Fatal dog attacks in the United States

Fatal dog attacks in the United States are a small percentage of the relatively common occurrences of dog bites. While at least 4.5 – 4.7 million Americans are bitten by dogs every year, only about 20 to 30 of these bites result in death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).^[1][2]

The first part of this article summarizes the scientific literature that covers the epidemiology of fatal dog attacks. This scientific literature draws data from news reports, CDC records, and in some cases from in-depth investigations involving law enforcement and animal control.

The second part of this article consists of an annotated list of individual U.S. dog-attack fatalities compiled primarily from new reports. The list is not meant to be exhaustive nor conclusive. For example, there were at least 26 fatal dog bites in 2000,^[1] of which this Wikipedia article lists only 5.

The list in this article relies on news reports as references, but at points it runs concurrent with studies reviewed in the first part and may include information from the studies at those points. Care has been and should continue to be taken that this information is verifiable in the sources and that any contradictions or other indications that the information might not be valid are addressed reasonably. Nevertheless, the reader should bear in mind that data from news investigations is generally less reliable than information from published scholarly studies, and that where specific breeds listed, they are rarely based on conclusive proof of ancestry.

CDC recommendations for dog attack prevention

• Realistically evaluate environment and lifestyle and consult with a professional (e.g., veterinarian, animal behaviorist, or responsible breeder) to determine suitable breeds of dogs for consideration.
• Dogs with histories of aggression are inappropriate in households with children.
• Be sensitive to cues that a child is fearful or apprehensive about a dog and, if so, delay acquiring a dog.
• Spend time with a dog before buying or adopting it. Use caution when bringing a dog or puppy into the home of an infant or toddler.
• Spay/neuter virtually all dogs (this frequently reduces aggressive tendencies).
• Never leave infants or young children alone with any dog.
• Properly socialize and train any dog entering your household. Teach the dog submissive behaviors (e.g., rolling over to expose the abdomen and giving up food without growling).
• Immediately seek professional advice (e.g., from veterinarians, animal behaviorists, or responsible breeders) if the dog develops aggressive or undesirable behaviors.
• Do not play aggressive games with your dog (e.g., wrestling).
• Teach children basic safety around dogs and review regularly:
  • Never approach an unfamiliar dog.
  • Never run from a dog and scream.
  • Remain motionless when approached by an unfamiliar dog (e.g., "be still like a tree").
  • If knocked over by a dog, roll into a ball and lie still (e.g., "be still like a log").
  • Never play with a dog unless supervised by an adult.
  • Immediately report stray dogs or dogs displaying unusual behavior to an adult.
  • Avoid direct eye contact with a dog.
  • Do not disturb a dog who is sleeping, eating, or caring for puppies.
  • Do not pet a dog without allowing it to see and sniff you first.
  • If bitten, immediately report the bite to an adult.^[3][4]

Existing studies

There are a limited number of studies concerning the number of human deaths caused by dogs in the United States, and the number of attributed fatalities is difficult to validate or cross-compare with other study results because:

• studies dependent on surveying news reports may not find all the relevant news items
• different studies use different data collection methodologies and evaluation criteria
• breed identification requires a subjective evaluation based on observation of outward physical attributes against imprecise breed standards.^[5]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 1974–1975

The first epidemiological study of dog-bite fatalities in the United States was conducted by an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1977.^[6] The study reported that all but one of the cases involved male dogs. The breeds reported in these incidents were St. Bernard, German Shepherd, Dachshund, Basenji, Collie, Husky, and Great Dane. Most incidents involved victims who were smaller or weaker than the dog. Thus, children under 5 years old accounted for the majority of victims. The study concluded that human behavior which the dogs perceived as threatening was the single most important factor contributing to these incidents.

University of Texas Study: 1966–1980

A study^[7] conducted at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School identified fatal dog bites during the period 1966–1980. They identified 74 incidents from newspapers and the medical literature. They found that the most (23) fatalities occurred in infants under 1 year old, and in most cases the dog was owned by the victim's family. In only 3 of the incidents was the dog reported to have been provoked by kicking, hitting, or having stones thrown at it. However, several incidents involved a child attempting to pet or hug the dog.^[7]

In 6 of the incidents, there was no information available about the breed of dogs involved.

Of the remaining 68 fatalities, many involved large and powerful molosser breeds: eight Saint Bernards, six Bull terriers, six Great Danes, as well as two attacks by Boxers and one by a Rottweiler.

In contrast to the time period covered by the CDC study, which found pit bulls and Rottweilers to be the most commonly involved breed in such attacks during that time period, this study found no fatal pit bull attacks at all in the US during its time period, and only one Rottweiler attack.

Ancient and spitz breeds also committed a significant minority of the attacks. These were mostly sled dog breeds (nine Husky breeds and five were Malamutes), but there was also one Chow Chow and one Basenji.

Herding dogs attacks included (16) was German Shepherd attacks and two collies, although the breed was not specified.

There were multiple retriever attacks, including three Goldens and one Labrador.

The authors found two fatal doberman pinscher attacks, and two attacks by very small breeds: one Dachshund, and one Yorkshire Terrier, which is among the smallest of all dogs.

In ten fatal attacks, the dogs were only described as "mixed breed".^[7]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 1979–1998

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a study in 2000 on dog bite-related fatalities (DBRF) that covered the years 1979–1998. The report concluded that relying on media coverage of dog-bite-related fatalities presents a biased view of the dogs involved. They stated that media reports are likely to only cover about 74% of the actual incidents and that dog attacks involving certain breeds may be more likely to receive media coverage. They also reported that since breed identification is difficult and subjective, attacks may be more likely to be "ascribed to breeds with a reputation for aggression".^[8]

The study found reports of 327 people killed by dogs over the 20-year period. Some breed information was available for 238 (73%) of the fatalities. Of 227 incidents with relevant data, 133 (58%) were unrestrained dogs and on the owners' property; 55 (24%) were loose off the owners' property; 38 (17%) were restrained dogs on their owners’ property; and only one (less than 1%) was restrained off the owners' property.^[8]

The study defined dog attacks as "a human death caused by trauma from a dog bite". Excluded from the study were deaths by disease caused by dog bites, strangulation on a scarf or leash pulled by a dog, heart attacks or traffic accident, and falling injury or fire ant bites from being pushed down by a dog. The study also excluded four deaths by trauma from dog bites by police dogs or guard dogs employed by the government.

The study found that Pit bulls and Rottweilers alone accounted for 67% of deaths, but there were also several Bullmastiffs, Boxers, Bull Terriers, Great Danes, St. Bernards, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, a bulldog, and a Newfoundland.

Working dogs, however, were also frequently implicated, mostly German Shepherds and Doberman Pinschers, but there were also several herders, including Australian shepherds and Collies, and one identified only as a “sheepdog”.

Spitz and Primitive dogs comprised a substantial minority, including multiple Chow Chows; native Japanese dogs (mostly Akita Inus); and sled dogs types: Huskies, Malamutes and others. One incident involved a Basenji.

Wolf–dog hybrids killed 14 people during the study period, and dogs identified only as “mixed breeds” or "unknown" killed 15.

Fatal attacks by retrievers rarely but somewhat regularly occurred, including several Labrador Retrievers and a Chesapeake Bay Retriever.

There were also a comparatively small number of fatal hound attacks (including a Coonhound and two Dachshunds) and terrier attacks (including two of the smallest ratters: a West Highland White Terrier and a Yorkshire Terrier, which is among the smallest of all dogs). The study also mentioned one fatal attack by a cocker spaniel.^[4]

Wilderness & Environmental Medicine: 1979–2005

This 27-year study collected data from the CDC Wide-Ranging OnLine Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) program.^[1] It looked at cases in which the cause of death according to International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes was dog bites. It did not include fatalities secondary to an infection from a bite. During those 27 years, the study found 504 deaths due to dog bites. They estimated that there were likely many additional deaths due to dog bites that were not reported by the CDC WONDER program.

They found that the most of the victims were male (58.1%). Alaska had by far the greatest incidence per capita at 11.83 deaths per 10 million population. The rest of the states ranged from 0 to 2.56 deaths per 10 million population. The majority of victims (55.6%) were less than 10 years old. Regarding race of the victim, they found that 14.3% of the victims were black, despite the fact that only 3% of dog owners are black. 2005 had the most attacks during the study, with 33 deaths. 2003 had the next most with 32, reflecting the fact that populations of both humans and dogs increased during the study period.

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association: 2000–2009

The most recent study of the epidemiology of fatal dog bites in the United States was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2013.^[9] While earlier studies were based on television and newspaper reports, this was the first study to be based on law-enforcement reports, animal control reports, and investigator statements. It identified preventable factors in the fatal incidents. They found that the most common contributing factors were: absence of an able-bodied person to intervene, no familiar relationship of victims with dogs, owner failure to neuter dogs, compromised ability of victims to interact appropriately with dogs (e.g. mental disabilities), dogs kept isolated from regular positive human interactions versus family dogs (e.g. dogs kept chained in backyards), owners’ prior mismanagement of dogs, and owners’ history of abuse or neglect of dogs. Furthermore, they found that in 80% of the incidents, 4 or more of the above factors co-occurred.

The authors found that in a significant number of DBRFs there was either a conflict between different media sources reporting breed and/or a conflict between media and animal control reports relative to the reporting of breed. For 401 dogs described in various media accounts of DBRFs, media sources reported conflicting breed attributions for 124 of the dogs (30.9%); and where there were media reports and an animal control report (346 dogs), there were conflicting breed attributions for 139 dogs (40.2%)

According to this study, reliable verification of the breed of dog was only possible in 18% of incidents.

Media reports of fatal dog attacks in the United States

This is an incomplete list that may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

This list of fatal dog attacks in the United States reported by the news media supplements those compiled from scholarly papers.

Criteria for inclusion

• This list is not meant to be exhaustive, as news reports about other attacks have not yet been found and included. Furthermore, there may have been fatal dog attacks during these years that were not reported in the news. For example, the 2012 Dixie Jennings attack was only reported by the media several days after the incident, when local residents heard rumors and asked the media to report on the incident.^[10] Similarly, the 2001 William Kirsch fatal attack is only known from a brief mention in an article about a different attack.^[11]
• This list is not meant to be conclusive. News reports or summaries may contain errors or omissions, not all information in the reports may be complete or correct, not all reports contain enough information to determine what actually happened, and errors may have been made in selecting or transferring information from the sources into the articles.
• Not all attacks listed here were determined by medical authorities to be the primary cause of death. For example, Diane Jansen suffered a hemorrhagic stroke when attacked by a dog. The Medical Examiner determined the stroke to be the primary cause of death, but listed heart disease and dog bite as contributing factors.^[12][13][14]
• The "Category of Dog" column reports the breed, group, type, or other dog descriptions found in the news media.
  • In some cases this is a specific dog breed. However, even when a single breed is listed, the dog may not have been a purebred individual of that breed. For example, an author of the CDC study summarized above found that any medium-sized black and tan animal was likely to be recorded as a German shepherd.^[15]
  • Some terms, such as "Husky", "Pit Bull", or "Retriever" refer to multiple breeds of a single bloodline.
  • Some terms, such as "sled dog" or "sheepdog" may refer to specific bloodlines or simply what the dog was bred or trained to do.
  • The construction "(breed)-mix", as in "retriever-mix", may refer to a mix of breeds of one type, or a mixed dog that shows characteristics of one breed more clearly.
  • The term "Pit Bull" may refer to a dog which is purebred American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, or another breed of the same general type.^[16] It may also refer to a dog which is a mix of Pit Bull breeds, a mix of Pit Bull and other dogs, or—erroneously—a mix of similar breeds (e.g. American bulldog, Boxer), especially if pit-bull morphology predominates.
  • The term "mixed breed" may refer to a dog which is literally a mix of breeds, or unbred mongrels whose ancestors have never been bred by humans.
  • The term "stray dog" may refer to one which has literally strayed from its owners, or to feral dogs which have never had an owner.

