Posted on December 19, 2018 by Colleen Lynn

The Vicious Attack Occurred in December in Riverside County

Angela Johnson, 54, died after a violent pit bull mauling in Anza, California.

Mauling Victim Dies
UPDATE 02/18/19: A woman severely mauled by three pit bulls in December has passed away, according to announcements on Facebook by her family members. Angela Johnson, 54-years old, died on February 9, nearly two months after the vicious dog attack. On December 15, as Johnson was hanging laundry in the yard of her rural Anza home, three loose pit bulls violently attacked her. She was airlifted to a trauma center. Shortly thereafter, she was placed on life support.

Riverside County Animal Services confiscated the dogs, described as “pit bulls or pit bull mixes,” and released identification images of them. The agency quickly sought a destruction order for the dogs and all three were euthanized on January 7. The owner of the pit bulls, Jesse Leon Miranda, 61, of Anza, was arrested on an outstanding felony warrant and booked into the Cois Byrd Detention Center following the attack. No additional arrests or citations have been announced.

12/19/18: Mauling Victim on Life Support
Anza, CA - A woman is on life support after a vicious attack by three pit bulls. The attack occurred Saturday in Anza, a rural community in Riverside County about 45 miles south of Palm Springs. According to a GoFundMe page created by her son, Tim Platt, Angela (Platt) Johnson remains on life support. "The dogs basically ate my mom alive, ripping out a main artery in her throat, causing a severe stroke to the left side of her brain, leaving her half brain dead," Platt states on the page.1

Platt now has to make the difficult decision of whether or not to leave his severely injured mother on life support or to allow doctors to remove her from the machines, reports Trevor Montgomery of the Riverside County News Source. Photographs on the GoFundMe page show Johnson heavily bandaged and connected to the machines that are keeping her alive. Family members are now in disagreement over how best to proceed and a competing GoFundMe page has been created.

Case Background

On December 15, a woman was savagely attacked by three pit bulls while hanging laundry in her yard in the rural community of Anza. The attack occurred in the 55000 block of Mitchell Road about 9:40 am, Riverside County Fire Department said. She suffered severe bite injuries and was airlifted to a trauma center. "All three [dogs] were pit bulls or pit bull mixes and there is a known owner," John Welsh, a spokesman for Riverside County Department of Animal Services said.

Due to the severity of the attack, Welsh said that Riverside County Animal Services will seek a destruction order. "This is another preventable attack on an innocent person and one we find very upsetting," Director Robert Miller said in a statement. "It's imperative that owners of these types of dogs do everything in their power to prevent such horrific attacks." Miller urged owners of dogs with "high prey drives" to secure their yards to protect neighboring people and their pets.

Deputies arrested the dogs' owner on an outstanding felony warrant for vehicle theft and possession of stolen property, reports Riverside County News Source. "Jail records indicate Jesse Leon Miranda, 61, of Anza, was subsequently booked into Cois Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta for his warrant. He remains in custody in lieu of $20,000 bail, and is scheduled to be seen at Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta, Dec. 19," News Source reported on December 15.

Angela Johnson, 54-years old, remained hospitalized until she passed away on February 9.

Three pit bulls were confiscated after the vicious attack in Southwest Riverside County.

View the DogsBite.org Google Map: California Fatal Pit Bull Maulings.

1Since we originally posted, the language on the GoFundMe has changed -- written by someone other than Platt. This is extremely tragic and heartbreaking. Both versions of the fund (pre today and the recent update) mention a secondary GoFundMe by a relative that we are not linking to. Our hearts go out to Angela and her family.

Posted on December 10, 2018 by Colleen Lynn

The Pack of Rottweilers Belonged to the Grandmother's Brother

Esta Currier, 73-years old, was brutally killed by four rottweilers in Robeson County,

Involuntary Manslaughter
UPDATE 12/31/19: Just over a year after a pack of rottweilers killed a grandmother and severely injured two of her grandchildren, criminal charges have been filed. Brenda and Carey Walters are charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection to the death of 73-year old Esta Currier, according to police. The attack occurred on December 10 at 2258 Olivet Church Road. Currier was at the location to escort her grandchildren when the school bus dropped them off.

When deputies arrived, they found Currier dead near the roadway and the two injured children. Both children, 7 and 9, were airlifted to McLeod Regional Medical Center in stable condition. Deputies shot and killed all four rottweilers after the dogs approached them in "an aggressive manner." A bullet fragment or flying debris injured Brenda Carey when police opened fired on the dogs. Currier was the sister of Brenda's husband, Carey, and lived close to the bus stop.

