Sharon Baldwin, 60, died after being mauled by a pit bull brought to her home a week earlier.
Mauling by Canine
Fort Worth, TX - On April 12, a 60-year old woman died after being mauled by a dog, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office. Sharon Baldwin died due to "mauling by canine," states the examiner's website. The manner of death was an accident. The attack occurred on March 28 in the 800 block of East Hammond Street at Baldwin's home. A man who stayed at her home told animal control officers he had taken in the stray dog several days before the attack.
According to the Star-Telegram, "authorities" blamed the attack on Baldwin by either rolling over the dog in her wheelchair or falling on the canine, prompting the dog to attack. The dog attacked her arm, shoulder and neck. So far, there are five red flags in this news report. One, the unfamiliar dog was added to Baldwin's home just days before the attack. Two, no one witnessed the attack, thus it cannot be determined if she rolled over the dog in her wheelchair or fell on the canine.
Can it be determined if the dog dragged her out of her wheelchair, as we have seen multiple pit bulls do during fatal attacks in the past, including earlier this year? Three, according to the Star-Telegram, city officials said the dog had been staying at the home "without any problems" prior to the attack, despite the stray dog only being known to the victim for several days. Four, the dog attacked her neck. Five, the April 13 Star-Telegram article did not report the breed of dog.
Our concern is less directed at the newspaper. The entity can only report information that the unnamed officials have released. In this case, as we have seen in many other fatal dog maulings, the information released by "authorities" has been insufficient and frankly, cruel towards the victim. It is unclear if the "wheelchair or falling" information is even valid or just a "speculation game." The start of the attack was either witnessed or it was not witnessed. There is no gray in-between.
Provocation in an unwitnessed violent dog attack should never be based on speculation. Speculation should never be reported as "fact" either.
Pit Bull Euthanized
On April 14, the Star-Telegram reported the pit bull was euthanized Monday. The dog had been in the custody of animal control since the attack and was "evaluated before it was euthanized." Red flag number six. What were the results of this evaluation? That information was not released. Finally, the last red flag is the unidentified man who lived with the disabled Baldwin, who brought an unfamiliar pit bull into the home he shared with her. That mistake that cost Baldwin her life.
CBS DFW reported additional details. The unidentified man found the dog a week before the attack, according to officials. He was apparently caring for the dog until its unidentified owner came forward. The relationship between the man and Baldwin is unknown. There were no issues between the two residents and the dog until something happened Saturday that led to the attack. Thus, leading investigators to speculate the "wheelchair or falling" scenarios caused the attack.
"Officials learned there seemed to be no issues between the two residents and the dog until that Saturday when something happened that led to the attack. Investigators believe the woman may have either rolled over the dog with her wheelchair or fell on top of it."1 - CBS Dallas/Fort Worth
In a reverse course action, we are now taking back that our concern was not more directed at the Star-Telegram. The CBS DFW report contains more reliable information. Investigators typically always want to know "what led to a violent dog attack," even though most fatal pit bull maulings are either unprovoked or the stimuli was minor. For all we (or anyone knows), Baldwin fell out of her wheelchair for any number of reasons and the pit bull attacked her completely unprovoked.
The cause of death of Sharon Baldwin, 60-years old, of Fort Worth, was "mauling by canine."
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View the DogsBite.org Google State Map: Texas Fatal Pit Bull Attacks.Related articles:
02/05/20: 2020 Dog Bite Fatality: Man Who Uses Wheelchair Killed by Pack of Dogs
03/29/16: 2016 Dog Bite Fatality: Pit Bulls Kill Visiting Elderly Family Member in Charlotte
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 some next level scooby doo pibble mystery club BS. Let’s face it, it’s much more likely this dog had yet another idiopathic explosion but of course Investigators have to INVENT unlikely scenarios to create a provocation when there very likely wasn’t one to begin with.
Pibble apologia in full use here. BARF!
