Nonprofit Captured 79% of All Breed Identification Images in 2020
Photographs of six fatally attacking dogs in 2020 obtained from multiple sources.
Jump down to view all 2020 breed identification photographs or read our analysis first.
DogsBite.org - In 2013, we began the tradition of publishing breed identification photographs of fatally attacking dogs when available through news reports, animal control agencies, police departments, social media and public information requests. Of the 46 dog bite fatalities recorded in 2020, 61% (28) had some form of an identification photograph. Our nonprofit was responsible for capturing 79% of them. Pit bulls and their mixes represent 71% of images collected in 2020.
Of the 28 cases with breed identification photographs, 25% (7) comprised images captured or republished by news media; 79% (22) comprised images located on social media pages of the dog's owner or family members; and 79% (22) comprised images that were the result of DogsBite research and otherwise may have gone unpublished. Police and animal control agencies only released images in 1 case, yet 67% (31 of 46) of all deaths involved dogs taken into quarantine.
(Percentages are higher than 100% due to a single death containing multiple dog images, each attributed to a different source, as well as images that fall into overlapping publishing categories.)
Identification Photographs (2013-2020)
From 2013 to 2020, images captured by our nonprofit have risen from 26% to 79%. Images published by media have fallen from 79% to 25%.
Breed Misidentification Conflicts
The most controversial case in 2020 involved the surly American bully breeding community. Lisa Urso, 52, was killed by her two Shorty bulls, but headlines claimed they were French bulldogs. A Shorty bull is a short, squat, gargoyle variation of the American bully and is only recognized by the American Bully Kennel Club. The Shorty bull "designer bull breed" was created by mixing 5 different types of bull breeds, including the French bulldog and American pit bull terrier.
The French bulldog community was so outraged that the President of the French Bull Dog Club of America left a comment on our website, appreciative of our identification of the dog. "As the President of the French Bull Dog Club of America we are glad to see the dogs identified correctly," Becky Smith wrote. "As a 500 member club our members including myself are outraged that French Bulldogs were named in this awful occurrence ... this was not done by French bulldogs."
2020 also marks a year when there were a number of different types of bull breeds involved in fatal attacks, including: pit bull, bull terrier, American bulldog, American bully and their mixes. There were also two types of mastiffs involved in fatal dog attacks -- a Neapolitan mastiff and a bullmastiff or South African mastiff (take your pick). Only 3 fatal attacks, 7%, involved dogs that were non-bull breeds: deaths inflicted by one Belgian malinois and two German shepherds.
Summary
61% of dog bite fatality cases in 2020 had some form of a breed identification photograph. Our nonprofit captured over three quarters of them, 79%, through our research and FOIA efforts. This additional level of photographic evidence is on top of the 565 plus multi-sourced news reports we collected and 30 public information requests we sent to various coroners' offices, police departments and animal control departments for the known 46 individuals killed by dogs in 2020.
Finally, the global pandemic greatly impacted media reports and breed identification photo collection this year. In 2019, there were 48 people killed by dogs and we logged over 1,115 news reports for these deaths. Even though there were 46 fatal dog maulings in 2020, media reports of them halved to 565. Media reports that captured breed identification images greatly diminished in 2020 as well, down to 25% of all photographs from an average of 57%, a decrease of 56%.
