Ventura County Animal Services Returned Dog After Earlier Attacks
Incident Overview
Ventura, CA - On July 2 of last summer, the Ventura County Star reported that a 54-year old woman was likely killed by her own two dogs. On July 10, we filed a Public Information Request with the Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office. By that time, we had already learned the victim's name and obtained photographs of the dogs from Facebook pages of family members. We had only been seeking cause and manner of death, but were approved for the full autopsy.
That was the first in a series of red flags that would follow. We received the autopsy report in September. Maria Crawford died of "dog bite wounds of the head, neck and leg," states the report. She suffered "severe facial bite lacerations with skin avulsion," lacerations through her eyes and nose, and a partially avulsed left ear. A large bite wound on the anterior neck caused "comminuted fracturing of the thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone" and perforated the left internal jugular vein.
Fracturing the hyoid bone is so rare, it accounts for only 0.002% of all fractures in humans. The most common cause of fracturing the hyoid is violent death by strangulation or hanging. Other causes include gunshot injury and car accidents. Crawford's death marks the third case we have on file of a pit bull crushing the thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone while killing a person. In all three cases, the bone was not fractured, but crushed (crushing injury) by the dog's powerful jaws.1
The attack that killed Crawford occurred on June 28, 2019. In the previous six months, the dog had targeted her face in two attacks, both requiring a treating physician and each injury escalating in severity. The first attack occurred on January 19, when the dog tore into her left cheek. The second attack occurred on March 19, when the dog fully severed her right ear. After both facial and head region attacks, Ventura County Animals Services (VCAS) returned the dog to the victim.
The fatal attack occurred in the 10600 block of Sunflower Street. Officers were dispatched to the home about 4:25 pm after a family member returned home and found Crawford dead. Authorities confiscated two dogs from the home, "Havoc," a female pit bull, and "Kai," a neutered pit bull-mix, but designated an "Australian Cattle Dog" in VCAS records. This was the third time "Kai" had been impounded for attacking Crawford, but the breed was never corrected in VCAS records.2
Kai was 81-pounds, twice the weight of a male cattle dog, part "brindle," a non-existent coat color in cattle dogs, and riddled with bully features.
According to family members, "Kai" was the culprit in all three attacks, the last one resulting in Crawford's death. After the second attack, when the dog severed her right ear, VCAS placed a caution sign on the dog's "double barrier kennel" while quarantined. At that time, Canine Adoption and Rescue League (CARL), who adopted the dog to Crawford in 2012, told VCAS they wanted the dog back. CARL claimed they could "retrain the dog" and possibly return it to the family.
Again, this was after two escalating owner-directed attacks targeting the victim's head. Two days after Kai ripped off her ear, Crawford called VCAS and stated "this has all been a terrible mistake" and that she wanted Kai back. The dog was returned to her on March 25. Technically, both Kai and Havoc belonged to one of Crawford's two adult daughters, who apparently resided at the home, along with Crawford's husband. Three months later, the dog brutally killed Crawford.
Note: Shelters are now in the position of having to protect family members from their own vicious dogs. We recently wrote about a shelter attack in Oakland County Michigan. After a family pit bull attacked a mother and her two children, sending all three to the hospital, the mother demanded the dog back. This forced the county to hold the dog in quarantine while the county sought a show-cause hearing. Four days before the hearing, the dog viciously attacked a shelter supervisor.
The June 28 bite report states, "Owner was killed by dog." Havoc was released back to its owner, Alyssa Crawford, on July 18. VCAS released Havoc -- exonerated in part due to complex overlapping bite injuries and both dogs having similar teeth measurements -- with a signed letter of indemnity freeing the county of any future liability claim. The letter also ordered Havoc to be muzzled when off-property and kept separated or muzzled when in the presence of a minor.
This was an unwitnessed fatal dog attack inside a multi-dog household where both dogs had access to the victim. If no clear evidence exists to exclude a dog, it must be included as a suspect to protect public safety. In this case, "neither dog could be excluded based on the bite marks alone," states the autopsy report. Havoc was excluded because a photograph taken of the dog at the crime scene did not show blood on its coat. Havoc should not have been released.
