James McCool died after being attacked by a dog pack at Copperhead Road Kennels.
Dog Owner Arrested
Lincoln County, AR - On January 18, a kennel owner in Star City, Arkansas was arrested after authorities said his YouTube channel shows canines he trained to "attack in a pack like manner and have a prey drive at a young age" killed his cousin last year. Scott Alan McCool, 48, was booked into the Lincoln County Detention Center on a manslaughter charge in connection to the October 29, 2023 mauling death of 39-year old James Woodrow McCool. Scott is being held on a $25,000 bond.
According to an arrest affidavit, "The pack of dogs were allowed to run free in the yard, by Scott McCool." And "witnesses state that a person or animal cannot walk into Scott's yard without Scott being around, because the dogs will attack. Due to Scott McCool' s training practices and neglect to keep his dogs contained, his dogs mauled James McCool to death." On social media, the owner goes by Sam McCool who specializes in breeding "guard dogs, American pit bull terriers" and more.
The Copperhead Road Kennels YouTube channel shows a mixture of pit bull, American bully, Belgian malinois, cane corso, presa canario, Czechoslovakian wolfdog breeds, and their crosses. He also advertises bandogs in his breeding program. The kennel also has a TikTok page. One video shows the dog pack on a porch with the voice over "security system engaged." Another shows the dog pack tearing up and eating a deer carcass. There are enough videos to keep you occupied for hours.
McCool's Facebook page has lots of gems too, including one post that points out a fully falsified pedigree from the American Bully Kennel Club. "I'm tryna figure out why somebody gonna push ABKC American Bully paperwork with a ped full of gamedogs from the 50's and 60's and it ain't even hung right (sic)," Scott wrote. One person comments, "Dave Wilson is the biggest baddest paper hanger ever lol not even surprised!" Scott seems to know the historical game-bred pedigrees quite well.
Several dogs from Copperhead Road Kennels, including "S.MCCOOL' STUMP" are listed on a pedigree game dog website. "Owned by Sam McCool favorite dog very game. Dead game!" Stump died in 2019. He was a "foundation male to many kennels," states the notes. "S.MCCOOL' HAZEL" is seen on McCool's Facebook page. Hazel is a "Grand champion OREBA," states the notes, which is a registry for protection and working bull breeds, like pit bulls, American bullies, mastiffs and bandogs.1
Information about the victim is less known. A family member posted about his death on October 29. She also commented on the KATV Facebook post. "My uncle couldn't walk, he was born with a rare medical condition that made his muscles weak and left him not able to move his legs in his late 20s. Them dogs not only killed a man, they pulled him out of his wheelchair and killed him with him unable to defend himself in any way," she wrote. Her family is "heart broken, and we absolutely want justice."
Third Case Charged in Arkansas
The criminal charges against McCool marks the third set of charges in Arkansas in connection to a 2023 fatal dog mauling. In October, Chris Scott was charged with negligent homicide after 60-year old Brenda Witt was killed by five pit bull-mix dogs in Texarkana. In August, Blytheville police charged David Veasey, 43, with two counts of felony aggravated assault and other charges after his three pit bulls mauled 93-year old Jeane Bennett in June. She died while hospitalized two months later.
Several dog breed lines of Scott McCool at Copperhead Road Kennels in Star City, Arkansas.2
A 2020 post by Dog Husbandry Blacklist shows that McCool believes aggression is genetic.
2The primary breeding lines are the "Stump" and "Hazel" pit bull working lines, as depicted in the pedigrees. The bullherders, as McCool coined them, are Belgian malinois mixed with pit bull, cane corso (and other mastiffs) and a dash of Czechoslovakian wolfdog. McCool also keeps one or more traditional purebred pit bull terriers in his "yard."
View the DogsBite.org Google Map: Arkansas Fatal Pit Bull Maulings.Related articles:
10/13/23: 2023 Dog Bite Fatality: Woman Killed by Multiple Dogs in Texarkana; Found Dead...