Fatalities reported in 1887

There was at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1887.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 30	Rabid Lap dog	Ada Clare, a famous actress and writer	39 years	Attacked by her friend's lap dog in her theatrical agent's office in New York City and died of rabies weeks later. Her face was badly mutilated but recovered and returned to the stage, but later developed rabies, suffered greatly, and succumbed on March 4.[17][18]

Fatalities reported in 1896

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
September	Saint Bernard	Two victims: Laura Barmann & unnamed infant	7 years; "baby"	Four other children were also bitten.[19]

Fatalities reported in 1901

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
March 17	Fox terrier	Carrie Cobus	38 years	The dog attacked its owner while she was having an epileptic seizure. A neighbor tried to beat the dog away with a poker. It then attacked him and Carrie Cobus's mother.[20]

Fatalities reported in 1904

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February 10	"Pet house dog"	William Huston	57 years	The dog had been poisoned by someone, so the man decided to shoot it to put it out of its misery. As he prepared to shoot, the dog bit him on the hand. He died several months later of rabies.[21]

Fatalities reported in 1912

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
March 29	Newfoundland dog	Anna de Calve	3 years	The girl was killed after attempting to play with the dog while it was eating a bone.[22]

Fatalities reported in 1936

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February 7	Mongrel	Maxwell Breeze	14 years	The dog dragged him under water and killed him by drowning.[23][24]

Fatalities reported in 1937

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
August	Chow chow	Charlotte Parker	65 years	The victim was described as a "cripple."[25]

Fatalities reported in 1939

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
May 14	Unknown	Raymond Gene Smith	4 years	The boy was torturing a small dog by wrapping a sack around its head while it struggled to escape. The larger dog reportedly attacked the boy while coming to the aid of the smaller dog.[26]

Fatalities reported in 1942

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February	Husky	Mrs Albert McBain	60 years	Unknown why the dog attacked.[27]

Fatalities reported in 1945

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1945.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February 7	Staffordshire bull terrier	Marguerite Derdenger	21 months	The family's dog was said to have attacked the child out of jealousy.[28]

Fatalities reported in 1947

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1947.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February 7	German Shepherd Dog	Walter Momer Jr.	4 years	The boy was killed while sledding.[29] An article reported that the Philadelphia boy was "torn and mangled." [30]

Fatalities reported in 1948

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1948.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February 8	German Shepherd Dog	Baby Girl, surname: May	~1 month	The girl was dragged from her bassinet and killed. The girl's father said that the dog had never been vicious, but was jealous of his child.[31]

Fatalities reported in 1950

News organizations reported at least 2 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1950.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
n/a	Bulldog	n/a, female	3 years	Killeen, Texas. In an article about another attack, briefly mentioned along with several other recent fatal dog attacks in Canada and the US.[32]
March	Siberian husky	Donald A. Boucher	5 years	The dog was chained at the time of the attack.[33]

Fatalities reported in 1955

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1955.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
August	Pack of dogs	Unknown boy	21 months	No details available about this attack in Anchorage, Alaska.[34]

Fatalities reported in 1958

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1958.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
November 24	German shepherd	Michael Kaminski	3 years	The dog was 6 months old and had been acquired by the boy's family two weeks prior to the attack. The family said the dog had not shown any previous aggression.[35]

Fatalities reported in 1959

News organizations reported at least 2 fatal dog attacks in the United States in 1959.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
April 5	Pack of stray dogs	Unknown woman	58 years	She was knocked down and mauled by a pack of dogs. No other details available.[36]
May	Pack of stray dogs (one was "kind of like an airedale" and another was "like a collie"[37]	Mark Draper	2.5 years	A neighbor found the pack attacking the child. Afterwards, a group of 100–150 people armed with guns and clubs searched the area and killed 15 dogs and wounded or captured 3 more.[38]

Fatalities reported in 1960

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
March	Doberman Pinscher	Frances Tetreault	50 years	The dog was a full-grown male and prize-winning show dog. The victim was the owner of dog kennels. There were no witness to the attack.[39]

Fatalities reported in 1963

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
October	German Shepherd	Shari Nicoletti	2 years	The girl was visiting a neighbor when their 2-year-old female dog jumped through a window and killed the girl.[40]

Fatalities reported in 1965

News organizations reported at least 2 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1965.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
March	Pit Bull/Airedale-mix	Vincent Scardina	22 months	Toddler walks 20' from his mother, visiting with a neighbor in the kitchen, and is killed in the backyard by his father's pit bull/Airedale-mix,[41] which was recently acquired to hunt hogs and which was kept tied to the house. The dog, called Molly, carried out the attack in silence. Scardina, who noted that he'd been taking the dog to work with him and that it had recently joined the family inside at night, said it was a screwball and that hunting dogs make good pets.[42]
November	Mongrel	Louis Rasmussen	60 years	The dog had attacked the woman twice prior to the fatal attack. One month before the fatal attack, an attack had required 2 weeks of hospitalization.[43]

Fatalities reported in 1966

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
June	unknown	Johnny Sunshine	3 years	Bitten by dog in neighbor's back yard.[44]
August	Great Danes (3)	Sharon K. Sparks	5 years	During the attack, a 6-year-old boy was also seriously injured. The dogs had escaped from their kennel earlier the day before.[45]

Fatalities reported in 1967

News organizations reported at least 2 fatal dog attacks in the United States in 1967.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
December	A pack of four dogs: German shepherds (2) and Mongrels (2)	Gene Anthony Goodman and Kenneth Goodman	5 years and 4 years	Dogs owned by a neighbor attacked the boys behind their home in Lynchburg, VA. Two dogs were German shepherds and two were mongrels. The father heard screaming and ran out to defend the boys with a rake and other objects, but couldn't stop the attack. Mother called the neighbors and police. Police shot two dogs on the families' property, one on the property of the dogs' owner, and one escaped until the next day, when it too was shot, along with another dog. The boys were dead on the scene. Before the attack, the dogs had interacted without aggression with many people, including having played with the two boys.[46] The neighbor who owned the dogs and allowed them off his property was charged with involuntary manslaughter.[47]
December	Great Dane	Darla Anne Harper	4 years	Mauled by her family's 175 lb dog in the front yard of her home in Lookout Mountain, GA. According to the sheriff, the dog "killed the girl accidentally, during a playful romp." She bled to death from wounds inflicted by the dog.[47]

Fatalities reported in 1969

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
March	German shepherd	Susan Babiarz	1 month	The 3-year-old dog jumped into the girl's crib and clawed her to death.[48]

Fatalities reported in 1971

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
September	German shepherd	Heidi Sufficool	21 months	The child's parents left her in a pen with the dog, which was owned by a friend. They returned 15 minutes later and found the baby bleeding from multiple bites, at which time the dog's owner shot the dog. The baby died two hours later at the hospital.[49]

Fatalities reported in 1972

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
March	Saint Bernard	Dawn Quintal	8 years	The girl was attacked by the 200-pound dog that neighbors said she had thrown rocks at and punched in the past.[50]
August	German shepherd	Abel Valdivia	2 years	Killed by the 4-year-old pedigreed dog that belonged to his family.[51]

Fatalities reported in 1974

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January	Saint Bernard	David Scott Little	3 years	Killed by the 1-year-old, 200-lb dog.[52]
April	Saint Bernard	Lawrence Calemmo	6 years	The boy was attacked in a neighbor's back yard by the stray Saint Bernard.[53]
May 14	Golden Retriever	Toni Lynn Edgeworth	5 years	The girl was bitten by her neighbor's dog, with which she had played before. The attack was reported to have been unprovoked.[54]
June	Saint Bernard	Walter Schell	70 years	The man was working in his backyard when the dog ran in and attacked.[55]
November	Labrador retriever and two Collies	Brent Cryder	5 years	Killed by the neighbor's dogs while playing in back yard.[56]

Fatalities reported in 1975

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1975.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January	Basenji[57] or Basenji mix	Tracy Wax	5 month	The baby was attacked while asleep on the living room floor.[58]
March	Mongrel	Fern Atchley	75 years	The husband said they were sitting in the living room when the 7-year-old dog, which they had had since it was a puppy, latched onto the woman's throat and she died within minutes.[59]
May	German Shepherd	Johnny Patterson, Jr	2 years.	The dog was usually kept on a chain, but the chain was broken and the dog was being kept with just a rope. The dog broke the rope, broke through a screen door and killed the boy before being shot dead with a .22 by the boy's father. The father said the dog had always been gentle when he was on the chain.[60]
June	Husky type	Heidi Foust	3 year	Attacked by a dog that was chained up outside a welding shop.[61]
August	German Shepherd-Labrador retriever mix (7 dogs)	Michael Yount	5 years	The boy was killed after entering a fenced-in yard where the 7 dogs, all 5 months old, were kept.[62]

Fatalities reported in 1976

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
June	German Shepherd	Vincent Buffoleno	14 days	The 90-lb dog tipped over the baby's bassinet while the mother was sleeping and then bit and tossed the baby around.[63]
August	St. Bernard (dog)	Christopher Steven Simpson	4 years	The dog bit and broke the boy's neck.[64]
September	German Shepherd	Carra Bashold	5 days	Killed after the mother left her alone for 1.5 hours with the starving, 4-month-old, 15-pound, female dog. Mother was charged with negligent homicide.[65]
December	Cur dog "bred for hunting"	Josh Gatlin	4 years	The boy was playing with the dog and had a stick in his hand, when the dog apparently "became angry." The 7-year-old dog was said to have "never even growled at anyone."[66]

Fatalities reported in 1977

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1977.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
April	Saint Bernard and Labrador Retriever-Shepherd mix and third dog (puppy)	Tamara Rhae Newton	6 years	Few details available.[67]
April	Saint Bernard	Matthew Weck	5 year	Killed when he tried to pet the tied-up dog.[68]
July	Great Dane	Jeremy Tomkinson	3 month	Skull crushed by his grandparents' dog.[69]
September	Elkhound-German Shepherd mix	Robert Boyd	7 months	The boy was killed after being left alone for a few minutes by his deaf babysitter. The 11-month-old dog entered the boy's playpen and the babysitter said the dog was "only playing with the child."[70]
December	German Shepherd and possibly Irish Setter	Jon Setzer, Jr.	3 years	The German Shepherd had attacked at least 3 other people prior to this incident. The Irish Setter was also suspected, but no human remains were found in its stomach.[71]

Fatalities reported in 1978

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1978.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
September	German Shepherd	Danielle Nicole Russell	3 week	Killed in her crib while he baby's 14-year-old mother talked to friends.[72]
December	German Shepherd	Jennifer Schafner	3 years	The girl was playing in the backyard with the dog, which was owned by a friend of her father.[73]

Fatalities reported in 1979

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
October 30	Dachshund	Christopher Johnson	2 weeks	The boy died after the 6-year-old dog chewed off his legs while the mother slept in a nearby room. The dog was described as well-behaved by neighbors and friends.[74]

Fatalities reported in 1980

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January	Alaskan malamute	William Travis Crews	2 years	Killed by his family's 120-pound, 14-month-old dog when he opened a door to let it inside.[75]
February	Siberian husky	James Gradecki	1 month	Killed by his grandmother's dog.[76]
February	Siberian husky	Shannon Marie Hicok	27 days	Killed by her parents' friends' dog after being left in a room with the dog.[77]
April	Great Dane	Nicole Klingenbeck	4 weeks	The dog had been given to the family a week before the girl was born. It was always kept outside, but managed to open the door and enter the house before turning over the bassinet and biting the baby on the head.[78]
December	Three Great Danes and a Great Dane-St. Bernard (dog) mix	Kevin Zook	14 years	The dogs chased the boy through a field and bit him until he died.[79]

Fatalities reported in 1981

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
October	Doberman pinscher	Ronald Messer	4 years	Killed after he climbed over a fence into a yard where the dogs were kept in a kennel.[80]
?	Mongrel	Mary Logan	81 years	She was killed by several of the dogs she kept in her house in Northern Liberties, a neighborhood in Philadelphia.[81]
?	Pit bull	?	6 years	In Kaimuki, Hawaii [82]
December	Chow chow	Daniel Thornton	infant	The 45-lb dog bit the sleeping infant.[83]

Fatalities reported in 1982

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
April	St. Bernard (dog) mix	Kerry Wezensky	5 years	Few details available.[84]
June	mixed breed guard dog, "mostly German shepherd"	Roy Emmanuel Hamilton Jr	7 week	The dog broke through a window, still attached to his 20-foot chain, and attacked the baby.[85]
September	Coon hound	Paul Zechman	5 years	Killed by the dog while playing unsupervised in his uncle's back yard.[86]

Fatalities reported in 1983

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February	Malamute	Toby Daniel Brown	3 years	Family had owned the dog 2 weeks. Mother described the incident as "a freak thing that happened."[87]
April	Unknown	Unknown girl	~1 week	Killed by family's dog.[88]
October 22	American Pit Bull Terrier guard dog and American Pit Bull Terrier puppy[89]	Grace Parsons	67 years	The woman had long been afraid of her neighbor's dogs in the trailer park where they lived. The dogs were usually kept chained to a post, but the day they attacked they were loose and killed the woman when she bent to pick up a newspaper. The adult dog had been trained as an attack and guard dog.[90]
October	Akita	Stephen Stanley	3 years	Killed after he wandered into his grandparents' basement where the 100-lb dog was kept.[91]

Fatalities reported in 1984

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1984.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
March	Siberian husky	Rachel Hernandez	4 years	She was attacked in her front yard by a neighborhood dog that had broken free from its rope.[92]
July	German Shepherd Dog	Daniel Briggs	Unknown	The victim was a burglary suspect and was killed by a single bite to the throat by a police dog.[93]
December 19	English Sheepdog	Gertrude Monroe	87 years	The woman was killed after she fell on the 8-year-old, intact, male dog. The dog, named King Boots, was a prize-winning show dog and rated top dog of his breed by the American Kennel Club.[94]

Fatalities reported in 1985

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1985.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
December 19	English sheepdog	Gertrude Monroe	87 years	Family members said the woman died of stroke immediately before she was mauled. The Medical Examiner concluded that she died of the dog attack.[95]

Fatalities reported in 1986

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January	Feral dogs (8) (with an appearance "similar to pit bull dogs")	Stephen Fiengo	6 years	While playing alone in a field near his home, he was attacked by 8 wild dogs.[96] He died later from infection of his wounds. Although the dogs were reported to be wild, the sheriff's sergeant said they had an appearance "similar to pit bull dogs" and was suspicious that they were involved in dog fighting.[97]
September	Coonhound	Thomas Ebersole	7 years	The boy was trying to free the dog that was tangled in a chain.[98]
December	Husky	Rachel Ann Blevins	3 years	Bitten and scratched to death by the large, female dog her family had acquired 3 weeks earlier.[99]

Fatalities reported in 1988

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 21	Labrador Retriever	Megan Stack	2 years	Early in the morning, her father heard her scream and ran downstairs to find the dog biting her head. The dog, "Toby", was 80 pounds, eight years old, and had been their family dog for nine months. She died of several bites to the head and neck. Experts expressed surprise, noting that the breed had been well known for its gentleness and for being good with children.[100]
May	Rottweiler	Melissa Boyse	16 months	The dog was usually kept in a cage in the house but was let out by the girl's brother.[101]
September 3	Rottweiler	Cara Rognaldsen	35 days	The baby was found chewed to death after being dragged from her crib by her mother's 100-pound dog. The mother faced criminal charges for the attack in addition to other drug-possession convictions.[102] The dog had a history of also biting the mother, other humans, and attacking other dogs.[103]
September	Husky-Wolf mix	Nathan Carpenter	4 years	Neighbors' dog, two hours after being adopted from an animal shelter.[104]

Fatalities reported in 1989

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1989.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
March	Pack of dogs, possibly including a Husky and German Shepherd	Angie Nickerson	5 years	The girl was killed by the roaming pack of neighborhood dogs after she got off the school bus.[105]
July	Chesapeake Bay retriever	Nelson Bunting	73	Autopsy determined he died from bites inflicted by the 4–6 year old dog. The dog, which had belonged to his son, attacked Mr Bunting's wife earlier that day. It killed Mr Bunting while the wife was at the hospital being treated for her bites.[106]
October 20	Rottweilers (2)	Hoke Lane Prevette	unknown	Attacked while jogging near his home.[107]
December	German shepherd and possibly a German Shepherd-Chow chow mix	Alexander Jones	3 years	The dogs were usually kept fenced in behind a storage building but were running free at the time of the attack.[107]

Fatalities reported in 1990

News organizations reported at least 1 fatal dog attack in the United States in 1990.