Havoc was a biter with a "good grip." In a 2013 public post, Alyssa said her female attacked Kai, leaving a "gaping hole" that required staples.3
In addition to the fatal neck injuries inflicted by Kai, one or both dogs attacked her right leg just above the ankle, inflicting seven severe bite wounds. Crawford also suffered multiple puncture wounds on her hands and fingers. A multi-dog attack often involves one dog biting the head or upper body region and the other biting a lower extremity while both dogs jerk and pull in opposite directions. Lacking blood on the coat does not equate to being a non-participant in the attack.4
Attempts to Return Kai
Just two days after her mother's brutal mauling death, Alyssa inquires about the fate of both dogs to VCAS. Three days later, her sister Lauren does too, claiming that she was Kai's original owner. Lauren could not tolerate the idea that her "boo boo" was "wasting away in his kennel waiting to be euthanized." On July 16, Alyssa told VCAS that CARL had "set up a sanctuary" for Kai to go to so the dog could live out "the rest of his days there." The family did not want Kai put down.
By July 26, a private attorney, Lara Shapiro, became involved on behalf of both daughters. VCAS informed the attorney, who was referred to the case by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ADLF), the county would not voluntarily release the dog due to the extremely severe nature of the attack. If the family failed to surrender the dog to VCAS on July 29, Kai's scheduled euthanasia date, the county would seek a hearing to have Kai declared dangerous and ordered to be euthanized.
On July 27, attorney Marc Colen wrote to VCAS stating he would be "filing opposition to the euthanasia of the cattle dog mix" in your control. Colen was working in tandem with CARL, and at this desperate hour, CARL had to add the "mix" language to even properly identify Kai as the dog. When VCAS informed Colen that this dog had attacked and killed its owner, Colen was stunned and taken aback. CARL had not even told this attorney why Kai was being held for euthanasia.
Ultimately, Crawford's husband agreed to surrender the fatal attacker and signed the papers on July 29. Kai was euthanized that same day.
Summary and Analysis
In 2019 alone, four women, ages 41 to 54 years old, were brutally killed by family dogs that had previously attacked them. Brandy Boschen-O'Dell told people the injury was from a "box-cutter." Nancy Burgess-Dismuke had been attacked by one of her boxers five times before it killed her. Yet, no case is as egregious as Crawford's. All household members knew about the first two severe attacks, VCAS staff knew, as did CARL. The third attack was Crawford's death sentence.
A third attack "to the head" was a foreseeable outcome. The 81-pound dog had escalating owner-directed aggression targeting the owner's face. No one in the victim's home was qualified to handle that dog, but VCAS returned it anyway. It should not have been a choice for Crawford to get the dog back. Animal control agencies need to look at "hard targeted bites" to the head, neck or trunk inflicted by family dogs on children and adults as predictive of future severe attacks.
Shelter policies must also adapt to the "new norm" of families fighting to keep vicious dogs that have already mutilated a household member.
There were no documented witnesses other than Crawford to any of the attacks, but family members claimed the last two were provoked and that Kai was only "defending himself." VCAS redacted the provocation sections in the records we obtained. VCAS did tell Crawford after the second attack that "We need to make sure [Crawford] is safe, and we need to make sure the dog will be safe." VCAS could not do so, the family would not do so and the results were disastrous.
Lastly, concerning the invalid breed labeling of Kai in VCAS records. It's either incompetence or deliberate fraud by Ventura County Animal Services. They had quarantined that dog three separate times in a 6-month period, the final time for 30 days. Even family members called the dogs pit bull-mixes. One day prior to the fatal attack, the victim's husband publicly called the pair of dogs "elderly pit bull-mixes." The owner, Alyssa, then made a joke about Havoc biting him.5
Both dogs seen on public Facebook pages of family members: Kai, 2018 and Havoc, 2011.
View the DogsBite.org Google Map: California Fatal Pit Bull Maulings.2Quarantine dates include, intake 01/23/19 and release 2/01/19; intake 3/20/19 and release 3/25/19; and intake 6/28/19 and euthanized 7/29/19, according to records we obtained from Ventura County Animal Services.
3Havoc attacked Kai about a year after the family adopted Kai. Notably, "grip" is a term most often used in bite work. In a comment on her 2013 post, she writes, "Kai was trying to make her stop by 'herding' her and she bit him on the side. She has a good grip, unfortunately." Then she quickly corrected her use of "grip" with: "Well jk she didn't GRIP him, I mean she has a good snap?" She also wrote a post about "irresponsible dog owners" that year.