Yes, indeed, as Colleen said, the monster, mostly likely dragged the victim out of her chair to do the job. These are hateful creatures. There’s no other breed I know of that attacks the disabled, the elderly and children as much as pits. They go for the vulnerable. And, these pit-nutters think they make good “service” dogs. Maybe if the “service” is murder for hire?
I don’t know who you write a police report and speculate as to the trigger of a fatal pit bull attack in an unwitnessed attack. How do you put this crap in the record? How do you blame the victim, especially in the case of a questionable dog that may have been in the home for only a few days? If this came from the unrelated man living in the home, this is his way of deflecting blame from himself because one way or another, he was the reason that animal came to be in the home. How he came to stay at the home is another question that needs to be answered. Did he pay rent? Was he taking advantage of her? How long has he been there? Did the dog come with him from the start? What exactly was their relationship? I am going to guess he lived there for free in exchange for helping this disabled woman out.
This kind of victim-blaming for provoking is never tolerated in rape but it is with dog attacks. No one gets away with slut-shaming the victim of rape saying she was asking for it because her clothes were racy. No one. And no one should. But somehow, this is tolerated and held up as a standard when pits attack (and they always do).
Quote snip: “the information released by “authorities” has been insufficient and frankly, cruel towards the victim.”
All in frantic effort to make the attacker the victim, and turn the victim into the perpetrator. If the official authorities can not swap the perpetrator and the victim, the government authorities are stuck with the reality that some canines are legal to possess and they are unpredictably dangerous. Swapping the two makes all that go away. The dog must have been provoked, if the authorities are successful in their frantic effort to blame the victim.
Bravo! Well put. “If the official authorities can not swap the perpetrator and the victim, the government authorities are stuck with the reality that some canines are legal to possess [but] re unpredictably dangerous.”
So let me get this straight. No one, not one person, absolutely NO ONE, other than God saw this attack actually happen, yet somehow these “authorities” are just assuming that the victim fell on the dog to “provoke” the attack? A former stray pit bull with unknown history is brought into a house with two people, one of which it later kills, with no human witnesses, and the FIRST guesses are that the elderly woman provoked the dog????? Literally what in the hell is that logic? Who are these “authorities”, the pit nutter alliance?
Well, since they want to guess what happened with no evidence, I’ll do the same. The stray pit bull likely had aggression issues since it’s a pit bull and was taken into the home on a whim without any really socialization to the residents. Since the residents weren’t familiar with the ‘dog’ and its triggers and we know that anything under the sun can trigger a pit bull, the dog probably snapped without warning because of something extremely minor and it sadly ended this woman’s life.
It’s sad that in 2020 people are still blaming pit bull victims and giving excuses for vicious dogs attacking.
Pit Bulls attack with no warning or provocation! Why are they trying to blame the victim for what they may have done! This makes me sick!
Years ago I sold a white GSD puppy which had no fleas on it. The buyer returned the puppy absolutely covered with fleas.
The vet wrote in the record that I had sold the puppy loaded with fleas. This is another case where the person put the blame on an innocent party.
Blame it on the person who isn’t present as in the case here. Rolling a wheelchair over a dog’s paw or tail shouldn’t.result in any dog bites. Nor should falling out of a wheelchair. Another question I have is whether the dog stopped the attack on its own or was someone present who stopped the attack. Was the man in the house at the time of the attack?
But here’s the deal. People pick these stray pits up and don’t know a darn thing about the breed or the dog in question. There was a story last year where a woman in Yakima WA (pits are banned there?) who picked up a stray pit. She left it in the backyard to play with her son. Whereupon, the pit bull promptly mauled the poor little guy. He sustained fairly serious injuries. This business of picking up strays wandering along the side of the road is like picking up a serial killer…you never know.
I am surprised they didn’t just assume she called the dog “the n word”. That would make as much sense as their other excuses.
