Anita Mears, 61, was killed by multiple dogs in her front yard near Newalla.
Woman Killed by Dogs
Newalla, OK - After Oklahoma County Sheriff’s deputies found a woman dead in the front yard of her property on Sunday near Newalla, they thought the woman had been stabbed to death and began a homicide investigation. The coroner's office later announced the woman died of dog bites -- thus the police investigation had been bungled irrevocably from the start. Investigators were not searching for the culprit dogs or any dog attack evidence until days after the fatal dog mauling.
By then that window of evidence gathering had disappeared, and unsurprisingly, so had the dogs. They will likely never be identified.
To make matters worse, the victim's own dog was "standing over her," guarding her body, when deputies arrived and was also injured in the incident. "We believe the dog was trying to protect her," said Sheriff Tommie Johnson III, of the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office. This is common behavior for certain dog breeds, largely pit bull-types and rottweilers, after they have fatally attacked their owner or family member. Police did not release the breed of dog that Mears owned.
The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office and the County Medical Examiners Office have determined the death of a woman near Newalla this weekend is NOT a homicide. Sunday April 24 at approximately 12:23 pm, deputies were called to the 4300 block of South Catfish Drive on a report that a woman was dead.
When deputies arrived, they found the body of 61 year old Anita Mears in her front yard.
Ms. Mears had injuries consistent with being stabbed multiple times.
The Oklahoma County Medical Examiners Office responded and determined this is not a homicide, but that Ms. Mears was attacked by multiple dogs.
Ms. Mears' dog was also injured in the attack. Her dog was standing guard over Ms. Mears' body when Deputies arrived.
As for the dogs that attacked Ms. Mears, we don't know whether they are wild dogs or neighborhood dogs, and because there were no witnesses, we may never know. We are warning folks to stay away from any packs of dogs that may be roaming the area.
We are releasing a picture of Ms. Mears that her family provided. Our prayers are with Ms. Mears family as they work to cope with this tragedy. - Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office, April 26, 2022
Deputies responded to a property in the 4300 block of South Catfish Drive on Sunday shortly before 12:30 pm after reports that a woman was found dead. When they arrived, they found her body in the front yard of her home with injuries consistent with stab wounds. The Oklahoma County Coroner's Office responded and determined -- the date of the coroner's determination is not identified1 -- that Mears' death was not a homicide; she had been attacked by multiple dogs.
“We don’t really know what kind of dogs they were, and that’s part of the problem,” said Aaron Brilbeck, public information officer for the sheriff’s office. “The reality is we may never be able to identify these dogs. We don’t know if they’re wild dogs or if they’re neighborhood dogs. There were no witnesses to this, so being able to identify the dogs responsible? We probably never will.” - Oklahoman, April 26, 2022
The sheriff's office also added the unsubstantiated claim that the dogs could be "wild" too. "Wild dogs" are not involved in fatal dog attacks in the United States. Family dogs, loose owned dogs and formerly owned dogs -- abandoned dogs that become strays -- are by far the chief offenders in fatal dog maulings. True feral dogs -- dogs born in the wild, having no reliance on humans at all -- are involved in less than 2% of all U.S. fatal dog attacks, according to our 16-year data set.
Finally, Sheriff Johnson was asked during the press conference if the county has any type of animal control officers. Johnson said they do not and that they "work with other municipalities out east" that do have these officers. Johnson cautioned residents about the dogs. "If you see a pack of dogs, stay away and please call the police," he said. "Obviously, they travel in packs so they can be dangerous when they do that. So, please stay away, protect yourself and call the police."
Anita Mears, 61, was killed by one or more dogs in her own yard near Newalla, Oklahoma.
Related articles:
09/10/19: 2019 Dog Bite Fatality: Elderly Woman Mauled by Pack of Dogs in Pickett County Dies
01/11/19: 2019 Dog Bite Fatality: Woman Killed by Pack of Dogs in Grenada County, Mississippi
03/08/18: 2014 Dog Bite Fatality: Mississippi Man Killed by Pit Bulls; Second Death by Dogs...