4There are many attacks that illustrate how a two-dog attack involves the head or neck and a lower extremity (tug-of-war effect). Even more damning is that the male (such as Kai) is often the more confident aggressor, attacking the head, while the less confident female (such as Havoc) attacks the foot. That said, Kai was perfectly capable of attacking Crawford in multiple locations too, but had previously only targeted her face and head for serious injuries. Given that teeth measurements for both dogs were similar (indistinguishable) and that blood loss on the lower leg injury could have been minor, the assumption should have fallen on the side of public safety. Instead, VCAS, under the management of Jackie Rose, returned a dog, possibly involved in a fatal attack on a family member, to that same family. Ventura County covered their ass with a "letter of indemnity" as well, which speaks volumes about their confidence in this dog. Notably, Rose was hired by Ventura County in April of 2019 -- between the second and third attacks. At that time, Rose was close to being ousted as director of Multnomah County Animal Services, which was immersed in scandal, in part due to the "continued adopting-out of overaggressive or dangerous dogs." Deputy Director Donna Gillesby was the only top management at VCAS involved in both decisions to release Kai back to the family after the second severe attack and to release Havoc back to the family after the fatal mauling.
5On this date, June 27, one day before the deadly attack, Crawford had already been mauled in the face twice, leaving scarring. The dog had amputated her right ear too, presumably leaving quite disfiguring scarring. The only appropriate context for a "dog joke" at this time is what the husband wrote, who implied in his joke that maybe it was time to give away the family's two pit bull-mixes. Alyssa immediately responded: "RUDE. I'm telling [the dogs] you said that, maybe Havoc will bite you in the arse!" Once again, referring to Havoc as the biter in the household.
Related articles:
12/30/19: CA Hits Record High in Fatal Dog Attacks in 2019 -- Are Animal Control Policies Protecting Us?
Law enforcement departments across the United States should release consistent "baseline" information to the media and the public after each fatal dog mauling, including these items.
This is what happens when people are allowed to own dangerous animals, and the owner is allowed to remove the warning labels from the dangerous animals. Some people are bewildered when predictably and/or unpredictably dangerous animals attack.
Trying to protect people from themselves is crazy! The number of people that know better, but allow themselves to be coerced into bad, (and often deadly) decisions is staggering. The evolution of animal sheltering continues.
More like the devolution of animal sheltering.
Thank you for this shocking article. You did a really good job presenting all the facts, as usual. Thank you for sharing this information!
Thank you so much Colleen!
How do you ever get any sleep?
Both from 1) the countless hours it takes to try to keep up with all these horrendous attacks, from 2) the empathy for the terror and pain inflicted on the victims and potential victims.
We really appreciate your hard work and bravery.
When it became clear that children needed protection from some parents, laws and public policy were made to enable public agencies to remove children from abusive or neglectful homes. When adults attempt suicide, we take them and put them into care, at least for a short period for evaluation. Now it seems that ADULTS need protection from vicious dogs belonging to their own family or household members, or even their own dogs.
Is it a case of peer pressure and societal pressure to hoard and protect these dangerous dogs against all common sense? Is it a new mental disorder to keep “abusive dogs” around? We try so hard to get abused women out of domestic abuse relationships for their own mental and physical safety. This should be no different.
When will we enact laws that give public safety interest above the interests of these vicious dogs? If a dog attacks a person and disables, disfigures or kills them, they should be euthanized. Period. There is no sensible reason to keep such a dog alive, and there is every public safety and public interest reason to euthanize it.
Agreed!
Read about Spindletop Pitbull Rescue, and Lindsay Morrow’s Bully dog Rescue.
I believe it’s kinder to immediately kill attacking bully dogs. That way they die happy, doing what they love and are bred to do.
Better than starving to death in a crate somewhere, while some human rakes in money for “saving” them.
New laws are needed.
All the owners, handlers and keepers of dogs that severely injure or kill dogs, humans, or other domestic animals should be charged with felony animal neglect and abuse. Punishment for everyone would be a lifetime ban on dog ownership or contact.
This would include attacks on owners as well. Your dog rips off your ear? You never live with or own any dog again.
It must be any dog to prevent the acquisition of a “pug mix” puppy that oops, matures to suddenly become a game bred pitbull.
Bully people insist it’s the human’s fault. Perfect.
Punish the humans.
The FBI currently tracks convicted animal abusers, they could become the National Registry of those banned from dog ownership.
Signs would be posted at their homes: No Dogs Permitted.
Any dogs later found in their possession would immediately be confiscated.
Publicized and enforced, this breed neutral affordable law would begin to make at least some dog owners care enough to prevent that first attack. Publicized and enforced, it would end recidivism
My mouth is hanging open. Seriously, what is wrong with people?! I adore dogs and have owned them most of my life. If one bit someone and especially caused serious damage, I would have to make the tough but only sane choice to euthanize the dog–not rehome, not rehabilitate, not keep, and certainly not joke about!
