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41 thoughts on “2015 Dog Bite Fatality: 7-Year Old Boy Killed by Two Family Dogs in College Springs, Iowa

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  1. So sad, yet another cute little blonde boy right after the last one. So sorry for this family.

  2. They HAVE to be pit bulls. What else would turn on and kill at this age?
    So much for "how you raise em". This is pure genetics.

    “A release from the Page County Sheriff’s Office says the family's two 6-month-old dogs are responsible for the attack.”

  3. So damn sad. What a horrific tragedy.

    So much emphasis on "dogs" instead of naming the breed.
    Please tell me- what other breed even has the ability to kill at that age, plus the willingness to do so?

  4. The pervasive thought I had when looking at the one facebook page was
    that you can not pick your parents.

    In looking at photos and of the "interests" of the father I felt like the kid was doomed.

    Not surprising their dog of choice was a pit bull.

  5. I realize we will never know the complete truth unless one of those family members who was home that day and found the victim talks someday. They made a big deal about pit bulls did not do it…then they immediately take the older pit bull Shipper and euthanize it although they said that dog was not involved. This all seems very suspect to me. The public was not told where Shipper was during the attack. Were the 3 dogs not taken and checked for blood evidence on them? We don't know because the Sheriff didn't report it. It was shocking to find the mother did have a litter for sale back in August and that might explain the young dogs…but how easy to blame this on 2 young dogs that are "not" pits just because "they" said so….I hope this mauling is solved, but I really am not 100% sold that we have the facts.

  6. Looking at the photos, I'm sure the 'English bulldog' that is supposedly mixed in these pit bull puppies is in fact 'Olde English Bulldogge'. The latter is the recent re-creation of the original Elizabethan gripping bulldog that was thrown into an arena to shred a horse alive or rip a tethered bear to pieces for public entertainment. The 'Olde English Bulldogge' is itself a pit bull mix, with some boxer, some AmBull, and sometimes some other fighting breed/type in the mix.

    It's unlikely that a family that is into pit bulls would be interested in the Winston Churchill type wheezer of a bulldog. The puppies are, thus, most likely pit bulls mixed with a pit bull mix.

    I'd love to see a photo of the supposedly non-pit parent of the 'pups'.

    On another note, it's not so unusual for pit bull type dogs to start attacking at a very young age. A couple years ago a girl was severely mauled by two seven month old pit bulls. This is also the age when they most often start attacking canine playmates and each other. I've even seen litters where they started trying to kill each other as soon as they could crawl.

  7. These dogs do have a history of biting. Union county IA has a police report on file from the biological mother of Jerimiah Hicks child. The child had bite marks form these dogs all over his legs on 09/12/14 it was referred to DHS and was labeled unfounded, so someone has blood on their hands????

  8. I have to wonder if this current litter was a repeat breeding (as is common with backyard breeders) and how many of these related "man killers" are out in the public.

    How dispicable to have the family defending the breed of dog as a knee jerk reaction.

    I agree that these were most likely "Olde English" bulldog mixes.

    I had the same thought in looking at the dogs that killed Declan Moss. Those look either like "American Bulldogs" or "Old English Bulldogs" as opposed to the typical "American Pit Bull Terrier".

    So many names for the same type of gripping dog. It makes ones head spin. If it looks like a pit bull and acts like a pit bull its a pit bull.

    I have to believe the adult dog was involved as well since it was already put to sleep.

    This is not an accident. There should be charges brought against the parents and any other family members that were in that household.

  9. Recall this case from 2012?

    https://blog.dogsbite.org/2012/11/san-diego-eight-bulldogs-seized-after-woman-found-dead.html

    Acquaintances of the couple told the Village News that the pair sold "dozens of puppies online for upwards of $2,500 per dog due to their potential size and power as adults." They added that many of the puppies were "aggressive and difficult to handle." Regarding the marijuana grow operation under investigation by the Sheriff's Dept.'s Narcotics Task Force, one investigator told the Village News that the couple who was living in the home "has not returned since the incident."
    –snip–
    Meanwhile, The Fallbrook Village News is now calling the canines "American bulldogs." Over at San Diego Department of Animal Services, a department that now leads the United States in dog attacks resulting in human death, Lt. Dan DeSousa, who definitively stated the animals were "Olde English Bulldogges" on Friday is now stating that the owner had bred the dogs for sale, crossing Olde English Bulldogges with American Bulldogs "to make them a little bigger."

    Good old "Lieutenant Dan"

  10. Well, I'm sure he deserved it. Everyone knows when a pit bull is having a bad day.

    When my dog has a "bad day", he craps in the living room. He doesn't maul my children.

