Rebecca McCurdy, 28-years old, was attacked and killed by two pit bulls in Osage County.
Cause of Death
UPDATE 06/26/21: On Friday, investigator Rex Wikel released more information about the fatal pit bull mauling of 28-year old Rebecca McCurdy. She had been house sitting a home with multiple pit bulls when she was discovered dead by deputies. The state medical examiner also released a preliminary report confirming that she died as a result of a dog attack. There were no security cameras in the home so the time of the attack and circumstances are unknown, Wikel said.
Regarding rumors on social media, Wikel said they found no evidence the dogs were trained to fight or that there had been previous acts of aggression. "I've seen some of the comments that they are fighting dogs and so on and so forth," Wikel said. "There is no reports or instance so far that shows any other incident other than this one involving these dogs or this owner." The owner has agreed to sign over the dogs to be destroyed. At least two pit bulls were involved in the attack.
06/21/21: Woman Found Dead Near Skiatook
Osage County, OK - On June 19, a woman was found dead after a suspected dog attack. Deputies were dispatched to a home near Skiatook to carry out a welfare check on 28-year old Rebecca McCurdy. She had reportedly been house sitting and watching the homeowner's dogs. When deputies arrived, they found McCurdy deceased in the garage. Evidence observed at the scene "indicates Rebecca was the victim of a dog attack," the sheriff's office said in a release.
"The homeowner claimed he raised pit bull dogs for hobby/sale," the Sheriff's Office said. "There were several pit bull dogs caged in the garage. One of the dog cages was toppled over and there were many signs of a dog attack visible," the release said. Osage County Sheriff's Office investigators are waiting on results from the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office. The pit bulls suspected in the attack were taken into custody, reports the Pawhuska Journal-Capital.
Dog Sitting Deaths
Earlier this year in North Carolina, a 7-year old girl was killed and her mother was critically injured while caring for their neighbor's two rescue pit bulls. Since the attack, the dogs' owners, Joseph and Amanda White, continue to try to get their dogs returned to them. In 2019, in Michigan, a pit bull that a mother had agreed to dog sit at her home, suddenly "detonated" like a bomb, killing her 4-year old son. The mother had only been dog sitting the pit bull, "Bolo," for less than one day.
Uncommon Age Group
Only 21 individuals, ages 19 to 29, were killed by dogs between 2005 and 2020. Pit bulls were responsible for 90% (19 of 21) of these deaths. The majority of cases, 58%, involved two or more pit bulls attacking. Though this age group only makes up about 4% of dog bite fatalities recorded during the 16-year period, pit bulls are disproportionately involved in them. A rottweiler and a Dogo argentino carried out the other two fatal attacks. In both cases, a single dog killed its owner.
View the DogsBite.org Google Map: Oklahoma Fatal Pit Bull Maulings.Related articles:
05/17/21: 2021 Dog Bite Fatality: Child Killed, Mother Hospitalized While Caring for Neighbor's...
10/29/20: 2019 Dog Bite Fatality: 4-Year Old Boy Killed by Pit Bull His Family Was Housing...
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.
Too bad she decided to be in proximity to a dangerous breed canine that did not have the federal warning label on it. Ooooops, I almost forgot. Warning labels are for side view mirrors, plastic wrap, five gallon buckets and lithium ion batteries, not for un- and/or predictably dangerous breed canines that severely maim tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands of people per year in America, depending on the definition of what “severe maim” is. She does not have to live in pain for the rest of her life on earth. Instead, she was sent to Heaven by a pet canine animal. I am sure she had five tenths of a second advance notice to say her prayers and to take of all of her final affairs before suddenly attaining Life in Heaven. Five times better than one tenth of a second advance notice. Memo to self: Take care of all final affairs before being in surprise or non-surprise proximity to a pet canine dangerous breed animal.
Y’know my first job when I came to this city many decades ago was looking after a poodle kennel for breeders when they went on holiday. Stereo-typically, it belonged to two gay guys and the dogs were not used to women.
30+ poodles of every size, age, colour and personality combination and obedience levels and I never got bit, not once.
Yet how many pet sitters have been eaten this year by pitbulls?
This poor woman prolly just needed a few dollars and it cost her life because it wasn’t a few poodles, or beagles, or pointers, or huskies or retrievers or pomeranians or schnauzers or even GSDs.
It was a pitbulls.
