Francis Cavanaugh, 6-years old, was mauled to death by a dog on the Spirit Lake Reservation.
Boy Killed by Dog
Fort Totten, ND - A 6-year old boy is dead after being attacked by at least one dog on the Spirit Lake Reservation, according to investigators. The attack occurred on Sunday, March 27, at a housing development off of Highway 57 in Fort Totten, reports InForum. The FBI is investigating, but declined to release any details. It's unclear if the owner of the dog has been identified at this time. Like many reservations, Spirit Lake has been plagued with roaming dogs for years.
At least 700 dogs found roaming the reservation were taken in last year, according to Tribal Chairman Douglas Yankton. That did not even "dent" the problem, he said. There are so many dogs on the reservation, Yankton added, that it would be impossible to establish a registration system. The boy's dog mauling death occurred one day before a young woman was fatally attacked by a large pack of dogs on the Meskwaki Nation Settlement in Tama County, Iowa.
In December, Duke Little Whirlwind, 58, was killed by a pack of dogs on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. In May, Lyssa Upshaw, 13, was killed by a pack of dogs on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. Since 2010, there have been at least 14 fatal dog maulings on Indian reservations nationwide. The persistency of the number of roaming dogs on reservations -- many of which are owned, but un-collared and unchecked, or abandoned -- has deadly ramifications.
Native American reservations often have seriously underfunded animal control resources or lack them all together. The Spirit Lake Reservation only has one animal control employee. Like other tribes across the country, Spirit Lake also has a breed-specific ordinance that bans pit bulls and rottweilers, at least from their housing program. Yankton said that enforcement, however, is problematic. Owners become confrontational and evicting just increases the homeless situation.
Family Speaks to Media
In a video report, iNews TV identified the boy as Francis Cavanaugh. The group spoke to Fallon Greywater, the sister of Francis' biological mother. Fallon and her husband Keith have been the boy's parents since birth. Fallon said Francis was attacked by one dog, which was taken into custody (an unusual scenario, reservation attacks are nearly always pack attacks). Francis was outside with his older brother when the dog attacked. He had played with this dog in the past.
View the DogsBite.org Google Map: Fatal Dog Attacks on American Indian Reservations.Learn about breed-specific laws on Indian reservations in our Breed Safety Laws section.
Related articles:
03/29/22: 2022 Dog Bite Fatality: Woman Killed by Pack of Dogs on the Meskwaki Settlement
12/16/21: 2021 Dog Bite Fatality: Dogs Kill Man on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation
05/29/21: 2021 Dog Bite Fatality: Teenager Killed by Pack of Dogs on the Navajo Nation
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.
Colleen, have any of the Nations or their people contacted you directly? I hope they do and that they use this site to get the news out.
Reservations not only have their own problems with dogs, they’ve become the “we sent the dog to the farm” dumping grounds for outsiders ditching unwanted pets. Add to that the financial struggles around paying for spay/neuter for people who can barely feed their children and it’s a disaster waiting to happen…which, it did, in the case of this unfortunate child and his family.
There used to be announced “dog shooting days” on some reservations where residents did shoot stray dogs for population control. When that hit the news here, you can imagine the do-gooder uproar. It went on in the media here *for weeks* and the racism underlying some of the publicity was painfully obvious. No amount of “but it’s our land and dangerous to us” seemed to get through to the dog nutters. Nor did the dog lovers offer any solutions or financial incentives to fix the problems because it’s not in their urban backyard.
We can say, “Native folk have to change their laws around this” but when they DID–they were lambasted and forced to stop their own practises.
There usually aren’t available shelters/rescues (although Northern Ontario now has two rescues that operate and adopt out friendly strays after fostering) in most places, either.
If all these pitbull nutters actually have a sh*t about dogs, they’d be removing the friendly dogs nobody wants, spay/neutering them and adopting them off or keeping them. They don’t care about *dogs* or *people*–they pour millions into pitbulls no matter how egregious the behaviour while perfectly salvageable family dogs are left to fend for themselves.
Makes my heart hurt hearing that he was begged to go outside to play with the dog. Hearing about all of these stray dog attacks really makes me mad. These stray dogs need to be put down.
The sad part is, the little fellow probably clearly believed that like a lot of stray rez dogs, this one was friendly. Most, are.
Which is why I don’t “get” the pitbull support. Plenty of these dogs can be behaviourally assessed, fostered and sent home with someone–if rescues weren’t pizzing away their funds coddling dangerous pitbulls, many that they *know* are suspect.
What a lousy ignorant way for off-reservation outsiders to treat the Native Americans. 700 dogs a year have to be removed?! Those treating reservation lands as a dumping ground should be arrested. They are guilty of contributing to this little guy’s death.
Thanks to Colleen for tackling this problem and to Boni for the additional info.
I’ve noticed that occasionally reservation casinos have been publicly generous to off-reservation causes. Contacting high-revenue casinos would be a start for them to provide better animal control resources if they are not already doing so.
I don’t know about financial problems in reservations. My friend who belongs to a reservation receives a check annually of over $1000 from the reservation. He doesn’t live there. Free dental work. The reservation paid for college educations for his two sisters. That reservation has a big problem with drugs and alcohol and packs of dogs. His dad lives there and carries a loaded gun due to fear of the dogs. His grandfather was purebred native American.
Many people on reservation don’t love their dogs. Shooting them is fine. One can always find a new dog. My neighbor shot his six month old border collie for chewing on the bark of a young tree
Indian reservations are different in control of their lands. No one can buy land there. One can lease land on which to build his or her home. States have no jurisdiction on reservations. The reservations have their own laws and the federal government oversees them.
Many reservations have huge problems with alcohol and drugs.
Native Americans are also more likely to create coyote x dog breeding’s. They turn the puppies loose when they become obnoxious. So there can be hybrids loose on the reservation.
Years ago a friend had a woman move in with her dog. This nine year old intac female dog had long hair with husky markings. She was long legged and acted like a wolf. She had very high prey drive. The owner
abandoned her. My friend succeeded in locating the breeder who picked her up. Both of her parents were high wolf content dogs.
I have talked with Native Americans, and their beliefs can be different. One of my friends is 25 per cent. He is fantastic taking care of his dogs.
Please remember the reservations own the property so confinement of dogs could be tough. They don’t want fences.