2020 Fatal Dog Attack Breed Identification Photographs
Julian Connell - Lafayette, Indiana
Photo of fatally attacking family pit bull-mix (social media & dogsbite)
Julian Connell, 1-month old, was killed by a family pit bull-mix at his home on Greenbush Street in Lafayette, Indiana on January 25, 2020. The pit bull had been fighting with the family's beagle prior to attacking the infant. The infant's mother, Jennifer Nicole Connell, was later charged with three counts of neglect.Sterling Ver Meer - Oro Grande, California
Photos of fatally attacking family pit bull "Thor" (news media)
Sterling Ver Meer, 5-years old, was killed by a family pit bull while under the care of a babysitter in Oro Grande, California on February 10, 2020. After the attack, the babysitter told media outlets, "Don't trust pit bulls. They can change at any moment." The male pit bull, named "Thor," was reportedly 12-years old.Lee Becham - Crawford County, Georgia
Photos of two fatally attacking pit bulls (social media & dogsbite)
Lee Becham, 76-years old, was brutally killed by up to three dogs belonging to his neighbor on February 23, 2020. His cause of death was ruled "traumatic injuries due to dog attack." On March 10, the dogs' owners, Samuel and Angel Brown, were each charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection to his death.Geraldine Hamlin - Shreveport, Louisiana
Photos of two family pit bulls in the home (social media & dogsbite)
Geraldine Hamlin, 64-years old, died after being mauled by two family pit bulls in Shreveport, Louisiana on February 28, 2020. The victim shared her home with her son and the two dogs; the dogs belonged to her son. "The pets were no strangers to the family," Shreveport Police Corporal Angie Willhite said.Frederick Shew - Portland, Oregon
Photos of fatally attacking family mastiff (news media)
Doris Arrington - Memphis, Tennessee
Photos of two suspected fatally attacking pit bulls (social media & dogsbite)
Doris Arrington, 59-years old, was killed by four dogs on April 22, 2020 in New Chicago, a neighborhood in North Memphis. She died of "massive blood loss." Three members of the same family were charged with reckless homicide in connection to her death, one of which owned at least two pit bulls that she bred.Roxie Parker - Welsh, Louisiana
Photo of fatally attacking family bull terrier (social media & dogsbite)
Roxie Parker, 60-years old, died after a "dog attack that left her with injuries too extensive for recovery," states her obituary. The attack occurred on April 20 in Welsh, Louisiana. Roxie died at a Lafayette hospital on April 24. The Jefferson Davis Sheriff's Office confirmed the dog involved was a male bull terrier.Dr. Nancy Shaw - Lyons, Georgia
Photos of three fatally attacking pit bull-mixes (Lyons Police Department & dogsbite)
Dr. Nancy Shaw, 62-years old, was found dead in a ditch after being mauled by four loose dogs on May 7, 2020 in Lyons, Georgia. Police seized three dogs involved in the attack, all pit bull-mixes. Prior to being captured, the fourth dog was shot and killed by a resident after it tried to break into the man's chicken pen.Lisa Urso - Ingleside, Illinois
Photos of the victim's two shorty bulls (social media & news media)
Robert Taylor - Mount Vernon, Arkansas
Photos of dog owner breeding pit bulls (social media & dogsbite)
Robert Taylor, 9-years old, was savagely killed by a pair of pit bulls when he went to check the mail on May 28, 2020 in Mount Vernon, Arkansas. Trey Edgar Wyatt, 25, of Vilonia, was arrested and charged with felony tampering of evidence and multiple animal control ordinance violations in connection to his death.Skylar Headrick - Crandall, Georgia
Photos of two fatally attacking family Neapolitan mastiffs (social media & dogsbite)
Brice Sanders - Stockton, California
Photos of fatally attacking family pit bull (social media & dogsbite)
Brice Sanders, 2-years old, was severely attacked by a male pit bull while visiting a home in the Western Ranch neighborhood of Stockton on May 31, 2020. The boy was taken to a hospital then airlifted to the University of California, Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where he died early the next morning.Katie Amos - Country Club Hills, Illinois
Photos of pit bull puppies being sold in February 2020 (social media & dogsbite)
Katie Amos, 70-years old, was killed by four family dogs on June 3, 2020 in Country Club Hills, Illinois. The attack occurred in her driveway. Arriving officers were forced to open fire on the dogs, killing one, in order to reach her. Country Club Hills Police confirmed the dogs involved were pit bull-cane corso mixes.Infant John Doe - Hartford, South Dakota
Photos of male Belgian malinois in the family's home (social media & dogsbite)
"Coco" Portes Morilla - Oviedo, Florida
Photos of one of two fatally attacking family pit bulls (social media & dogsbite)
"Coco" Portes Morilla, 86-years old, died four weeks after a rampage attack carried out by two family pit bulls in Oviedo, Florida. Three family members were hospitalized afterward. The autopsy report stated that Coco died of "complications of multiple dog bites." Contributing factors were Dementia and heart disease.Barbara Cook - Mandeville, Louisiana
