An 85-year old woman was killed by her own dog in rural Hidalgo County.
Victim Identified
UPDATE 06/24/24: An 85-year old woman who was killed by a dog Friday has been identified as Gerónima Florez. The attack occurred at her home in the 22000 block of Jesus Flores Road. Florez was attacked by her own dog -- a black pit bull-mix breed -- as she was feeding it, the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) said. On Monday, HCSO clarified that only one of the dogs was involved in the lethal attack -- the dog her brother shot and killed at the scene. The second dog was recovered.
The investigation also revealed that Florez had been taking in stray dogs and feeding them. Authorities recovered 25 other dogs from the property, many were weeks old puppies. Investigators believe that competition for food among the dozens of dogs led to the fatal attack. Officials emphasized the importance of contacting animal control services to handle stray dogs. "The best thing for residents to do is call animal control, so proper rescue measures are taken," HCSO Sergeant Longoria said.
06/22/24: Woman Killed by Dogs
Monte Alto, TX - An elderly woman is dead after being attacked by dogs Friday evening. At approximately 6:00 pm, Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) deputies responded to a residence in the 22000 Block of Jesus Flores Road in Monte Alto, which is about 40 miles north of the border, for a report of an animal bite. Arriving deputies found an 85-year old woman lying on the ground in the rear of the home. She was "bleeding from her neck and the left side of her head," states a news release.
Deputies and a relative provided medical aid to her until EMS arrived. She was transported to a hospital, where she died of her injuries. HCSO investigators spoke to the victim's brother, who said his sister had gone outside to feed the dogs when he heard her screaming. He went outside and saw two of their dogs attacking her. He tried to intervene, but the dogs tried to attack him. He shot and killed one of the dogs with a shotgun, the other dog fled. Animal control secured the second dog involved.
The victim's identity was not released. The breed of dogs involved was not released. The most recent fatal dog mauling reported in Hidalgo County occurred in 2022, when 59-year old Maria Rachel Perez was killed by two pit bulls inside her home. The dogs belonged to family members. Previous to this, was the death of a 5-year old boy in 2008, who was killed by his uncle's pit bull "Greco" in Weslaco, and the death of a 3-year old girl in 2006, who was killed by a family pit bull and rottweiler in Hargill.
In January of this year, a man was found dead in the 7500 block of West Military Highway in Mission. The 911 caller said that dogs were biting the corpse. Rogelio Garza, 59, was found with multiple animal bites on his arms and legs, according to a release from HCSO. An aggressive stray dog with blood around its mouth was seized by authorities. In March, our nonprofit sent a FOIA to the Justice of the Peace in Mission, inquiring about his cause of death. Our FOIA request remains outstanding.
An elderly woman was killed by multiple dogs in rural Hidalgo County, near Monte Alto.
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View the DogsBite.org Google State Map: Texas Fatal Pit Bull Attacks.Related articles:
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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.
These deaths are always sad and inexcusable. Who keeps dogs intent on killing their owners? Most breeds will not kill their owners. Those who breed pitbulls seem not to care about their dangerous dogs.
I’m going to take a wild guess the killer dogs are pitbull.what else would they be poddles dachshund bull dogs.it’s sad she died by feeding her beloved pitbull dogs if that the case.no one should own pitbull not 20 years 17 years old 40 years old able body or disabled.
Every preventable death is sad, but I’m always relieved the victim is not a child or an innocent person who doesn’t own one of these maulers. The pit pushers can add that feeding your pits could be a “trigger.” Maybe this poor soul parted her hair on the wrong side of her head that day. I’m not making light, however they’re always making excuses. It seems that nothing will get through to these folks. Maybe, just maybe, if a family member is killed they MAY see the light. The only good thing about this story is at least one of these monsters was put down.
“Maybe this poor soul parted her hair on the wrong side of her head that day.”
In San Francisco a neighbor’s pit bull once attacked a man in his own yard and the hearing officer who presided over the case opined in his decision that the dog may have been provoked by the fact that the man was wearing a black hoodie. I’m happy to say that that hearing officer is long gone—but, yes, the excuses are ludicrously unending.
Were they her dogs or were they her brother’s? How long did they have them and where did they come from? I’m not sure it even matters… I want to make some sense of these senseless deaths. And I wish they would stop.