    Before finding this blog, I never imagined in a million years there was this much killing, this much hiding of breed type. When pitbull fanciers say it's the media fault, we need to turn that back on them. THEY are controlling the media now and it's oh so obvious. The only saving grace is these people are always so freaking proud of their pits that their Facebook is littered with the real truth. Their social media betrays the very message they've been using to control main media. May they always be so stupid.

  11. This has been a learning experience for many, I hope, especially those who don't understand how and why there are coverups of these pit bull attacks.

    The pit bull industry is extremist and actively organizes and lies and deceives to hide the dangers of these fighting breeds that they know are dangerous.

    The nature of pit bull advocacy is to actively and militantly works every day to quash the truth.

    They contact media, they contact law enforcement, they contact legislators, they contact everyone they can to get others to comply with deceiving, to hiding the breeds, to denying, to making up excuses.

    Thank you to those who exposed how this deceptive engineering of the pit bull truth is happening.

    With knowledge comes power for victims and victims to be.

  12. Another interesting eyeopener is the sheer number of pit bull breeders there are here, there, and everywhere.

    But there are thousands of these dogs dying in the shelters all over the country, a huge surplus.

    Pit bull "Advocacy" created this. Their hype and demand started the faddist trendiness, and the breeders pop up everywhere producing vast numbers of litters to cash in quick, unregulated and out of control.

    That's what Promotion is, which is what Best Friends Animal Society said they were doing, among many other groups, Promoting the pit bull. Promoting means selling and marketing, creating a demand, and we are seeing the consequences of that promotion. A population explosion too, and it all means only bad things.

  13. When the naming of the "breed" is left out, it seems almost always to end up being a Pitbull or some Lind of Pit mix. Like the story out of Santa Rosa County wher 4 people were bitten by a "dog", one of whom had to be airlifted to a hospital. Supposedly the people in the house got into an argument and the "dog" didn't "like" it, so it proceeded to attack, resulting in serious injury to at least one person. The "dog" was stabbed by someone in the house to stop it's biting. The article said the breed couldn't be told, interested parties would have to contact SR Animal Control, if they wanted to find out the dog's "breed". Huh? That is some sort of state secret? If so, why? Probably because the breed is Pitbull, which is protected by the vast, crazy Pitbull alliance.

  14. So, the Cult of Dog strikes again. One of the main rules of the cult is…

    …never, ever name the type of dog. Even when it kills.

  15. This is so awful! Cover up all around! Why why why????? The Examiner dog cult has convinced themselves that the child was murdered and the dogs were taking the fall. The comments are awful, and show the very worst side of pit lovers.

    Colleen, guess what? Sandy never said they were NOT pit bulls. She says so on her FB page! (And didn't think to delete that damning post. Still there!)Great now people are saying I said the dogs were not pits. I NEVER said anything about the breed of dogs and didn't want to get into that. Thank you for whoever is spreading falsehoods.

  16. Putmeincharge, the adult dog bit the homeowners own son. No one did anything about it. That may be why it was out to sleep. Maybe they finally realized it was a bad idea. You would think the killers would be covered in blood when help arrived. O

  17. Can anyone from the family of the older boy that was bitten on the legs shedd any light on where the older pit bull Shipper was at the time of the attack? Was he locked in a room in the house or maybe in a pen outside? How far from the house was the attack on the victim? Was it inside a fence or in the open yard? I would just like to know these things.

  18. I agree with you, Opalina. The comments on Examiner are horrendous. I made the mistake of reading them, and I can honestly say that i felt sick. Blaming the child, calling him a "brat," jokes about the child being dead in the dirt, that the child should have been euthanized instead of the dogs, and much more. Sick, hateful comments by people who claim to be "animal lovers" and "dog welfare" advocates. These pit bull advocates do not consider a childs death even a little bit important compared to that of the dogs who murdered him. It is so sad and I have to wonder about the psychology of owning one of these dogs. It is definately not normal. Even the ones who do seem to (as an afterthought) show some sympathy for the child still feel that the dogs should be spared and not be thought of as bad. We are dealing with a whole different "breed" of humans in my opinion.

  19. So there's a violent death of a child, no investigation other than a sheriff walking door to door asking if they've been seen the dogs loose (what?) and then hiding the breed and hiding the fact that these are pit bulls, and saying it's mysterious

    A previous complaint of a child bitten by these dogs at that address, but not interested in anything other than a fast, quick coverup.

    Organized activity by some of those connected to this situation to cover up truth and hide the breeds and potential issues, despite the fact that they were breeding aggressive pit bulls and selling them, and exposing other children in the community to them.