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January	Siberian husky	Ana Lynn Pagliaro	5 day	The dog pulled the baby from her crib and killed her.[108]
March	German Shepherd	Laurene MacLeod	35 years	The homeless woman was killed by a police dog that entered a vacant house where she was staying.[109]
August	Akita	Richard Stitch II	17 month	Killed by the 11-year-old dog.[110]
February 27	Manchester Terrier	Sarah Swineford	4 years	The girl was bitten on the face while playing with her father's tenant's dog. She was brought to the hospital for surgery and her heart stopped during the operation.[111][112]
November	German Shepherd	Kayla Reaves	2 weeks	The girl's father was a police officer and the dog was a police dog he worked with. The 5-year-old dog took the baby from her bassinet in the family's home.[113]

Fatalities reported in 1991

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
April	Akita	Ishmael Gonzales	8 years	The dog was a guard dog kept in the vacant lot behind an alcohol treatment facility. The boy had been teasing the dog by shooting rubber bands at it. When he entered the yard to retrieve the rubber bands he was attacked and killed.[114]
November	Labrador Retriever and 2 mixed breed Rottweilers	Raymond Joseph Gosh	86 years	Killed by his neighbors three dogs.[115]

Fatalities reported in 1992

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February	Rottweiler	Jonathan Christopher Williams	7 years	The boy had found the dog and was leading it through his neighborhood on a leash looking for its owner. He had also taken along his own dog, a Rottweiler-Chow mix. When he was attacked by the lost dog, his own dog reportedly tried to defend him.[116]

Fatalities reported in 1993

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
May 14	Rottweiler	William Sheppard	2 years	The dog attacked the boy after breaking out of a fenced-in enclosure where it was usually kept.[117]
December	Alaskan Malamute	Unknown boy	6 years	The boy was bitten on the neck by the chained, 8-month-old dog.[118]
December	Wolf-dog hybrid	Kevin Michael Lahey	2 years	The boy wandered into a yard where the 120-lb dog was staying with her litter of nine puppies.[119]

Fatalities reported in 1994

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January	Rottweiler	Amarillys Torres	2 months	The dog was usually kept chained to water heater outside the house. She somehow got loose, got into the house, and killed the sleeping baby. The dog was later euthanized along with its four 10-week-old puppies.[120]

Fatalities reported in 1995

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January	Wolf-German shepherd hybrid	Unknown	2 years	The boy in South Dakota wandered into a neighbor's yard, where he was attacked and killed by two chained dogs.[121]
April	Rottweiler	Lindsay Shanaman	2 years	Killed by her grandmother's 120-lb dog.[122]
May 19, 1995	Rottweiler-mix and at least 11 other dogs	Robert A. Thorpe	11 years	The boy was killed when visiting the trailer where the dogs lived to check on one that he had hit earlier in the day with his go-cart. The boy's father and cousins were accused of burning the trailer where the dogs lived in retaliation.[123]
May	Rottweiler	Kirby Lawrence	2 years	Killed by a chained dog.[124]
September	Chow Chow	Sara Beth Wilkenson[125]	2 week	A girl in Pennsylvania was killed in her crib by the family Chow Chow while her parents slept in the next room.[121]
October	Rottweiler	Melton Earl Smith	60 years	Three dogs were implicated in the attack. Little information available.[126]
November 17	Rottweilers	Alec Balbachan[127]	4 years	The Rottweilers, one male and one female, had rarely left the fenced-in backyard since they were puppies. Alec's uncle came home and let the dogs into the yard, where Alec's 8-year-old cousin and others had regularly played with the dogs in confidence. Alec, visiting from another town, followed his cousin into the yard, and the attack occurred. His grandmother stopped the attack, but not before it caused severe wounds to head and neck. Alec was found unresponsive by EMTs and taken to intensive care. The dogs were seized and taken into quarantine. The decision to take Alec off life support was made just after noon on Sunday. The dogs were euthanized on Monday. No charges had been filed as of Tuesday.

Fatalities reported in 1996

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February	Rottweiler and German Shepherd	Anthony Hunt	4 years	Few details available.[128]
March	Rottweiler	Unknown	86 years	A woman in Tennessee went outside of her home to check the weather and was fatally mauled by two rottweilers owned by a neighbor; the dogs had attacked and injured the woman 1 month before the fatal attack.[121]
June	Rottweiler	John Young	8 years	John Young and a group of other boys were teasing the two dogs with a ball when they attacked.[129]
July 4	Rottweiler	Matthew Pedercini	1 year	The boy was snatched away from his mother by a 130-lb dog, which was tied up outside at the time.[130]
July	Rottweiler	Kasandra Duvall	21 month	The dog broke free from its chain before killing the girl.[131]
October	Rottweiler and Rottweiler mix	Corey Hines	10 year	Six dogs escaped from a fenced yard and attacked the boy.[132]

Fatalities reported in 1997

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
April	Rottweiler (3)	Christopher Wilson	11 year	Attacked while trying to get on the school bus in a rural part of Kansas.[133]
December	Labrador Retriever and Rottweilers (3)	April Edwards	5 years	The girl, who had a cognitive disability, wandered off and was later found dead in the backyard.[134]

Fatalities reported in 1998

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
September	St. Bernard (dog) and Mastiff	Jordan Schwarze	8 years	Killed after he climbed the fence into the enclosure where the dogs were kept.[135]

Fatalities reported in 1999

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February 3	Mixed breed dogs or Labrador retriever-German shepherd mixes (2)	Ellyssa Rhae Peterson	5 years	The Crivitz, WI family had adopted the two dogs after they had been found as strays. The girl was alone with the dogs in the back yard when she was bitten and left with multiple puncture wounds. She died at the hospital that day. The sheriff said that the 50 to 60-lb dogs were not Pit bulls or Rottweilers, but unknown mixed-breeds that looked as if they had Labrador retriever and German shepherd ancestry. Before the attack, the girl and dogs had played together with "no problems". After the attack, the dogs were destroyed and tested negative for rabies.[136]
March	Airedale Terrier	Tyler Dean Teter-Chilton	2 weeks	The child was asleep in bed before his grandparents heard a noise and then found the dog shaking him in its mouth. The family had owned the dog for 9 years.[137]
March	Unclear (see text)	Darrel Roberson	42 years	A newspaper carrier found the man with the two dogs chewing on him. The dogs were never identified or found, but police said they were "relatively sure" they were Rottweilers or Doberman Pinschers.[138]
October	German shepherd mix	Demetrius Marcellus Tucker Jr.	5 day	The boy was bitten by his foster family's dog, 3 days after being placed in their care.[139]

Fatalities reported in 2000

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February	Rottweiler	Justin Tabner	5 years	The boy was attacked after becoming entangled in the chain that restrained his family's dog.[140]
June	Pack of up to 20 dogs	Dorothy Stewart	71 years	Dorothy Stewart was a census worker who had gone to the rural home to survey the occupants. The owners of the dogs had been cited for failing to restrain them on multiple previous occasions.[141]
June	German shepherd-Husky mix and Pit bull-Labrador retriever mix	Jasmine Dillashaw	18 day	Bitten when left alone in baby swing.[142]
October	Pomeranian	Girl – name withheld	6 weeks	An uncle was babysitting the child and left her alone to prepare a bottle for her. When he returned, he found the dog attacking her.[143]
Unknown	Pit bull	Ramani Virgil	2 years	Playing in the backyard of his Baton Rouge home when he got too close to tethered pet, “Baby”, who bit him repeatedly, severing an artery. Died within hours in the hospital. Family had the dog destroyed.[144]

Fatalities reported in 2001

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 26	Perro de Presa Canario	Diane Whipple	33 years	Killed by her neighbor's two dogs in the hall of her San Francisco apartment building.[145] The incident sparked an extensively publicized aftermath and the owners went to prison. The dogs, "Hera" and "Bane", had reportedly been mistreated and trained for violence by previous owners.
March	Rottweiler	Joshua Brown[146]	3 years	Few details available.
March	Unknown	Newborn girl Small	Newborn	The girl's 16-year-old mother, Lisa Small, gave birth to the baby and then threw her into the backyard for her to be eaten by the dog living there.[147]
March 5	Pack of stray dogs	Rodney McAllister	10 years	Killed by stray dogs in park where he had gone alone to play. His mother went to jail and lost custody of her other son for not supervising the child. Sparked review of Animal Control procedures because neighbors complaints about the free-ranging dogs in the park had not been successfully responded to. Sparked a police round-up of ten stray dogs in and around the park: two chows, a rottweiler, a German shepherd and six mixed-breed dogs.[148]
April	Rottweiler	Jovanna King	1 Month	Girl killed after dog escaped from its pen.[149]
June	Rottweiler	Kyle Anthony Ross	5 years	Boy killed at home of his foster mother. The dog was usually kept in a chain-link cage behind the home.[150]
June 11	Pit bull	Tyran Moniz-Hilderbrand	18 Months	Dogs belonged to a houseguest; mother badly mauled in trying to save her son.[151]
August	Mixed breed dogs (possibly including Rottweiler, Pit bull, Beagle, and Labrador retriever)	Donald Bryson Shumpert	2 years	The nine dogs thought to be involved belonged to the neighbor. The boy was found about 50 yards from his home.[152]
August	Rottweiler	Sierra Clayton	3 years	Killed by dog after it broke free from its tether.[153]
October 29	Rottweiler	Kristin Ann Jolley	1 year	The girl was killed after walking up to the chained dog. The dog's owners were charged with starving and mistreating it.[154]
November	German Shepherd and/or German Shepherd mix	Alexander Jarred Bennett	3 day	Attacked when left alone in a bassinet.[155]
November	Husky (2)	Josie Simone Hearon	3 weeks	Attacked when left alone in a bassinet.[156]
December	Rottweiler	Tristen Gambrel	3 years	Killed by 3 dogs.[157]
Unknown	Chow	William Kirsh	59 years	Gravedigger killed by a black chow named "Midnight".[11]

Fatalities reported in 2002

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
February 7	Rottweiler and 2 Rottweiler-Pug mixes	Genoe Novak	6 years	Dogs killed the boy after escaping from their yard.[158]
February 14	Rottweiler	Alicia Clark	10 years	Killed by her neighbor's six dogs. The dogs' owner received 2 years in prison for leaving her alone with the dogs which had previously exhibited dangerous behavior.[159][160]
April	Rottweiler	Victoria Morales	5 years	The dog was a prize-winning show dog. It was a 120-lb male. The dog attacked after the girl saw a lizard and screamed.[161]
June 1	German Shepherd	Colter Kumpost	4 years	Killed by dog being trained for police work.[162]
October	Rottweiler	Girl- no name released	23 months	While her parents were sleeping, the girl went into the backyard where two dogs were kept chained.[163]
December	Husky mix	Unknown	2 weeks	Details not available.[164]

Fatalities reported in 2003

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
March	Rottweiler	Lily Krajewski	2 years	Killed after dogs escaped from their kennel.[165][166]
March	Rottweiler	Wesley Swindler	3 years	Killed after crawling into the dog's pen.[165]
March 7	Rottweiler	Jennifer Nicole Davis	5 years	Killed by two dogs.[167]
March 24	Pit bull	Tre'sean Forsman	3 years	Killed by a friend's dog.[168]
March 26	Rottweiler	Vivian Anthony		Attacked by 2 two dogs and died 53 days later.[169]
April	Malamute-Wolf hybrid	Andre Angel Thomas	13 month	Killed while sleeping in the living room of an acquaintance of his mother.[170]
May 16	American Staffordshire Terrier[171] (Pit bull)	Bonnie Page	75 years	Killed by her landlord's dog; her landlord was also injured in the attack.[172]
May 23	Stray dogs	Cedric Edmonds	37 years	Killed by stray dogs.[173]
June 20	Pit bull	Somer Clugston	2 years	Killed by her babysitter's dog when she left her alone in the house. The babysitter was sentenced to one year in jail for involuntary manslaughter. The dog had previously bitten two other children.[174]
August	Rottweiler	Samantha Grace Bauld[175]	3 years
September 7	Doberman Pinscher	Valerie DeSwart	67 years	Killed by a rescue dog she had adopted. The rescue organization was under investigation for mistreating the dogs under its care.[176]
October 2	Great Dane	Makayla Paige Sinclair	2 years	Killed by 2 chained dogs when she wandered into their owner's yard.[177]
November 20	Pit bull (3)	Jennifer Brooke	40 years	Killed by her neighbor's three dogs, one of which had attacked another neighbor seven months earlier. The owner was sentenced to six months in jail for owning a dangerous dog that caused death.[178]
December 12	Pit bull-mix or Labrador-pit bull mix (6)	Alice Broom	81 years	Killed by her neighbor's six dogs. The owner was convicted of manslaughter[179] and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison.[180] Some news articles reported the dogs were "Labrador-pit bull dogs",[181] but other articles and court documents referred to them as just "pit bull mix."