Brenda and Carey Walters face manslaughter chargers after their rottweilers killed a woman.

12/18/18: Child Undergoes Amputation
A GoFundMe page created for the Currier family provides updates on the two children who were attacked by four rottweilers earlier this month. On December 10, as their grandmother, 73-year-old Esta Currier, escorted the two children home from the bus stop, four rottweilers belonging to Currier's brother attacked the group. Currier died at the scene due to her severe injuries and both children, ages 7 and 9, were airlifted to a trauma center in Florence, South Carolina for treatment.

"Grandma Currier fought hard to save her grandkids and ultimately lost her life while saving her Grandkids … Grandma Currier died a hero."

"Both children have been in PICU receiving treatment for their injuries," states the fundraising page. Zach, 7, had "lacerations to his head, ears, neck, arms, and legs." Leah, 9, suffered more severe injuries with lacerations all over her body. "She's had 5 surgeries just in a couple of days with one of them to amputate her leg from below her knee," states the page. Their parents have been by their side in the hospital since the dog attack, leaving only to attend Currier's funeral.

12/11/18: Sheriff's Office Press Release
A press release from the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office posted on Sheriff Wilkins' Facebook page identified the fatal dog attack victim as 73-year-old Esta Currier of Olivet Church Road. Currier was already dead when deputies arrived. The two children in the mauling, ages 7 and 9-years old, were the grandchildren of Currier. Both children were airlifted to McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence for treatment and are currently listed in stable condition.

"When the two responding deputies arrived they observed four rottweiler dogs in the roadway. As the deputies exited their vehicles, they were approached by the dogs in an aggressive manner. The officers discharged their weapons to stop the threat of injuries. The dogs died and were taken into custody of the Robeson County Animal Control.

"During the incident Brenda Walters, 56, of the 2200 block of Olivet Church Rd. Fairmont, NC was injured. Walters was treated and released from Southwestern Medical Center. Walters is the owner of the rottweilers involved in the incident and is also related to Currier." - Robeson County Sheriff's Office, December 11, 2018

RCSO Maj. Damien McLean said the school bus that the dropped the children off had already left the area before the deadly attack occurred. McLean said that everyone involved in the attack is related. Last night, Sheriff Wilkins' posted to his Facebook page, "This is a very sad day and it was heart wrenching to watch the family in such sadness. It was also difficult for 1st responders to observe this event." He also asked all of his followers to say a prayer for all who were involved.

As far as Sheriff Wilkins' confusing a pack of rottweilers for pit bulls last night, it's unclear if the dogs are cross-breeds, tri-colored types, or if it was just bad information. No other descriptive factors, such as their age, weight or photographs were provided. The last time there was a similar multi-victim fatal rottweiler attack was in Dillon, South Carolina in 2011. Two family rottweilers attacked and killed a relative then viciously attacked their owner, causing his leg to be amputated.

Finally, WRAL reports that Currier's brother owned the dogs, who is the spouse of Brenda Walters. The couple owned the rottweilers together. Walters was not attacked by the dogs, but was hurt by a "bullet fragment or flying debris" when the deputies opened fired, according to authorities. The multi-victim attack occurred at 2258 Olivet Church Road, a few houses away from where Currier lived. Currier was escorting the children home from school when the dogs attacked the group.

12/10/18: Dogs Viciously Attack Three
Marietta, NC - An elderly woman is dead and two children are seriously injured after being attacked by four dogs, according to Robeson County Sheriff Burnis Wilkins. The dogs are being described as pit bulls and rottweilers; they may be cross-breeds of this pairing too. Deputies responded to a home in the 2200 block of Olivet Church Road about 4:30 pm. The woman was already dead. Both children were airlifted to McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, SC.

The multi-victim attack occurred just after the children were dropped off at the home by a school bus, reports The Robesonian. Wilkins said some passers-by saw the injured children, but did not witness the dog attack. When deputies arrived, the dogs returned and attacked again. Deputies shot all four dogs, killing three. Animal Control Officer Jason Allison retrieved the bodies of the three dead dogs, the fourth dog apparently "ran off," even after being hit with a "body shot."

Fourth Fatal Dog Attack Since 2012

This is the fourth fatal dog attack in Robeson County since 2012. In October 2012, Mary Jo Hunt, 53-years old, was killed by her seven rescue pit bulls in Pembroke. Hunt worked for Robeson County Claws and Paws Rescue at the time. In November 2014, Alemeaner Dial, 83-years old, was killed by her granddaughter's four pit bulls in Rowland. In 2016, Talan West, 7-years old, was brutally killed by a neighbor's pit bull, while two other dogs attacked his 8-year old brother.

