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42 thoughts on “2015 Dog Bite Fatality: Port Huron Woman, 22, Fatally Attacked by a Pit Bull

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  1. Seriously? Two maulings two days in a row? And people still don't think there's a problem? Ugh, this is ridiculous.

    Prayers for this woman's family.

    • He almost seems glad she's gone. That poor little baby girl she leaves behind. God help that poor kid.HE clearly plans to raise her in a mauler home.

  2. That does not mean that the dog had any rights to attack and rip her throat out. This dog is your sisters property and I hope she's sued. Her dog killed a human. A guard dog barks and alerts you when there is danger. What? Is your sister a damn thug and worried about killers on her property?

  3. Guard dogs notify their owners of intruders. They don't rip throats and ears off. What if that was a child? I hope your sister is charged and sued for this death

  4. When an attack occurs in a pit bull's backyard, it's "protective" instinct, BUT…When the.dead.victim is a.baby or small kid…sure looks like.it.should NOT.COUNT AS GUARD DOG BEHAVIOR. Does not.the same standard apply when the victim is a.small, unarmed woman? No "protection" system that kills.harmless, helpless, hapless beings that accidentally happen onto a family's yard should be.acceptable, and seem like they should border on illegal use.of.lethal force.

  5. Wait, the finance himself had two pits of his own? Does he still have them even after two of the same maulers killed his fiance? I sure hope not, but judging by that Facebook post I doubt it. Seems like a typical nutter. Now I'm worried for the child.

    I pray he has them euthanized for the safety of his daughter and everyone else.

  6. That fence is ton very tall and the corner of it is in disrepair. Neighors said the dogs routinely jumped the fence. These dogs probably jumped out and grabbed her back into the yard. Pitbulls pull adult victims around like they are tiny rag dolls and this woman would be easy to pull back over the fence. She was tiny. Another murderering dog own gets off scott free IMO

  7. THe video shows VERY OBVIOUS curling where the fence is being bent down from obvious repeating jumping. I have a fence like this.. not in this disrepair but a pitbull managed to squeeze through my gate and get into my yard and my gate was not in disrepair like this one. I do have areas on my fence IDENTICAL to the curling on this fence where my now deceased dog that was a jumper would jump. I believe very much that they need to do a lot of investigation of that fence, the plants and the alley as it is obvious the dogs have been jumping and they probably pulled the tiny woman first identified as a child back into their yard.

  8. If I decided to use lethal force against a non threatening person going through my yard the media and the public would be outraged.

    A pit bull does the same thing and is being "loyal and protective"

    Unless someone owns a trained protection dog, it'd NOT the dogs job to protect its the humans job to protect the dog.

    What a crazy world we live in.

  9. Fishy fence climbing story for sure! I doubt she climbed over. Especially bc she was obviously around Pitbulls on a daily basis. Could that be what the fight was about? Worrying about the safety of her daughter with those dogs around? We all know how nutters react when you criticize their sweet harmless beast… BELLIGERENT!

  10. I see the fiance is a full blown nutter as are his friends.
    You just can not fix stupid.

  11. She was running from a domestic violence situation or she was drunk/intoxicated. Or both.

    (Not that drinking means you deserve to get mauled to death. I'm just applying Occam's Razor to this hideous event.)

    Why did this shitbag pit owner have to be summoned from his house by the bystander who was trying to help?

    • "Good" game-insane gladiator dogs like this one can fight silently, so the attack can be unnoticed by others even nearby.

      Perhaps she just got close enough for the pit to grab her and pull her over the sagging fence and into the yard.

  12. The more I think about it and read other comments I am inclined to believe the dogs drug her into the yard or we are not getting the whole story. Even when I was in my 20's I don't think I could have climbed up and over a chain link fence barefoot.

  13. This sounds similar to the false Police report that the dog owner that threatened Scatty and then later abandoned Dominic in the alley filed.

  14. I think the key is the neighbor who witnessed part of the attack and intervened. Barefoot and cyclone fence climbing for someone like her is not plausible. Someone is not telling the truth. Most certainly authorities have underestimated what a pit bull is capable of, which includes latching into her neck (say she leaned over the fence to pet it) and yanking her over that dilapidated fence.

  15. After studying the pictures, I highly doubt she jumped the fence. She was barefoot and the ground is muddy, covered with feces. You can see the track ateoubd the inside of the fence were the dogs would pace. She was used to pits, they had two. She likely was upset, distressed, walking by and the dogs came out and stood on hind legs at the fence in front of her. She probably went over to pet them, possible give the pit a kiss when it latched onto her neck and pulled her over the fence.

  16. I think that could be exactly what happened. Dogs standing on hind legs, she has pit bulls and decides she's going to give it some petting and she got yanked over the fence.

  17. How do we know he didn't throw her over the fence? She was small and they were having an argument…

  18. Just another surreal update:
    ——–
    Donnellon said the two adult dogs and one puppy were euthanized before the owner submitted a letter rescinding the consent Friday afternoon through a lawyer. “At that point, we stopped and returned the three puppies to the lawyer,” Donnellon said. “Regardless of the letter, the adult dogs would not have been returned to him. We would have sought a court order to move forward.”