    This is a violent death. A formal police investigation is just the start for a responsible authority system.

    How could the death of a child mean so little here?

    Normal procedure is a law enforcement investigation to uncover the truth, rather than law enforcement activity to hide the truth and sweep all this into secrecy and hiding.

    Meanwhile they still have a pit bull in the house and children.

    So clearly the interest here is, let's repeat this, and maybe get some children in the community killed next.

    Let's not determine how this happened and why, so there can be a repeat.

    What kind of community works so hard to protect the interests of fighting breed breeders and some individuals in the community who adhere to a cultist following?

  20. The "English Bulldog" was clearly added to the female dog seller's description as bait to try to sell dogs online

    There is no "English Bulldog" in those puppies at all

    It sounds like even with the bait misidentification, they still got stuck with two puppies they couldn't sell, that grew up to kill the child.

    They also knew that female mother dog was vicious and they had her euthanized, because the next time she attacked (how many bites or attacks have their been, I wonder) they could not claim ignorance and they would not find a sheriff so willing to cover it up then

  21. I'm so angry. I'm just so angry to see that this situation has a law enforcement officer involved in this coverup and he just will not stop trying to shut down any proper investigation so that this can be swept under the rug.

    I wanted to see what the story was with the previous bite report.

    The Omaha newspaper came out with an update 8 hours ago.

    http://www.omaha.com/news/home-where-iowa-boy-was-killed-by-dogs-had-previous/article_e156284c-0597-5610-acac-196db974b1d6.html

    The father of the bitten boy and owner of these dogs, Jeremiah Hicks, now says this

    "Hicks disputed the allegation when reached by phone Monday evening.
    “To the best of my knowledge, it is not true,” he said. “As far as I know, he was not bit.”

    This is a little lawyer type word game designed to appear as though it's a denial, but in reality he is saying he didn't know- the child could very well have been bitten. Jeremiah Hicks doesn't know one way or the other.

    Why isn't Amber Braymen interviewed?

    So then instead of opening up a real investigation and calling in unbiased state experts, the Page County Iowa Sheriff Lyle Palmer, who had originally deceived about the breed and stated his intent to just refuse to investigate a violent and brutal death of a child, other than asking a few neighbors if the dogs has been loose, and intended to shut down any investigation over the weekend, doubles down on the coverup.

    "The sheriff said the dog involved in the bite report was not one of the dogs that mauled Malaki. He said he doesn’t expect any charges to be filed related to the mauling or the other bite report.
    “You always have to be on the alert no matter what kind of animal you have,” he said. “Animals bite — we have to take care to be aware of that.”

    Wait, Sheriff Lyle Palmer. Hicks just said he thinks no one was bitten. You now said the child WAS bitten. Mr. Hicks, by your statement, has lied? And you still want to stop any kind of investigation?

  22. From http://www.omaha.com/news/home-where-iowa-boy-was-killed-by-dogs-had-previous/article_e156284c-0597-5610-acac-196db974b1d6.html

    The sheriff's office in Clarinda Iowa that is referred to in the comment, where the bite report and DHS report were taken, is the Page County Sheriff's department run by Sheriff Lyle Palmer.

    "DHS is always a day late and a dollar short , for sure a child either has to be close to dead or dead before something is done , i am the grandmother to the child that was also bitten by one or both of these dogs , i have also made several calls to DHS in the past as to the cliving conditions in that home and the fears i had for my grandson , and all fell on deaf ears , when will the Department of Child Protective services stand up and be accounted for their own faults and when will they begin to do their jobs and protect the children , how many more children will die before something is done"

    "How odd that my daughter takes the DHS findings of the report she made many months ago about these dogs biting and leaving visible teeth marks and scratches on y grandsons legs to the Clarinda Sheriffs office and now the Sheriffs office is claiming these are not the same dogs that bit my grandson , so someone please tell me what the hell is this big cover up all about ….the dogs that killed that 7 year old boy ARE the same dogs that bit my grandson .The TRUTH needs to come out"

  23. One of the more hopeful aspects in this case, if I have my facts right, is this was a "blended" family. As in same baby daddy, different mothers. So, according to my work in family law, there will be no concerted effort in covering up this. 1/2 of the family will be singing like a canary.

  24. Great Job dogsbite.org !!! I tried to blog this story and about tied my brain in a knot. To the mother and extended family of the boy that was bitten in Sept…Good for you for speaking out and standing up for your child. We all know custody has to go through the courts and that takes time,sometimes years, but it seems to me that this is unusual circumstances……One more thing…WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENGLISH BULLDOG ???