Fatalities reported in 2004

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 13	Mixed-breed dog (Pit bull-type)	Nathan Roy Hill	3 years	Killed by a dog chained in the neighbor's yard.[182]
February 21	Beagle-mix	Truston Heart Liddle	17 months	Wandered with his brother from his parents, a farmer and his wife who were working their land, onto an adjacent farm. Got too close to a chained dog, who, although well-fed and watered, appeared to spend most of his time tethered in place.[183]
March 11	Mixed-breed dog	Madison Carson	2 years	Killed by relative's loose dogs.[184]
April	Rottweiler	Samuel Trucks	2 years	Killed by two dogs.[185]
April 3	Pit bull	"John Doe"	16 months	Killed by his grandmother's dog. The dog bit off one of its owner's fingers when she tried to intervene.[186]
April 16	Pit bull (4)	Roddie Dumas, Jr.	8 years	Killed by his father's four dogs.[187] The father was charged with involuntary manslaughter and a federal charge of assaulting a postal worker who tried to rescue the victim.[188] He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after being convicted on the assault charge and related drug and weapons charges.[189]
April 16	Pit bull-mix	Myles Leakes	4 years	Killed by his uncle's chained dog.[190]
April 24	Bullmastiff–German Shepherd mix	John Streeter	8 years	Killed by neighbor's two dogs while playing in his neighbor's backyard.[191]
May	Rottweiler	Leta Ward	65 years	Killed by own dog. Owner was said to have known the dog was aggressive.[192]
July	English mastiff	Ryker Schweitzer	7 years	The boy was found dead in a bean field with dog bites on his upper body.[193]
August 6	Pit bull (6)	Mary DeLacy	87 years	Killed by her son's six dogs.[194]
September 1	Pit bull-Labrador Retriever mix	Isaiah Calandis Smith	18 months	Killed by a chained dog in his yard.[195]
October 5	Mixed-breed dog	Jose Diaz	5 weeks	Killed by his mother's dog.[196]
October 8	Pit bull-mix	Anton Brown	8 years	Killed by two dogs the family was keeping for a family friend.[197]
December 13	Pit bull-mix	Kamryn Billingsly	One month	While she was sleeping next to her mother at a friend's house, the dog grabbed the child, dragged it down the hall, and killed it. The dog was usually kept outside but brought inside that night because it was cold out.[198]
December 13	Mongrel (Pit bull-type)	Annilee McKinnon	5 years	Killed by a neighbor's 3 dogs while playing in the front yard at the home of her birth parents. This was not the girl's regular residence because she had been living with a foster family for four years. The neighbor who owned the dogs had been cited two weeks prior because the dogs had gone into another yard and attacked a neighbor's dog.[199]

Fatalities reported in 2005

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 2	Mixed breed dog and Pit bull mix[200]	Tyler Babcock	6 years	Severely mauled by his next-door neighbor's two dogs.[201] The dogs were frequently loose in the neighborhood. One female dog was described as "part pit bull." The other male dog "had a large head and other characteristics of a pit bull," but investigators weren't sure if he had pit bull breeds in him.[200]
January 28	Pit bull, Mixed-breed dog	Lydia Chaplin	14 years	Died of hypothermia after being attacked by 4 dogs (3 pit bulls, 1 mixed-breed dog) while walking alone at night in a rural area, one-half mile from home[202]
February 4	Pit bull	Barbara Pilkington	70 years	The dog's owner was abusing the dog at the time of the attack and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.[203] The dog's owner had been arrested several months earlier for beating another dog to death.[204]
March 8	Pit bull	Dorothy Sullivan	82 years	Killed by three dogs while walking her Shih Tzu on her own property[205]
March 15	Rottweiler, Rottweiler-mix	Sandra Sanchez	32 years	While caring for on behalf of the owner, killed by two dogs[206]
April 5	Pit bull	Cassidy Jeter	6 years	Killed by her family's two dogs as she walked to a swing set with her 4-year old brother[207]
April 10	Rottweiler–German Shepherd-mix	Robert Schafer	4 years	He opened the dog's pen and was killed by his family's dog[208]
April 13	American Bulldog and/or "American Terrier" and/or Pit bull and/or Cane Corso [209][210]	Ernie Assad	82 years	Attacked by two dogs owned by Cleveland Browns tight end Darnell Sanders and a third dog while watering his own back yard. One dog was referred to as a Cane Corso and the other two were variously described as American Bulldog, "American Terrier," or Pit bull dogs. The man died of directly related complications (cerebral blood clot) 11 days later.[211] Investigators later determined that the Cane Corso played only a minor role in the attack.[212] An attorney for dog owner Darnell Sanders argued that the dogs only knocked over the man. However, the local animal control officer stated that she saw 7 bite marks on Assad when she interviewed him the night of the attack.[213]
April 14	Mixed-breed dog	Laverne Ford	74 years	Killed by her own two dogs in her own home[214]
May 2	Rottweiler	Asia Turner	4 years	Killed by her family's two dogs in her own back yard[215]
May 6	Husky, Alaskan Malamute	Samantha Black	2 years	Killed by her family's two dogs in her back yard[216]
May 7	Alaskan Malamute	Kate-Lynn Logel	7 years	Killed by her family's new dog in her back yard[217]
May 10	"part Pit bull"[218]	Lorinze Reddings	42 years	Killed by his own two dogs in his own home[219]
May 15	Labrador Retriever-mix, Dachshund	Julia Beck	87 years	Killed by her in-law's two dogs[220]
May 17	Pit bull	Arianna Fleeman	2 years	Killed while visiting a friend's home with her mother[221]
June 3	Pit bull	Nicholas Faibish	12 years	There were two dogs in the home. The boy's mother felt that the male dog was acting possessive toward the female dog because she was in heat. So when the mother left to run errands, she locked the boy in the basement to keep him separated from the dogs. While she was gone, the boy left the basement and was killed by the dogs. The boy's mother was charged with felony child endangerment.[222][223]
July 1	American Bulldog, Neapolitan Mastiff, Border Collie	Boyd Fiscus	83 years	Killed in his own back yard by his neighbor's four dogs (two American Bulldogs, a Neapolitan Mastiff, and a Border Collie)[224][225]
July 4	Pit bull	Dazavious Williams	5 weeks	Killed when a neighborhood dog grabbed him from his aunt's arms[226]
July 13	Siberian Husky	Alexis McDermott	6 days	Killed in her crib by her family's dog[227]
August 2	Rottweiler	Cassandra Garcia	16 months	Killed when her grandparent's dog grabbed her from her mother's arms[228]
October 14	Pit bull, Schnauzer	Mike Gomez	86 years	Killed by two dogs while out walking or jogging[229]
October 15	Rottweiler	Sydney Akin	6 years	Killed visiting the home of a family friend[230]
November 6	Pit bull	Kylee Johnson	14 months	Killed by her family's dog[231]
November 18	Pit bull Mixes	Hulon Barbour	60 years	Killed by two dogs while walking home[232]
November 24	Unknown dogs	Roberto Aguilera	64 years	Killed during the night by unknown dogs in relative's yard[233]
November 26	Pit bull–Rottweiler mix	Lillian Styles	76 years	Killed by her neighbor's six dogs in her own front yard[234]
December 6	Bullmastiff	Mary Stiles	91 years	Killed by her own dog in her own home[235]
December 30	Pit bull	Cody Adair	4 years	Killed by his uncle's chained dog[236]

Fatalities reported in 2006

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January	Golden Retriever	Kaitlyn Hassard	6 years	The 60-lb dog dragged the girl by her scarf, strangling her to death.[237]
January 9	Rottweiler	Ashton Lee Scott	11 months	Killed by his grandmother's dog[238]
February 4	Bullmastiff	Conner Lourens	7 years	Killed by his neighbor's dog[239]
February 24	Rottweiler	Dominic Giordano	4 years	Killed in own back yard by his relative's dog[240][241]
March 14	Pit bull	Charles Gilbert Dalton	52 years	Killed by his relative's two dogs. The owner pleaded guilty to manslaughter[242]
March 20	Rottweiler	Quillan Cottrell	3 years	Killed by his family's dog[243]
April 10	Pit bull mix	"John Doe"	Unknown	Climbed fence into business with three guard dogs. When the police arrived, they were able to order the dogs away from the victim.[244]
May 2	Pit bull and up to 3 others	Juan Garcia	53	Killed by at least one dog at a property where he occasionally worked as a handyman.[245]
May 6	Great Pyrenees, Great Pyrenees mix, and mixed breed dog[246]	Dianna Acklen	60 years	Killed while out for a walk. Of four dogs initially suspected, one was cleared by bite mark examination[247] and DNA results on two others were inconclusive.[248]
May 11	Pit bull	Raymond Tomco	78 years	Killed in his own home by his daughter's three dogs[249]
June 7	Pit bull dogs	Shaun McCafferty	27 years	Killed outside a meth lab by one or more of the lab owner's dogs[250][251]
June 17	Pit bull	Javelin Anderson	15 months	Killed by her family's chained dog[252]
June 22	Rottweiler	Gemma Carlos	2 years	Killed by a neighbor's chained dog in the neighbor's yard[253]
July 17	Wolfdog	Sandra Piovesan	50 years	Killed by one or more of her son's 9 wolf-dog hybrids[254]
July 18	Pit bull	Brandon Coleman	25 years	Killed in his own home by his own dog[255]
July 25	Pit bull, Rottweiler	Mariah Puga	3 years	Killed by two of her family's dogs[256]
July 27	Pit bull	Jimmie McConnell	71 years	Killed while gardening in her own yard by her neighbor's dog[257]
July 31	Pit bull	John Brannaman	81 years	Killed by his neighbor's two dogs while taking out the trash[258]
August 18	Perro de Presa Canario	Shawna Willey	30 years	Killed by her own dog while giving it a bath[259]
August 29	Pit bull	Frank Baber	49 years	Killed by two dogs in the salvage yard where he was living[260]
August 29	Boxer	Pablo Flietes	52 years	Killed when he entered the pen of his employer's dog[261]
October 3	Pit bull mix	Jonathan Martin	2 years	Killed by at least one of his family's dogs inside his home. His parents were each sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter and felony child endangerment.[262]
October 3	Rottweiler	Julius Graham	2 years	Killed when a neighbor's dog escaped its pen[263]
October 8	Pit bull	Jeannine Fusco	44 years	Killed by her friend's dog while taking care of it[264]
October 29	Pit bull	David McCurry	41 years	Killed while inquiring about buying the dog that killed him[265]
November 3	Rottweiler	Ariel Pogue	2 years	Killed by one of her family's dogs[266]
November 3	Mixed breeds	Matthew Davis	10 years	Killed by six dogs while walking home. In 2009, it was revealed that dogs attacked and killed the child for food.[267]
November 4	Pit bull	Allen Young	22 months	Killed by his father's four dogs after he was moving to a new trailer and took the dogs off their chains and left them in the new trailer unsupervised with his young son[268]
November 6	Rottweiler	Louis Romero, Jr.	2 years	Killed by dogs kept to guard home where parents were drug trafficking. Parents fled to Mexico after boy's funeral[269]
November 9	Pit bull	Richard Adams	47 years	Killed by a dog guarding salvage yard[270]
November 13	Rottweiler	James Eisaman	40 years	Killed by his girlfriend's two dogs[271]
November 21	Mixed-breed dog and Pit bull-mix	Pedro Rios	4 years	Killed by two stray dogs outside his home[272]

Fatalities reported in 2007

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 12	Pit bull	Amber Jones	10 years	Killed when she tried to free a neighbor's dog after its collar was caught on their chain link as the dog tried to jump over the fence[273]
January 15	German Shepherd	Linda Mittino	69 years	Killed by her own dog[274]
January 24	Rottweiler	Matthew Johnson	6 years	Killed by two dogs the family had just adopted[275]
January 28	Rottweiler	Taylor Kitlica	18 months	Killed by a stray dog her family had chained in their front yard in the hope that the owner would find it[276]
February 16	Pit bull-mix English Mastiff-mix	Robynn Bradley	2 years	Killed while visiting her relatives when the relatives' two dogs escaped from their pen[277]
March 16	Golden Retriever[278] Catahoula Bulldog and possibly Australian Shepherd	Pamela Rushing	50 years	Killed by her own dog;[279]
March 22	Pit bull	Carolina Sotello	2 years	Killed by one of her family's dogs[280]
April 23	Pit bull	Brian Palmer	2 years	Killed by his family's dog, the dog killed a cat a week before Palmer's death.[281]
May 13	Pit bull	Celestino Rangel	90 years	Killed by his great niece's dogs[282]
May 25	German Shepherd Dog, Doberman Pinscher	Magdalena Silva	95 years	Killed by her dogs as she went to feed them[283]
~May 26	Unknown dogs	Carshena Benjamin	71 years	Killed by unknown dogs.[284]
May 26	Pit bull and Pit Bull mix	Dandre Fisher	3 years	Killed when he tried to climb over a fence into the dogs' yard[285]
June 17	Chow-Chow mix	Phyllis Carroll	63 years	Killed by her own dog[286]
June 29	Mixed-breed dogs	Mary Bernal	63 years	Killed by her sister's dog while visiting her sister[287]
July 12	Rottweiler	Tiffany Pauley	5 years	Killed when she wandered into a neighbor's yard[288]
July 23	Siberian Husky	Trey Paeth	11 months	Killed while visiting family friends when the friends' two dogs got into his playpen[289]
July 29	Pit bull	Sabin Jones-Abbott	6 years	Killed by his family's dog while trying to feed it[290]
August 16	Pit bull	Zachary King, Jr.	7 years	Killed by his family's dog[291]
August 18	Chow Chow-Mix	Elijah Rackley	15 months	Killed when playing with the puppies of a stray dog his family had chained in the yard[292]
August 31	Pit bull	Scott Warren	6 years	Killed without warning by his family's dog[293]
September 12	Rottweiler	Kylie Cox	4 months	Killed by visitor's dog when her mother set her down to warm a bottle of milk[294]
September 13	American Bulldog	Cheryl Harper	56 years	Killed by the same pack of roaming dogs that killed Edward Gierlach[295][296]
September 13	American Bulldog	Edward Gierlach	91 years	Killed by the same pack of roaming dogs that killed Cheryl Harper[295][296]
September 25	German Shepherd Dog-mix	Karson Gilroy	2 years	Killed when he wandered onto a neighbor's property[297]
October 2	Pit bull	Tina Canterbury	42 years	Killed by her own dogs[298]
October 5	Wolfdog	"Jane Doe"	73 years	Killed by her son's eight wolf-dog hybrids[299]
October 15	Pack of 5–7 mixed breed dogs, some of which may have been Pit bull-mixes[300]	Rosalie Bivens	65 years	Neighbors said the dogs had been roaming the area for several years. No one claimed ownership, but the woman's son-in-law said he fed them on occasion.[301]
November 5	American Bulldog-Mastiff mix	Tori Whitehurst	4 years	Killed by her family's dog[302]
November 7	Pit bull	Seth Lovitt	11 years	Killed by his family's dog[303]
November 12	Pit bull	Jennifer Lowe	21 years	Killed at her friend's home by her friend's dogs, both having earlier been determined to be legally "dangerous"[304]
December 4	Pit bull	Cora Lee Suehead	61 years	Killed by her own four dogs[305]
December 13	Pit bull	Holden Jernigan	2 years	Killed by his grandmother's dog[306]
December 17	Pit bull	Blanche Brodeur	76 years	Killed at her son-in-law's home by her son-in-law's dog[307]
December 25	Pit bull or Pit bull mix[308]	Kelly Caldwell	45 years	Killed outside her home by roaming dogs[309]

