[GunnerJones]

74-Year-Old Florida Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two Dogs
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,373325,00.html

How does something like this happen??

 

[CertainlySpoiled]

That's sad, and scary!

 

[shilohsmom]

I have no idea how something like that would happen. It is sad.

 

[ebrannan]

It must have been horrible for her. Especially because those dogs were her heart. I always read that Floridatoday.com Web site, and read the story earlier today. It was probably the aggressive Lab mix, but who will ever know.
At some point, we are looking to move from Northern VA to either Cocoa, Indian Harbour Beach or Merritt Island. Nice area, A+ schools, low crime and the price is right.

 

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

Such a tragedy.

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dl...ONTPAGECAROUSEL

 

[Guest]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

I just read that Floridatoday.com article and I don't know but some of the this just doesn't make sense. Especially this part:

Quote:The two dogs -- a 6-year-old golden retriever and Labrador mix and an 11-year-old Australian shepherd -- are being held by Brevard County Animal Service and Enforcement.

An 11 year old dog was involved? Odd enough a dog 6 years old would suddenly snap on her but an ancient old dog of 11?? And then there's the part about the Cocker Spaniel "not being involved in the attack". Huh? Why is THAT dog not guilty as well? Could it be because it's a cuddly wuddly Cocker Spaniel?

The death is listed as caused by blunt force trauma "caused by the dogs" with numerous bite marks. How's this for a possibility, the lady fell and died from the fall and the dogs being distraught nipped and pulled at her in distress?

I'm not saying the dogs are beyond the possibility of being responsible but I find alot of this story just doesn't add up. I see two large older dogs being destroyed "at the family's wishes" and a Cocker Spaniel getting a free pass. That's all that's certain for me.

 

[EastGSD]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

I had the same thoughts GSDad, it is not unusual for dogs to "mess with" a body of their dead owner. If no one was there to see this happen how do they know what happened? I guess it will depend a lot on the final autopsy report....

shame...dogs look really confused and I am sure the family is in shock...

Cherri

 

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

I am guessing it is possible the Cocker was in a crate or enclosed in another room to be really ruled out. That was my thought.

 

[middleofnowhere]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

As long as we're speculating, maybe she had a webcam on, or a survailence camera running.... Unlikely but the entire thing sounds unlikely. Nonetheless, it would be difficult to keep a dog that had been nibbling one of your relatives wouldn't it? Unless, of course, you detested that relative.

I thought the link at the bottom of the page that goes to a headline "Teeth Whiteners Exposed" was somewhat unfortunate.

 

[arycrest]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

According to a neighbor who was interviewed on our local NBC station (WESH), the golden/lab mix and aussie mix didn't belong to the woman but belonged to her son/s who had recently moved in with her. The neighbor said the dogs got into a fight with the cocker and she was killed when she attempted to break it up. BUT the neighbor didn't say how he knew what happened when she was killed.

 

[Brightelf]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

This makes no sense.

The Lab mix was aggressive, so it was kept seperately.. but yet maybe the Lab and Aussie mix got into a fight?

The neighbor thinks the lady tried to step in between fighting dogs.... but it was her son who found her body in the house? Does the neighbor have x-ray vision to see inside the home?

Dislocated shoulder sounds like a fall. Kibble-fed housepets, even with aggression issues, while a dog may bite, do not suddenly, randomly make DINNER out of someone. Did she trip and fall on the Cocker, who got scared, the fall and the adrenaline sent one of the other dogs into a frenzy, there was a dogfight, and she got in the middle then? Maybe. Smells fishy.

 

[ninhar]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

Probably wasn't the first time the dogs got into it. That poor woman.

 

[Maedchen]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

Kibble-fed housepets, even with aggression issues, while a dog may bite, do not suddenly, randomly make DINNER out of someone.

Would you mean raw-fed dogs are more likely to do that, since they're used to eating meat?

There was a case in France a year or two ago, were a Lab chewed off the nose and part face off of her owner - she survived, but needed extensive reconstr. surgery. I'm sure the dog was fed kibble.

It's really horrible what happend to that poor woman. It's hard to believe no one heard the commotion or her screams??? espec. those neighbors who seem to know everything.

With several dogs in a home, you have the pack mentality of wild animals setting in and in their frenzy they feed off of each other. It's very easy for a dog to dislocate the shoulder (esp. of an elderly person), if he pulls hard on the arm, but I sure would rather believe she fell and died, before the dogs got to her. Very sad.

 

[Kayos and Havoc]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

Very sad and we may never know what really happened.

 

[selzer]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

This makes all the sense in the world to me. The aggressive lab mix was kept segregated in another room in the house because it did not get along with the other dogs. Do you realize how hard that is to do and never screw up?

So far, after Arwen and Jazzy got into it big time, two days later, half asleep, I thought I could hold one while switching them to let the other inside. It was on. I ended up with a decent bite from that because of my own stupidity.

