A 68-year old man was found dead after being attacked by his own dog in Tyrone Township.
Dog Kills Owner
Tyrone Township, MI - The body of a 68-year old man was discovered dead behind a residence on Wednesday. Police suspected he was the victim of a fatal animal attack. On August 2, at approximately 11:40 am, Livingston County Animal Control deputies were conducting a follow-up visit at a home in the 8000 block of Faussett Road in Tyrone Township regarding a dangerous dog report. When deputies arrived, they discovered a deceased male behind the residence.
The victim's body was transported to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing for an autopsy. At that time on Wednesday, no other details were released. Today, the Lansing State Journal reports that the dog had recently been involved in an attack on another resident. The animal control deputies had been conducting the follow-up visit to serve the man a court notice about the dog, but instead found him dead in a cattle pasture. The man's dog was actively biting him when the deputies arrived.
The victim has since been identified as 68-year old Patrick Conley Sr.
The dog, described as a "mastiff-mix breed," was dispatched at the scene due to aggressive behavior toward the victim and the deputies. Police attempted medical aid, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene. The official cause of death remains pending. The identity of the victim, details about the court notice, and details about the prior attack were not initially released. The Hartland Area Fire Department and Livingston County EMS also responded to the scene.
WXYZ reports that the individual who was previously attacked by the dog is the owner's neighbor. That person suffered "extremely serious injuries," which is why the deputies were serving the court order (Notably, the dog was not seized after the first serious attack and taken into quarantine). WXYZ also spoke to William Standish, who lives nearby. He described the dogs as "guardian dogs" for the victim's livestock. Standish said he was "shocked" the man died of a dog attack.
Livingston County Sheriff's OfficeDeath Investigation - On Wednesday August 2, 2023, at approximately 11:40 a.m. Animal Control Deputies with the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office were conducting follow-up at an address in the 8000 block of Faussett Rd. in Tyrone Township. Animal Control Deputies were at the residence serving the homeowner a court notice issued by the 53rd District Court for a show-cause hearing. The dog at that residence had recently been involved in a dog attack incident where an area resident received extremely serious injuries. The dog was identified as a Mastiff mix breed.
While attempting to make contact at the residence, Animal Control Deputies located the 68-year-old resident who is also the dog owner, in a cattle pasture belonging to that address. It was observed that the dog was actively biting the decedent’s body when Animal Control Deputies located him. The victim who was later pronounced deceased on-scene, had fatal injuries consistent in appearance with a dog attack. Due to the dog’s aggressive behavior toward the victim and responding emergency personnel, the animal was killed on-site so that medical aid could be attempted. Foul play is not suspected. The victim was transported to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing for an autopsy. The official cause and manner of death are pending at this time. Deputies were assisted on-scene by the Hartland Area Fire Department and Livingston County EMS.
This incident remains under investigation by the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau.
Finally, the last time we recorded a fatal dog mauling in Livingston County, Michigan was in 2007 after a pack of American bulldog-mixes killed two people -- it was a double fatal dog mauling that resulted in a criminal trial. Diane Cockrell, 52, of Iosco Township, was ordered to serve a minimum of 3.5 years to a maximum of 15 years in prison for allowing her American bulldogs-mixes to run loose and kill Cheryl Harper, 56, and Edward Gierlach, 91, in rural Iosco Township in 2007.
A 68-year old man was found dead after being attacked by his own dog in Tyrone Township.
Related articles:
06/25/23: 2023 Dog Bite Fatality: Infant Killed by Pit Bull-Husky Mix in Lenawee County, Michigan
04/17/23: Woman Found Dead at Lansing Home; Police Initially Suspected Fatal Dog Mauling
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.
I’m actually surprised that this doesn’t happen more often when people choose to keep their maulers! What percentage of pit bulls are taken to the shelters for aggressive behavior and then adopted to another unsuspecting victim? Or on the care of the pit nutter another dead ” rescue angel”!
Exactly, Rose.
The problem is, even back decades ago, most big dogs in shelters that were more than a year old are what I’d call, “brat dogs”.
They weren’t abused, that’s an extremely small number of those in shelters. Of the hundreds I saw and those I worked with there, only two would be what I’d honestly assess as “abused”. They didn’t bite anyone, they were terrified of people and covered in scars.
