Posted on December 11, 2020 by Colleen Lynn

2020 Dog Bite Fatality: 14-Year Old Boy Fatally Bitten by Dog at Otter Tail County Breeder; Dog was Imported from Poland

Dion Bush, 14-years old, was killed by a dog imported from Poland in February 2020.

Ully for Sale Advertisement
UPDATE 12/15/20: Advertisements sent into DogsBite.org indicate that Ully, a male long hair German shepherd that was imported from Poland in late February, was still available for sale on December 8. Two days later, Ully attacked and killed 14-year old Dion Bush. Ully was also advertised as being 4-years old, not 3. Ully's owner and the victim's mother, Jennifer Bush, operates LakeView Shepherds. She has since taken down her website (see: Internet Archives).

Commenters on this post have provided more details about Ully and Bush. First, the intact dog was infertile. Between the spring and fall, Ully underwent three failed breeding attempts. According to an April 13 Instagram post by LakeView Shepherds, Ully was seen by the "Repro vet" and was part of the "billionaire club" with "strong swimmers" (had a high sperm count). Bush also has two females, Jurnee and Willa. Both females had Ully breedings, but neither produced litters.

No litters were sired by this dog, at least not in the U.S., according to commenter Lynn who spoke with Bush about the sale of Ully. After the third expected litter failed, Bush put Ully up for sale. Bush told Lynn that Ully "isn't aggressive," but he was in show training and bite work in Poland. Bush also told her, "He can get a little mouthy when over excited." That is atypical language for working dog owners, but typical language by shelter staff when masking aggression in dogs.

"I considered purchasing him," Lynn wrote. "But her comments made my husband nervous. I am heartbroken for her loss but also very concerned that she tried to sell him to us or any other family. It seems her site has been removed of all content and her Facebook page has been changed to 'blog.' I am hoping she provides deposits back to all families considering buying upcoming puppies from her." Lynn and her husband dodged a disaster, as did every other potential buyer of Ully.

Commenter Denny pointed us to the LakeView Shepherds Yelp page. Jessica, of Elk River, gave the breeder a one-star rating: "I selected a puppy from this breeder that ended up biting a chunk open through my ear when I was laying on the ground. It was yanking on it like a chew toy." She also posted a picture of her ear injury. The breeder did offer "to take the dog back" due to him being ill and his dominance/aggression issues, Jessica wrote, but did not return the $500 deposit.

Police killed the "extremely aggressive" dog at the scene, citing at the request of the owner and for "public safety" reasons. The StarTribune reported Monday that importing dogs from other countries into Minnesota is regulated by the state Board of Animal Health. "We don't have a record of [Jennifer Bush] being licensed as a commercial dog and cat breeder," said board spokesman Michael Crusan. All three commenters questioned the judgment of this dog breeder as well.

12/11/20: Teenager Kill by Imported Dog
Battle Lake, MN - A 14-year old boy was discovered dead after being attacked by the family dog, according to the Otter Tail County Sheriff's Office. The attack occurred Thursday afternoon in rural Battle Lake. Shortly after 3:00 pm, deputies responded to a welfare check at a home on Twin Lakes Road, Otter Tail County Sheriff's Lt. Keith Van Dyke said. When they arrived, they found the teenager in the yard. It was clear to the first deputy at the scene the boy was deceased, he said.

The 3-year old dog was purchased from Poland earlier this year.

The family dog, a Polish long hair shepherd, was standing near the teenager's body and was "extremely aggressive" when the deputies arrived on scene, the sheriff's office said. The dog was put down due to public safety and at the request of its owner. The welfare call came from the boy's father, who has a medical condition and cannot leave the house, Van Dyke said. He called out to his son, but got no response. He immediately called the sheriff's office afterward, he said.

The Valley News reports the teenager had not been heard from for about three hours. The Otter Tail County Coroner’s Office is assisting the sheriff’s office with the investigation that remains active and open. The dog has been transported to North Dakota State University for a necropsy. The boy’s identity has not been released. The rural community of Battle Lake is 30 miles east of Fergus Falls and 175 miles northwest of Minneapolis. The population is about 930 people.

