Zachary Willis, 27-years old, was killed in a violent pit bull mauling in Moses Lake, WA.
Died of Multiple Dog Bites
UPDATE 10/14/20: "Grant County Coroner Craig Morrison today ruled the cause of death of Zachary Willis of Moses Lake is multiple dog bites," the Grant County Sheriff's Office (GCSO) said in a statement posted to their Facebook page Wednesday. "The manner of death is accidental. The autopsy was completed Tuesday. No other injuries were discovered, said Coroner Morrison." GCSO added that, "Willis died Thursday after a dog attack inside his home on Airway Drive."
GCSO also replied to commenters on the post. In response to, "What caused the dog to attack," GCSO stated, "The fact is we may never fully know what caused the dog to attack." In response to, "So no stab wounds?" GCSO stated, "No other injuries were discovered, said Coroner Morrison." When asked if the fatally attacking pit bull would be rehomed, GCSO stated, "The dog will be humanely euthanized … because it killed a human and severely injured another."
In response to why the dog received veterinary care instead of being immediately euthanized after the attack, GCSO stated, "The dog was placed on the 10 day hold pending investigation of Willis's death and the coroner's report. The dog was treated for his injuries so he would not suffer. As far as costs, when investigating a death of a human, we accept and budget for costs associated with the investigations." Thus, taxpayers paid these veterinary costs, not the owner of the dog.
KXLY reports that Zachary Willis was killed by his own dog. It was previously reported that the female in the household owned the pit bull. Kyle Foreman with the GCSO told KXLY the female victim was hospitalized until this past weekend. Her latest medical condition is unknown. Foreman also stated that an autopsy by the coroner confirmed Willis did not suffer any stab wounds, only dog bites. No other information was given about the dog, such as if it was a "rescue" pit bull.
10/12/20: Conspiracy Theories
No new information has been released by the Grant County Sheriff's Office after a man was killed and a woman was severely injured by a family pit bull on Thursday. It is only known that an autopsy is being scheduled. The coroner's office identified the man as 27-year old Zachary Willis. That has not stopped conspiracy theories from circulating on social media, such as false claims his death was a "murder" or that his death was related to a domestic violence "stabbing" incident.
What is the definition of domestic violence? "Violent or aggressive behavior within the home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner." This case does involve "violent or aggressive behavior within the home," but it was carried out by a pit bull (AKA "domestic pit bull violence"). Why do some fatal pit bull maulings ignite conspiracy theories and others do not? Rumor mongering usually emerges after a pit bull advocate has been killed by his or her dog.
That is the case in Willis' death as well. A 2015 post shows him trying to find a home for pit bull that he saved "from a shotgun death" after the dog killed 12-15 chickens. "Yes I saved one I'll save many more," he states. He also believed the false myth, "It's all how you raise 'em." Willis wrote: "A dog is only as his owner raises him treat and raise a good dog he will be a good dog, teach him different and he becomes a bad dog this is why so many people misinterpret this breed."
Annually, domestic pit bull violence accounts for about 15 or so deaths. Over the last 15 years, over half of all fatal pit bull maulings (53%) are attacks inside the home, when the dog kills its owner or other household member, typically the owner's child, parent or grandparent. During this same period, only 17 people between the ages of 20-28, were killed by dogs. This rare age group only accounts for 3% of all dog bite fatalities. Pit bulls inflicted 88% of these deaths (15 of 17).
A 2015 post shows that Zachary Willis believed the false myth, "It's all how you raise 'em."
10/08/20: Multi-Victim Pit Bull Attack
Moses Lake, WA - A man is dead and a woman is severely injured after being attacked by their own dog. Earlier today, Kyle Foreman of the Grants County Sheriff's Office gave a quick news conference on Facebook Live. The attack occurred at about 11:20 am at a home in the Harvest Manor Mobile Home Park at 4815 Airway Drive Northeast. Sheriff's deputies, Moses Lake Police, firefighters and paramedics responded. The woman was transported to Samaritan Hospital.