Five months after Talan's death, the city of Lumberton passed a breed-specific ordinance. The ordinance is based upon the pit bull ordinance in Edenton. Talan's mother, Jamie West, was a powerful force behind the passage of the law, which declared pit bulls, rottweilers and chows "potentially vicious." The ordinance bans the tethering of these breeds, requires a secure pen with a concrete floor, mandatory sterilization and for owners to carry $100,000 in liability insurance.

View the DogsBite.org Google Map: U.S. Fatal Rottweiler Attacks By State

Baseline reporting requirements:
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.

Posted on December 6, 2018 by Colleen Lynn

San Francisco Animal Control: Vicious and Dangerous Dogs Unleashed -- Second Installment in Documentary Series

San Francisco, CA - This is the second installment in a series of videos about the Department of Animal Care and Control in San Francisco by Mike Black of Black Summers Productions, LLC. This installment is 44 minutes long and focuses on SFACC’s failure to properly manage the risks posed by vicious and dangerous dogs in the city. It also combines parts of a March presentation by John Denny, a veteran hearing officer for the City's Vicious and Dangerous Dog hearings.

The documentary shows trends that we are seeing in animal control departments across the country. There is a decrease in the number of dangerous dog investigations, an increase in failing to follow up on dogs declared dangerous and an increase in adopting out dogs with bite histories and aggression. The priority of public safety is deficient or absent in many agencies today, despite their role as "law enforcement." The priority instead is to increase the "save rate" at all costs.

Overview of Second Installment

From 3:20 to 9:38, one sees dog attack victims testifying during the Vicious and Dangerous Dog hearings. "These hearings do not award any money for damages or cost. That is for an actual court to adjudicate. And while they can offer victims some sense of justice, their real purpose is to protect the public against future attacks from dogs known to be potentially dangerous," the narrator states. Yet, these hearings have since turned into a "kangaroo court," Denny states.

From 10:20 to 24:00, Denny identifies many of the problems at SFACC, including what the death of Diane Whipple taught them. Homicide detectives learned that 66 people had witnessed the two presa canarios acting in a menacing and aggressive manner before her death, but no one had made a report. That's when Denny helped establish the Vicious and Dangerous Dog Unit within the police department, which began collecting all dog bites, attacks and menacing acts for review.

"We are less prepared for a dog attack today than we were before Diane Whipple. Just let that sink in a little..." - John Denny, March 15, 2018

Denny also talks about the underreporting of dog bites and attacks and that when they are reported, they are not being investigated. "There are at least 500 reports sitting in an envelope right next to the dispatcher's office at Animal Care and Control, as we speak, that have never seen the light of day," Denny states. SFACC is collecting bite reports, but is failing to forward them to the Vicious and Dangerous Dog Unit for the vicious and dangerous dog overview process.

From 29:38 to 40:00, the attack of Emma Howell involving a dog named "Hudson" is discussed, which sums up SFACC's willful recklessness regarding dangerous dogs currently. Emma provides testimony in a Vicious and Dangerous Dog hearing where Denny presides. Due to the attack being a "sustained" mauling, the dog was ordered destroyed. We later learn that at that hearing, an SFACC officer, who did not identify herself as one at the hearing, testified in Hudson's defense.

Mike Black provided the top 10 findings of the documentary series so far to DogsBite.org.

Findings by Documentary Creator

As independent filmmakers working on a documentary about the failure of San Francisco to enforce its own dog control laws, these are the ten most shocking facts we have learned about San Francisco Animal Care and Control ("SFACC").

