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68 thoughts on “2019 Dog Bite Fatality: Man Mauled to Death by One or More Vicious Pit Bulls in Madera, California

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    • Q. “How long do non pitbull owners have to be victimized by other people’s dogs?”
      A. Until non vicious dog owners do what I did, twice in the past three years. See my reply, number 9.
      Oh, and they were both ambush charge attacks; I had a tenth of a second to spare the first time, and one foot at 30 feet per second the second time. Loose on ungated property when owner was not present. If the owners were present, they could have called their Shepherds off. I knew what the risk and the threat was, so I was properly prepared when I set foot outside my building onto the hostile surface of the earth in Prescotts’ nice residential neighborhood. Police and vicious dog owners are shocked that I didn’t simply stand there for a few tenths of a second and accept a severe mauling instead of defending myself.

    • I too feel victimized when I can’t walk on my 80 acre property without worry about pit bull attacks. They are in my neighborhood and usually contained -fenced or indoors. But mistakes can happen. Doors can be left open and fences can be climbed. So I don’t walk. I am also in a top target group – female and old.

        • You’d better get some hollow points or RIP ammo for it. Hollow points will assure that the bullet will not only actually kill it, but the ammo won’t pass through and hit an unintended victim.
          RIP is harder to come by but insures target incapacitation by using machined copper-tipped bullets to make multiple penetrations into a target, including the main body of the bullet, creating up to nine different wound channels.

  1. The face and neck were heavily damaged. A trademark of the breed. No other breed goes after the face and neck more than the pitbull. I wonder how “activists” can defend this? Do all pitbull owners train their dogs to go for the face/neck? Or could it *gasp* be in their genetics?

  2. Unrecognizable? How horrific! Add California walks along canals to places I do not want to visit. Prayers to the family of this victim

  3. The pit bull pushers will say: No one saw what happened. Obviously, the pit bull/pit bulls came by later and were guarding the body of the man…who was probably killed by a pack of chihuahuas (who, we are constantly told, “bite more”) Pit bulls are becoming a huge problem everywhere. Pit bulls..their DNA is programmed to attack and kill.

    • They’ll say it was a bear or coyotes and the pit bull was protecting him. No explanation of why it aggressively charged the police, of course. Although from actual body cam footage of times police have to kill a charging pit bull, the pit defenders say that the officers should not have fired because the dogs were “just greeting” the officers.

      How sad for this unfortunate man to have his life end this way.

    • If they’re anything like the ones in Colorado and Arizona (I think they’re called arroyos in AZ), the dry creek beds and canals are places for the rain runoff to flow into. Because the ground is so dry most of the year, when there is a rain storm, the ground can’t absorb the water very quickly, so it runs off the higher ground and into the creek beds and canals that are usually dry. I was told by a native Coloradan (sp) that they’re extremely dangerous because there can be a storm in the higher altitude in the mountains and the water can come rushing out of nowhere down these creek beds, even if it’s sunny and dry where you are. They tell people to stay out of the creek beds and canals because they’re so dangerous and unpredictable (like Pit Bulls!) I noticed a lot of the homeless camps seem to be set up along these areas when I lived in CO.

      • They are dry riverbeads/ canals to channel excess water after heavy rains. They mainly prevent flooding and are all over southern California.

    • They are dry riverbeads/ canals to channel excess water after heavy rains. They mainly prevent flooding and are all over southern California.

  4. The pit bull was probably someones pet that was let out to hunt down people. A vicious dog charged at a human being. A human being opened fire on the vicious dog, killing it. Been there, done that, twice, in 8,000 pedestrian miles in three years in the residential streets of Prescott.

    • The attack occurred in an area where many homeless people live, but sure enough, “The pit bull was probably someones pet that was let out to hunt down people.”
      The dog lived in a home, had shelter, was the pet of a non-homeless person, and was a sometimes unpredictable dangerous animal that criminally negligently or criminally willfully was let out to hunt down innocent pedestrians. Nice homes, seemingly normal-ish people, most of the time normalish-appearing animals: Gorey death, hundreds of thousands/millions of Americans suffer massive life-devastating woe and misery in tenths of a second when an unpredictably dangerous animal attacks. Young and old, rich and poor, gentrified and homeless, sober or beer-swilling, in public or on private property, tonic, clonic or non-convulsing, standing, sitting or falling or lying in bed: No single American human being is safe from sudden, sometimes unpredictable dangerous dog attack. Only a select few, who are educated as to both the threat and the risk that pet dogs pose, have sufficiently readied themselves for what is the active hostility of the earth, reaching deep inside the deceptively nice appearing interstices of suburban America, in the form of pet dogs.