Several hours later, Foreman posted an update video. "The details of what caused the dog to get worked up are still under investigation," he said. Detectives still need to interview the female victim. Foreman also stated that the male victim had died of his injuries from the dog attack. The dog, a pit bull or pit bull-mix, was being treated at a veterinary clinic for the injuries the dog sustained in the attack. The male victim actually died at the scene -- he could not be resuscitated.
On Friday, Coroner Craig Morrison identified the victim as 27-year-old Zachary S. Willis of Moses Lake. An autopsy is being scheduled.
The dog lived at the home with the victims, according to Foreman. The violent attack happened inside the couple's home. Footage from KREM shows blood on the outside railing of the home. That occurred when the woman was moved outside the home by emergency responders to be treated, reports KREM. The woman apparently was the owner of the dog. She is also the person who called 911. The name of the male victim is being withheld until next of kin can be notified.
Multi-Victim Attacks
There have been multiple multi-victim attacks inflicted by family pit bulls this year during a fatal attack. Most recently, Karen Wilkerson, 76, was killed by one of her daughter's two pit bulls. The two daughters that came to her aid were seriously injured and transported to a hospital. Two weeks earlier, Carolyn Varanese was killed by a recently adopted pit bull. Her son, Joseph Varanese, who tried to stop the attack, was seriously injured and rushed to a local hospital.
In February, a male family pit bull embarked on a "rampage attack," attacking four family members, killing one. Four ambulances were called the scene. 25-year old Devin White, who owned the dog, died two days later while hospitalized as a result of the injuries he sustained. In that case, police determined the dog was "unprovoked and attacked for an unknown reason." The Grants County Sheriff's Office detectives will likely reach a similar conclusion in this case.
Blood seen on a Moses Lake home after a family pit bull attacked two people, killing one.
View the DogsBite.org Google State Map: Washington Fatal Pit Bull Attacks.Related articles:
09/15/20: 2020 Dog Bite Fatality: Woman Killed, Two Daughters Injured by Family Pit Bulls...
09/06/20: 2020 Dog Bite Fatality: Adopted Pit Bull-Mix Kills Woman, Severely Injures Owner
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.
“The details of what caused the dog to get worked up are still under investigation,”
My opinion: Solely because it is an unpredictable dangerous canine. No other cause.
I’m with you Richard. I don’t care how the dog got “worked up”.
All dogs get “worked up” over different stressors during the course of their lives.
They don’t maul someone to death, over it.
One could make an excuse for a dog that gets worked up and piddles in excitement. I might even buy a snarl or a nip from panic. Even a bite and run away with enough cause or neurosis.
Continuous attack? That’s not from “cause”–that’s inbred genetic drive and pure joy.
So this landshark killed a man and attacked a woman, and instead on putting it down on the scene they took it to a vet to be treated? Why? This dog should have been put down immediately! I can already imagine a hoard of pit nutters is going to try to save this thing.
A couple of hundred for humane euthanasia vs. thousands in anaesthesia, stitches, possible casts, x-rays, medications, kennel fees, etc, added on top of the owner’s own medical bills that she may not have the funds to pay.
Interview or not–she can’t consent to pay the vet bills, either if she’s badly off.
I’m beginning to think pitbull supporters are moving into cult-mentality territory as logic seems completely outside their purview.
Think of the poor veterinarian and his/her staff. What vet would want to examine and treat a killer dog? Remember the vet in Texas who required the owner of two dangerous, quarantined pit bulls to take care of them herself, and those pit bulls killed their owner.
A killer dog is unlikely to get good veterinary care, as it’s simply too dangerous for the staff. Maybe the area doesn’t have an animal control facility. Maybe Animal Control lacks the ability to safely control the dog. I personally doubt if the killer dog was taken to a veterinarian for great medical care. How did the dog get injured? Was it shot by the police?
“How did the dog get injured? Was it shot by the police?”
Posted on Facebook comments: Naomi Hall · 0:01 “The scanner said the woman had a hammer so I would assume the dog was trying to protect the man or himself hopefully they don’t automatically blame the dog ..”
Really?
Or maybe a much more reasonable and plausible scenario: The woman was trying to use the hammer on the dog in a desperate and futile attempt to defend herself and the other person from an unpredictable dangerous canine attack? Which happens much more often: Woman attacks man with hammer, or: Dangerous unpredictable canine attacks person with its teeth?
