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23 thoughts on “2024 Dog Bite Fatality: Pair of German Shepherds Kill 91-Year Old Female Owner in Chehalis, Washington

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  1. Poor lady she lives to her nineties and died by her gs dogs.I wonder why she pick such a large dog .her body and age.she doesn’t have the will power to do so.if it was her dogs.

  2. Uhm so someone who hoarded dogs for profit and treated them miserably was eaten by said dogs?

    It’s sad she was a senior and maybe she didn’t have all her faculties, intact…

    But does anyone else see the dramatic irony, here?

    Or am I just bad at being human?

  3. It’s unusual for GSDs to attack an owner. Were the dogs being fed? Did someone else handle the dogs?
    Were these the only dogs on the property?

    The article says she’s an AKC judge. If she was having more than six litters born per year, she would have been inspected by AKC. There were reasons why this happened.

    One of my acquaintances was shooting BB guns at his GSDs. His dogs were not being fed properly. He was out of money. He died and his dogs were seized. He was critically ill and was aware that if he went down, his dogs would eat him. Simply a fact.

    • handler aggression isn’t exceedingly rare in GSD , but it sounds like a possible
      trying to break up dog fight ‘ because they are certainly prone to dog aggression

  4. Not feeling terribly sorry for her. As you get older you should take into account what you can realistically do and being a dog breeder, particularly of larger dogs, is not a good idea.
    Never own a dog that is capable of killing you is a good idea.

  5. Large dogs can be too dangerous for elderly people to handle. I handle very few of mine. I routinely handle Nodder, my SD. I also handle his son. I could handle some others. However, handling dogs which are too big and too strong for a single elderly woman to handle is stupid. That teaches the dogs that they can do as they want which will require additional training to fix.

    I got bitten by a small adult black male GSD.
    His behavior was horrible. He came from my kennel as a baby.

    He would bite anyone. Although his bites weren’t serious, they were inexcusable. Chompers was abused. The woman who raised him might have taken him out once daily. She shoved sticks up his rectum in order to get him to eliminate when and where she wanted. He learned to bite to prevent that. I found the behavior inexcusable. She would never have admitted she was wrong, and she is now deceased.

    Chompers was biting over brushing him out and baths. He was placed in a different home and was doing well. However, I wish I had known about the abuse. The information came from her adult son many months later I could have helped him if I had known. The original owner dumped him for biting.

  6. This story doesn’t surprise me in the least, and here’s why:

    While I was growing up, some nearby neighbors owned a German Shepherd that they kept in a cage next to the house. We kids were warned, in no uncertain terms, never to go near this cage.

    We were told that the dog was a “police dog” and it was there for “protection.” In reality, it was one of the nastiest dogs I have ever seen.

    I was afraid of it — and very relieved when that family left the neighborhood.

      • Simple answer: Because it was too dangerous to be let out of the cage. If any of us kids approached the cage, the dog would lunge at us, barking and snarling.

        I don’t know what police force this dog was part of, but it should have been put down.

      • Many people call a dog pen a cage. How big was the cage? Many folks have called German shepherd dogs police dogs. A police dog is a dog owned and trained by the police. Most often people are referring to a dog used for bite work as a police dog. Would most people refer to a Labrador retriever that only does drug searches for the police to be a police dog?

        GSDs are a very territorial breed. Chaining and/or confining GSDs in small areas with lots of stimulation such as cars, loose dogs, cats, squirrels, children, etc. will often result in aggressive dogs. Squirrel comes. Dog barks. Squirrel runs away. Kid comes. Dog barks. Kid runs away. In the dog’s mind, it has chased the squirrel, kid, etc. away. The dog’s only entertainment is in acting aggressive. This is not a GSD problem. It is an owner neglect problem, but the neglect can cause serious aggression.

  7. We have confirmed the victim’s address with the audio dispatch log files. Nancy Ann Punches, 91, resided at that residence. The person we had suspected.

  8. Very thorough reporting, Colleen. That’s quite a history. It’s unfortunate whatever was going on that caused her to create such poor living conditions for the foxhounds, and too bad she didn’t stick with that breed. Maybe her health and age led to her no longer being able to care for the dogs properly, especially with so many. Breeding operations can turn into hoarding situations too quickly.

    It’s just a guess, but I would suspect she had 2 German shepherds for “protection.” How sad. An elderly person would be better off with a security system, instead of animals that have minds of their own. I continue to long for a day when we update our thinking around so many paradigms.

    And if she had wanted a dog for companionship, something small and calm that has never killed a person would have been a much better choice. What a terrible tragedy.

    The only dog breed any of my family members have ever been bitten by is a German shepherd (2 different people in my family, and thankfully both were fairly minor). But I’m thankful my family has chosen to own dog breeds that have never killed people. When I get a dog again someday, I’ll do the same.

  9. If AC would have banned her from owning any dogs as part of the plea deal from her hording case she would still be alive.

    Granted, I can’t get too worked up about it.
    Just one more case where AC failed to save a person from themselves.

    Glad there were no kids or innocent elderly involved.

    The lady found her self at the intersection of F around and find out.

  10. I would ask why Adult Protective Services was not brought into this situation long ago. The 2012 incident was a big red flag that her judgement was not sound, particularly in regards to dogs. If she felt unsafe in her home, which was probably too much for her to maintain anyway, she should have been required to relinquish the dogs and convinced to move to senior housing.

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