Most were energetic and rambunctious, under-exercised and under-trained. Often this was pure confusion. I see this a lot, even today. Owner rewards bad behaviour, won’t correct it or don’t know how to do so effectively so the dog, being a social animal–has no idea what it’s doing, is actually *wrong*. YouTube influencers posing as dog trainers are just making this worse.
Add into that mix, pitbulls who are genetically wired to attack other dogs and maul anything that gets in their way if they get frustrated. That’s not the dog’s fault–it’s a breeding flaw.
It’s like there’s a death of reality. Science doesn’t matter.
Genetics be dammed, understanding behavioral conditioning doesn’t matter–it’s all about the feefees. It feels “mean” to correct a dog or it’s “racist” to say that humans engineered a dog that kills.
Big meanies are “suppressing” the dogs’ behavior. Darned skippy I am or they’d be peeing on my carpet.
Too many academics no longer study facts and put forward conclusions. They study feefees then cherry-pick their favorite sources to support their feefees.
That’s why common sense about pitbulls is in a death spiral.
From what I hear, a lot of people in America are living in homes with dogs that pee indoors regularly.
Yah, “peepads” are available everywhere. If you can’t housetrain a dog and are too lazy to research how, or even ask your neighbours, I have zero idea why you have a dog in the first place.
Yes, sick and old dogs may struggle to manage their potty habits (sometimes to their great embarassment) but any healthy puppy over 6 months takes *two weeks* to potty train–even older dogs who were never potty trained before. Most of the teen dogs I’ve owned, were NOT potty trained when I got them. They were–within two weeks.
This is just proof of what I keep saying. We’ve lost the dog plot, as a society.
Once people stopped using dogs to do jobs they were making them unhappy & their lives weren’t very fulfilling! I own a dog, he has a job and he loves it. He brings me water, picks up anything I drop, last night i fell in the bathroom, no one could hear me calling for help withiout him i would have been on the bathroom floor all night long! If someone does his job & brings my water bottle in the morning he becomes visibly upset about it! He likes having a job & being needed! People can teach their dogs to compete & other things that would get them working & learning to be well-behaved! Like children dogs don’t have to be abused to be well manured but it takes a lot of effort! It also takes the right breed for the environment, obviously dogs bred to kill don’t belong in this world!
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. If your dog is willing to maul any human, look out, you are next.
wow scary
This exemplifies why vicious dogs cannot be returned to their owners. Dog should have been put down after the FIRST attack. Glad the second time only took out the idiot that owned it.
And all dogs confiscated, the owner, handlers banned from any dog ownership for life.
Well well I guess he was one of those pitbull believer pitbull are misunderstood dogs it not the breed it the owner.I wonder if people still defending the pitbull he was a bad owner he was dogfighting him the pitbull was stress blah blah maybe if they put his dog down after the first attack he still be alive.do I feel bad that he died nope.
I’m going to pile on and say, I’m glad the owner got the brunt of his foolish choice to keep this dog after it attacked his neighbor so viciously. I wish we saw this happen more often when the idiot, thoughtless owners fight to keep their maulers.
Not to mention this is NOT the type of breed that is appropriate for an elderly person.
What is it with seniors and these big, honking, uncontrollable molasser breeds?
They’re either being slaughtered by someone else’s or for some reason, think they can control a dog that weighs more than they do that can haul a car.
I kind of “get it” if they had a big dog since their 50’s and it got old and grouchy along with them but that isn’t the case, most of the time.
And we are from a time when BE was practiced pretty regularly.
Growing up I can’t remember a single person ever killed by their own–or anyone else’s dog. Most dogs ran loose.
This has only been prevalent in the past couple of decades.
What happened to the old geezers wandering around with their beagle and spaniel companions and a pocketful of biscuits?
In rural and small-town areas especially, there seems to be a phenomenon of elderly men having a late life crisis– not with sports cars and young girlfriends, but with trying to be a tough-guy threatening jerk.
“I’m gonna buy a huge blacked-out pickup and cover it in Punisher logo stickers, wear t-shirts with overtly threatening slogans, open carry the biggest gun I can, and buy the most intimidating, meanest dog! That’ll show you, Death!!”
Ive seen them in every flavour honestly.
The worst offender was a huge hunting breed that they let the small 11 year old walk.