Fatalities reported in 2008

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 4	Doberman Pinscher	Andrew Stein	8 months	Killed by his family's dog[310]
January 17	Jack Russell Terrier	Justin Mozer	6 weeks	Killed by his family's dog while sleeping on a king size bed[311]
January 20	Pit bull	Kelli Chapman	24 years	Killed by her own two dogs[312]
April 28	Husky-mix	Abraham Tackett	23 months	Killed by a neighbor's chained dog, apparently protecting its food[313]
May 14	Pit bull	Julian Slack	3 years	Killed in his own home by a neighbor's dog[314]
May 18	Pit bull	Tanner Monk	7 years	Killed by four of his neighbor's dogs.[315]
June 18	Pit bull	Pablo Hernandez	5 years	Killed by his family's chained dog[316]
June 28	Golden Retriever-mix Australian Shepherd-mix	Lorraine May	74 years	Killed breaking up fight between her dogs (theory)[317]
July 22	Pit bull	Tony Evans, Jr.	3 years	Killed when he wandered next to his neighbor's chained dog[318]
July 25	Old English Sheepdog Mix	Addison Sonney	14 months	Killed by her family's dog[319]
July 28	Labrador Retriever	Zane Earles	2 months	Killed by the family's 10–12 week puppy that had not been fed in days. The teen mother was convicted of manslaughter for leaving her baby unattended in a swing for over 6 hours with the hungry puppy.[320]
August 14	Pit bull	Robert Howard	35 (est.)	Killed while saving the lives of a neighbor and her dogs from a stray or escaped fighting dog.[321]
August 14	Pit bull	Isis Kreiger	6 years	Killed by her family's dog[322]
August 17	Pit bull	Henry Piotrowski	90 years	Killed in his own back yard by his neighbor's dogs[323]
September 4	Pit bull	Luna McDaniel	83 years	Killed when her neighbor's three dogs broke out of their pen[324]
September 9	Husky	Alexis Hennessy	6 days	Killed in her crib by her family's dog[325]
September 12	Pit bull	Cenedi Carey	4 months	Killed by his family's two dogs after being torn out of her stroller[326]
September 22	Husky	"Jane Doe"	3 days	Killed by her family's dog[327]
September 26	Pit bull-mix[328]	Katya Todesco	5 years	Killed by her neighbor's dog[329]
October 5	Mixed breed	Iopeka Liptak	13 months	Killed by her mother's dog[330]
October 31	Pit bull	Chester Jordan	62 years	Killed by his daughter's dogs[331]
November 26	Terrier-mix[332][333] "also might be a type of pit bull"[334]	Alexander Adams	2 years	The 40–45 lb dog was eating when the boy approached its food bowl. Dog belonged to the boy's grandmother.[335][336]
December 19	107-lb, 4-year-old male Pit bull-Mastiff mix and 52-lb, 6-year-old female Pit bull[337]	Gerald Adelmund	60 years	Killed by his nephew's two dogs in backyard. One dog had a litter of newborn puppies.[338]

Fatalities reported in 2009

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 6	Pit bull	Cheyenne Peppers	5 years	Killed by a dog belonging to her mother, a dog belonging to her mother's boyfriend, and a puppy produced by those two dogs.[339] Prior to the attack two of the dogs were chained up. The third dog, who was pregnant, was not chained at that time.[340]
January 11	Rottweiler	Alex Angulo	4 years	Killed by a least one of his foster family's dogs[341]
January 15	Rottweiler	Brooklynn Milburn	4 years	Killed after crawling through a fence into her neighbor's yard[342]
January 19	Husky	Olivia Rozek	3 weeks	Killed by her family's dog after the dog pulled the child from a bed and dragged her into a hallway[343]
January 19	A part-Rottweiler, Mixed breed dog[344]	Brianna Shanor	8 years	Killed by a 100-lb dog that was chained outside a camping trailer that the dog used for shelter.[345]
March 4	Chow-Chow–Golden Retriever mix	"Jane Doe"	2 weeks	Killed by her family's dog[346]
March 16	Mastiff	Hill Williams	38 years	Killed by his own dogs[347]
March 21	Unknown dog	Dolly Newell	80 years	While walking her own dog, the woman was bitten by a different dog when she attempted to feed it. She died several days later from the subsequent infection.[348]
March 22	Husky	Dustin Faulkner	3 years	Killed by his neighbor's dog when it broke free of its chain[349]
March 26	Pit bull	Tyson Miller	2 years	Killed by a chained dog in the backyard[350]
March 31	Pit bull	Izaiah Cox	7 months	Killed by his great-grandmother's two dogs. Grandmother indicted for felony injury to a child, but died before case went to trial[351]
April 10	Boxer	Michael Landry	4 years	Killed by his neighbor's three dogs when they escaped from their yard[352]
April 10	Mixed breed (11)	Gordon Lykins	48 years	Killed by a pack of 11 dogs[353]
April 13	Blue Heeler–Australian Shepherd mix	David Whitenack, Jr.	41 years	Killed by his landlord's three dogs[354]
April 22	Pit bull-mix	Leonard Lovejoy, Jr.	11 months	Killed by his family's dog[355]
June 15	Pit bull	Justin Clinton	10 years	Killed when visiting a friend by dogs owned by the friend's family.[356] A jury awarded a US$7 million verdict for negligence against the dogs' owners.[357]
June 27	Pit bull mix, Collie mix	Gabrial Mandrell-Sauerhage	3 years	Killed by mother's boyfriend's dogs[358]
August 10	Pit bull	Carter Delaney	20 years	Killed by his brother's two dogs while caring for them[359]
August 14	Pack of sixteen stray mongrels	Sherry Schweder	65 years	Killed by the pack of stray dogs that killed Lothar Schweder[360]
August 14	Pack of sixteen stray mongrels	Lothar Schweder	77 years	Killed by the pack of stray dogs that killed Sherry Schweder[360]
August 15	Pit bull	"John Doe"	3 days	Killed by his family's dog after being brought home from the hospital. The pit bull and a German Shepherd mixed breed dog were both euthanized[361]
August 15	Pit bull	Jasmine Deane	23 months	Killed by her family's chained dog.[362]
October 23	Mixed-breed dog—possibly Akita and Pit bull-mix[363]	Colton Smith	17 months	Killed at his babysitter's home by his babysitter's dog[364]
October 28	Pit bull	Matthew Clayton "Booter" Hurt	2 years	After wandering 4 blocks from his home, the boy was killed when he crawled into a dog house where the dog was chained.[365][366]
November 5	Pit bull	Destiny Knox	16 months	Killed at the home of her babysitter's boyfriend by one of the boyfriend's dogs.[367] The dog was usually kept on a chain outside, but had slipped free from its collar.[368]
November 24	Boxer mix and/or a Mixed breed dog[369]	Karen Gillespie	53 years	Killed by a dog adjacent to the owner's property[370]
November 30	Pit bull	Rosie Humphries	85 years	Killed along with her pet poodle by a dog that broke free of its chain because the "D" ring failed[371]
December 4	Pit bull	Lowell Bowden	70 years	Killed by a pack of five dogs. Owner convicted of involuntary manslaughter[372]
December 12	Rottweiler-Labrador Retriever mix[373]	Dallas Walters	20 months	Killed at his great-aunt's home by her dog during his cousin's birthday party[374]
December 12	Alaskan Malamute	Theresa Ellerman	49 years	Killed at her friend's home by her friend's dog[375]
December 22	Weimaraner	Liam Peck	2 years	Killed by his family's dog[376]

Fatalities reported in 2010

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 9	Pit bull	Omar Martinez	3 years	The father, boy, and their dog were together in their Apple Valley, CA backyard, but the father stepped inside, leaving the dog alone with the boy, the dog attacked. The aggressive dog kept EMTs away until police arrived and shot it. EMT found him unresponsive and took him to the hospital where he was declared dead two hours later. No charges were filed as of press time.[377][378]
January 17	Mixed-breed dog or Pit bull	Johnny Wilson	56 years	Killed by his daughter's four dogs[379] Police said the dogs were pit bulls, while the animal care and control commissioner said they were mixed-breed dogs.[380]
February 8	Rottweiler	Carolyn Baker	63 years	The woman died of a heart attack when she went outside to get her dog. Media reported that the woman was killed by her pet dog and was found in her driveway with numerous bite wounds.[381] Although the woman's family said they did not believe the dog was responsible for the death, the dog was euthanized after a pathologist determined that severe dog bites contributed to her death. The county coroner stated that the bites appeared to have been from the dog's attempt to drag her to safety after she collapsed.[382]
February 12	Unknown dog(s) (Pit bull)	Anastasia Bingham	6 years	Killed while walking to a friend's home. Investigators unable to locate dog(s) involved.[383] Sheriff's deputies initially reported that a pit bull dog was responsible.[384] Authorities were never able to find or identify any dog responsible for the attack. The dogs that were first thought to be responsible were found not to be involved. However, investigators "received confidential tips that stated that there were three other pit bulls, owned by the child's relatives, that were killed and dumped in a wooded area."[385]
February 18	Siberian Husky	Robert D. Hocker	11 days	The boy was alone on a bed when the family's dog bit him.[386]
February 19	Redbone Coonhound	Kenneth Bock	57 years	The dog, which had a history of biting people, was roaming freely and bit Mr Bock at a storage facility where the man was a manager. Mr Bock died of Capnocytophaga canimorsus sepsis from the bite several days later.[387][388]
February 20	Pit bull	Christine Staab	38 years	While Christine Staab was fighting with her mother, she was killed by one of her mother's six dogs. The family stated that the dog was protecting the mother.[389][390]
February 20	American Bulldog	Violet Serenity Haaker	3 years	Killed when she became entangled in the chain restraining one of the dogs at the family's American-Bulldog breeding facility.[391][392] It was originally reported that a pit bull was responsible.[393]
February 23	Pit bull	"Jane Doe"	5 days	Severely injured by her family's dog on February 18, she died of her injuries on February 23[394]
February 28	Rottweiler	Ashlynn Anderson	4 years	Killed by a dog owned by her stepfather, (Ax Men star Jesse Browning).[395]
March 4	Pit bull	Ethel Horton	65 years	Killed by her nephew's dog while trying defend her 71-year-old husband from it. She died of heart failure caused by the dog attack.[396]
March 8	Rottweiler	Justin Lopez	9 months	Killed by his family's two newly acquired dogs. Dogs were obtained the day before.[397]
April 14	Pit bull-mix	Thomas Carter, Jr.	7 days	Killed while in bed next to his mother who slept through the attack. After the attack the dog went outside and attacked another dog that was on a chain.[398][399]
May 20	Sled Dog	Krystal Brink	3 years	Killed when she wandered into her neighbor's sled dog yard, her uncle's brother later shot all 6 sled dogs to death[400]
May 25	Rottweiler	Hao Yun “Eddie” Lin	33 years	The man was a USPS letter carrier. The dog was in a house, but pushed open a door, ran after Lin, and caused his head to strike the ground. He died nine days later. Authorities did not say if the attack included bites.[401]
May 28	Pit bull	Nathan Aguirre	2 years	Killed by his family's dog[402]
June 3	Pit bull	Savannah Gragg	9 years	Killed in her home while opening the door to let the dog outside[403]
June 15	Bullmastiff-mix Pit bull–Boxer mix Rottweiler-mix	Michael Winters	30 years	Killed by his nine dogs. Unknown which dogs/breeds participated in the attack. (5 Bullmastiff, 3 Pit bull–Boxer-mix, 1 Rottweiler-mix)[404]
July 12	German Shepherd-Husky mix and Labrador retriever	Kyle Holland	5 years	Killed by the dogs of his mother's live-in boyfriend. The boyfriend pled guilty to a charge of dangerous animal death and the mother pled guilty to child abuse and manslaughter. The mother was also charged with "accessory after the fact" because she tried to dispose of her boyfriend's marijuana plants before calling 911.[405][406]
July 20	Pit bull	William Parker	71 years	Suffered a fatal heart attack when attacked by two of his neighbor's dogs.[407] The dogs had attacked another neighbor 2 days earlier.[408]
July 22	Pit bull	Jacob Bisbee	2 years	Killed by three of his step-grandfather's dogs. Grandfather arrested for manslaughter.[409] The dogs had decapitated the family's pet Akita and killed the family's pet Chihuahua and parrot within the prior year. The dogs, which were kept in a garage, had previously shown aggression toward the boy.[410]
July 31	German Shepherd Dog-mix	Aaron Carlson	2 years	Killed by his family's dog[411]
August 19	Unknown dog(s)	Tracey Payne	46 years	Killed by a dog(s) in vacant lot.[412]
August 22	Pit bull	Jerry Yates	69 years	Killed by 2 pit bulls a tenant was keeping on his land.[413]
August 25	Pit bull "mixed-breed Shepard"[414]	Jason Walter	7 years	Killed by a neighbor's three pit bulls and a mixed breed dog while staying at the neighbor's residence.[415]
August 25	Boxer	Taylor Becker	4 years	Killed by a dog owned by a family friend.[416]
September 4	Pit bull	Mattie Daugherty	85 years	Killed by her daughter's 9-year-old dog.[417]
October 13	Pit bulls	Rev. John Reynolds Sr.	84 years	Found dead with severe bite wounds in a pen containing pit bull dogs.[418]
October 24	Pit bull	Justin Valentin	4 days	Killed by his family's dog[419]
November 2	Pit bull–Weimaraner-mix	Christina Casey	53 years	Killed in her own yard by her neighbor's two dogs[420]
November 10	Pit bull-mix[421]	Kaden Muckleroy	2 years	Killed by his grandfather's dog, which was chained to a tree.[422][423]
November 15	Mixed-breed dog	Cason Bryant	5 years	Killed in his own yard by five of his neighbor's dogs[424]
November 15	German Shepherd Dog	Shirley Lou Bird	79 years	Killed by her own dog, which had bitten her on prior occasions.[425]
November 16	Pit bull	Justin Lane	25 years	Killed by his family's dog[426]
December 5	Pit bull	Edward Mitchell	67 years	Edward Mitchell was bitten while disciplining the dog, which belonged to his nephew. He died two months later from complications of his injuries.[427][428]
December 8	Stray dogs	Larry Armstrong	55 years	Killed by a pack of stray dogs,[429] up to 445,000 of which roam the Navajo Nation[430]
December 19	Rottweiler or Rottweiler mix	Janet Vaughan	3 months	While the child's mother bathed one dog, the child was killed by one of the nine dogs that the family kept in the back yard.[431]