Dubya and Rushie got into it and while I was separating them Arwen and Jenna went at it in the house. Others piled on and getting them all crated I had the two girls to deal with, I did not get bitten that time.

One day I came home and Jenna and Heidi were loose together. I must not have latched her kennel securely. They were fine, but it could have been a mess.

I did get a nice bite when Arwen and Rushie had a spat.

I paint a grusome scene of dog fights at my house. But that was about the extent of them. Still, I have a system where everyone has their own crate inside and their own kennel outside, and I know exactly how to let them out to have no squabbles and no problems. A moment's carelessness and I have a fight on my hands.

I am 39, big, and strong and find it difficult to break up a fight between two 70-80 pound dogs. I cannot imagine being that much older and trying to do this.

I know to grab the tail and pull and get a gate between them and use my feet to get them apart. This woman only knew that her dogs were being seriously injured.

Once the dogs were in the heat of battle and the woman tried to get them apart and got bitten and pulled into the fray, it does not surprise me that the dogs both attacked the weaker leader of the pack. They are dogs. Even if they are golden/lab mixes and australian shepherd mixes. They still have a pack mentality.

When the young pack member jumps the old leader, often times the other pack members will join in the fray and it is usually the weak one that gets turned on.

Poor woman. Poor family. One moment of carelessness is all it takes. Having three or more dogs IS a lot different from one or two for some reason. Three IS a pack. Breed doesn't matter. You bet the cocker was part of the problem. But it is also possible that the lab mix would have been trouble with just the AS mix, if they took and instant dislike to each other.

I am glad they mentioned the breeds of the dogs and as rotten as it sounds, I am sure glad that pitt bulls, GSDs, Rottweilers, and Dobermans were not mentioned.

 

[Guest]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

Even an 11 year old dog?

Sorry, but no way IMO.

Also did you see the pics of the dogs while in custody on floridatoday.com? Neither is torn up in the slightest. Was there a fight?

 

[selzer]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

The picture I saw looked like the one was torn up quite a bit, the other looked like it may have been on the side of the neck.

Ok, is the coroner going to bother to measure the bite wounds and match them to each of the dogs? I think not. But if this person was not a strong leader, than yes, I think that the eleven year old might have joined into the biting once the woman was down. I am just not all that surprised. Especially, if these were her son's dogs and she did not have the older one for eleven years, as one report put it.

What a grusome way to come into your inheritance. Have mom take care of a couple of your dogs, one of them dog aggressive. Boy, I have to stop being so cynical. But what was he thinking??? Leave an old woman to care for a problem dog, where other dogs are present??? If we need someone to blame here, it is the son, who left his known aggressive dog with his elderly mother to take care of in the presence of other dogs.

If this was a pit bull, nobody would be questioning this at all. And yet, we say over and over again that pits are bred to be good with people and that it is not the dog it is the owner, and that it is not the breed. Pit bulls are not any more a pack animal than other dogs. And yet, many of the attacks involve more than one animal.

 

[ninhar]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

An 11 year old dog is not ancient and is quite capable of causing damage. I had to keep Sheba and Cody separated for years. Its a very difficult way to live, but it was the only way those two dogs could live in my house. Like Selzer, we had a routine that we kept to. The last time Cody went after Sheba she was close to 11. That only happened because BF refused to believe me that the dogs had to be kept separated at all times and thought he could control the situation.

BTW, my 11 year old dog plays ball every day and goes for 1/2 to 1 mile walk just about every night. She is quite healthy as those dogs look to be, so yeah, I can see an 11 year old dog in the fray.

 

[selzer]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

When I read the fox news artical, I thought it was a fight she got into the middle of. When I saw the florida story, and pictures it definitely confirmed it. Look at the older dog, it has bites around the eye and on the leg and on its throat. The poor lady was trying to pull the other dog off of this one and she was dragged into it.

I cannot say for sure both dogs bit her, but when you see a dog fighting, it is like nothing else. It is a frenzy. Arwen was fence fighting with Jazzy back and forth, hyped up, usually she would grab up a toy and squeak it furiously. One day she tripped over and grabbed up Dubya in her frenzy. He was seven weeks old. I was there and got him out of her mouth immediately, but there was a bloody cut on him. That is when the tarp went up and the fence fighting was put an end to.

Dog fights are viscious and bloody. The old lady was probably bitten several times by accident before they actually turned their aggression on her.

None of us were there. But that old dog was definitely in a dog fight. The marks are there. And definitely, an eleven year old dog would be in a fight if the other dog jumped him or if the other dog was trying to gain control.

 

[Guest]

Re: 74-Year-Old Woman Mauled to Death by Her Two d

I don't see it. My own dogs were torn up much worse when they had their serious battles last year.

As I said originally, I don't deny the possibility the dogs could've done this, but I find it at the very least unlikely to have played out as reported and at most not to have happened that way at all. Lots of things we don't know here so no real way to have a verdict.