  19. I'm trying to decide if revealing the parentage of these puppies will make them more or less adoptable. I've known some idiot nutters who would really groove on having the offspring of two killer dogs.
    Those pups should have been put down. Anyone with a basic knowledge of dog breeding will know that they are likely to be aggressive. I don't know which would be worse: adoption by an ignorant person who doesn't know their past, or does, but doesn't realize how dangerous this makes them, or adoption by a person who does know they are likely to be killers, and wants them anyway. There is no positive scenario here.

    RIP Rebecca Hardy

  20. Suicide? SUICIDE?

    Unless she left a note declaring "I'm going to climb the fence and get in with a bunch of pit bulls because I KNOW they'll kill me", I say the ME's on crack.

    She was killed by the dogs, right? No chance she ran out in front of a car, or shot herself, then climbed over the fence to expire with the intention of feeding the poor starving pitties out of sympathy for their plight? (sarcasm)

  21. No one even witnessed her entering the yard. It's all theoretical. What if she dropped her phone or earring over the fence? That makes more sense than suicide by dog. This guy does remind me of Darla Nepora's husband too. I can't believe her mom would defend the dogs after they murdered her daughter. The lack of humanity in Pitbull lovers absolutely sickens me!

  22. Do the nutters even realize that by stating this was a suicide they're straight up saying going near a pit is a death wish? At least there's some truth in that.

    Unfortunately, this woman liked pits. Her fiance has two and his family has plenty. I highly doubt she went in that yard expecting the maulers to kill her. And what on earth evidence to they have to even be able to call this suicide? Even if they were pits, most people do not commit suicide by dog.

    Also, speaking of the husband, this is like Darla Napora all over again. His wife is killed by these beasts, and he and his family keep defending them and saying they're harmless. I fear for the safety of his daughter.

  23. Suicide?

    Seriously?

    How in the world did they decide that.

    Besides as a pit owner and with the rantings of her fiance I would presume she was in the pit bull cult as well. If it was suicide she should have thrown herself into a yard full of Chihuahuas as everyone knows "they bite more". One does not "chum" for pit bulls. How would she have any idea the dogs would kill her?

  24. Colleen,

    Does it look like its possible (as in the above comment) from what you know that the dogs pulled this lady into the fence? Its similar to other pit bull attacks I've read in which pit bulls pull their victims into their yards.

    Perhaps she did go in the yard with two dogs. She lived with pit bulls, maybe she knew these dogs. Maybe they wagged their tails and looked friendly, or maybe they were fighting, looked to be in some sort of trouble…just thinking of reasons why.

    Suicide does not make sense here at all.

  25. Mike Ruona posted on WDIV facebook page:

    "It was my girlfriends sister that was killed so here's the facts. She was not in someone yard, she was walking down the street and 2 pit bulls jumped the fence in there yard and attacked her. The neighbor has had countless complaints about the dogs getting out of the yard."

  26. This takes victim blaming to an entirely new and deranged level. I'm not buying this piss poor excuse for a minute.

  27. Just when you think you've heard and seen everything…

    … SBD – Suicide by Dog!

  28. This incident also exemplifies why pit bulls should never be considered 'guard dogs'. The entire point of a guard dog is to be intimidating and use force as a LAST resort. The entire point of a guard dog is that it can be called off, in an instant. The point of a pit bull is to attack without warning or provocation, and that it continues to attack until it or its target is DEAD. These sets of traits are mutually EX-clusive.

  29. (1)SCC BOC adopted a county-wide Animal Control & Protection Ordinance.
    (2)BOC turned the Enforcement of that Ordinance over to not the Sheriff's dept.
    but to Sheriff Donnellon – who enforces on complaints – along with Animal Shelter.
    (3) The BOC has not appointed anyone (in accordance with their own AC ordinance)
    to patrol the county to see if their ordinance is being observed – nobody is out there educating the county residence on any of the ordinance rules & regulations – Oakland County (which I realize is much larger and wealthier) has 10 full-time and 3 part-time officers patrolling the county on a daily basis; and, all complaints and violations are taken care of on the county level – local cities, villages and townships are not responsible for the manpower and cost of enforcing the Oakland County Ordinance. (4) There is talk of suing the owner of the dogs that caused the death of Ms Hardy – when the BOC is responsible for not having provided for the prevention of such an autrocity.

  30. If there's talk of suing the dogs' owner, that's a good thing. It's the type of BSL that this whole, rotten crisis needs: Breed-Specific LITIGATION.

  31. I compiled a list of intelligent comments that counter the sociopaths who think the dogs were just doing their job by killing a trespasser. YIKES!

    A guard/protection dog is there to warn its owner of an intruder and nothing more until it receives a command from a human. HUMANS are responsible for assessing the threat level and HUMANS are responsible for determining the appropriate response. DOGS do not get to decide if someone should get the death penalty for trespassing. Anyone who thinks this is what dogs are supposed to do is a damn lunatic.

