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32 thoughts on “2023 Dog Bite Fatality: Man Killed by Own Dog that was on Trial for Attacking Neighbor in Livingston County, Michigan

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  1. I’m actually surprised that this doesn’t happen more often when people choose to keep their maulers! What percentage of pit bulls are taken to the shelters for aggressive behavior and then adopted to another unsuspecting victim? Or on the care of the pit nutter another dead ” rescue angel”!

    • Exactly, Rose.

      The problem is, even back decades ago, most big dogs in shelters that were more than a year old are what I’d call, “brat dogs”.

      They weren’t abused, that’s an extremely small number of those in shelters. Of the hundreds I saw and those I worked with there, only two would be what I’d honestly assess as “abused”. They didn’t bite anyone, they were terrified of people and covered in scars.

      Most were energetic and rambunctious, under-exercised and under-trained. Often this was pure confusion. I see this a lot, even today. Owner rewards bad behaviour, won’t correct it or don’t know how to do so effectively so the dog, being a social animal–has no idea what it’s doing, is actually *wrong*. YouTube influencers posing as dog trainers are just making this worse.

      Add into that mix, pitbulls who are genetically wired to attack other dogs and maul anything that gets in their way if they get frustrated. That’s not the dog’s fault–it’s a breeding flaw.

      It’s like there’s a death of reality. Science doesn’t matter.

      Genetics be dammed, understanding behavioral conditioning doesn’t matter–it’s all about the feefees. It feels “mean” to correct a dog or it’s “racist” to say that humans engineered a dog that kills.

      Big meanies are “suppressing” the dogs’ behavior. Darned skippy I am or they’d be peeing on my carpet.

      Too many academics no longer study facts and put forward conclusions. They study feefees then cherry-pick their favorite sources to support their feefees.

      That’s why common sense about pitbulls is in a death spiral.

        • Yah, “peepads” are available everywhere. If you can’t housetrain a dog and are too lazy to research how, or even ask your neighbours, I have zero idea why you have a dog in the first place.

          Yes, sick and old dogs may struggle to manage their potty habits (sometimes to their great embarassment) but any healthy puppy over 6 months takes *two weeks* to potty train–even older dogs who were never potty trained before. Most of the teen dogs I’ve owned, were NOT potty trained when I got them. They were–within two weeks.

          This is just proof of what I keep saying. We’ve lost the dog plot, as a society.

        • Once people stopped using dogs to do jobs they were making them unhappy & their lives weren’t very fulfilling! I own a dog, he has a job and he loves it. He brings me water, picks up anything I drop, last night i fell in the bathroom, no one could hear me calling for help withiout him i would have been on the bathroom floor all night long! If someone does his job & brings my water bottle in the morning he becomes visibly upset about it! He likes having a job & being needed! People can teach their dogs to compete & other things that would get them working & learning to be well-behaved! Like children dogs don’t have to be abused to be well manured but it takes a lot of effort! It also takes the right breed for the environment, obviously dogs bred to kill don’t belong in this world!

  2. This exemplifies why vicious dogs cannot be returned to their owners. Dog should have been put down after the FIRST attack. Glad the second time only took out the idiot that owned it.

  3. Well well I guess he was one of those pitbull believer pitbull are misunderstood dogs it not the breed it the owner.I wonder if people still defending the pitbull he was a bad owner he was dogfighting him the pitbull was stress blah blah maybe if they put his dog down after the first attack he still be alive.do I feel bad that he died nope.

  4. I’m going to pile on and say, I’m glad the owner got the brunt of his foolish choice to keep this dog after it attacked his neighbor so viciously. I wish we saw this happen more often when the idiot, thoughtless owners fight to keep their maulers.

  5. What is it with seniors and these big, honking, uncontrollable molasser breeds?

    They’re either being slaughtered by someone else’s or for some reason, think they can control a dog that weighs more than they do that can haul a car.

    I kind of “get it” if they had a big dog since their 50’s and it got old and grouchy along with them but that isn’t the case, most of the time.

    And we are from a time when BE was practiced pretty regularly.

    Growing up I can’t remember a single person ever killed by their own–or anyone else’s dog. Most dogs ran loose.

    This has only been prevalent in the past couple of decades.

    What happened to the old geezers wandering around with their beagle and spaniel companions and a pocketful of biscuits?