Mike Black
Black Summers Productions, LLC
San Francisco, California

It is SFACC’s express policy not to enforce San Francisco’s dog leash law. Under the city’s Health Code, SFACC is responsible for enforcing all animal control laws. But the current management expressly refuses to enforce the dog leash law. When the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury recently recommended that it start doing so because of dog attacks and bites in the city, SFACC rejected the idea as unwarranted. SFACC leaves any enforcement to the San Francisco Police Department.
SFACC does not accept as a bite any dog bite that does not break the skin. Bites can break bones without breaking the skin, but SFACC will not take a report of any bite that does not break the skin. (See: 19:40)
SFACC does not keep track of and monitor officially dangerous dogs. Related to this, SFACC does not investigate reports of aggressive dogs generally, whether or not skin is broken by a bite.
SFACC has corrupted the hearing process for dogs accused of being dangerous. The Health Code provides that the Police Department or Department of Public Health appoint hearing officers, but SFACC now names the hearing officers, while attempting to control their decisions.
SFACC has no effective oversight. SFACC is allowed to run itself as a kind of rogue agency with no outside power overseeing or reviewing its operations.
The current management of SFACC has no public safety or law enforcement expertise. As part of that lack of professionalism, there has been a history of forgoing written orders and directives as well as memorandums of understanding with other departments.
SFACC has failed to make its database readily, directly accessible to the San Francisco Police Department.
The current head of SFACC, Executive Director Virginia Donohue, has been allowed to maintain a gross conflict of interest in owning a private, for-profit animal boarding and dog training business.
SFACC will not respond to complaints about dogs in national park areas in San Francisco. Bowing to enormous pressure from politicians and some dog owners in San Francisco, the U.S. National Park Service gave way on a strict rule of all other national parks — no off-leash dogs allowed — and has allowed dogs off leash in such popular parts of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area as Ocean Beach and Crissy Field. In return, and despite the fact that the NPS has no mechanism of its own (for obvious reasons) for dealing with incidents caused by dogs, SFACC refuses to respond to complaints about such incidents.
SFACC wants to treat pit bulls like any other dog. San Francisco has a pit-bull-specific ordinance enacted in the wake of the killing of 12-year-old Nicholas Faibish by his family’s pit bulls in 2005. SFACC hearing officers and employees have dismissed that fact, as SFACC pushes pit bull adoptions on the public.

First Installment and More

August 5, 2018
First installment - San Francisco Animal Control Calls Police to Deal with Off-Leash Dog

This is the first installment of a multi-part series about the dereliction of duty at San Francisco Animal Care and Control by Black Summers Productions, LLC. The segment is just over 7 minutes long and was released August 5, 2018. The segment highlights how SFACC fails in their duty to prevent attacks by rejecting the enforcement of leash laws. At 3:20, one sees this with stunning precision, when SFACC executive officials "abandon the scene" of a stubborn pit bull owner.

June 25, 2018
Civil Grand Jury Report, City and County of San Francisco. Our Lovable Pets, Dogs and Public Safety in San Francisco.

"We are thoroughly convinced of their devotion to the well-being of animals. Their current practices do not show the same devotion to public safety against dog attacks and bites," states the report. "Since the Diane Whipple attack," we fear that San Franciscans have become complacent about the dangers posed by a small percentage of dogs in the city. "It is our purpose to overcome that complacency and to improve public safety, so that such an event will never happen here again."

March 15, 2018
Presentation by Veteran Vicious and Dangerous Dog Hearing Officer John Denny

On March 15, 2018, former police officer and veteran hearing officer for the city's Vicious and Dangerous Dog hearings, John Denny, made a presentation to the Commission outlining problems at Animal Care and Control that compromise public safety in San Francisco. This video is 49 minutes in length and contains the entirety of Denny's presentation. This is a "must watch" for all readers interested in what is happening to animal control departments across the country.

John Denny - San Francisco Animal Control

Veteran hearing officer John Denny seen presiding over a Vicious and Dangerous Dog hearing.

Posted on November 30, 2018 by Colleen Lynn

Book Review: 'The Scar Dance' - A Couple's Journey of Rebuilding Their Lives After a Traumatic Dog Attack

The Scar Dance is a novel by William Mansfield about a life-altering dog mauling.

The Scar Dance
DogsBite.org - The Scar Dance is a first novel by William Mansfield about the aftermath of a vicious dog attack. The victim of the attack is the author's wife. On a summer day in 2013, she had gone next door where two hulking bullmastiffs lived as a favor to their owner, who had asked her to feed the dogs while she was away. The book is a work of fiction, but Mansfield has experienced similar events. The Scar Dance provides readers a window into a real life-altering dog mauling.

The vicious attack occurs in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago, where the couple had lived peacefully for 14 years.

The book opens with the attack and the frantic chaos that follows. Mansfield is at work when his wife calls his cell phone, screaming incoherently. He drops everything and races home. "She's going to live," the ambulance drivers assure him. "The dog bites just missed major arteries in her thighs and neck." In this moment, Mansfield can't understand why they are rushing his wife to a hospital he's never heard of. "Because it's the best trauma hospital in Chicago," the EMTs said.

Victims of severe dog attacks are nearly always taken to Level 1 trauma centers, where top-notch emergency doctors treat life-threatening injuries 24 hours a day. This is a dramatic scene to those unfamiliar to it, due to life flight helicopters and ambulances whizzing in and out at a rapid pace. "WHERE IS ANNE?!" he asks himself frenzied. "There were stretchers with patients everywhere," Mansfield writes, "with doctors, nurses and technicians running around all over the place."

