Angela Smith, 55-years old, was killed by her family pit bull in Southeast D.C.
Longtime Family Pet
UPDATE 10/15/18: On Monday, the victim's husband spoke to the media outside of his home. Last night, the couple's pit bull of eight years fatally attacked Angela Smith. "I left the house," Rob Frazier said, holding back tears. "It was 15 minutes and I came back," he paused. "She was dead. That's all I know." The couple had been together for two decades, but only married two years ago. The male pit bull, named Kaine, had been given to Frazier by his nephew when it was a puppy.
About 6:30 pm Sunday, police were dispatched to Frazier and Smith's row home in the 1300 block of Dexter Terrace SE in Southeast D.C. They discovered Smith unconscious, suffering from "multiple trauma wounds." She was transported to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Frazier said his mother was also in the home during the attack, but was asleep and did not hear anything. Authorities took the dog into custody; it has since been humanely euthanized.
Frazier said the dog was food aggressive, which may have triggered the attack. "I'm thinking she might have taken some food or something like that from him and he's real aggressive like that," Frazier said. Yet, a family dog attack resulting in human fatality is an absolutely disproportionate response to this. As animal behaviorist Alexandra Semyonova has explained in the past, selecting for impulsive aggression, as dogfighters did, created an utterly disproportionate response:
"It’s also not realistic to pretend that impulsive aggression is not pathological. The environments (the fighting pit, the baited bull, the escaping slave) for which these behaviors were selected as an adaptive response are so extreme that in fact there is no appropriate context for these behaviors in normal life." - Alexandra Semyonova, Heritability of Behavior in the Abnormally Aggressive Dog, November 2006.
It is also important to reemphasize that the agency contracting with the District of Columbia for animal control services, Humane Rescue Alliance, lied to the media and the American public after this horrific attack, calling this dog a "mixed-breed" instead of a pit bull. D.C. police later stepped in and confirmed this dog was a pit bull. The Alliance has pit bulls plastered all over their website and transport vans. Our nonprofit will address D.C. city officials about this deliberate deception.
After emails sent today, complaints going out snail mail Friday to @DCPoliceDept & DC council members regarding the contracting AC body, who claimed under the "backdrop" of a pit bull branded transport van, the fatal attacker was a mixed-breed. Background: https://t.co/mgUNYICsxe pic.twitter.com/5Gt9O60bJO
— DogsBite.org (@dogsbite) October 19, 2018
10/14/18: Woman Killed by Pit Bull
District of Columbia - A 55-year old woman is dead after being mauled by a pit bull in Southeast D.C. Responders were dispatched just after 6:30 pm to the 1300 block of Dexter Terrace SE for a report of a woman mauled by a dog. Dexter Terrace is just one block long with rowhouses on both sides. The victim was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, where she was pronounced dead. It is unclear who owns the dog, but the deadly attack occurred indoors.
NBC Washington reports the attacking dog could be seen resisting efforts when taken into custody and tried to bite one of the officers while being removed from the home. "Multiple workers" were eventually able to haul the dog into a Humane Rescue Alliance van "using a blanket to lift its hind legs," reports NBC Washington. Neighbors told the news outlet they had seen the victim walking the male dog in the past. None of them had witnessed the animal acting aggressively before.
So far in 2018, one quarter (7 of 28) of all recorded fatal dog maulings have been attacks upon their owners, the very hand that feeds and houses these dogs. This does not include this immediate woman who may or may not be the dog's owner. Five of these owner deaths involved pit bulls, one fatality involved a dogo Argentino and another involved a mastiff-mix adopted out three days earlier. So far in 2018, at least 28 Americans have been mauled to death by a dog.
Monday Morning Updates
Fox 5 confirmed the woman was killed by her own pit bull, bringing the tally of owner inflicted canine deaths up to 29% this year. On Monday, D.C. police identified the woman as 55-year old Angela Smith. WTOP reported that the contracting animal control agency, Humane Rescue Alliance, refused to call the dog a pit bull and instead lied to the media and American public -- in an effort to falsify United States fatal dog attack statistics -- calling this dog a "mixed-breed."