They’re being brainwashed into thinking that they are rescuers. My own mother fell for this line of BS, which was fed to her by her local SPCA.
Fortunately, she never “rescued” any molosser-type dogs, but her final dog was a very obese lab that growled and bared its teeth at me more than once.
Suffice it to say that I was very wary of it and wasn’t the least bit sorry to learn about its (natural) death.
And the flip side are these attractive 40+ women wearing yoga pants with one of these monsters on the end of a leash. (Some tethered to one those horrible retractable ones.) I saw a woman matching that description yesterday with a huge, pitbull beast on a leash. It was a crowded area. The mauler stood by her on very high alert. There were lots of small children and lap dogs in the vicinity. I suppose she somehow felt “safe” with that thing. As I drove by, I got the chills thinking what if IT got triggered and broke loose from her tiny, manicured hands. Old men and young women have no business trying to control these time-bombs.
Theres something very disturbing about the trend- I see it too with middle-class young people that want to be trendy as well.
I suspect the social cohesion, common sense and stigma is what kept people away from clearly dangerous dog breeds in the cities.
It’s the latest form of virtue signaling.
Short take: I am a DOG rescuer! Look at me-e-e!!!
I wish there was a photo or at least a detailed description of the “mastiff mix” used as a “livestock guardian”, as too many people will infer that an actual livestock guardian dog breed such as a great Pyrenees, Anatolian shepherd etc was involved and as a working livestock guardian dog enthusiast, I’d like clarification. Huge difference in breed traits/safety/purpose between a well bred LGD and a junkyard dog.
Im not sure why people think there is a particular type of guardian dog that is somehow safer?
It took a second to find a serious mauling by a anatolian shepherd:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2064658/amp/Kate-Hancock-savaged-Anatolian-Shepherd-lion-hunter-dogs-woodland-attack.html
This was a pit bull, no doubt in my mind. Game bred to keep attacking and resource guarding.
By scrolling this page you can see more ignorant people who put their newborns over dangerous dogs, under and around them, whit this “heart melting” nonsense
“Canine Bodyguard
No one is coming near this young one unless his bodyguard says it’s ok! This intimidating canine is so gentle around the newest member of his family but wants you to know that nothing is going to happen to this baby.”
The “protector” is XXXL American bully and on another photo are “old friends” Pitbull and a toddler. (Until the dog decide that they are not)
https://www.heraldweekly.com/cuteness-overload-these-babies-with-their-furry-friends-will-melt-your-heart/49?xcmg=1
…waiting for the inevitable.
Matrona, I’ve seen these images so many times, and it’s always terrifying. I learned from Colleen, this is called “resource guarding.” Dogs do it too with food and toys. I have a friend who has a pit mix and a new baby. The dog hovers around that baby constantly. She thinks it’s “protecting” this tiny creature. It is not. I’ve tried talking to her about this but she will not listen. I hope to God her dog does not get triggered. I wish people knew the facts. Those huge jaws of death are inches away from that precious little life. What a horrific roll of the dice.
People don’t understand the dog isn’t protecting the baby so much as saving it for later an making sure no one else eats it first.
There are no mastiff-based breeds that are “livestock guardian dogs”.
If the owner of this dog had euthanized it after it nearly killed someone they would still be alive.
Instead they sided with their dog and it killed them.
I feel bad for the other person who was attacked.
All I feel towards the owner of this aggressive dog is regret that he wasn’t attacked before the innocent person was.
It seems odd that so little is said about the earlier attack.
Maybe the owner thought his dog was “doing his job”, maybe he thought the other person must have offended his dog in some way that justified the attack.
It seems obvious he was sure his dog posed no risk to him.
Turns out he was wrong, dead wrong.
I can’t hammer on this point, enough.
If someone has not trained their dog to work in protection work *it has no business protecting them, their tv or their wallet wallet*. It’s a COMPANION dog.
As a companion, it’s job is to be friendly, safe to be around and generally trained to be obedient and helpful and sometimes, amusing.
The reason a dog should not be acting out on protection instincts isn’t a dog problem, it’s a training problem with the owner. They aren’t trained to handle the kinds of situations that arise when the dog goes into guarding mode.
Letting a dog guard anything without training is like walking around with a live hand grenade with no military training. It’s more likely to blow up in your face than it is to stop a break-in.
Well, I’m not ‘shocked’ at all..