She was feeding the dogs. Whether they were hers or his doesn’t matter. Both people lived there. I’d like to know the breed. My first guess is pitbulls. Most breeds don’t kill family members.
Stable temperament dogs don’t need to be trained to not become violent resource guarders. The “dog trainer” in the article is ignorant of modern dog training protocol by advising to put your hands in the dog’s bowl and to “show them who’s boss”.
I too, find that ludicrous. Dogs know who feeds them, they see it and smell it. If you have dog that’s been starved, try free feeding. Yeah, it’s lost popularity these days but any that’s been starved before will eat, throw up, eat throw up–then revert to eating a normal amount of kibble and they’ll have zero interest in guarding it.
Taking the dog’s dish or sticking your hands in it just tells the dog “I am a thief.” and if you punish the dog, now you’re an abusive thief. Nothing wrong with holding a full dish and waiting for the dog to calm before feeding. Bad protocols include hyping the dog up (ooo lookee here, din dins, yay dinner is here blah blah) before feeding.
Funny how the old stuff like “do not play tug with a dog” and “don’t let kids/outsiders hand feed your dog” and “don’t allow mooching” turn out to be common sense.
Even when the feeding stupidity happens, it’s usually a bit or growling–most dogs don’t *kill* the hand that feeds them. Dogs are natural scavengers so that’s a mentally deficiency.
Stating that 25 dogs were removed from the property is not very informative if all 25 dogs were under four weeks of age. I fully realize that police do consider newborn puppies
to be dogs. In this community financial assistance with spay/neuter could be very valuable. Nursing dogs could be very hungry, and that might have been a contributing factor in this death.
Good grief these so called dog experts. Strain at the leash to find some way to justify a pit bull killing its owner. Always something “triggers” the poor innocent little nanny dogs. Why didn’t one of the non pit strays kill her instead?
So in other words an old fool was collecting dogs, not taking care of them properly (no S/N), and got mauled. Sorry, not sorry. The whole neighborhood will be better off without the noise, stink, and constant danger.
Pits should be PUT DOWN. There is no civilized use for bloodsport dogs.
Roger on the sorry, not sorry.
And thank you for pointing out the noise. One barking dog is more than enough to ruin an entire neighborhood.
Notice the eye witness, her brother, says she was attacked by 2 dogs but now the story is ” only one of the dogs was involved in the lethal attack — the dog her brother shot and killed at the scene”.
So the other dog has been captured and more than likely will get sold, sorry “adopted” out.
They say you should let AC deal with strays but I wonder do they answer the phone?
Will the actually show up when you call?
Do they expect you to catch the dogs and bring them in?
Do they demand a fee to take a dog you drop off?
Personally I think her brother was on to something, shame he waited until one (or 2) of the dogs killed his sister.
I know my local AC doesn’t. Couldn’t care less about freeroaming dogs. They seem to think they’re pit bull social workers.
If stray pits started showing up dead with GSWs I bet the same agency that doesn’t have enough manpower to answer the phone would show up 100’s strong with helicopters going door to door until the monster that was violating the civil rights of those poor, poor, pitiful pitties was brought to “justice”.
loose wolfdog
loose dobermans
Typical articles about bad neighbors allowing their dogs to run wild and being surprised when one is shot. US media currently sides with the irresponsible owners and there are no comments sections.
They really can not understand why someone would get tired of having their garbage spread out everywhere or would not want to take chances with 1 of 5 roaming Doberman.
(If she let her “best” one roam free, I assume the others were free range as well.)
They seem to think there should be a law requiring everyone to be as enamored with their roaming dogs as they are.
The NY Post one was particularly bad.
No, the dog was not “murdered”.
The dog was at large, creating a nuisance and it was dispatched.
Newspapers many ,many years ago used to pay attention to words and their definitions.
The first definition of murdered I found was : Unlawful killing of a human with malice aforethought.
You can’t murder a dog.
I am surprised the local DA didn’t get CSIs involved to catch the evil “dog murderer”.
Of course the man who shot the dog is a “coward” because he didn’t reveal his name so the internet could attack him.
Fools like that dog owner are why it pays to shoot shovel and shut up.