Fatalities reported in 2011

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
N/A	Pack of stray mongrels	Larry Armstrong	55	On an Indian Reservation, near Gallup, NM, found still alive but soon died from mauling by multiple dogs. Mentioned in passing an article about the problem of such dogs on the reservations.[432]
January 4	Pit bull mix	Linda Leal	51 years	Killed by her family's dog.[433]
January 12	Pit bull – 2	Makayla Woodard	5 years	Killed by her neighbor's two dogs in her own yard.[434] The neighbor pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 to 24 months in prison.[435]
January 24	Akita	Kristen Dutton	9 years	Killed by her grandfather's newly adopted dog.[436]
January 26	Pit bull – 3	Ronnie Waldo	51 years	Killed by landlord's three dogs while crossing yard from trailer home to landlord's home. Evidence showed the dogs appeared not to have eaten or been watered for a long time; the owner was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison (15 years suspended).[437]
January 26	Stray dogs	Howard James Paul	76 years	The victim was a homeless man found dead in a vacant lot. The medical examiner determined he bled to death after being attacked by stray dogs.[438]
February 17	Rottweiler	Sirlinda Hayes	66 years	Killed by her neighbor's two dogs in her own backyard. The dogs also attacked their owner when he tried to come to her aid.[439]
February 19	Pit bull	Darius Tillman	15 days	Killed by family's dog.[440]
March 7	Rottweiler	Vanessa Husmann	3 years	Killed by uncle's two dogs in backyard.[441]
April 12	Rottweiler	Annabelle Mitchell	7 months	Killed by the family's dog when left unattended while child's mother was intoxicated. The girl's mother was subsequently convicted of endangering the welfare of a child.[442]
April 22	Pit bull	Virgil Cantell	50 years	Killed by a dog that was chained to the front porch of a neighbor's house. The dog had bitten other neighbors in the month preceding the attack.[443][444][445]
April 24	mixed breed Pit bull – 4[446]	Margaret Salcedo	48 years	Killed by four dogs when she was out walking alone in her neighborhood. A passerby tried to help but the dogs drove him back into his car.[447]
May 27	Cane Corso	Jayelin Graham	4 years	Killed by dog belonging to mother's boyfriend.[448] News outlets initially reported that the dog involved was a pit bull.[449]
May 29	Dutch Shepherd Police Dog[450]	Jesse Porter	89 years	While at home, the man was bitten and dragged by a police dog that was searching for an unrelated suspect. This led to the amputation of his leg and then death on July 27, 2011.[451]
June 11	Pit bull	David Haigler	38 years	Killed at home by his own dog.[452]
June 15	Pit bull	Roy McSweeney	74 years	Mauled by neighbors' two pit bulls while walking on his property.[453]
June 29	American Bulldog-mix[454] or Dogo Argentino[455] or "American terrier and pit bull mix"	Salvador Cotto	6 months	While visiting his aunt and uncle, the boy was briefly left alone in a room with their dog and was bitten. The medical examiner determined that the boy died of cerebral edema as a consequence of a single bite to the head, and ruled that the death was accidental.[456][457]
July 3	American Bulldog	Michael Naglee	11 months	Killed by the dog of his paternal grandparents at a family gathering.[458]
August 23	Pit bull-mix	Michael Cook	61 years	His own dog inflicted injuries on August 3 that required the amputation of both arms; he succumbed to his injuries on August 23.[459]
August 11	Pit bull	Darla Napora	32 Years	Killed by one of her family's two pit bulls.[460]
August 12	Rottweiler	James Dowling	4 years	Killed by his grandfather's dog when it escaped its enclosure.[461]
August 30	Unknown	Addyson Paige Camerino	9 days	The child was killed in the kitchen of the family's home. There were five dogs in the home, a Pit bull, bulldog, Alaskan Malamute, German Shepherd, and German Shepherd-Bulldog mix. Three of the dogs were involved in the attack, but the news media did not report which three.[462]
August 30	Pit bull	Carmen Ramos	50 years	Killed by her boyfriend's dog. The owner/boyfriend had previously been cited by the PSPCA for animal cruelty.[463]
September 4	Labrador Retriever-mix or Pit bull	Brayden McCollen	Two weeks	Killed by family dog.[464] Some sources reported the dog as a Labrador retriever mix, others as a pit bull.[465][466]
September 16	Doberman Pinscher	Donna Conrad	71 years	Killed by her dog.[467]
September 30	Pit bull – 3	Nevaeh Bryant	20 Months	Killed by her aunt's three dogs. Her aunt later pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide, receiving a one-year suspended sentence.[468]
October 3	Pit bull-Mastiff mix	Mya Maeda	11 days	Dragged from her bassinet and killed by the family dog.[469]
November 11	Pit bull – 2	Edna Dyson	71 years	Severely injured on her property when a neighbor's dogs slipped through a hole in their fence and attacked her.[470] She died of her injuries several days later.[471]
December 5	Pit bull	Joseph Hines	58 years	Killed by his dog in his home.[472]
December 6	American Bulldog or Pit bull	Tonia Parks	39 years	While trying to break up a fight between her two dogs, she suffered a seizure and was attacked on November 13. She succumbed to her injuries on December 6.[473] Some news sources initially described the dogs as pit bulls and later described the dogs as American Bulldogs.[474]
December 8	Pit bull	Misti Wyno	40 years	Killed by her neighbor's dog.[475]
December 18	Pit bull	Mable McCallister	84 years	Severely injured on December 18 by her grandson's dog, the victim spent four days in a trauma center and died in hospice on December 31.[476]
December 24	Pit bull – 2	Emako Mendoza	75 years	The victim was attacked by her neighbor's two pit bulls on June 18; she succumbed to her injuries on December 24. The pit bull owners were convicted on February 13, 2013 of voluntary manslaughter and of owning a dangerous animal causing death;[477] one owner was sentenced to four years in state prison.[478]

Fatalities reported in 2012

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 14	Pit bull	Jace Valdez	23 months	Killed by his grandparent's dog.[479]
January 30	German shepherd	"John Doe"	6 years	Mauled to death by a medical service dog trained to help a military veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).[480]
February 16	Husky	Howard Nicholson, Jr.	2 days	Killed by one of the family's four dogs.[481] The victim's mother pleaded guilty to child endangerment.[482]
March 4	Pit bull	Diane Jansen	59 years	Suffered a stroke when attacked while delivering mail and soon died of stroke with heart disease and dog bite listed as "contributing factors". The dog, which had been resting unchained in a garage with some juveniles, was later seized by animal control and later euthanized. It was reported she suffered the stroke immediately after getting attacked, but also that a witness said there seemed to have been something wrong with her before the bite, which the dog seemed to notice and spurred it to attack. The witness also noted that the dog had a reputation as trustworthy and friendly. The medical examiner said that the wounds were not very bad, but that soon after the frightening attack her speech began to slur, she became unresponsive, and was taken to the hospital where she was declared dead the next day.[13][483]
March 9	Rottweiler	Dylan Andres	17 months	Killed by neighbor's chained dog.[484]
March 25	Pit bull or Pit bull-mix[485]	Kylar Johnson	4 years	After wandering 1/2 mile from his home, the boy was killed by a chained dog in fenced yard.[486][487]
April 9	Pit bull	James Hurst	92 years	Killed by neighbor's loose roaming dogs.[488]
April 20	Golden Retriever – Labrador Retriever mix	Aiden McGrew	2 months	Killed by the family's dog.[489] The death was ruled a homicide and child's father charged with illegal neglect of a child.[490]
April 27	Mastiff – Rhodesian Ridgeback mix	Jeremiah Eskew-Shahan	1 year	Killed by the family dog.[491]
May 2	Pit bull	Clifford Wright	72 years	Killed by his son's dog.[492]
May 8	Pit bull	Jazilyn Mesa	15 months	Killed by the family dog. The victim's grandfather was charged with negligent child abuse resulting in death.[493]
May 17	Pit bull-mix[494]	Makayla Darnell	3 days	Killed by family's dog.[495]
May 26	Pit bull	Eugene Cameron	65 years	Found dead in his car port with dog bite injuries.[496] The dog was identified via DNA testing and the dog's owner, who was a neighbor, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and obstruction of justice.[497]
May 27	Labrador Retriever – German Shepherd mix (2)	Ja'Marr Tiller	2 years	Killed by two stray dogs.[498][499]
June 13	2 Mixed Breed dogs	Jack Redin	2 years	Killed by neighbor's two mixed-breed dogs after wandering onto the neighbor's property.[500]
June 14	Pit bull	Tyzhel McWilliams	8 months	Killed by a single bite from one of three pit bulls owned by the mother's roommate.[501] Immediately prior to the attack, the dog was on a bed with the mother's roommates who were smoking marijuana. The dog reportedly became "frisky," at which point they pushed it off the bed and it bit the boy. The cause of death was given as "penetrating craniocerebral injuries due to a dogbite."[502]
July 11	Alapaha Blue-Blood Bulldog or Bullmastiff or Pit bull – Bull mastiff mix	Ronnel Brown	40 years	Killed by his own dog when it bit through his IV tube while he was undergoing at-home dialysis.[503] Media reported the dog as several different breeds. The SPCA Cincinnati Officials that the dog was a "rare breed" Alapaha Blue-Blood Bulldog.[504]
August 11 or 12	one or more of Presa Canario (2), Pit bull (2), Boxer-mix	Rebecca Carey	23 years	Unclear which or how many dogs (four her own, one her neighbor's) were responsible.[505]
August 16	Pit bull	Charles Hagerman	44 years	Killed by at least one of two pit bulls that belonged to his girlfriend's son. Relatives said that Hagerman was scared of the dogs, which were kept in a cage. They also reported that the dogs had previously killed a dog and that they bit people that they did not know.[506]
September 1	Cane Corso (2)	Dawn Jurgens	76 years	Killed by own dogs.[507]
September 5	Unknown	Bryton[508] Cason	4 years	First name also spelled "Brayton", was playing in his yard when he disappeared. His body was found in the woods, dead of dog attack. Neighbors suspected a roaming bulldog they had seen in the neighborhood, which authorities captured and were trying to determine if this was the dog that killed Bryton.[509][510]
September 7	Pit bull (2)	Debra Renee Wilson-Roberts	45 years	Killed by own dogs, which had bitten people on previous occasions, including the owner.[511]
September 11	Mixed-breed dog	James Hudson	10 Months	Killed by the family dog.[512] Animal shelter officials identified the dog as a Labrador – American Bulldog mix. The dog's owner and police identified the animal as a "pit bull mix."[513]
September 20	Rottweiler (2)	Donald Thomas	82 years	Outside checking his mail when two dogs owned by a neighbor mauled him to death. Police shot and killed the two attacking dogs and subsequently removed more than 30 other Rottweilers from the neighbor's residence.[514]
September 24	Pit bull-mix	Rayden Bruce	3 Months	An hour before the attack, police responded to the home for a domestic dispute between the infant's parents that included injuries. While the police were taking witness statements, the boy was left alone in a room with the dog and was attacked. The dog had been responsible for a "minor bite" in 2011. It had also been picked up by Animal Services in 2010 for running loose.[515]
September 26	Pit bull	Nellie Davis	60 years	Killed by a family member's dog.[516]
October 2	Mixed-breed dogs, German Shepherd mixes, and/or Pit bull-mixes (7)[517]	Mary Jo Hunt	54 years	Killed while using a rake to stop an attack in which the pit bulls killed a pug and injured two terriers. Authorities euthanized the seven attacking dogs.[518]
October 4	Pit bull	Tarilyn Bowles	3 weeks	Mauled indoors by family dog when left briefly unattended.[519]
November 9	Rottweiler	Dixie Jennings	3 months	Killed at a boarding kennel owned by her mother.[520]
November 11	Olde English Bulldogge or Olde English Bulldogge-American Bulldog mixes (8)	Remedios Romeros-Solares	30 years	Killed by the dogs at a house she was hired to clean.[521] The owners are being investigated for owning 24 marijuana plants found at the home.[522] The owner was breeding the dogs for sale.[523]
November 14	Mastiff	Dawn Brown	44 years	Killed by a dog she had obtained less than one week earlier.[524]
December 11	Pit bull (4)	Esteban Alavez	34 years	Visiting his relatives when killed by their neighbor's dogs.[525] Other neighbors said that the dogs had a violent history and were always roaming loose in the area. A month earlier they had killed a neighbor's dog. However, Animal Control said that they had never received a complaint about the dogs.[526]
December 11	Boston terrier	Unknown woman	93 years	The woman was "mauled by a Boston terrier." No other details are known as this death was never directly covered by the media. It was mentioned briefly in an article in 2014 about another fatal dog bite.[527]
December 13	Pit bull	Savannah Edwards	2 years	Killed while visiting a relative who rented living space from the dog's owner.[528]
December 26	Pack of Stray dogs	Tomas Henio	8 years	Killed by a pack of stray feral dogs while snowsledding on a hill near his home.[529]