Thé « roommate « is possibly liable for elder abuse. Was the victim really able to consent to having the pit in the house? There are so many stories of pits mauling children and elderly that it makes me suspicious that some sort of scam might have been going on. Pit owner incarcerated? Pits reliably likely to do what pits do when confronted by weakness? Let’s put the pit in the house & see what happens.
Do you know how many times my kids have stumbled over, accidentally stepped on, or even fallen on my dogs? Accidents happen, toddlers and young kids can be uncoordinated. My dogs have the lovely habit of laying right on the dang way. And yet, never once has either of them acted aggressively or violently in response. Not ever. They generally look like they’ve done something wrong and take a submissive response. I’ve stepped on their paws or tails before by accident. (One of them loves to be on top of you). No growling, no snapping. But, I have normal dogs. I don’t have dogs that were bred for the sole purpose of killing.
To blame this poor woman for inducing her own violent, bloody, excruciating death by accidentally rolling over the mauler’s tail or falling on it, is absolutely reprehensible. No animal should be excused for acting in an unacceptable manner because a human “provoked” it. How disgusting.
Pit hags and the rest of the unhinged pit apologists love to say that pits are the sweetest, most gentle breed that “wouldn’t hurt a fly”, but when a pit fulfills it’s genetics, they’re the first to say it had to have been provoked in some manner. It had to have been abused or neglected. But abused and neglected pits need to be saved and loved. I have never seen such double speak out of a group of people.
This poor, innocent woman lost her life because someone made the terrible decision to bring the mauler into their home. Pit bulls with known histories are bad enough. Ones with unknown histories are even worse. Like playing roulette with two barrels instead of one.
My condolences to her family. Awful under normal circumstances, even worse in the current state of the world.
Yet another senseless loss. My heart goes out to the victim and her family. I am also appalled at the amount of victim blaming, however, the authorities are getting more creative in their speculation. They didn’t use the old standbys: the victim must have had a seizure, or sneezed, or scared the dog….craziness. Please, everyone, stay safe.
A dog who attacks a target’s throat is trying to kill. So many deadly dog attacks on adults involve severe bites to the arms and legs because the dog is trying to drag the target down, so it can access the throat. With a seated victim who can’t stand, that problem comes pre-solved. It is amazing to me that this is a regular thing in dogs now. You literally never saw a dog attack on disabled people – the few serious dog attacks that occured involved able-bodied people who came into contact with dogs in some tension-filled manner. A child wanders within reach of a chained dog, an adult walking across a neighbor’s property and encountering their dogs. This situation of a dog inside a home killing a familiar human who is no threat to it or its territory is utterly novel. I think that’s why there’s always insane speculation – authorities realize that this is inexplicable, and try to find something to say to reporters. Unfortunately, their lame excuse ends up normalizing what is an extraordinary, brand-new dog behavior.
“Brand new” only from a pet-keeping perspective because of the explosion of pit bulls being kept as household pets. It was always possible in pit bulls but the dog fighters knew all too well to never keep their dogs in households.
I re-conditioned a battered GSD that had cigar burns all over, broken ribs and was so terrified it screamed when a human came near it. It was a nervous wreck.
After some hard work, a year later, a child fell out of her chair at my table atop the dog. The dog let out a tiny growl and ran off. Because beneath all the mess, there was an actual loveable dog, underneath.
That is what a normal dog does. It doesn’t eat elderly people in wheelchairs for ANY reason. That’s not “bad treatment” that’s a fundamentally, mentally unstable, dog.
This was my sister who lived at the house with her boyfriend for several years. I am not sure as to what happened to trigger the dog. But I do not blame her. I blame Chuck who brought the unknown dog into the house not knowing where it came from or how it was treated. Especially being a pitbull. How stupid can you be to do something so irresponsibly. Why not take him to a shelter? Stupidity on someone’s part is the blame. You don’t bring a potencial threat into your home with a vunerable person that it may harm. I would have more brains than that. He was responsible no matter how you look at it.