Oh my, my Aussie gets worked up everyday when the leash comes out.
I just don’t have to worry that he suddenly rips my throat out because he’s getting ” worked up ” 🤡
Well, I think we all know what happened here. No need to get worked up, no need for an investigation. No need for anybody to bang two brain cells together and try to figure out why the pitbull attacked. The only veterinary care of this pitbull needs is euthanasia.
Who cares why the dog got worked up? It killed one of its owners and severely injured the other. Put the [bleep] thing down already!
They don’t need a reason. It’s what they do. Go off for no reason.
Get ready for the Cult Of Pitbull to start their campaign of “Don’t Kill the Poor Abused, Sad Pibble because someone looked at it’s dog food the wrong way” crowd to come crawling out of the woodwork.
The one that floored me today was the excuses by a “trainer” that a pitbull tore a baby to shreds *for crawling behind it and bothering it*
Now lemme see…baby crawling 1/20th of 1mph. Pitbull running–30mph. Yuppers, crawling babies are a dire threat to life and limb and more annoying than a flea infestation and so deserve to be mercilessly slaughtered.
This is the level of “professional” insanity that BSL advocates have to deal with.
That’s bizarre – I assume there’s some legal reason to hang onto it for 10 days instead of simply euthanizing and sending the head for rabies testing.
The possibility of this dog being rabid is a pipe dream. The 10-day quarantine before euthanasia after a mauling (grade 4 or 5 dog bite) needs to end. It is frankly silly considering that if the dog was in fact rabid, any living human victim would have gotten such a high inoculation of rabies virus from the multiple, severe bites as well as bites close to the brain (head and neck) that he or she would require an immediate rabies vaccination series and Rabies IgG. Symptoms of rabies can develop rarely in 5 days. The 10-day quarantine does not follow the science at this point considering a rabid pit bull rabies inoculation would be much more likely to result in early illness so the victim is. getting the $3,000+ of shots. The CDC itself states that, “No person in the United States has ever contracted rabies from a dog, cat or ferret held in quarantine for 10 days.” So again, the 10 day quarantine makes no sense. The only possibility I can think that this is done is because it may be cheaper, safer (for lab staff), and more practical due to the high amount of severe bites in the US (and dog bites in general) than trying to find health care professionals to perform the necropsies with brain biopsies and pathologic evaluation. The frequency of bites (maulings) will continue to increase as the popularity of pit bulls grows. One final thought about rabies and pit bulls…these dogs and their owners have relationships bordering and crossing into the pathologic realm. All the kissing and licking that goes on between them makes me think that it the rabies pip dream were to have materialized, we would have seen an uptick in dog-to-human cases of rabies. Of course, that has not happened.
The dog doesn’t need to be alive to test for rabies, they can test its brain and salivary glands post mortem.
Under the “Sorry Not Sorry” category…soooooo…
One of the same people who fought against BSL was then the first person to be mauled to shreds by their *own* pitbull…
Did I read that, correctly, Christy?
Plus of course, A Pitbull Cult follower had to come forward with a fairy tale of the Heroic Super Pibble saving the victim from Cruella DaVille’s domestic abuse and Super Pibble was so upset with his victimisation that…it ate HIM?
I mean, Jeebus. It’s an SNL skit of complete nuttery.
Does this tragedy looks like a direct result of online Pitbull Cult indoctrination of a lonely fellow, to anyone else?
It’s always crazy when these long time pit advocates get mauled and killed by their “beloved breed”. I wonder to myself what they were thinking when it happened. And more importantly, how they would feel had they survived. Would they blame themselves and continue to support their “pibbles”? Or would that open their eyes and they turn against pit ownership. You never know for sure.
They weren’t thinking. Far from it. They’re ruled by emotions, and that’s how they go through life.
They need to stop feeling their way through life and start thinking.
If all dogs raised right are good dogs and all dogs raised badly are bad dogs, how do shelters find homes for all the badly raised, bad dogs? Or do the shelters assume all dogs brought in are good dogs raised right.
The fact is that a poorly socialized six month old puppy likely will be permanently damaged by that lack of socialization.
A friend got a six month old Border Collie/
Australian Shepherd puppy last week which has bitten me out of fear. Can his mind be fixed? I don’t know.