  5. Do you think the folks will “raise the puppies right” or raise more killers? I bet folks will flock to get those puppies.

    It’s not unlike what drug addicts do? If they hear someone died of an overdose, they all run to the dope dealer selling the poison.

      • Colleen, it would be interesting to see a chart of killer pit bull names. How many are named Bullet, Cocaine, Dexter, Trigger, Beast, Killer, Thor, Kilo, Chopper… I would love to see this with another column with any re-names by shelters and new owners. You know, names like Kiko, Lola, Snowball, Baby, Sugar.

        • The brown and white dog is named “Powpow”. It was painful, but I did a lot of scrolling through her GARBAGE to find its name. I also saw some disturbing posts with presumably illegal activity and one where said she wishes she would have shot someone. Lovely lady, she is.

          • Oh my goodness…NO other species…wild or domestic type of killer animal, 35+ homo sapiens, 12,000+ pet dogs, 10,000+ pet cats, 20,000+ farm animals are killed by pit bulls each year in the US…every YEAR! These pit dogs have murdered over 400 humans within the last 30 odd years, what the F is going on? Who is behind this crazy protection/propaganda
            machine of them? They are a court case on legs but…not really? Your pit dog(s) can kill a stranger..in that persons own HOME or back yard but these crazy lawyers go to court.. pro bono (free) and excuse you and your #@&% dogs behaviour…whaat? A very damaged system, sorry but it is!

        • Seeing the name Kilo brought back memories of listening to the horrific 911 audio of baby Triniti Harrell’s mother trying to get her boyfriend’s dog Kilo to let go of her daughter. For 10 minutes she screamed and cried and pleaded for Kilo to let go of her baby while the 911 dispatcher tried to suggest ways to stop the dog. It was sadly ironic to hear someone calling out “Kilo, stop it,” as if Kilo is a perfectly normal name for a pet.

          It’s kind of hard to take anyone seriously when they try to defend a dog named Chopper, Mayhem, Havoc, Kilo or Satan by claiming that it is a good dog. Not that names make a dog good or bad, but what is it about this breed of dog that makes people think these are fitting names?

          Will upper class pit defenders who potentially get one of these puppies proudly say, “This is my dog (insert name here) out of Cocaine by Pow Pow.”

  6. I am so glad my next door neighbours own a golden retriever, across the road…a beagle and a Jack Russell, to their left…a dashund (plus another giant x-breed that I have never caught sight of in 12+ years! I feel sorry for this dog because in those 12 years, I have never, ever laid eyes on the dog, they have 3 sons aged from approx. 20 – 28 years old now, all driving utilities and not once has the dog been walked or driven somewhere for some fun 😥) it snarls and barks and growls, when anybody walks by, it has no socialization whatsoever. Occaisionally I see folks walking around with big ‘bully’ type breeds but Australia has a ‘pitbull’ ban lol! Whatever! BUT American Staffordshire/ AmStaffs are still imported…but we don’t allow the APBT or Dogo Argentine, any of the other fighting breeds…Tosa etc. I am only too aware that a bite, a snap does not equate to a mauling, I have been following this site long enough, to understand the fact…some dogs don’t let go 😣 it’s a shocking thing to realise but pet dogs commit canine homicide and those wiggle butt pit mutts are generally the culprits

  7. Layla, Bella, Sampson, Bear and Grinder. As well as the above mentioned Cocaine, and Thor, all come to mind as names of irresponsibly owned dogs I have known. So incredibly frustrated to hear of these killers above being reproduced. Wonder what excuses the owner will come up with?

  8. Layla, Bella, Sampson, Bear and Grinder. As well as the above mentioned Cocaine, and Thor, all come to mind as names of irresponsibly owned dogs I have known. So incredibly frustrated to hear of these killers above being reproduced. Wonder what excuses for the attack, the owner will come up with?

    • Thor is a good one. The two people I’ve had the displeasure of knowing with dogs named Thor, have been sociopaths. Both had aggressive bull mastiffs named Thor AND small children.

      One was a coworker of my husband’s who had 5 children and 4 dogs (mastiff, Rottweiler, 2 pitbulls) in a 1500 sq ft dump, heaped in garbage and dog crap. I didn’t know they had hardwoods throughout until I saw the for sale ad for their house after my husband’s company relocated the guy. Thor hung himself one day on their 8 foot privacy fence. He was attempting to attack the mail man, when his collar got caught on the fence and broke his neck. They promptly bought another pitbull puppy.

