and it springs its big surprise.”
They won't convict if the owner is never charged which seems to be the pattern. They should be charged and brought to trial every time. If they get off, then they get off, but I suspect that someone whoe dogs mauled a person and was facing 5 years in prison even if he/she wasn't found guilty would think twice about owning that sort of dog again, and it might just put a damper on other vicious dog lovers as well
Read the link to the pdf file about how pit bulls are far and away the worst about injuries. I would think that just the fact of ownership of a pit bull would be enough to legally say that the owner knew the dog was dangerous.
great story
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