But all the rescue dogs can be fixed! I’m not talking about removing family jewels.
They can all go into wonderful homes and instantly turn into fantastic family pets.
Really? They will let the children ride them and never bite. Really?
I wish everyone looking for a dog looked at what that breed of dog was bred for.
Then maybe pit bull owners wouldn’t act shocked when their dogs mangle and kill dogs. Furthermore, there is no way to figure out what started as a dog fight and ended up as a human fatality. In most cases, there are no witnesses.
I can only speak from my experience training dogs, Rachel.
Fear from “cause” can be fixed. Eg: Dog is beaten with broom. Is afraid of brooms. Work with dog around brooms…eventually dog will eat off broom and ignore them the rest of the time.
What can’t be fixed is temperament. An anxious dog will always be anxious. Now, anxiousness can be mitigated by a calm, experienced dog handler who knows how or learns how and is determined to get a good dog out of the experience. It can’t be fixed by increasing their excitement with food and that’s where it all goes off the rails, generally.
What can’t be fixed is the pure genetic drive. Your friend’s dog is young. It’s highly likely fixable. If it herds on instinct it’s a workable dog for at least basic obedience and social manners.
A genetically engineered pitbull is geared to kill. One that doesn’t is a *failed* pitbull.
The majority of owners are crap dog handlers. Just look down the street. Most don’t wind up with murder dogs.
Shelters find homes for badly raised, bad dogs by lying about their true nature. They have inventory to get out the door, and lying is what they do.
Think used car lot and you’ll get the idea.
Sometimes they see “sucker” tattooed on the “adopter’s” forehead. Met one woman and the shelter WAS honest, the adorable little terrier (jack and yorkie I suspect) had been returned *4x* already because it was so nasty. Oh, at a price of $400 a pop. Yeah, that’s $1600 by the end of a couple of months, $20 worth of dog food and a few feet of kennel space. It’s likely whatever pound it landed in originally paid for the neutering and shots.
It was a clever little dog, too. Probably too smart for all those owners. Took me about 10 minutes to teach it to return the fetch and a 5 minutes to teach it to catch a frisbee in mid-air. (wasn’t training dogs at the time just was playing in the dog park)
She then proceeded to buy into all the nonsense about “reactivity” (as if “I’m smarter and faster than you, is a “reaction” to anything) and “counter-conditioning” and every other psychobabble term she used that didn’t apply to the brat.
The fact was, it was cute, and spoiled. She hired an overpriced “behaviouralist” who saw the dog twice then claimed she had “personal problems” after getting bitten, kept the deposit money and never showed up again.
Meanwhile Cute Terrier had now alienated every friendly dog in the dog park, bitten a few kids’ ankles, couldn’t walk on leash properly and snarled at anyone or anything that got near its food dish or toys.
First off, it was just a game terrier. Second it was clever. Third, it was too cute.
Just saying, with the Pitbull crowd, many are all geared up from too much internet disinfo with tutus and go into the shelter with the idea they’re “saving” a dog from death.
They don’t go in there with, “What kind of dog am I able to handle and train so we have a long, strong relationship together?” It’s a common weakness in those who buy from shelters–the difference is, it doesn’t generally turn deadly.
And the shelter dumps an unstable dog on them.
But definitely…the shelters need some accountability, here. Especially if the dog has a history and should have been euthanized. A 15lb terrier is one thing. 60lbs of a dog capable of murdering a human being, is another.
Sometimes this is how stupid gets cured. Had he picked a worthy cause like NICE dogs or sick kids or the elderly instead of shit dogs he’d still be alive, At least he won’t be ‘saving’ any more. Pit bulls don’t need saving, they need sterilizing.
Shocking! No stab wounds! Who would have thought that was going to happen! I would have laid money on this death being the result of domestic violence from the female in the home and not PBDV (pit bull domestic violence).
*Sarcasm font off.
Gosh Zach, why did you train your pit to kill you?
That doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do. Makes as much sense as the farmer training that pit to kill his chickens. I wonder if this was the same dog?
I’ve always wondered how that could’ve been ruled an accidental death when the dog attacked and killed his owner.