Owned by people who didn’t know enough how to handle them and then palmed off on a poor soul that knew even less.
Yes but that is the problem isn’t it. The “humane society” people like to say that pitbulls aren’t aggressive or dangerous unless they are raised by people who don’t “raise them properly” unfortunately they don’t bother to tell the unsuspecting smuck who takes the dog that they mean it needs to be raised AND trained by a professional dog trainer who is experienced with dangerous animals! All the rest of us are sent home with a time bomb so they can feel better about themselves and their “no kill shelters”! I had a huskey wolf mix, by accident when we lived in Alaska and although he tried to kill the neighbors goats, he was so much more stable and calmer than any pitbull I’ve been around, I’ll take a wolf hybrid any day and while I loved him, he died from a blood clot after fighting with a badger which we crossed on a horse ride, I’d definitely advise against mixing a dog with a wild animal and taking it into your home and pitbulls are worse in my experience!
All the time you hear of dog experts telling people “don’t pet strange dogs”, “don’t walk up to strange dogs”, in the media. Why do we NEVER hear, “don’t watch other people’s pit bulls”? We have the sense to tell people the obvious to not approach unknown dogs, but yet there are no warnings to avoid being alone in a home around unfamiliar pit bulls.
Now, we all know, familiarity won’t stop a pit attack. It could know you for 10 years and still one day attack you. But still, our society does nothing to discourage people from watching another person’s large, dangerous dogs alone for days at a time.
You’ll only hear about this when it’s people watching dangerous breeds. I’ve never heard of someone watching their neighbor’s pomeranians and winding up dead.
Oh, puh-leeze! No one raises pit bulls as a HOBBY, they raise them to make MONEY!
As always, follow the money.
Of course. The poodle breeders were using the extra money to pay for their dog show ring addiction.
We can only guess what pitbull breeders are using the extra cash, for….
When I was a little girl, we lived near a military base with animal training. These were German shepherds, and there was a set of bleachers for community members to watch how well the trained dogs performed.
Some dogs failed.
Our next door neighbor acquired 2 of the failures.
We couldn’t get within 10 feet of our own fenceline, and once, a policeman came to the report of a rattlesnake in our backyard. The male dog jumped the fence and mauled the officer, them went after my mother. She had a broom to defend herself, we children scrambled up a tree, and the policeman shot the dog.
Total stitches: Cop- too many to count. Mom- only about thirty.
My brother- ten from a gash he got trying to climb.
The rattlesnake was the only creature that was safe!
Those dogs should have been euthanized. Point blank.
To train a dog for protection work, have it “fail” because it cannot follow orders or is anxiety-ridden then sell it to someone in a residential community is some top level irresponsibility. The biting is out of the bag so it takes intense training and experienced dog handling to manage one of these dogs or a retired protection dog in the outside world.
I hope everyone harmed by this this sued the base for selling these dogs.
Which is also what needs to start happening to these shelters that are refusing to euthanize behaviourally unfit and genetically unstable dogs that can’t manage in communal settings.
BSL saves lives…
People who own dangerous dogs could be required, under law, to have insurance guaranteeing payments to innocents injured by their ‘pets’ (sic).
I agree. I adopted a pit from a rescue because I blindly believed all the organizations that say the breed is safe when well cared for. During my journey as a pit owner I realized that the right homeowners policy was urgently needed. The average bite cost claim is $40,000. Only 4 companies nationwide cover aggressive breeds. We had a $1 million umbrella policy. No rescues tell you this stuff when you adopt so people are so unprepared. You leave the shelter with your dog knowing little about it’s history, you’re told by many many well known organizations that these are safe family dogs and certainly no one tells you about all the hoops you have to jump through. So yes, I believe insurance should be mandatory and that the adopter is fully aware of common issues you would face owning a pit. I’ll bet a lot of people would say no thank you and move on. Unfortunately where I live, 99% of shelter dogs are pits and as a society, we are urged to adopt, not shop.
What I find confusing here is was there a dog still in the toppled crate? Were any dogs loose in the garage? Did she manage to get loose pit bulls that attacked her back into crates before she died. Was the attack by a single dog or multiple dogs?
The owner surrendered the dogs to be put down. Well, yay for that, I guess.
Update? https://ktul.com/news/local/medical-examiner-releases-preliminary-report-on-woman-killed-by-dogs