      The other person was a neighbor of mine in a decent neighborhood who owned 3 bull mastiffs named Thor, Tattoo, and Killer. She also had 3 young children, her house was filthy, and she was a total nutjob. She neglected her children and would let her 1-year-old play outside, attended only by her mastiffs. One time, our doorbell rang at 1am. My husband opened it to find her 3 crying, hungry, filthy children begging to be let in and fed. She had decided to go out partying while her husband was deployed. Social services took them after we fed them. The guy that bought our house tells me that she’s added some sort of pitbull/mastiff mix to her collection, and the whole street lives in fear.

  9. So, will pit mongers in the ilk of Annie Hornish defend this particular owner? Despite her rampant backyard breeding of Cocaine and Pow Pow and all her other pits? Is this REALLY the type of person they want as an ambassador for their beloved breed?

    Looking at her Facebook page was both nauseating and just depressing. If this is one of the “types” that are so strongly attracted to the breed, it says something about the breed.

    I do wonder what will become of those puppies? They were likely fathered by a dog which didn’t just kill a man but left him so facially disfigured that he had to be identified by his tattoos. Let that sink in a moment. But I’m sure there will be a long list of people wanting these puppies. According to the pit defenders, all “man biters” in the old days of dog fighting were supposedly culled, thus (according to their fantasy) ridding the breed of any human aggression. If they really believe that, shouldn’t they want THESE progeny of a man biter to be euthanized to keep the breed from being tainted by human aggressive dogs? Or was it just something they think worked in the past?

    • The best part, is that they believe the pitbull actually knows the significance of human life versus animal life. “Human aggression has been bred out of them. They only eat cats now!” As if to say the dog knows the difference between someone’s infant and a cat. Sorry to disappoint you, folks!!! Dogs don’t have reasoning skills. Any amount of aggression towards anything can turn into deadly aggression toward a human really quickly. It’s just not a good trait for a domesticated animal to have.

  10. Sounds to me like the police are pre-emptively clearing her of any crime. A trashy backyard breeder of known aggressive pit bulls- who’da thunk they might seriously injure or kill someone? I’ll be shocked if she’s even charged.

  11. Those “reactionary conditioning” videos were vile.

    At whose home is she harboring her breeding dogs? Hopefully whomever it is will distance herself or himself from this woman so that she can’t continue breeding killers.

  12. The dog owner is sitting in the floor as an adult dog and several puppies are moving around her. She calls a puppy to her (his name is “Savage”) and then antagonizes him by handling him roughly, pulling at him and growling. She tries to stir him up to fight another puppy, and when he does she rewards the behavior and says “Get him, baby, get him.” An adult dog comes and she handles it in a similar way. She is continually cursing at the dogs. Her tone is semi-playful but she gets frustrated when the puppies don’t react the way she wants. She is basically trying to bring out “Savage’s” fighting propensities at a young age. It’s very sad to watch and her language and attitude are coarse and vulgar. There is no blatant “abuse” but her play time is clearly purposeful for making Savage aggressive.

    In this case, I can admit that the pit owner was “training her dogs to be mean” like the pit pushers claim must be the case in an attack. Of course that’s not necessary to make a pit bull kill someone, but surely it helps make it more likely! And legally I think it shows culpability.

    • Actually, having thought about it, there could potentially be enough right handling to be labeled abuse, depending on the standard. She pinches and grabs at Savage hard enough to make him yelp in her efforts to get him riled up.

      I’m not sure what constitutes actual abuse, but it certainly isn’t loving handling.

    • Those videos are atrocious.

      Believe it or not, a *lot* of dog owners do this kind of crap and think that’s how to play with a dog. Most don’t even have basic dog management skills which, while it isn’t a huge problem with Poodle McPugface who won’t eat Grandma, *is* a problem for any dog. The opposite which is just as bad, is overindulging the puppy’s pushy behaviours.

      This is common when any dog owner is trying to “toughen” up their dog. There are ways to condition dogs not to respond to the odd error in life, such as a small child pulling their tail before the owner can stop them–but this is not it.

      Dogs don’t need to be “tougher”. A large game dog breed is a game dog that can be trained to handle protection work and this kind of handling is *not* part of the process unless the trainer/owner is a crappy handler.

      Poor rough puppy handling such as those videos, is a #1 factor in how dog’s will react to human stressors, all their lives.

      People don’t realize that handling a puppy to grow into a good dog is a skill onto itself.

      Even then, when you’re dealing with a breed whose instincts can overdrive training, there’s no guarantee.

    • Many, many more pit bull attacks than that in the past few days. Only some make the news. How many million dog bites per year? What percentage of those are attack bites? Divide by 365, and then divide by 50, to get attack bites per average size state per day. The number is stunningly huge. This is all I ever talk about to anyone who has ears in Prescott.