08/17/23: 2023 Dog Bite Fatality: Blytheville Woman Mauled by Three Pit Bulls in June Dies...
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.
Good grief! Mixing pits with malinois, cane corsos, wolfdogs, and the like–what could possibly go wrong? Then training them as guard dogs for social media likes…disgusting. Our society glorifies violence even among our pets. Can we ever change this?
So this fool thought to himself that is will be a great idea to have multiple pitbull and dangerous dogs and he trained them to be aggressive and attacked to protect his land or whatever he reason was behind it and his cousin is more of a fool willing to be around him knowing he trained his dogs to be aggressive lucky is was a adult person and not a child baby or toddler relative.
That was my brother and we did contact the media
My deepest condolences for the loss of your brother, Rhonda
This guy was NOT a “protection dog trainer”–or at the very least, not a competent one. The #1 rule of ethical protection dog trainers is 100% off-lead control. What does that mean?
It means the dogs do NOT attack, not ever, without a command from the handler or direct threat to the handler while incapacitated. Pitbulls and molassar breeds don’t have the brains or biddability in a crisis to be trained for such work.
What he had–was a pack of dogs he encouraged in aggressive behavior. Dogs he profited, from, never worked in the field with, and then sold his half-baked services to rubes. Rubes who didn’t have the sense to contact long-standing competition-winning professionals in the field to get a proper reference. Nobody, but nobody respected in that field leaves a pack of dogs running loose in their yard to do as they will.
It enrages me that he had the audacity to sell his services to gullible marks and saddens me that your brother was slaughtered as a result of his hubris.
Condolences & Prayers to you & your family.
A Facebook commenter wrote that the dogs have all been euthanized. I hope that is true.
So incredibly pathetic and sickening is more like it.
That was my brother and now he’s dead. This left his 2 kids without there dad. When they told my moma she started screaming my baby is gone. Imagine seeing your mom in that much pain.
Those dogs bit a kid and a dhs worker
Thank you
97%
James was my brother he was the best brother and all I think about is the pain he endured while he was dieing. My moma is still kinda in shock. He was in a wheelchair because he was disabled and he stayed with Scott and Patricia because he thought they was his friends because he lived across the road from them. They saying he was homeless but that’s a flat out lie and we have proof of it. There are kids that live down that road and those dogs were running free but we are still confused he was on the ground and his wheelchair was on the porch. I don’t think the dogs pulled him out of the chair because there was no blood on the porch but it was on the ground about 6 feet from the porch. Scott also threatened to shoot his neighbor so there more to the story and he’s out on bond we are waiting on a court date. His body was so bad we couldn’t even view his body. I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye neither did his 2 kids.
We found out Scott has already been in jail for fighting dogs. I think it was in Missouri.
I found out that he only fed those dogs every few days to make them more aggressive. The corner said the dogs didn’t just bite him. They fed on my brother. Can you imagine getting that kinda news about your family member.
Condolences.
Deepest sympathy for you your moma your brother and his 2 kids
The pitbull/dangerous dog nutters will try to spin a million yarns about how they were “good doggoes”, that the owner either abused them or they were rescues, how your brother “did something” to make it happen etc. etc. etc. SSDD around here, sadly.
We’re familiar with all the lies they’ll tell you about these dogs and tell about your brother.
The base facts are simple. This man had a pack of dogs he claimed he trained for “protection work” (in other words, he knew they had aggressive tendencies) that he let loose in his yard with zero supervision.
Those dogs shredded a disabled man.
Negligent homicide, at the very least–just from those simple facts. Anything more? Heavier charges and more context. There’s no excuse for this. None.
Nobody deserves this fate.