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.
How were these Keystone Cops not able to see any blood trail leading away from her body? Even if they thought this was a stabbing? Blaming a human makes more sense than blaming wild dogs.
NOT a homicide? Wrong. It certainly was a homicide. By dogs.
Canine homicide! Yet another person mauled to death within a week in the US…
This is so sad, yet becoming too frequent. Thank you for all your good work on this blog.
And ladies, if you aren’t carrying protection, I suggest you get some, and I don’t mean a stick.
She was probably killed by cough cough pitbull.I heard latest lady was killed by her neighbor pitbull in montanta.off topic but colleen you should write about one year ruby who was mauled by her family pitbull three family tries to saved her but it wouldn’t let go.the mom had to stabbed the pitbull to death.luckly ruby survived.
Wild dogs, feral cats and wolves don’t trust humans and so, are rarely actual threats as they will take any route they can to escape.
Pitbulls, on the other hand, as well as some other domestic dumped dogs, will attack because they lack that inhibition.
Mears’ personal dog may have been guarding her body from further harm or guarding what it perceived as it’s property and we can’t ever know that without knowing what happened during the attack.
None of the above is provable unless there’s DNA testing of the dog/s involved.
The inability of the investigators to differentiate between a dog attack and a knife attack–well I hope people who are serving on juries take note because (remember the dingo baby eating incident) that far too often testimony about forensic evidence isn’t scientifically reliable.
Well, it was just the initial investigators who thought it was a stabbing attack. Knowing how pitbulls kill, the poor woman’s body was probably shredded and covered with blood, I can understand why the initial investigators first thought was it was a stabbing attack if they weren’t familiar with a pitbull attack.
What happened to her dog? Was it put down to approach the body? Even so, if suspected murder shouldn’t it of been examined as part of the crime scene? Did it show evidence of biting a person. Really does sound like very amateur cops. I know you want to get DNA off as many sources as possible. Also if dogs running loose and captured, could they be checked for certain bite marks matching the pattern of her attack. It would at least hopefully not get them adopted back out into the community. Insanity that we aren’t safe in our yards or anywhere now. People want big bad dogs, not breeds that use to be considered good pets.
Old Dog Person Observation:
All these people getting Rotts, Pitbulls and Mastiffs to protect them from “dangerous people” with zero clue how to manage big dogs–keep getting mauled by their own dogs.
If they’re that scared of the outside world that they need a fearsome beast to protect them–how do they think they have the confidence to succeed in training said fearsome beast?
Just wonderin’
Well said!!
Somehow the law enforcement team in France was able to discover that the woman, Elisa Pilarski, killed in the woods was killed by her boyfriends dog and not by the fox hunting hounds that were on an official hunt. There were something like 65 hounds. ALL had DNA samples taken. It turned out to be the boyfriends dog Curtis. The boyfriend blamed the fox hunt. But it turned out to be his own dog. She was walking the dog alone in the forest. They were big into pit bulls. She was pregnant. Probably the hunt dogs were baying close by and Curtis got triggered. Just my assumption. The French officials stayed on this case even though Covid was going on. They saw it through and they finally arrested the boyfriend. Do a Google search on her name. Very interesting story.
Thanks for the heads up, Diane. I read the Daily Mail account. DM often has more photos and data not included in American media reports.
Given that some PB victims have been disemboweled, I am surprised that the PB did not disrupt the fetus. Unless it did and the media didn’t want to divulge it.
Funny how for at least the last few hundred, if not thousands of years, there have been the odd wild dog packs roaming outside urban areas. And packs of stray dogs in rural areas.
Yet, humans being attacked by a pack of dogs was virtually, unheard of. Cases of it were exceptionally rare and it was such a shock that community hunters would ride out and hunt the offenders down in a big wave of publicity. The biggest problem was livestock being slaughtered for food by such packs.
Not even when huge carting dogs were outlawed so they were dumped by the hundreds leaving them homeless and starving, did such events, occur.