    So let me get this straight- never in your entire life have you stepped one foot on property, public or private, for ANY reason EVER, during adulthood, as a child or will ever in the future, that didn't belong to you… Because according to you, if you did you too should have had your throat ripped out, ears torn off and be six feet under. That's just a "dog doing it's job", right?

    Protecting" his owner's property to point of killing a human being should not be part of the instinct or training of any truly safely domesticated dog. Nor should it be a point of pride or grounds for defense for other dog owners to stand on. If this dog could not communicate in a more effective/less lethal way…then he is NOT good dog.

    Yes, many dogs have a natural instinct to protect or claim territory. But normal dogs don't maul and kill to carry out that instinctive drive to define territory and claim control over a space. Normal dogs bark, rush, and back away to alert 'trespassers' that hey, this is my place. A few dogs will take it too far and bite, then back off. The behavior shown in this attack – a sustained attack intended to kill, where the animals go for the throat and head, and won't stop the attack even when the victim is clearly not fighting back – that's an extreme, unnatural behavior and the result of controlled breeding for violent attack. It is rare in dogs, but when it does appear, it's almost always in a bulldog breed – a pit bull, a bull mastiff, a presa canario, a fila.. These are breeds which were developed to be bold, relentless attackers of large prey animals like hogs and other bulldogs.

    A simple guard dog will not go for the throat or face, they will go for the lower extremities or arms, and a simple one word command by me will immediately make my dog release its bite. Any animal that goes for the throat or face, that is instinct to kill and needs to be destroyed.

    The bottom line is if this pit bull would have been a beagle or I could name 300 dog breeds, this person would be alive today. Breed Choice Matters.

    If you take the time to read these tragedies most of the pit bulls came from loving homes that killed. From 2005- 2015, 229 killed by pit bulls. When a consumer product injures and kills that many people, and generates comparable liability history, that product is taken off the market. These families know exactly what breed of dog killed their loved one. https://www.dogsbite.org/dog-bite-statistics-fatalities.php

  32. How unspeakably awful. An upset woman with a fragile mental health history has easy access to an immediate and irrevocable lethal danger and dies in an unbearably awful way. I hope the owner is prosecuted, though it seems unlikely based on the official comments about how this is sooo different from the toddler killing that same week. Really, though, how different are the attacks? You have literally deadly animals confined to a yard whose fence is purely cosmetic – a vulnerable person comes into proximity and the animals kill them brutally, and slowly, and have to be beaten and shot off the dead/dying victim. The woman's act of placing herself in danger doesn't somehow exculpate the person who made his killers so accessible.

  33. I'm very curious as to the effect this ruling will have on other pit attack cases. I guess a lot depends on what the ME meant by the term "attack dogs". Did he call them attack dogs because they were pits, meaning that anyone should assume that pits would do this? Does he have information about these being trained attack dogs? Or do these dogs have a documented history of aggression? I would really love to know exactly what he meant by this.

  34. It saddens me how nutters turn a blind eye to these victims.. You cannot even argue with them.

  35. I think Tony Solesky's comment is spot on.. faulty police report made to protect the owners/property owners. This home is only a few houses from the corner so cutting through would not save time. The fence on news video showed obvious curling on the chain link fabric pointing outside the yard, where something had been jumping in the corner. I had a Husky that made the identical type of damage to my chainlink when she jumped. I also have a chain link gate that is not in disrepair like the one on the property and a neighbors pitbull pushed itself between the fence posts and the gate that was latched with no problem at all. They are so strong they simply bend and loosen the cemented posts. I think she was pulled into the yard just like Xavier Strickland was.

  36. A journalist has speculated that one of the reasons why the police report is so sketchy and a suicide ruling came about is because the property owner where the dogs lived is a local St. Clair Police Lieutenant. If this were not ruled a suicide, he would be liable in a civil suit and probably would face some lesser property code violations for the broken down chain link fence. http://blogs.theprovince.com/2015/12/15/suicide-by-pit-bull-ruling-raises-a-number-of-questions/

  37. In reading comments made about this death on other sites, it truly amazes and horrifies me to see how many people think that this woman should have been killed because she ended up on the wrong side of the property line. First, they discount any possibility that she was pulled over the fence. Then they say she deserved to die in this fashion because she jumped the fence. That the dogs were just doing their job. As if it is right, and should be expected, for our pets to kill a person who comes in our yard. This popular ideology is frightening.

  38. And now the truth is coming out. Poor lady was pulled into the yard by the dogs.

  39. Dogs, like swimming pools, are considered an "attractive nuisance"-both fall under torte law. Both must be contained in such a way that a child can't easily get to them. This woman wasn't a child, but whether she climbed the fence or the dogs dragged her in when she went to pet them, the fencing wasn't adaquate. This law is enforced when it comes to swimming pools, but it's not being enforced in regards to dogs. A child shouldn't be able to get close enough to the dog for the dog to bite the child, or touch the child at all.

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