Imported Dogs & Teen Deaths

There are plenty of German shepherds, both short and long coat, in the U.S. Unless they were seeking the dog for a specific purpose, such as protection or breeding, it would be unusual to order a dog from an Eastern Bloc country, where many dogs used in police work stem from. The victim was also 14-years old, an extremely rare age for a dog bite fatality victim. In 2019, a 14-year old boy was killed by a pack of protection bred dogs owned by trainer Scott Dunmore.

Over the 16-year period of 2005 through 2020, only 6 teenagers, ages 13 to 19-years old, were killed by dogs, 1% of all dog bite deaths (6 of 566). Stunningly, half of those teenagers were killed in the single year of 2019. The last time we reported a fatal dog mauling in Minnesota was 10 years ago, after the death of infant Robert Hocker in Independence. In the most recent death, a rare dog breed, a rare victim age group and a rare state, equates to three rarities at once.

Afternoon Updates

The Detroit Lakes Tribune reports the boy's family raises German shepherds (thus, the imported dog). Van Dyke said the attack happened after the teenager went out to tend to the dogs. "The father was incapacitated with a medical injury so he wasn’t able to take care of the dogs himself," he said. The boy was a ninth grader at Battle Lake High School. On Friday, the school sent a letter to families informing them of his death and that counseling would be available for students.

The Star Tribune reports the attack occurred in the 30800 block of Twin Lakes Road. There is a breeder of long coat German shepherds who lives on this block, according to web searches. Her name is Jennifer Bush and she operates LakeView Shepherds Kennel. She advertises on K-9classifieds.com (police dogs). Her breeding bitch is a progeny of dogs with IPO titles. The culprit dog was not your average pet dog. At 3-years old, the dog may have held titles in protection too.

Notably, the "Our Stud" page is blank. We predicted this was the case because the stud was the killer (the breeder removed the page after the Thursday attack). Internet Archives show the stud is "Ully" and "was imported from Poland Feb. 2020 and greeted me with pure happiness and licking. Sweet, sweet guy! He is social and loves to be loved on," states the website. Ully "comes from amazing and proven lines and was sired by "VA1 BSZS 2016 Jackson vom Zisawinkel IPO3."

The teenager has since been identified as Dion Bush.

The website continues, "Ully is a very go with the flow and even tempered male. He is highly intelligent and adjusted in our home very well. He has a silly side; loves to play and make us laugh." Ully also savagely killed a 14-year old boy on December 10 and the breeder tried to hide this. How many puppies has Ully sired since being imported from Poland -- not six months ago, but nine months ago? The breeder forgot about the Internet Archives, but our nonprofit did not.

The kennel's only stud dog, named "Ully," was imported from Poland in February 2020.

The circumstances caused by Covid-19 should never be underestimated. But typically between November 1 and December 15 of each year, there are 5 to 7 reported dog bite fatalities, not 2.

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 4, 2020 by Colleen Lynn

We’ve Heard It All Before! by The Old Timer - Perspectives of Advocates

So Save your Pit Bull Defenses. They Aren’t New, Clever or Even Sound.

Guest author, The Old Timer, discusses how "We've heard it all before." The worn out, tired tropes repeated by pit bull advocates ad nauseam for over a decade.

The day that would launch my advocacy for the victims of pit bull attacks all began more than a decade ago when I logged onto one of my favorite blogs. It was a daily ritual, checking in with my favorites to get the latest news and insight.

But on this particular morning, the news wasn’t good. The blogger’s cat, not only the mascot of his blog but of the local shelter, had been killed most savagely by a 2-year old foster pit bull. The specifics were gruesome and the blogger was sick with grief and anger. He lashed out at pit bulls, a breed he had never trusted.

The entire blog community grieved with him. The comment section was full of messages of sympathy and pain at such a senseless death of a cat they felt belonged to all of them. Yet, among the condolences were sprinkled defenses of the breed the blogger had just publicly trashed.

“It was how the dog was raised,” one commenter claimed. “He must have been abused,” another commenter asserted with zero evidence. And of course, there was the obligatory, “not all pit bulls are bad. Any dog can bite or attack.”

I suppose that should have been the end of it for me. I should have grieved along with the community and moved on. But I wondered: Was this incident rare? Did this happen a lot or had I witnessed something completely outside the normal?

