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24 thoughts on “2019 Dog Bite Fatality: Man Dies After Saving 5-Year Old Daughter from Dog Attack In Iowa

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  1. I’ll go on record as saying there is no chance that a 33 year old man had a heart attack primarily. If he did, it had to have occurred after he bled out from the jugular vein.

    • Me either. I may be wrong, but I think there are extremely few cases of Boxers doing such things. Would be interesting to know if this was a PB that was adopted as a Boxer. How incredibly sad, this child being bitten and then growing up knowing her beloved Daddy lost his life saving hers. He is indeed a hero though in my book.

  2. There needs to be a picture of this dog. Everything about this attack screams “Pit Bull”. The dog may be a pit/boxer mix, but the behavior is pure pit bull….up to refusing to let go of its victim, and the reaction of the dog’s owners…no responsibility for the dog’s attack on several people.

    • I know this person and his family. This dog was not a pit bull. It was a boxer hound. It’s very unfortunate that pit bulls are always the first to blame even when they didn’t do it. I agree that pits can be aggressive. But they are not the only dog breed under the “aggressive breeds” list. Boxers, Chows, Bulldogs, German Shepherds… I was attacked by a German Shepherd in 6th grade.

    • I so agree, as a professional dog trainer of 35 plus years I have come across some Boxers who had dog to dog issues with dogs of their same sex but I have never heard of behavior like this in a purebred Boxer. I would love to know where the dog came from, as since it is brown, it could very well be a Pit from a shelter or rescue, who decided to code it as a Boxer thinking they could get away with this if the dog is Boxer color. In my experience Boxers do not have the type of drive that allows them to do something like this to a grown man! And I’m guessing that this man died from the wound to his jugular vein because how many fit 33 year old men die from heart attacks? Although extreme pain does do a number on your blood pressure so I guess it is possible. May God rest his soul and reward him for saving his daughter’s life. This is an incredibly sad incident.

  3. We must all carry a sturdy leash with us at all times, to be used to strangle an attacking dog to stop its attack.

    This method won’t save us if we unable to use both hands, but if our hands are free and if the dog is gripping another victim pet, child or adult, the leash can potentially stop the attack within minutes.

    Hold the leash along the side of dog’s neck, with the metal snap hanging down. Reach underneath. Thread, the snap end of the leash thru the leash handle and tighten the leash around the dog’s neck, up near its head. Continue tightening, do not stop. You can lift the dog off the ground if necessary. When dog releases, drag the dog away from the victim.
    Do not release the dog. This way the dog dies happy, doing what it loves. Much better than wasting space and money and suffering at a rescue like Lindsay Morrow’s Bully Breed Miracle Network or Spindletop. Google them.

    • Debbie Bell I can’t find anything of what you explain on the web. Can you post any link to that type of leash, or some more specific designations of the items?

      • A regular leash, rope, a strong leather belt and locate it up close to jaw. Anything to choke the dog off. Keep choking even after the dog passes out because a Pit will come back fighting. I always wear a good strong leather belt and carry an Exacto knife, just in case.

  4. Every sane adult should be armed at all times, to the maximum level that state/local laws allow. For me, that’s carrying a pistol AND a knife. One or two bullets or a cut throat can stop or prevent an attack instantly.

  5. A family member (of the family who was “dog sitting” for the “niece”) said that this dog was a “bulldog mix”…probably an american bulldog/bully. I have the screen shot. The family needs to sue the landlord who owns this property. We need to start making it very uncomfortable for landlords to be irresponsible in what types of dogs they allow in their rentals.

    • Personally, I think a 33 year old man of average strength could have gotten a boxer off long before fatal injuries occurred. Purebred boxers, in general, don’t have the physical strength and mental drive to kill people. A pack of boxers could kill, but a single boxer isn’t likely to kill. I don’t believe the offender here was a boxer.

    • Absolutely!! Landlords and owners of pit bull and ‘mixes’ need to be held to the fire for attacks!! The only way this madness will stop!!

  6. Boxer mix is the new ….aka Pitbull .
    Go to ANY ANIMAL SHELTER, their you’ll find tons of happy, lovable , goofy ” boxer mixes .

    Shelters and Rescues are intentionally mislabeling pitbulls an Pitbull mixes as ” boxer mixes.
    It’s the only way to get rid of these dogs and make room for the next endless influx of these vile aggressive dogs that are clogging up our shelters.
    They are been rehome as boxer mixes to unsuspecting, naive FAMILIES.
    This is criminal in my opinion.
    I guarantee you……this wasn’t a Boxer that did the mauling .

  7. Sounds like typical pit bull behavior. I don’t Believe it was a Boxer. Pit Bull Boxer mix maybe.

  8. I just feel so sad reading that part about having to tell the little girl that her father died saving her.

  9. If you go into cardiac arrest because a dog bite to the jugular vein causing severe blood loss which then causes cardiac arrest, why wouldn’t that be included?
    “Problems that may lead to cardiac arrest include: … Abnormally high or low levels can cause cardiac arrest. Severe physical stress — Anything that causes a severe stress on your body can lead to cardiac arrest. This can include trauma, electrical shock, or major blood loss.May 16, 2018”
    MedlinePlus (.gov) › ency › article
    Cardiac arrest: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

  10. “They haven’t even apologized. They keep saying how nice the dog was, they can’t believe it was mean.” <<~~Sounds like a Pit Bull owner attitude.

  11. This dog attacked three people, two of whom were adult males so injured that they were found sitting or laying at the scene. Sounds like pit behavior to me.

    I am seeing more and more pit bulls being labeled as EOBBP (every other breed but pit). In my area, they are typically being called lab mixes, mixed breed, and hound mixes. The newest thing I am seeing is them being labeled “lab” as in full blood. Recently, I saw one being called a beagle (literally as if it was a full-blooded beagle). The mislabeling is now present on Nextdoor.com by neighbors who are trying to get someone to dog sit their pit mix. They post a photo and call it a beagle as if by saying makes it true.

    • Christy, this kind of thing just boggles the mind. If they can’t even admit to the actual dog breed, why get that breed of dog at all? It’s a choice that people make. And purposefully lying about what kind of dog it is, well, why would they do that? Could it be that the actual breed is deadly aggressive?To me, the lying and covering up is admitting that they know the breed is problematic.

  12. These stories are all so heart-breaking. This is what decent parents do, die doing their best to protect their children. Then you have other parents, who let their pit bulls murder their children, even though they had repeated warning signs that the pit bulls were dangerous (and we all know that pit bulls often don’t give warning signs….but sometimes they do, and pit-bull cultists do nothing but make excuses for them.) Most cults only affect their own members sucking their time and money away from them, but the pit-bull cult affects all of us, viciously murdering children and elderly. Everytime I see someone walk by me with a pitbull, I feel like it’s a person with a loaded gun pointed at me. (and they are everywhere these days, stores ignore them because they are “emotional support” dogs.) All I can do is pray, at least with a human with a gun, I could beg for mercy, one human to another. With an uncontrollable pitbull, there is no way to communicate with them if they decide to kill. We don’t allow humans to walk around cocking and pointing their guns randomly at other people, and we shouldn’t allow pitbulls to be out in public either. For that matter, I have a sneaking suspicious that odds are better for someone to survive being shot, then for one to survive a pitbull attack. Owners need to start being held guilty for manslaughter (at a minimum) when their pitbulls kill.

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