But somehow, since the Great Pitbull Explosion, this has become monthly, if not weekly, news.
Something to ponder.
Boni, great post. As I recall, you have years of experience as a dog trainer. Do you consider a pack being 3 or more dogs? When I post about an older memorable mauling, I just remember whether there are multiple dogs or one.
I know Colleen has addressed the exponential probability of incitement to attack by the increasing number of pitbulls in a pack. What’s your advice on a pair of pitbulls being a pack? Is it a misrepresentation? When more than one pitbull attacks, I would call it a pack because of that important exponential factor of incitement. I personally don’t think it is a misrepresentation but I will go along w those of you w longterm doggo experience.
As you pointed out your observations of the pack trend, here is data from Colleen:
“Whereas, multi-dog attacks involving all other dog breeds combined has a flat linear trend line. Over the 15-year period (2005-2019), pit bulls have been involved in 73% of all fatal multi-dog attacks (177 of 244).”
https://blog.dogsbite.org/2020/07/2019-dog-bite-fatality-statistics-discussion.html
Pitbulls are not temperamentally reliable. Add another and that’s just begging for trouble.
I’ve had up to five dogs *loose* in my house at the odd point when I was training with nary more than a bit of growling or grabbing. None, at that time were pitulls although it did include one or more working Bouviers and traumatised (and recovered) GSD so we’re not talking about a pack of teacup poodles.
Sometimes I got calls from people who couldn’t manage two dogs at a time. Can’t recall anyone who had three or more unless they were small. That’s a new trend.
Pitbulls are an infestation IMO. They are an apex predator with only humans between them and every other animal, including biddable dogs, household pets and livestock– to stop the incursion.
They are destroying the lines of friendly mongrels and dog breeds at an alarming rate. They are an unnatural phenomena, created by humans.
I grew up in a fairly rural area and dog packs were not unheard of.
Attacking dog packs, were. While correlation is not causation the pitbull infestation into wild packs begs for research.
We’ve had 2 deaths from dog packs in my rural area the past 3 years, and a few maulings. I don’t think either one of them made it on here. No idea what the breeds were.
It would be good to see some research on wild packs and breed intermixing relative to human attacks.
I’m rural.
We have 2 packs that were running fields behind me, pack of 7 (no bulldogs) and pack of 5 (2 bulldogs)
Ran the 5 pack off of neighbors calf they almost killed.
Then few days later they Tried to find a place to get in my fence which I assume was to get my dogs.
Locally we have a lot of people moving here from urban areas that seem to want to collect dogs. Saw the 7 chasing down another dog in field behind my house. Sounded like they caught it after it got over hill.
I like to go dog carting and had been doing it for several years peacefully.
Last 2 years been difficult.
All the dogs running loose it’s been almost impossible this year to have a good run without Altercations with dogs.
Although I have had problems with others I will say it’s been mostly bulldogs that I have to actually have my dogs stop, and wait while I jump off the cart and intercept. Had some close calls.
Once was a pair of dogo’s running loose at night coming full tilt at us. I’m not too fond of those. Most have idea Dogo’s are gentle giants. Those were serious that night.
I haven’t seen the 7 pack in about 3 months. Ranchers might have gotten fed up with them.
And now I see 10 minutes later that Colleen had written:
“If the ‘pack of dogs’ in the Oklahoma case, which could easily be a ‘pair’ or ‘trio’ of owned roaming dogs, isn’t located and broken up, they could certainly kill again.”
Still interested in your and Colleen’s take on this.
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The attack was by
a pack of Chihuahuas with rotten teeth.. What kind of dogs did the owner have. Dogs never kill their owners. Really.
I wrote a huge screed then realised it was simple.
Do mankilling panthers/tigers/lions ever stop once they start killing humans?
We bred pitbulls to be aggressive to their own species and to us. We need to take responsibility for this and create an extinction level of events (clearly spay and neuter adverts aren’t working or the population would be halved already, not increasing) because pitbulls are bred to kill other dogs and people. At least wild cats usually have the sense to stay away from human territory.