  25. Wow. I think I'm going to have to draw a diagram of these family relationships. One thing is clear though- none of these people act like grown ups. And why on Gods green earth does the father still have custody of the 10 year old?

  26. Shipper was never euthanized like it was reported he was. Road was euthanized and Road is the one who attacked my son in September 2014. I turned it in to Afton Sheriff John Coulter, I then reported it to Page County Department of Human Sevices as well as the Page County Sheriffs Department! It was unfounded by DHS and has been sitting on the Page County Attorneys desk since!! I want to know why it was not looked into!! I am still trying to understand why they still have a pit bull in that home after two pit bull mix dogs fatally attacked an innocent child!! I am scared for my son knowing that he has to be back in that home and environment after the traumatizing horror he found!! Lyle Palmer is one of the most corrupt Sheriffs I have ever met and known, he has lied and done nothing but try and cover up the truth!! He needs to be taken off this case and there needs to be a fresh set of eyes and ears investigating this case… I will not rest until Lyle Palmer and the County Attorney that seen the report and did nothing about it are off this case and my son is out of that home!!

  27. Yes thank you to the Mom of the 10 year old! I didn't mean to come down on the whole lot- it's obvious his mother and stepfather are full grown! It seems like they are the only ones though. What with the other mom leaving snakes (wtf) and dogs at the house and whatnot.

    I am so glad they went through all the proper channels when their boy was bitten.

    • Thank you GtownV, I am going through the proper channels and utilizing every resource I have at this point and trying to get my son out of there. It is a battle and it is one I will not give up until my son is home where he belongs and I know he will be safe!! I will not rest until justice is served, I am making it personal mission to make things a living hell for Lyle Palmer and the County Attorneys!!! HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A MOTHER ON A MISSION AND PISSED OFF!!!

  28. Expecting that 10yr old to go back to the house where his step/half (?) brother was killed, and a pit *still* lives, is insanity. If I was that kids mom, I would be enraged.

    And whats up w the Dad? I know he is mourning, but get rid of that other pit FFS!!!! He had custody, so obviously he knows his (10yr old) son, why would he expect him to come back to that situation? I'm sure kid is terrified. Who wouldn't be? How can Dad (and the mom of the deceased) even stand to look at that other beast?

    And "Two Faced" and "Satan"- seriously? They name these monsters appropriately, but then have the gall to wonder how ever in the world this attack happened? GTFO. The woman the originally owned "Road" posted f u haters, pits are the best!, like all other nutters do. I wonder if she still feels this way?

    If nothing else, maybe people will learn NOT to take in other peoples pit bulls!!! I once took in a pit from my BIL, and it ended in a disaster, so I get it. (it killed a friends dog in my living room, and I got to kill it to stop the rampage-awful).

    Such a tragedy. Not a surprising one, but horrible none the less. Adding in the failure of DHS and AC, and the hiding on info by that sherifff, and it's a real mess.

  29. You GO girl, Outraged! Those pit bulls don't have a thing on a Mama Bear. Your little boy was traumatized- surely his social worker or therapist can advise the Courts that he not go back there. Especially while it still has BEASTS in the home. Shouldn't this be like- a temporary order or something? I'm not a lawyer- but I am a mother and I would be outraged too.

  30. It would probably be useful to have a psychologist certify that the surviving son can't be forced to live with or to have contact with *any* dog due to the trauma. You may have more success getting a judge to order 'no dog at all' in the father's home, or else he loses custody. Even some judges are playing politically correct in this pit bull thing.

    This would also prevent the father from getting rid of the pit bull, then bringing in an American Bulldog, Cane Corso or some other pit bull type.

  31. Saw a pitbull attack today, never knew how dangerous these dogs are. Sorry for the.family of this attack.

  32. All of the dogs, including puppies, should have been euthanized. All those dogs, and the offspring are dangerous. Why would anyone put the other children living in that house in danger? The parents should be charged with manslaughter, and the Sheriff should loose his job. Whomever investigated, and decided that was a okay place for a child to live should be also charged along with those stupid ass parents. Xxx

  33. So just out of curiosity, is there an intelligent reason why this case hasn't resulted in the same charges as that of Jena Wright? It would seem the similarities in the cases are undeniable and both are in Iowa. Owners of the dogs knew there was a history of aggression in the mother pit to the two killer "puppies", yet they continued to expose these children to the danger despite more than one complaint from one child's mother to State officials. I'd say that qualifies as willful neglect at least.

    Is it just a case of a different county with a prosecutor who chose not bring it before a grand jury? I'd be livid if I had a DA that failed to even try to hold them accountable for a child's horrific death.

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