Photos of two fatally attacking family pit bulls (social media & dogsbite)
Barbara Cook, 72-years old, was killed by her daughter's two pit bulls on June 25, 2020 in Mandeville, Louisiana. Cook was babysitting her 10-year old grandson when the dogs attacked. She placed herself between the boy and the dogs to protect him. Deputies were force to gun down both dogs to stop the attack.Donald Ryan - Jeffersonville, Indiana
Photos of two family pit bulls living in the victim's home (social media & dogsbite)
Donald Ryan, 62-years old, was killed by his own pit bull on July 1, 2020 in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The arriving officer found Ryan "actively being attacked by a large pit bull," according to police. He was forced to open fire on the dog, killing it, to stop the vicious attack. Ryan also had additional pit bulls in his home.Marley Wilander - Joliet, Illinois
Photos of the suspected fatally attacking pit bull (social media & dogsbite)
Marley Wilander, 1-year old, was killed by a pit bull during the night while her family attended a July 4th party in Joliet, Illinois. The hosts of the party had locked their two pit bulls in the basement for the party. At some point during the night, the dogs escaped and attacked the baby, who was in an upstairs bedroom.Stephen Pemberton Sr. - St. Clair County, Illinois
Photos of two fatally attacking family pit bulls (social media & dogsbite)
Stephen Pemberton, 61-years old, was killed by his stepson's two pit bulls on August 26 in Belleville, Illinois. His stepdaughter and a health care worker were also in the home during the attack, but in a separate room. They could hear the attack happening, but could not leave the room they were in, police said.Carolyn Varanese - Margate, Florida
Photos of fatally attacking "rescue" pit bull-mix (news media & social media)
Carolyn Varanese, 84-years old, was killed by a large pit bull-mix on August 28, 2020 in Margate, Florida. Her son Joseph had adopted the dog from a rescue a few weeks earlier. The dog "just went berserk," Joseph explained. "I flipped the dog over, slammed him on the ground -- that didn't help, he came back stronger."Karen Wilkerson - Broken Bow, Oklahoma
Photos of one of two fatally attacking family pit bulls (social media & dogsbite)
Karen Wilkerson, 76-years old, was killed by one of her daughter's two pit bulls on September 11, 2020 in McCurtain County, Oklahoma. She suffered severe facial lacerations, a partially amputated left leg and many other bites. She was being transferred to a regional hospital when "her vital signs crashed."Infant John Doe - Alamogordo, New Mexico
Photos of fatally attacking family American bulldog-mix (social media & dogsbite)
Zachary Willis - Moses Lake, Washington
Photos of fatally attacking family pit bull (social media & dogsbite)
Curtis Wickham Jr. - Tulsa, Oklahoma
Photos of one of three fatally attacking pit bulls (news media & social media)
Curtis Wickham Jr., 26-years old, was killed by three pit bulls on October 22, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Prosecutors later charged the dog's owner, Benjamin Ryan Spence, with second-degree murder for directing his dogs to attack Wickham and assault with a deadly weapon for throwing a TV at Wickham's head.Michelle Carr - Hampton, Virginia
Photos of fatally attacking family German shepherd-mix (social media & dogsbite)
Donald Allen - Jackson County, Florida
Photos of the suspected fatally attacking pit bull-type dogs (sheriff's department)
Donald Allen, 65-years old, was killed by a pack of dogs on November 18, 2020 in Jackson County, Florida. He had been walking on Kirkland Road at the time. The sheriff's office released photos of the dog pack taken from trail cameras, which contained four American bulldogs, some pit bull-mixes and mixed-breeds.Dion Bush - Battle Lake, Minnesota
Photos of fatally attacking German shepherd imported from Poland (dogsbite)
Jane Doe - Tallahassee, Florida
Photos of the 4 suspected pit bulls living in the home (social media & dogsbite)
Jane Doe, an adult, died after being attacked by a family pit bull on December 20, 2020. She was attacked while trying to break up a fight between two dogs in the home. There were four adult pit bulls and nine puppies in the home. Only one dog was involved in the attack. The autopsy results remain pending.Excluded Case with Identification Photograph
Raelynn Larrison - Dayton, Ohio
Photos of multiple American bullies in the home (social media & dogsbite)
How We Track Photograph Sources
We track the identification photograph's original source. There may be multiple images of a dog, thus multiple sources may be attributed to a single death. We also track where the image was published. For instance, after the death Brice Sanders, DogsBite obtained a quarantine photograph through a FOIA, as well as images from the dog owner's social media page. No images were published by the news media, thus it was sourced to our FOIA and social media.