People hunt down man-killing tigers, panthers and other big animals for the safety of humans. I’m failing to see why that’s not happening in the case of deadly dogs.
If there’s one lesson to be learned from this it’s that propaganda can so powerful that humans will act against their own survival instincts in service to it.
Why people aren’t hunting down dangerous dogs? Could it have something to do w city websites with the animal control officers posing w a pitbull? These are the folks who are supposed to protect citizens from dangerous dogs.
And the two first responders whose 2 rottweilers mauled their baby after social media photos showing the dogs waaay too close to the baby. Father a cop, mother an EMT. You’d think the parents would have been more protective of their child.
These issues make me feel like some first responders are not relating to citizens. Is it a bravado issue? Or do the animal control officers seek out that position because they want leniency for pitbulls?
For the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office:
“Statistical data from a 15-year period shows that pit bulls are over 11 times more likely to kill their owner than any other dog breed.”
https://blog.dogsbite.org/2020/06/pit-bull-kills-female-owner-in-province-of-nova-scotia.html
At this point after reading about thousands of pitbull attacks on humans and animals I have to wonder if this is also a class issue?
I know that sounds OTT but hang on a mo.
Wealthy and middle-class people can afford multiple trainers/dog handlers, medical insurance and enough room and fencing expertise to lock up or board menacing dogs if they really want to keep them. They can also afford any top notch dog breed they want. If a dog doesn’t work out, well, they can just dump it onto the streets or into a shelter rather than take on the emotionally draining ethical decision to euthanize their failure. It’s especially embarrassing after publicly ‘white-saviouring’ a rescue pitbull all over their instagram and facebook.
Rescues/shelters are the dog supermarkets of the poor. What are they full of? Pitbulls and other behaviourally unsound dogs.
So where do the majority of these killing machines end up doing the most damage even when owned by those with more money?
Yup, disproportionately in financially disadvantaged neighbourhoods where many have little to no healthcare coverage, not enough resources to keep potentially dangerous dogs contained, inability to access legal representation when attacked and where Animal Control Services are underfunded and over-worked.
Financially disadvantaged folks love dogs too. But what’s being shovelled into our neighbourhoods with blatant disregard for the consequences are dangerous dog rejects.
Even families who would far prefer a child-loving poodle or beagle mix are being conned by these “rescue charities” into taking home pitbulls and pitbull mixes with hidden bite histories. They’re even arriving in droves in BSL areas.
Like that brown one? We’ll give you his best friend for FREE! Two for the price of one! Pick up his son and we’ll throw in a free bag of toys and a dog bed!
Thus is born the mass increase in pack mauling.
Yes, I think it is a class issue, definitely. At a time when even the most irresponsibly bred mill puppies cost $1,000+ each, not only are pit bulls dirt cheap at shelters, you can also pull up Craigslist or social media and find plenty of them just being given away for free.
Studies have been done of how many homes pits tend to pass through during their (often abbreviated) lifespans, and it is far more than other breed types.
Most (not all) shelters at the very least tend to neuter their pits before pushing them out the door, whereas giveaway pits are usually intact, thus making sure that even the most unstable animals will have multiple chances to reproduce as they are passed along between owners.
I am sure there are many people who would like to have a normal family dog, but are simply being priced out of that opportunity. It seems to be getting more and more difficult as time goes by.
I have a theory.
No pack, just her dog.
If you were used to dealing with normal dog bites and came across someone mauled to death by a pit, rott, dogo or any other of the fighting dogs you would have a hard time believing one dog did all that damage.
Odd they arn’t checking for DNA or making plaster casts of her dog’s teeth and comparing them to the bite wounds.
Again this is just a theory. If her dog turns out to be a beagle, it is an incorrect theory. However considering this crew could not tell the difference between a stabbing and a mauling I think it is believable they could not tell the difference between a pack attack and one pit or other power breed attack.
Thoughts?
how do they know it wasn’t her own dog? a pack of dogs can easily overwhelm one dog ? how is this dog alive?