It seems that the pit bull eating their victims isn’t all that uncommon even when they were well fed! About the only way to feel like your brother didn’t die in vein is to share the anguish this has caused his family and friends! I’m sure pit bulls are very capable of dragging your brother off the porch and into a better spot! It is unfortunate that your family has such an ignorant vile person that obviously doesn’t care about his family and especially doesn’t care for the children either in his family or neighborhood! Hope he gets a good long prison sentence to allow him to truly reflect upon his part in this tragedy!
I hope LE investigates the hell out of this and uncovers the complete accurate details of this incident
I believe there are only 2 probable scenarios
LE needs to start with the source of the statements of:
1-that James was homeless (we know the purpose of this lie)
2-that dogs pulled James out of his wheelchair (why would someone tell this lie or why would this assumption be made or spread around?)
Also I’m sure Scott and Patricia have fed their dogs many different types of ‘food’ and kibble is probably 1 of the least frequent food sources
Seriously , think hard about that in detail
Pitbulls and Rottweilers will often deglove their victims.
It’s not always about hunger. It’s about shredding live prey. Think of what cats do to mice/birds even with a full bowl of cat food.
Same instinct.
They show how they fed these dogs on their youtube page. They would place an animal (like a deer) on a rope and hang it up and let the dogs jump at and bite pieces off of the animal.
This is a corruption of feeding a prey diet this sadist invented.
Prey diet is simply feeding dogs what they prefer in the wild in the hope they will be healthier. Certainly it does improve their dental health. Tame dogs are scavengers more than they’re hunters.
Generally, people just put the food on a mat, plate or even on the ground for the dog…raw chicken legs, chunks of raw beef, raw organ meat etc.
Never met anyone feeding prey diet who “hung” the meat up to swing and mimic eating live prey. Dogs aren’t snakes–there’s no valid reason for them to be eating faked live prey.
The man was seriously unhinged.
When I was a little kid we lived by a man who raised hogs & that cruel SOB took the runts & threw them live and screaming into the pen with the adult hogs so he could watch them killing those helpless piglets, he also threw any dead pigs in their pen! I wouldn’t be surprised to find out those puppies died, so he fed them to the adult dogs!
Thanks both to Rhonda Burns and to Boni for their comments here. They’ve each shed light on different aspects of this horrific incident.
Dang. He knew what he was breeding for, and admitted it. If this guy doesn’t get actual prison time for this killing, there ain’t no justice in Arkansas.
It’s a small world – I saw that photo of the decapitated puppy in Reddit’s r/BanPitBulls years ago.
The consensus seemed to be that it was not the littermates who did that but a full-grown dog. Still, Sam’s message was correct: “Stop thinking you can love the genetics out of these dogs.”
That nasty email is a wonder to behold. Especially its conclusion:
“You people better stop before I suit you.”
And, emailer, there’s something that really suits me. It’s called proper English. Try it sometime.
I couldn’t agree with you more about using proper English however, it’s not a stretch to presume that people like this didn’t get an education. We used to say that people like this were bought books & taken to school only to eat the teachers! To put it more bluntly they are undoubtedly ignorant violent animals themselves and nothing will change their genetic predisposition!
Even knowing what these dogs truly were, he was unable to stop them from killing. Exemplifies why anyone who has these types of dogs should have the some containment and insurance as the owners of wild animals, and should NOT be a felon as they must own a firearm so they could dispatch the beasts if they get loose.
He not only KNEW what they were–he bred the absolute *worst* characteristics into them to genetically engineer bloodthirsty predators THEN conditioned them to be the most efficient brutal murdering predators he could possibly turn them into.
The man is a sadist.
Also, he did it because it was cheap. A clever, agile doberman, an intelligent, stubborn malinois, a biddable, working stock GSD–these all cost a considerable amount.
What he did was take cheap, mean, stupid, aggressive dogs, breed them together and declare himself a genius then gulled the public.
Keith Ranaeri of the dog world, this guy.
According to online court records (Case No. 40CR-24-1), the trial has been scheduled for 10/10/24.
Plea cutoff date: 10/11/24.