Fatalities reported in 2013

Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age	Circumstances
January 8	Pit bull	Betty Ann Chapman Todd	65 years	Emergency Medical Technicians found the victim with dog bites to neck, head, and face, and could not revive her. Her twelve-year-old granddaughter had attempted to pull the dog off her. According to the owners (the victims son and daughter in law), the victim had visited the house numerous times weekly and the dog had never shown aggressiveness towards her.[530] Later, a local online newspaper reported that the Todds didn't report the dog's previous aggression. However, the Greenwood County Sheriff's Dept stated that the dog's past had been reported the night of the attack by both Mr. & Mrs. Todd. The dog had a history of violence and had killed a Siberian Husky that it lived with. Prior to the attack on Ms Todd, the owners had attempted to reduce the dog's aggression by neutering it.
January 19	Pit bull	Christian Gormanous	4 years	Climbed over a fence and got too close to the neighbor's tethered dog.[531]
February 8	Pit bull	Elsie Grace	91 years	Found dead with dog bites in motel room that she shared with her son and the two dogs. Autopsy results to determine if she died before or after being bitten are pending.[532]
February 16	Pit bull	Isaiah Aguilar	2 years	Killed in a neighbor's yard by a dog tied up in the yard.[533]
March 2	Pit bull	Ryan Maxwell	7 years	Killed by a dog that was kept chained in the back yard of a home he was visiting. The dog may have been let off the chain by the boy or may have broken free before the attack.[534][535] The dog's owners had been cited previously for letting their dogs run loose. Officers had also been called to their house on reports that dogs were not being fed. Although no criminal charges were filed in relation to this dog attack, one of the owners, Jereme Carter, is now in jail on murder charges from an unrelated case.[536]
March 6	Pit bull (2)	Daxton Borchardt	14 Months	When babysitter, baby in her arms, let her two 45 lb. dogs in the house from the backyard of her home, they became "nippy", jumping up to at the pair, so she batted them off. The dogs then attacked, and mauling her, shredding her clothing and knocking her down, causing her the boy to hit the ground, whereupon the dogs attacked him. The babysitter tried stop the attack, and redirect the dogs' attack onto her. A neighbor heard screams but did nothing. She got the child away from the dogs and called 911. The boy was taken by ambulance to the hospital, and by helicopter from the hospital to a medical center later that day, where he was pronounced dead of dog attack. Before the attack, the veterinarian center where they had been spayed, neutered, and otherwise cared for had not been seen as dangerous, but one was described as "standoffish" while at the facility. The owner said she had gotten the three-year-old dogs as puppies and that they had never shown signs of aggression. After the attack, the dogs were euthanized and tested negative for rabies, and the authorities decided not to press charges against the babysitter.[537][538][539]
March 27	Pit bull & Pit bull-mix (7)	Monica Renee Laminack	21 months	Killed by dogs belonging to her mother's boyfriend.[540] An autopsy confirmed that the child died of injuries consistent with a dog attack.[541] The child's mother was subsequently charged with Cruelty to Children in the Second Degree.[542]
April 7	Pit bull Mix (2) or Bulldogs	Tyler Jett	7 years	Attacked while riding his bike by his neighbor's two dogs and died 5 days later. The owner a week prior had received a citation for allowing his aggressive dogs loose and is currently facing criminally negligent manslaughter charges. Some sources identify the two dogs as "pit bull mixes";[543][544] other reports identified them as a "brindle bulldog" and an "Alapaha blue blood bulldog".[545][546] Some articles referred to them as both "pit bull mixes" and "bull dogs" within the same article.[547] Photos of the dogs exist.[548]
April 11	Pit bull – Mastiff mix [549]	Claudia Gallardo	38 years	A woman was killed after being attacked by a dog that has terrorized the neighborhood for months, according to authorities and residents.[550][551] The dog, reported to be a female pit bull/mastiff mix, was also reported to have attacked neighbors in the past.[549] Claudia Gallardo was killed after jumping into the fenced yard where the dog was kept.[549]
April 22	American Staffordshire Terrier (Pit Bull)[552]	Jordyn Arndt	4 years	Four-year-old Jordyn Arndt, was mauled by a pit bull at her babysitter’s home. The owner of the dog, 24-year old Jana Marie Wright, was supposed to be babysitting Jordyn and has been charged with multiple felonies punishable with up to 35 years in prison.[553][554] Neighbors say that they had previously filed several complaints about the dog.[553] The babysitter had a history of arrest on drug-related and child-neglect charges.[555]
April 24	American Staffordshire Terrier mix (Pit Bull mix)	Beau Rutledge	2 years	The boy was killed while the mother stepped away to use the restroom. The dog was 8-years-old and neighbors said they had never thought it was aggressive.[556][557][558][559]
April 30	German Shepherd	Rachael Honabarger	35 years	The attack happened at home involving a male dog registered to her husband. The dog was 100–150 lbs and 3 years old. One neighbor said that the dog has been aggressive and guarded the house.[560] News sources reported that she died four days after the attack; however, the date given in her obituary was 2 days after the attack.[561]
May 8	4 Pit bulls or Feral dogs (Mixed breed dogs with "possible 'pit bull' influence")[562][563]	Carlton Freeman	80 years	Freeman, a bi-lateral amputee at the knees, was driving in his wheelchair when he was attacked by a pack of four dogs that neighbors said had been roaming the neighborhood on-and-off for months. He tried to fight the dogs, but was unable to and was pulled from his wheelchair. The incident happened on May 8, and Freeman died on May 12. The coroner says he had lacerations and bites “from his legs to the top of his head." Initial reports said that three of the dogs belonged to a woman who is Freeman's neighbor and relative.[564][565][566] The Sheriff's Office later announced that the four dogs were feral and did not belong to anyone.[567] Sheriff's reports described the dogs as "brown dogs" and Animal Control claimed that they were mixed breed "with possible 'pit bull' influence."[563] However, multiple news sources stated that they were pit bulls. Photos of three of the dogs are available.[563] One of the four dogs has not yet been found.[568]
May 9	Pack of four free-ranging dogs: Pit bulls[569]	Pamela Marie Devitt	63 years	The woman was walking near her home when she was attacked by a pack of dogs. DNA results later confirmed that four of the eight dogs owned by a local man had been involved in the attack.[569] Local residents reported that the area repeatedly has problems with packs of dogs running loose. The owner of the dogs was charged with second degree murder for the attack. He was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon for a previous incident in which his dogs attacked a horse and rider and he threw a stone at the rider. He also faced several charged related to a marijuana growing operation he was running.[569] The dogs had been involved in several other attacks for which the owner was cited, and he had also been cited for failing to vaccinate, license, spay, neuter or microchip the dogs.[570] He was also in violation of the legal limit in that jurisdiction of owning no more than 3 dogs. In 2006 he had had four other dogs confiscated and destroyed after they attacked emus.[571] [572][573][574][575]
June 9	Bullmastiff[576]	Ayden Evans[577]	5 years	Killed inside the home of family friends near Jessieville, Arkansas where he had been staying for two weeks because his family's home in Moore, Oklahoma had been destroyed by tornados. After the child had started loudly crying, the 150 lb. dog came running out of a back room and attacked him. The dog's owner stopped the attack, but not before the boy had received serious wounds to the neck and face. He was rushed to a hospital in Hot Springs, AR where he was declared dead. The dog ran away, so authorities began trying to find it and euthanize it. Investigators declined to say just yet whether or not the owners would face any charges.[578][579]
June 17	Pit bull mix	Nephi Selu	6 years	The boy was attempting to ride the dog "like a horse" when he was bitten a single time on the top of the head.[580] The two-year-old, un-neutered male dog had been acquired as a guard dog[580] and was kept in the backyard of the family's home.[581] After the bite, the family did not think he had been seriously injured and expected him to be fine "after a couple of stitches."[580] He was brought to the hospital 2 1/2 hours after being bitten and died two hours later.[580] The dog had up-to-date rabies shots and was properly licensed.[582]
June 25	Pit bull mix	Arianna Jolee Merrbach	5 years	Killed after walking up to a chained dog that belonged to her aunt.[583] The dog had been kept on a chain in violation of the county's laws against prolonged tethering, and animal cruelty charges were being considered against the owner.[584]
July 1	Labrador Retriever mix[585] or "large, longer haired, black" Mixed breed[586] or Mastiff-Rottweiler mix[587]	Linda Oliver	63 years	She was killed by a dog that she had taken in as a stray. The incident occurred while she was attempting to stop it from attacking her other "small brown wiener dog."[588]
September 15	Husky-Mix	Jordan Reed	5 years	Jordan was found dead after being mauled by one or more loose dogs. "[589]
September 22	"Mixed breed pit bull	Daniel "Doe"	2 years	Daniel was mauled by 3 mix-pit bulls at his babysitter’s home. "[590]
September 23	"Mixed breed pit bull[s]"[591]	Samuel Eli Zamudio	2 years	Killed by up to five dogs that belonged to his grandmother, in the back yard of her house. Authorities do not know how the boy ended up in the yard with the dogs, and occupants of the house said they heard no screams or other noises, but the boy was found dead with bite marks to his face and neck. Neighbors had complained to authorities about the noise and "stench from the yard" where the dogs were kept. A photo of one of the dogs is available.[591] The boy's grandmother and uncle were later arrested in Colton, California.[592][593]
September 27	Pit bull	Jordan Ryan	5 years	The boy was unsupervised at a family friend's house and entered a backyard pen where the dog was kept. The dog had been acquired 6 weeks earlier.[594]
November 1	Pit bull	Terry Douglass	56 years	Her dog, Boosie, which she originally acquired for protection[595] and had raised from a puppy. It had previously attacked a family member and Douglass, who carried a large facial scar as a result. Boosie had been taken away by authorities, but Douglass had fought to have Boosie back, and he had recently been returned to her apartment in Balitimore, MD. Officers speculated Douglass, a handicapped woman, may have fallen on the dog, and described the scene as "horrific".[596]
November 4	Pit bulls	Katherine Atkins	25 years	Went out to the kennel behind their home in Kernersville, NC to feed the dogs as usual, but this time they attacked. They belonged to her boyfriend. The dogs were euthanized and will be given a necropsy for clues as to why they attacked.[597]
November 5	Pit bulls	Nga Woodhead	65 years	On her daily walk about a mile from her home in Spanaway, Washington. The dogs had escaped from a nearby property and attacked from the rear. She fought the dogs with her umbrella and called her husband. A passerby tried to help. He told her husband the location, who called 911.Another neighbor gave the passerby a gun and he shot one, which fled. Police arrived and shot them, and an ambulance took her to the hospital. Her arm was especially badly mauled ("shredded"). Almost a week later, when she was sitting in the hospital waiting for her discharge paperwork, she died of a heart attack thought to be brought on by “extremity contusions, lacerations and fractures due to dog bites”. The Sheriff recommended the county prosecutor file charges, but it was not yet clear whether they would.[598]
November 8	Pit bull(s)	Levi Watson	4 years	Visiting a home in White County, Arkansas. The boy "managed to get out of the home" and "enter a fenced-in area where three pit bulls were being held."[599] Emergency crews brought him to the hospital where he died. At press time, police were investigating which of three pit bulls were responsible; what the fate of the dogs, which were taken into custody, would be; and whether any charges would be filed. The owner was cooperating with the investigation.[600]
November 21	Pit bull/Bull Mastiff mix; Rat Terrier	Joan Kappen	75 years	Hot Springs Villiage, Arkansas[601] The owner of the 87-pound dog said it would frequently "bite out of fear." It had previously bitten an intoxicated family member in the face, bitten a neighbor in the face, and bitten its owner on the arm and leg. The attack occurred after the dogs were let outside unsupervised, off-leash in an unfenced yard.
December 7	Pit bulls (2)	Jah'Niyah White	2 years	South Side, Chicago [602]
December 10	Shiba Inu (2)	Mia Gibson	3 months	Attack occurred in the Columbus, Ohio home when the parents were sleeping. Mia was a premature baby who had only come home from the hospital Thanksgiving.[603]
December 13	Pit bull	Michal Nelson	41 years	Her own dog. She had gone outside, where the dog was kept chained up in a pen, to break ice on the dog's water bowl, when it attacked. Her brother found her body and shot the dog. Her eleven other dogs were taken away by authorities.[604]
December 21	Pit bulls (2)	Betty Clark	74	New Braunfels, Texas: Elderly widow was walking alone when neighbors' dogs badly mauled her. She was saved by another neighbor and her boyfriend, who used a gun to scare off the dogs, but not before receiving wounds that caused her death in the hospital 16 days later. After the attack, the dogs were euthanized and their owners were arrested for allowing a dog attack that resulted in a death.[605] The attack was first reported in the news media 4 months after the incident in an article about an unrelated attack.[606]
December 28	Boxer	Tom J. Vick	64 years	Vick and his wife tried to break up a fight at their home in Bullhead City, AZ between their two dogs when one of them turned on them. He died soon after arriving at the local hospital; she survived and was flown to a Las Vegas, NV hospital.[607]