I would ask them, if dogs are simply a product of their environment, then why did you raise your dog to be aggressive and bite people? I never expected a reply from my question and rest assured I never received one.

I opened up a new browser and typed in the phrase “pit bull attack” and my eyes were opened. I spent hours that day reading article after article about pit bulls killing not only animals, but human beings. My emotions were raw. I sobbed when I read the story of a father whose baby was killed by his babysitter’s pit bull. The description of the event was vivid. How, I wondered, could the victim's families move on from such a senseless tragedy and how did more people not know about these mauling deaths?

That was the beginning of my journey into the world of victim advocacy. I began to actively seek out recent articles about pit bull fatalities. I devoured the comment sections, noting both sides of the arguments that were represented. On one side were people claiming that pit bulls were no different than any other dog. Many of them insisted that it was how they were raised while simultaneously claiming that a small dog they raised was meaner than any pit bull they’d ever encountered.

It was that defense that most likely prompted my first reply on a news comment section. If that was the case, I would ask them, if dogs are simply a product of their environment, then why did you raise your dog to be aggressive and bite people? I never expected a reply from my question and rest assured I never received one.

It wasn't long before I was regularly commenting on news site comment sections. I joined what appeared to be a well-established group of men and women attempting to educate the public on the danger of owning a pit bull. Many of their names became familiar to me. I began to think of them as my comrades-in-arms. We were battling against those who felt that the deaths of innocent children and senior citizens were simply the cost of doing business for the right to own a fighting breed.

I also began to see a startling trend that after several months, I began to call out publicly in the comment thread. While there were people attempting to educate the populace on the dangers of pit bulls, there were also pit bull advocates, the same ones, who repeatedly flocked to those comment sections to defend the breed.

For years, fatalities caused by pit bulls were occurring quite frequently in this country -- coming one death every week to 10 days. And like clockwork, every week to 10 days, those same pit bull advocates would show up in the comment section defending the breed, even on a news article about the heartbreaking death of another child. It didn’t seem to matter to them. And they would regurgitate the same weak defenses, hoping everyone would simply forget that just a few days before that, they were making the same defenses after the fighting breed had mauled another innocent victim.

And so it went for almost a decade. The never-ending, soul-crushing deaths continued to occur. And battle worn and weary victims advocates would take to the internet in an attempt to educate the public.

Of course, by now, another generation of fresh soldiers have taken up the battle, but the information war still rages. There are people who continue to educate in order to end the senseless deaths of humans mauled by pit bull-type dogs and they continue to beat back the notions that these dogs are safe, loyal family dogs that “would more likely lick you to death” than ever bite anyone.

That’s the thing of it, really. All of the defenses and excuses about the breed -- we’ve heard them all before. Any argument some pit bull rookie-fanatic or “Johnny Come Lately” can bring to the issue isn’t new and fresh. They are worn-out, tired tropes that have been tried and repeated ad nauseam for years. And it’s stopped nothing. Pit bulls continue to kill innocent people. (Since I began my advocacy 10 years ago, pit bulls have killed around 335 Americans.) Chihuahuas bite. We get it. But they don’t kill.

So save your pat phrases and your propaganda and rhetoric. You aren’t the next pit bull savior and you’re not the one warrior who will impart such an original argument that the entire world will see the wisdom in it. It’s not going to happen, and before long, a pit bull, who never showed any signs of aggression, will kill someone, leaving the seasoned-veterans of this fight to wonder if more time and energy should be spent by pit bull advocates figuring out how to stop these deaths rather than defending the breed after the deaths occur.

Posted on November 30, 2020 by Colleen Lynn

DogsBite's GivingTuesday Challenge 2020 - Rising Above & Beyond During COVID-19

Join us on December 1 for our GivingTuesday Challenge 2020 on Facebook!

DogsBite's 2020 Fundraiser
DogsBite.org - Tuesday, December 1 is #GivingTuesday. This year we are fundraising for "Rising Above and Beyond During COVID-19." Facebook will match up to $7 million dollars under a new matching scheme! The match starts at 8:00 am Eastern Time. We promised you in May that we would "Stay the course during COVID-19." We did. And then some. We rose above and beyond during this global pandemic to ensure the integrity of our national dog bite fatality statistics.