What is easy to see in our tracking and analysis is the rising number of breed identification photographs located on social media, from only 16% of all collected images in 2013 to 79% in 2020, a 394% rise. It is also easy to see the routinely low number of images provided by law enforcement even though the majority of dogs after a fatal attack are held in a quarantine facility. Police released identification photographs after 1 death this year, 4%, of all images collected.
Photograph Tracking Categories
- U.S. News media supplied original photograph and/or republished photograph
- DogsBite.org published only; no news media republished the photograph
- Social media website supplied breed identification photograph
- Law enforcement or animal control department supplied photograph
- Animal control allowed news media to take photographs inside shelter
- Canines shot to death at the scene of a fatal dog attack
- Canines taken into quarantine after a fatal dog attack
Last year, we did not have an image of the dog that "detonated like a bomb" inside a Hazel Park, Michigan home on October 29, 2019 killing 4-year old Benjamin Cobb. We were able to obtain one in 2020. When images from previous years are located, we add them to that year's post.
Related articles:
01/07/20: 2019 Fatal Dog Attack Breed Identification Photographs - DogsBite.org
01/08/19: 2018 Fatal Dog Attack Breed Identification Photographs - DogsBite.org
01/11/18: 2017 Fatal Dog Attack Breed Identification Photographs - DogsBite.org
01/09/17: 2016 Fatal Dog Attack Breed Identification Photographs - DogsBite.org
01/14/16: 2015 Fatal Dog Attack Breed Identification Photographs - DogsBite.org
08/31/15: Who Can Identify a Pit Bull? A Dog Owner of 'Ordinary Intelligence'...
Law enforcement departments across the United States should release consistent "baseline" information to the media and the public after each fatal dog mauling, including these items.
Police and animal control agencies do not want to release photos of sudden death canines. What is their motive? Thank goodness Colleen is spearheading this effort to get the truth out there for the people to become aware of. That is Colleens’ motive. Could the motive of the authorities be the exact diametrical opposite of Colleens’ motive?
Methinks that a lot of these so-called authorities are dog worshippers. Admitting that dogs can be killers upsets their worldview.
Excellent reporting, as always. Useful , valuable information that people can use to understand the pit bull situation in the US. Thankyou again and again DogsBite.org filling in the void of information that is being used by doctors, in courts and by American Victims who need help as well as Americans who want to avoid being a Victim!
Thanks for being so open and giving us the peek behind the curtain on how carefully DogsBite is sourcing their information and photographs.
Another stunning eyeopener, Colleen.
It’s incredibly disturbing that news media is posting identification photos less and less. People need to be aware of what types of dogs are doing the attacking. Thanks dogsbite for keeping track of this important information.
Amazing job. I’m glad someone is doing this.
It’s a little disturbing, that quarantine record sheet on Rocko, in the Brice case. There’s a note toward the bottom of the page about the dog causing the death of a child. But it’s just another line on the page, easily overlooked. It just doesn’t seem like a great safety setup for employees.
Colleen (and team), thank you for your dedication. I have been following your work for a few years and I am grateful that you call attention to this issue that the CDC chooses to ignore. For many years, you have known what many of your readers may have only realized in 2020: the CDC is political. You do better than a government-created entity could or would ever do by putting a face on the victims and giving their friends, family, and advocates for human safety a safe place and a voice.
The obvious problem here is obvious.
It’s fixable.
If the pitbull “lovers” actually loved pitbulls, they would be culling out all aggressive dogs post haste.
Then breeding for submissive temperament, train-ability, traits in the rest. Within 4-5 generations, they’d have bred out the danger to the level of other large dogs. Other breeders have done this with wolfhounds, dobermans etc.
However, they have zero intention of doing this. Until they do, I’m not calling them “pitbull lovers” because it’s clear that the only other option is to make this breed extinct.
They’re not “pitbull lovers” they’re pitbull apologists.