Fatalities reported in 2014

Date	Location	Victim's name	Victim's age	Category of Dog	Circumstances
January 5	Houston, Texas	Christine Bell	43 years	Pit bull mix[608]	Killed by a pack of dogs in an attack in which 2 other people were also injured. The owners of the dogs had previously received multiple citations for keeping the animals in deplorable conditions, not licensing or vaccinating them, and allowing them to run at large. Homicide detectives were determining whether to press criminal charges.[609]
January 17	Bloomington, IL	Kara Hartrich	4 years	Pit bulls (2 males, 1 female)	Died from blood loss following injuries sustained to head and neck after being attacked by the dogs while her grandmother was babysitting Kara and her 2 year old sister. When the grandmother attempted to intervene, dogs turned on her and she then focused on protecting 2 year old child and was unable to stop the attack on Kara. Emergency personnel were called and Kara was taken to hospital but died from her injuries. The dogs were surrendered to McLean County Animal Control where they were euthanized after a 10 day observation period. No charges were filed against the owners. [610]
January 26	Corona, CA	Annabell Martin	89 years	Rottweiler (3)	The dogs belonged to the woman's grandson. He told police they had no history of aggressive behavior.[611] No other details are known as there is little media coverage available from the incident.
February 7	Dayton, OH	Klonda S. Richey	57 years	2 mixed breed dogs or "mixed-mastiff breeds" or "part Cane Corso"[612] or Pit Bulls[613]	Two male dogs were involved. Complaints had been made before to animal control about the dogs being at large. The victim had made 6 prior calls to animal control about the dogs, concerning their barking and the conditions they were kept in with inadequate food and water.[614] There is discrepancy in the media about the breed of the dogs. Dayton Police said the dogs looked like pit bulls; however, the Montgomery County Animal Rescue Center said the dogs were licensed and listed as mastiffs.
February 17	Temple, TX	Je'vaeh Mayes	2 years	Pit Bull mix	The girl's family was watching a friend's female dog and its two puppies. They were being kept in the back yard. The 2-year-old girl went out into the yard alone without her parents' knowledge and was attacked by the mother of the two puppies.[615]
February 24	High Point, NC	Braelynn Rayne Coulter	3 years	Pit Bull	Was playing in her yard when her family's dog suddenly attacked. Her mother tried to stop it, but the dog attacked her as well. The family said the dog had never been aggressive, but neighbors said it had escaped and attacked a dog. Both mother and daughter were taken to the hospital, where Braelynn died. The dog was taken by authorities and scheduled to be euthanized after police finished their investigation.[616][617]
February 26	Tallassee, AL	Summer Sears	4 years	White shepherd-mix, with possible involvement of a black retriever-mix	Killed while playing behind the trailer her grandfather rented.[618]
February 28	Paterson, NJ	Kenneth Santilla	13 years	Bullmastiff	A 115-pound bullmastiff escaped a back-yard fence and mauled two 13-year-old boys, killing one and injuring the other.[619]
March 1	Killeen, TX	Raymane Robinson Jr.	2 years	Bullmastiff	Walking home from the playground with an 8-year-old girl, when the dog accidentally escaped from his owner's garage and attacked the girl. A teenage boy saved the girl, but then the dog immediately attack Raymane and dragged him off. Someone shot at the dog, frightening it into dropping the boy and running back into the garage. Police and EMTs arrived and took them both to the hospital, where doctors saved the girl but the boy died of penetrating and blunt injuries.[620]
March 25	Houma, LA	Mia DeRouen	4 years	Pit bull	Family's pet pit bull attacked while she was watching television with her mother. The mother, also injured, had to barricade herself and the injured child in a bedroom until police arrived. Responding officers were forced to shoot the pit bull in order to enter the apartment.[621] The dog, Niko, was of an unusually large size, weighing in at 130 lbs. The victim's family has refused cooperation with authorities into further investigation. Another dog, a 6-month old female, was removed from the scene.
March 31	Thornton, MS	Christopher Malone	3 years	Pit bull	Christopher Malone's mother found the boy's body behind the family's Holmes County home. The Holmes County Sheriff's Department said it happened around 4 p.m. No one saw the attack. Family members said they've had the dogs since they were puppies, and the dogs have been around children their entire lives. [622]
April 1	Kaufman, TX	Dorothy Hamilton	85 years	Pit bull	A woman was found dead at her home in Kaufman on Monday afternoon, and police believe that pit bulls are responsible for the killing. It was around 4:45 p.m. when authorities were called to a residence in the 1400 block of East First North Street. When police arrived at the scene, they discovered 85-year-old Dorothy Hamilton dead in the living room of her home. Investigators also found a pair of aggressive pit bulls inside of the house. Animal control put down the two dogs that were inside the house when police found Hamilton. Authorities said that the dogs were being held in a bedroom, but it looks as though they broke down the door in order to attack the woman. [623]
April 6	Riverside, AL	John Harvard	5 years	Pit bull	Playing outside his home when neighbor's dog, between 80–100 lbs., attacked. His 9-year old brother couldn't get the dog off him, so he ran in the house and got his father, who shot at the animal, which broke off the attack and fled. After the attack, a neighbor called the EMTs, and an ambulance took him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. The dog was taken to a veterinary clinic. Before the attack, John and the dog had played together; the dog had been legally allowed free range with no previous complaints; and the town had had a nuisance law but no leash law.[624][625]
April 27	Smiths Station, AL	Katie Morrison	20 years	Pit bulls (3)	In her friend's yard playing with the dogs. When she picked something up from the ground, one of the dogs attacked, and the other two joined in. She suffered extensive bite wounds over her body and a severe head injury and died about a week later. At press time no charges had been filed and the dogs were still in mandatory ten-day quarantine. [626]
April 28	Sebring, FL	Jessica Norman	33 years	Unclear (see text)	The woman was found dead of a methamphetamine overdose. An autopsy found that she had bites that "appeared to come from a canine" and which "contributed to the death."[627] At the time that she died, neighbors had seen three aggressive pit bulls running loose in the neighborhood. Investigators attempted to link the dogs to the woman's death with DNA. They were able to show by DNA that hairs on her were of canine origin, but were unable to match the DNA with that of the specific dogs.
May 7	Felton, DE	Kasii Haith	4 years	Pit bulls (3)	The child had gone with his pregnant mother to visit one of the mother's friends and was playing in front of the home with the dogs, whom he had reportedly played with in the past. At some point the mother looked outside to see the three pitbulls attacking the child and rushed to help him, at which point the pitbulls attacked her. Nearby HVAC workers attempted to beat the dogs back with PVC pipes and were unsuccessful. The child was pronounced dead on scene by paramedics, the pregnant mother was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries and monitoring of the unborn child. The dogs had not been vaccinated against rabies and were euthanised.[628]
June 9	Davisburg, MI	Holden Garrison	10 weeks	Catahoula Cur	When the dog tried to get on the sofa where the baby was on his uncle's lap, the uncle pushed it off. The dog then attacked, biting the baby on the face and neck. Father was injured prying him out of its jaws. EMTs tried to revive the baby and airlifted him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Prior to the attack, the dog had lived with the family for four years. It had bitten a person once, but had drawn no blood. After the attack, the dog was euthanized.[629]
June 23	Metamora Township, MI	Craig Sytsma	46 years	Cane Corso (2)	The victim was out jogging in the evening. A neighbor who witnessed the attack successfully drove off the dogs after wounding one with a gun. According to police, dogs at the same address had attacked and bitten two other people in the previous two years who were walking or jogging in the neighborhood.[630] An unprovoked attack on a jogger by two Cane Corsos was reported in Lapeer, Michigan. The jogger died. The two owners of the dogs were charged with Second degree murder, which carries a potential sentence of Life in Prison. "The dogs involved in the attack have a history of escaping from their kennel and have bitten at least twice before."[631]
July 20	Tampa, FL	Logan Shepard	4 years	Pit bull	Mauled to death by his uncle's guard dogs after being left unsupervised while his parents left to consume cannabis.[632] The boy's grandmother said that the family knew the dogs were vicious.[633] Neighbors also said that the dogs were known to be vicious.[634] Although early speculations stated that the child may have let the dogs out of their cages to play with,[635] family members later stated that the uncle had left the dogs free to roam the yard and "to protect his property."[634]
August 4	Madison Township, Ohio	Cindy Whisman	59 years	Pit bull-Presa Canario mix[636] or Pit bull	Was playing with her 2-year-old grandson in the yard when the dog attacked. A neighbor beat the dog off with a walking stick, but she was already dead, with multiple wounds to the head, neck, and body. The dog had not shown previous aggression; the child used to climb and put weight on the dog. After the attack, the dog was to be destroyed.[637][638]
August 7	Fanning Springs, FL	Joel Chirieleison	6 years	Pit bulls (2)	Babysitting aunt let the child and the two dogs outside her house and sat to watch TV. No one saw the attack. She looked outside and saw the body in the driveway. The authorities arrived and determined that the dogs had killed the boy. After the attack, the dogs were removed by animal control officers and scheduled to be destroyed. The aunt had been babysitting the child when his father went to work for weeks. The aunt said she had never had any problems with the dogs before the attack, and police said the boy and the dogs had been together on a regular basis.[639][640][641]
August 11	St. Charles County	Deriah Solem	1 year & 10 months	Pit bull-mix	Grandmother, 58, had set the child down after feeding her when the 80 lb., 10-year-old dog attacked. Wounds to the head and neck were the cause of death, not those to her back and stomach. Grandmother, who lost the tips of her fingers trying to save the child, ordered her brothers, 5 and 8 years old, to run for their lives. They ran and got the next door neighbor to call for help. She used a steak knife to end the attack, but the child was pronounced dead at the hospital. Before the attack, the dog had behaved aggressively. After the attack, the dog was destroyed.[642] The dog was usually kept locked up in a back room and it is unclear how the dog got out to attack.[643]
August 13	Miami-Dade County	Javon Dade Jr	4 years	Labrador Retriever-Pit Bull mix[644] or pit bull mix and Pit bull	In the evening, the boy was at home with his father. The father then went into a bedroom to smoke marijuana and cocaine with his girlfriend. The next morning the boy was missing. They later found him outside dead. The father and girlfriend were charged with child neglect. The father also had an extensive criminal history for dealing drugs.[645]
September 20	Benton County, Mississippi	David Glass	unknown	Pack of Pit bulls	Attacked by a pack of dogs on the side of the road.[646]
September 26	Cave City, AR	Alice Payne	75 years	Pit bull	Ms. Payne's daughter arrived and found the elderly woman dead on the floor of her home with apparent bite marks on her face, neck, and arms inflicted by her own pit bull. Police responded to a 911 call made by the woman's family, who were able to get the dog into the back yard where it was eventually put down by police officers.[647]
October 24	Hustisford, WI[648]	Logan Meyer[648]	7 years	Rottweiler[648]	The boy was bitten and bled severely at his home where there was also a dog kennel. He and his family had moved there a week or two earlier.[649]
October 25	Rowland	Alameaner Dial	83 years	Pit Bull (1 adult male, 1 adult female, and 2 puppies)	Attacked by her granddaughter's 4 dogs. The victim's daughter in law said that the dogs were left to roam in a large fenced area, were known to be vicious, and had caused problems in the neighborhood before. Relatives and neighbors had repeatedly asked that the dogs be restrained. They had previously called police and the Department of Social Service to intervene, but the situation of the dogs had remained unchanged.[650]
November 12	Wind River Indian Reservation, Wyoming	Deanne Lynn Coando	40 years	Pack of dogs	No one witnessed the attack by the pack of roaming dogs and few details are available.[651]
November 14	Stratford, CT	Stella Antanaitis	91 years	Keeshond mix	The women was attempting to intervene in a fight between her dog and cat when the dog attacked her.[652]
November 18	Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota	Jayla Rodriguez [653]	8 years	Pack of mixed-breed dogs[654]	While sledding near her home, the girl was attacked by a pack of dogs. Witnesses to the attack were unsure of how many dogs were involved or what were their breeds.[655]
December 25	Portage, IN	Edward Cahill	40 years	Pit Bull	The man died after suffering bites to his arms and face from his dog. No one else was home to witness the attack. The man's girlfriend said they had given the dog a bone for Christmas and he was extremely aggressive and protective of it. The girlfriend also said that she had told Mr. Cahill to euthanize the dog in the past because he was "extremely aggressive and unpredictable."[656]
December 6	Citrus County, Florida	Christopher Camejo	2	4 Rottweilers	family pets[657]

Fatalities reported in 2015

Date	Location	Victim's name	Victim's age	Category of Dog	Circumstances
January 7	Frederick, MD	Eugene Smith	87 years	Pit Bull	The man died after suffering bites to his head and left arm from his son's dog. He was taking down a Christmas tree when the dog attacked him.[658]
March 8	Ohio County, West Virginia	Roy Higgenbotham Jr.	63 years	Pit Bull	This man was killed while trying to resuscitate the dog's owner from a heart attack. The pit bull was not registered with the city, despite ordinance requiring all pit bulls in the city be registered. Both men were pronounced dead at a local hospital.[659]
March	Washington, Georgia	Neta Lee Adams	81 years	Unknown	The woman's body was found in a ditch and autopsy determined she had died from a dog attack.[660]
March 12	Sulphur Springs, TX	Betty Wood	78 years	Rottweiler	The woman lived alone and was killed by a dog she owned.[661]
March 14	Rosebud Indian Reservation, SD	Julia Charging Whirl Wind	49 years	"Pack of wild dogs"	The woman was attacked early in the morning near her property. The sheriff arrived and shot and killed the dogs.[662]

See also

• Cave canem
• Wolf attacks on humans
• List of wolf attacks
• Coyote attacks on humans
• Animal attacks

Species:

• List of fatal bear attacks in North America
• List of fatal cougar attacks in North America
• List of fatal snake bites in the United States
• List of fatal shark attacks in the United States
• List of fatal alligator attacks in the United States

References

External links

• American Veterinary Medical Association: Dog Bite Prevention
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Dog Bite Prevention