A Vulnerable, Powerful Voice

This urgency sets the initial tone of the book. Along with the profound openness and honesty of Mansfield's voice, which is one of the aspects you will remember the most while reading The Scar Dance. You will also remember that in his role as the supportive partner, the emotional and physical trauma of the vicious dog attack happened to both of them. Mansfield also has the duty of dressing his wife's horrible wounds for weeks after she is released from the trauma center.

"I was shocked and appalled when the doctors removed the bandages and I saw the wounds on Anne's body for the first time." - Chapter 2

The book is written in the style of a post-traumatic stress memoir as it moves in and out of time, recalling haunting details and foreshadowed events from the past, then fast-forwards back to the main narrative timeframe. There are also repetitions of memories. Our reading of it reflects listening to victims and family members after violent dog attacks. In some cases, you even sense the revelations Mansfield has in real time as the pieces fly together in his mind for the first time.

Owners of the Vicious Dogs

Most of the tension in the book lies between the couple and the owners of the attacking dogs who live next door. Though they had been cordial neighbors before the attack, the true colors of the dogs' owners illuminate afterward. They are illustrated as manipulative and sociopathic. We have certainly seen these types of owners before and researchers have examined them as well. All three of their large dogs were involved in the brutal attack, two bullmastiffs and a labrador.

The dogs' owners, a married couple, use all kinds of intimidation and nefarious tactics after the attack to harass Mansfield and his wife and to keep their vicious dogs. Like all victims of violent dog attacks, Mansfield and his wife were thrown into a legal system that often supports these manipulative and sociopathic owners, instead of victims with serious injuries. No victim of a violent assault by a human being would experience this, but victims of severe dog attacks routinely do.

The Unraveling of Their Lives

Mansfield carefully details how the attack, the dogs' owners and a failed legal system caused an unraveling of the couple's lives. He describes a disorientation and loss of identity too. "I felt lost because I had become another person," he writes, "but I did not know him." Next he faces the reality that all attack victims face -- you can never return to who you were before the attack. In The Scar Dance, that includes the inability to return to the same married life they had lived in the past.

"I felt locked into an alternative reality as though I was walking through a strange landscape I had never seen before." - Chapter 16

Mansfield even mentions how an older film he had seen in the past took on entirely new meaning while watching it after the brutal dog attack. This is all part of the disorientation after a traumatic attack. A vicious dog mauling alters -- through explosive realignment -- many perspectives a person once held. Simultaneously, as Mansfield also touches on, trauma from a severe dog attack can rekindle old issues and traumas a person had long ago overcome. The issues come back.

The Impact of a Vicious Dog Attack

How is a marriage impacted after a vicious dog mauling? Mansfield explains this vividly in The Scar Dance, from his wife's severe injuries, to the emotional trauma they both experienced, through multiple court battles against the dogs' owners and all that lies in between. Nearly each new page brings a new adversity and ways the couple struggles to overcome them. You will keep turning the pages to discover how the couple rebuilds their lives after a traumatic dog attack.

For those who know a dog attack victim, The Scar Dance will paint a complete picture of how the person's physical, emotional and spiritual worlds are impacted by an attack. For survivors of dog maulings, the book will evoke parts of your own attack, particularly the jolting legal injustices that many victims face after an attack. For all readers, The Scar Dance is a story about how love is stronger than hate, how courage is stronger than fear, and how the truth is stronger than lies.

After receiving his Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing in the mid-eighties, William Mansfield spent the next 30 years focusing on his visual art rather than his writing. Mansfield’s way of looking at the world and his art changed abruptly in 2013, when his beloved wife suffered a horrific experience. William turned to writing as a way of coping and chronicling the profound struggles that ensued. | View a Q&A with The Scar Dance author William Mansfield

DogsBite blog ::

2019 Dog Bite Fatality: Woman in Anza Pit Bull Attack Dies of Injuries After Weeks of Being on Life Support

The Vicious Attack Occurred in December in Riverside County

2018 Dog Bite Fatality: Rottweilers Kill Grandmother, Injure Two Grandchildren, One Critically, in Robeson County

The Pack of Rottweilers Belonged to the Grandmother's Brother

San Francisco Animal Control: Vicious and Dangerous Dogs Unleashed -- Second Installment in Documentary Series

Book Review: 'The Scar Dance' - A Couple's Journey of Rebuilding Their Lives After a Traumatic Dog Attack