      Dogsbite.org is my home page. I need to finally decide how much to contribute, too.

      • You can sign up to be a monthly donor — it goes through PayPal — or you can just mail a check to the address on this website’s contact page.

        Whatever works for you!

        • Thank you! It looks like I can use a debit card for monthly pay via PayPal, without having to sign up for a PayPal account, but I am unsure of that. I have never signed up for PayPal, so today I am going to mail a US postal money order for two year Advocate; I have grown weary of procrastinating for too long. I do not see instructions on who to make it payable to: the .org or Colleen.

  13. Wow. Anglin is a real beaut. Pretty standard for the trashy type of pit bull owner. Like the lovely “that’s what yo ass gets” chick. Representing pit bull owners in a lovely, classy way. I can’t say I’m the least bit surprised that someone of her caliber would pick pit bulls as her breed of choice. Gross.

  14. Something to remember. So many of those rescue pitties advertised everywhere, who “just need another chance” and “would love a fur-ever home,” come from breeders and owners like Heather Anglin.

    And all of those “animal welfare” groups that lobby for the right of everybody to own and breed pits unimpeded, are fighting for this woman and people just like her.

    • Exactly! They talk a good talk about letting “loving owners continue to have their breed of choice,” but really they are just making it easier for people like Anglin to make drug money off her breeding dogs. And where will most of her puppies end up after they’re bought and grow up to start having issues? The shelter. Without the Heather Anglins of the world, the rescue advocates would not have anything left to advocate for! They NEED her and her ilk to 1) feel like heroes with a purpose and 2) make money.

      • That should be the reaction that husbands have when their wives get a pit bull. Everyone laughs at this joke because it’s so obvious that a coyote would not be safe in one’s home next to a child, but the actual dangerous animals are not just accepted but promoted!

        • I have had a few coyotes run past me, while I was walking my daily seven miles, on the residential street in mid mornings. I have seen coyotes running across the street in front of me. I see them once every four months, for 3.5 years, about 13 times. None, repeat, none have ever ambush charge attacked me. None have ever alerted on me. None have ever advanced on me, slowly, quickly or at moderate speed. All of them ignored me. Not so with the much, much more aggressive species. The actually, physically, in reality dangerous animals are obviously de facto dangerous, but they are officially and socially forced onto everyone.

  15. Why isn’t anyone concerned about the victim ? Just imagine the horror and pain of being bitten to death by a dog?? Not only bitten but mailed so bad they couldn’t i.d him. Everyone who knows Anglin (the owner of the dogs) know damn well that the dog who attacked the man has bitten numerous people in the past. This isn’t some isolated incident. Her dogs have been taken and put down by animal control in the past yet she breeds more. She has no control of her dogs, they run wild in the river. The real story among the homeless people who know her is that Anglin was there the night the man was attacked yet did nothing. Whether she was there or not , doesn’t the law state I a dog has previously bitten someone in the past and that same dog attacks again , that the owner of dog is held responsible for anything the animal does!! Why isn’t Anglin in jail ??? The sheriff’s know her dogs have attacked numerous other people, hell it’s common knowledge that her dogs have bitten people. Why isn’t Anglin in jail for this horrific act!!???? What about the victim and what he went through in his last minutes of being killed? Anglin should have been arrested immediatly .Everyone I know asks this same question , Is it because her step mom is a high ranking probation officer here in Madera that her step daughter gets a pass for murder????After all this is Madera where the (Good ole boy system is very much still practiced in this once redneck town)!!!! Once again, why isn’t anyone concerned about the victim, because he was a homeless illegal transient, that his murder gets no attention!!!! Why is the Madera Sheriff’s Dept doing their job and arresting the owner who they have even said themselves that her dogs have attacked people in the past! What will it take for them to do their job? Maybe a white child from the good side of town needs to be attacked and killed by one of her pits before the Sheriff’s Office do their job!

  16. Good. Let’s hope this results in convictions on the serious manslaughter charges. Anglin was all but advertising in neon her irresponsibility with her pits.

    Thank you Madera Police and Madera County DA’s office.

    Now let’s see some justice for Cledith Davenport and his family in Oklahoma.

  17. There has been further updates on this case. From a news report:

    “Heather Anglin pleaded guilty to owning a vicious dog that fatally attacked a person — and a probation violation. She also agreed never to own a dog again.

    In exchange, prosecutors dropped a manslaughter charge and agreed to dismiss the charges against her boyfriend, Aaron Daniels.

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