My family had a dog years ago of a breed not known to be dangerous who due to being attacked by other dogs started to show some fear aggression (growling and lunging) and at times growling at the humans in the family (likely due to what we later learned was severe hip dysplasia so being asked to jump off the bed wasn’t always something he wanted to do). We seriously considered euthanizing him even though he never bit or caused any damage to any living thing. Thankfully a behaviorist helped us work through his issues. This was in the 90’s when people still held sane views about dog behavior. Even though it would have been extremely heartbreaking, if he had posed a threat and hurt another dog or person, we would have had to say goodbye.
And somehow to me, sending a dog off to a “sanctuary” almost sounds worse than euthanasia! Dogs aren’t horses meant to roam free in a herd. They are generally meant to be and happiest in a home with people. I wish the craziness around dogs these days would end!
I couldn’t agree more! Our dog a 14 yr old Rhodesian ridgeback started resource guarding empty cat food cans that he’d steal from the trash or counter surfing and then my adult daughter (who while very smart, has autism and difficulties with body language, in dogs too I guess) decided that he was going to be hurt by the can so she was just determined to take them all away, which as you can well imagine escalated his growling to the point he was snapping at her. So I put my foot down and told her she had to wash out every single can before throwing them away and lock the trash lid every single time and if she didn’t leave him alone when he did get them I would have him euthanized when she was in school. I felt like it was her pushing him and trying to steal his hard won prize, because he’ll absolutely let you take his dog food or favorite toy or anything else, since I had him trained by a professional so she could handle him. But it just makes zero difference to me if he was going to become aggressive over the empty cat food cans and she couldn’t understand that she needed to stop when he was growing instead of trying to back him into a corner it was still my responsibility to euthanize the dam dog before she got hurt! I just cannot understand how these people can even look themselves in a mirror! She stopped, he stopped and all is right between them again but these people must be as defective as their vicious dogs!
I’m trying to figure out what’s the worst secondary (after the brutal death) aspect of the story:
1) The daughters wanting their mother’s killers back.
2) Two separate animal organizations assisting the daughters in their efforts.
3) The animal control agency having repeatedly released the pit bulls back to the victim in the past, releasing Havoc this time.
As a daughter, I’d have to say #1 – but as a dog owner, I’m more frightened by the other two. There are always going to be some creepy individuals in the world. But seeing multiple organizations treating rinse-and-release as a quite reasonable, normal method of responding to serious dog attacks is very troubling.
Everything about this case is distressing. It’s not just the loss of common sense. It’s the cooperation role the SHELTER played in this incident. So many shelters and ACO agencies are run by NUTTERS. It’s really starting to show.
Everything about this case shows that these pitbull fanatics are not normal people.
The handling of this case by Ventura County Animal Services and Canine Adoption and Rescue League is atrocious. Both should have large lawsuits thrown at them.
Rescue missions to “save them all” should never take precedence over human life, which usually also includes other pets lives. Rescue workers/volunteers and dog trainers are 99% self declared experts on animal behavior. Public safety should not rest in such unqualified hands. Doctors, etc. who treat these victims should be the experts we are listening too.
Additionally, County shelters should not be able to sign away liability as dogs are never guaranteed to stay quarantined to a desert island. “Be careful” signs are a joke. If the evidence exists there is a danger to the public, the dog should be put down for human safety.
What has happened to American mental status with respect to dogs? Bizarre world we live in.
Thank you for this detailed account of what went wrong in Ventura County, and in the Crawford household, leading up to the totally avoidable death of Maria Crawford. The story highlights two shockingly pervasive factors in dog maulings — the refusal of owners to acknowledge that their dog is dangerous and the failure of local authorities to protect human beings. We are inclined to consider the first “denial” on the part of the owner, when we should be calling it what it is — pathological indifference to the suffering of others. The latter failure we tend to attribute to the incompetence of a public agency, when in fact it is willful disregard for human safety.
DogsBite.org is to be commended for documenting these two alarming trends over the years, which result in nobody ever truly being held responsible for what their dog does and public employees getting paid for NOT doing their job.
Elsewhere in California, I just learned yesterday of a similarly bad situation in Marin County. There, an owner is allowing his two pit bulls to terrorize people on Currey Lane in Sausalito. Their attacks on human beings date back at least to 2016, and more recently the dogs mauled two men in two separate incidents only three hours apart. Still, neither the Marin Humane Society (which contracts with the county to provide animal services) nor the Sausalito Police Department has done anything to prevent such an attack from happening again. And to compound the theme of “public servants” gone rogue, the dog owner is an attorney with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, which has a history of working to keep at least one dangerous pit bull on the street.
Goodness gracious! if either of those dogs are “cattle-dog” mixes…then I am a man! the brindle one might have 2.5 – 5 % “cattle” dog in it, but no amount to stop the dog looking like a pitbull, terrible lies and it’s only getting worse