Male family pit bull named "Kaine" being taken into custody after killing Angela Smith, 55.
Pit bull being hoisted into the animal control van after fatally attacking family member in D.C.
View the DogsBite.org Google Map: Maryland and D.C. Fatal Pit Bull Maulings.Related articles:
10/09/18: 2018 Dog Bite Fatality: Recently Adopted Mastiff Kills Owner in Las Vegas, Nevada
10/03/18: 2018 Dog Bite Fatality: Pit Bull Adopted Two Weeks Ago Kills Woman in Maryland
06/21/18: 2018 Dog Bite Fatality: Back-to-Back Dogo Argentino Attacks, One Fatal, Both...
05/09/09: Alexandra Semyonova: Heritability of Behavior in the Abnormally Aggressive Dog
That is clearly a pitbull. In fact it is a “red-nose pitbull” which is a pricey, designer color. The only other dog that I can think of with that color is the Vizsla and that no is no Vizsla. Real stretch trying to call that ugly thing a mixed breed dog.
Vizslas are all genetically ee bb if I recall correctly.
The ee alleles (recessive red) cause the red coat and are very common in many breeds (all yellow labs and golden retrievers are this colour, except that the red is diluted to a cream / yellow colour by a different modifying gene).
The bb alleles cause the skin of the nose, paw pads and eyerims to be brown or red, and cause a brown coat in individuals who are not ee (recessive red). bb is also common in many other breeds (border collies, labradors, spaniels) and is sometimes referred to as “chocolate” or “liver”.
The combination of both ee and bb isn’t as common in purebreds but can easily crop up by chance in mix breeds.
I believe podencos (a Spanish hunting breed) are also ee bb but since it’s not a show breed it’s difficult to find studies / colour test results for them.
Another rescue group lying about what the dog really is? I am shocked! SHOCKED! that they would do such a thing.
And I see where yet another children’s novel, published just this month, is featuring the child hero promoting “misunderstood” pit bulls and fighting her city’s proposed pit bull legislation.
Which novel? What author? They need to be called out for peddling deadly lies.
I don’t like to go into too many details because it will just give these books free advertising, plus the authors can then claim that they are being “discriminated against on Dogsbite,” as another way to drum up sales and sympathy.
Just go on Amazon, specify Children’s Books, and type in “pit bull.” You’ll see plenty of the types of books I’m referring to.
These fighting breed lovers are really sick and hypocritical people. They are the ones promoting dangerous breeds, encouraging families with small children to “adopt” those ferocious dogs, often times deceiving people and hiding dogs’ aggressive behavior history;
every time you hear about a child’s death after a vicious dog attack, these people are the ones who have zero empathy for the family and the first thing out of their mouth is victim-blaming;
and as for the rest of our children, the ones that these people’s beloved pitbulls didn’t kill, the same people are targeting those kids’ young minds with their shameless propaganda. That’s something your kids ned to know: the author of this book, who seems to be your friend and to want to entertain you, would be the first one to defend pitbulls and blame you if, God forbid, you were attacked. Your kids need to know how much they can trust those books and their authors. Show them some comment section where rabid pitbull lovers react to a horrifying news story about a deadly attack – it sends chills down your spine. The victim means nothing, their life means nothing, the suffering of the family means nothing – it’s all about defending the breed.
It’s really scary how often some sick activists who never had any children of their own, because they’re too crazy to live normal lives and have families, and actually do things that hurt other people’s children both in the short and in the long run, try to get to our kids and teach their sick values to them.
Classic pit bull behavior. They can be fine for years then suddenly snap. Too bad people never learn- pits are not pets.
That Humane Rescue Alliance refuses to state the dog is a pit bull is not surprise to anyone who lives in the DC area. If you subscribe to the WTOP Facebook page, you will regularly (read: daily) see them posting adoptable Dog-of-the-Day segments from their radio station. I would guess approximately 90-95% of the dogs they show are pits, solidly pits too, not fungible ‘mixes’. Most of these come from HRA, and many of them check off the whole list of read-between-the-lines red flags.