    • In rural and small-town areas especially, there seems to be a phenomenon of elderly men having a late life crisis– not with sports cars and young girlfriends, but with trying to be a tough-guy threatening jerk.

      “I’m gonna buy a huge blacked-out pickup and cover it in Punisher logo stickers, wear t-shirts with overtly threatening slogans, open carry the biggest gun I can, and buy the most intimidating, meanest dog! That’ll show you, Death!!”

      • Ive seen them in every flavour honestly.

        The worst offender was a huge hunting breed that they let the small 11 year old walk.

    • They’re being brainwashed into thinking that they are rescuers. My own mother fell for this line of BS, which was fed to her by her local SPCA.

      Fortunately, she never “rescued” any molosser-type dogs, but her final dog was a very obese lab that growled and bared its teeth at me more than once.

      Suffice it to say that I was very wary of it and wasn’t the least bit sorry to learn about its (natural) death.

    • And the flip side are these attractive 40+ women wearing yoga pants with one of these monsters on the end of a leash. (Some tethered to one those horrible retractable ones.) I saw a woman matching that description yesterday with a huge, pitbull beast on a leash. It was a crowded area. The mauler stood by her on very high alert. There were lots of small children and lap dogs in the vicinity. I suppose she somehow felt “safe” with that thing. As I drove by, I got the chills thinking what if IT got triggered and broke loose from her tiny, manicured hands. Old men and young women have no business trying to control these time-bombs.

    • Theres something very disturbing about the trend- I see it too with middle-class young people that want to be trendy as well.

      I suspect the social cohesion, common sense and stigma is what kept people away from clearly dangerous dog breeds in the cities.

  6. I wish there was a photo or at least a detailed description of the “mastiff mix” used as a “livestock guardian”, as too many people will infer that an actual livestock guardian dog breed such as a great Pyrenees, Anatolian shepherd etc was involved and as a working livestock guardian dog enthusiast, I’d like clarification. Huge difference in breed traits/safety/purpose between a well bred LGD and a junkyard dog.

  7. By scrolling this page you can see more ignorant people who put their newborns over dangerous dogs, under and around them, whit this “heart melting” nonsense

    “Canine Bodyguard

    No one is coming near this young one unless his bodyguard says it’s ok! This intimidating canine is so gentle around the newest member of his family but wants you to know that nothing is going to happen to this baby.”

    The “protector” is XXXL American bully and on another photo are “old friends” Pitbull and a toddler. (Until the dog decide that they are not)

    https://www.heraldweekly.com/cuteness-overload-these-babies-with-their-furry-friends-will-melt-your-heart/49?xcmg=1

    • Matrona, I’ve seen these images so many times, and it’s always terrifying. I learned from Colleen, this is called “resource guarding.” Dogs do it too with food and toys. I have a friend who has a pit mix and a new baby. The dog hovers around that baby constantly. She thinks it’s “protecting” this tiny creature. It is not. I’ve tried talking to her about this but she will not listen. I hope to God her dog does not get triggered. I wish people knew the facts. Those huge jaws of death are inches away from that precious little life. What a horrific roll of the dice.

      • People don’t understand the dog isn’t protecting the baby so much as saving it for later an making sure no one else eats it first.

  8. If the owner of this dog had euthanized it after it nearly killed someone they would still be alive.

    Instead they sided with their dog and it killed them.

    I feel bad for the other person who was attacked.
    All I feel towards the owner of this aggressive dog is regret that he wasn’t attacked before the innocent person was.

    It seems odd that so little is said about the earlier attack.

    Maybe the owner thought his dog was “doing his job”, maybe he thought the other person must have offended his dog in some way that justified the attack.

    It seems obvious he was sure his dog posed no risk to him.

    Turns out he was wrong, dead wrong.

    • I can’t hammer on this point, enough.

      If someone has not trained their dog to work in protection work *it has no business protecting them, their tv or their wallet wallet*. It’s a COMPANION dog.

      As a companion, it’s job is to be friendly, safe to be around and generally trained to be obedient and helpful and sometimes, amusing.

      The reason a dog should not be acting out on protection instincts isn’t a dog problem, it’s a training problem with the owner. They aren’t trained to handle the kinds of situations that arise when the dog goes into guarding mode.

      Letting a dog guard anything without training is like walking around with a live hand grenade with no military training. It’s more likely to blow up in your face than it is to stop a break-in.

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