We sent out 30 FOIAs, public information requests, for dog bite fatalities and uncovered 7 unreported deaths inflicted by pit bull breeds.

Of the total breed identification photographs captured for fatal dog maulings since January, our nonprofit is responsible for 77%. How many is the U.S. media responsible for? Only 23%. Between our FOIAs and gathering of breed identification photographs, our nonprofit contributed to over half of all U.S. dog bite fatality reports so far in 2020. With the month of November dropping to only one reported fatality, we know there will be considerable FOIA work ahead of us too.

How Does the Match Work?

This year, Facebook has changed the matching rules. The first $2 million is matched 100% and will last less than a minute. For the remaining $5 million, Facebook will match 10%, ensuring that the match lasts longer. If you donate within the first 30 minutes, your gift could be matched by 10%. The speed is part of the challenge! Thousands of nonprofits are competing for these match dollars. Facebook donations all day long on GivingTuesday are FREE of transaction fees as well.

Ways to Participate

You can donate directly to our Facebook campaign. Facebook also encourages people to start their own fundraiser for a nonprofit. On Monday evening or Tuesday morning, you can start a fundraiser for DogsBite.org by using one of our campaign graphics. You can also create a campaign "In Memory" of a special person or pet or use one of our graphics to create a theme. Then share it on your Timeline and tell your friends why it is important to act on GivingTuesday.

Ways to Give

Many of our blog readers are already monthly or annual donors. Thank you so much to all of you! GivingTuesday is always a giving day to attract new people to our cause and to invite casual readers of the blog to support our cause on this global giving day. There are also many ways to give to DogsBite. You can give a one-time gift or a re-occurring gift through PayPal, you can give to our ongoing GoFundMe charity page and you can give to our PayPal Giving Fund page.

Help us reach our goal of $8,000 for DogsBite's GivingTuesday Challenge 2020!

DogsBite's GivingTuesday Challenge 2020 - Rising Above & Beyond During COVID-19.

Posted on November 27, 2020 by DogsBite Staff

The Propaganda is All the Same: Pit Bull Lobby and Tobacco Institute by Lucy Muir - Perspectives of Advocates

Smoking and Health: The Need to Know -- 1972, The Tobacco Institute.

Smoking and Health: The Need to Know
Have you ever wondered where pit bull propagandists came up with their arguments? Some of them are so kooky, I thought they just made them up themselves. But, after seeing a propaganda documentary produced by the Tobacco Institute it would appear that the pit bull lobby copied their arguments directly from the1970s era tobacco lobby . It seems that defending tobacco is much like defending pit bulls.

Take a look at this 1972 documentary film, Smoking and Health: The Need to Know produced by the Tobacco Institute. The goal was to refute the Surgeon General’s 1964 Smoking and Health: Report. The Surgeon General’s statement was the first confirmation that smoking tobacco definitely causes lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. The Surgeon General’s Report reviewed over 7,000 research articles to come to their conclusion.

General background of tobacco research

1939 - First research that found a link between smoking and cancer
1954 - Study finds that heavy smokers had a 40 time greater chance of dying of lung cancer
1964 - Surgeon General’s report concludes that smoking causes lung cancer
1972 - Tobacco Institute produced a film to refute Surgeon General's Report

Here are seven arguments the Tobacco Institute used to refute the irrefutable scientific evidence that smoking causes cancer. It seems like the pit bull lobby appropriated these arguments to refute the irrefutable evidence that pit bulls are dangerous. If you watch the entire video, you will find many more arguments that are virtually identical to the arguments the pit bull lobby uses.

Timestamps from Smoking and Health: The Need to Know

2:52 - The narrator practically shouts when he names a list of medical experts we will be hearing from in the film. They will be telling us that cigarette smoking does not cause cancer. When this documentary was produced, there was conclusive evidence that smoking cigarettes caused lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. Looking back now, it is easy to see these science hacks were flat out lying.

The pit bull lobby has their own set of experts which they trot out to defend pit bulls. And these experts also should be aware of the yearly death toll inflicted by pit bulls as well as the dozens of published medical studies which all come to the conclusion that pit bulls are far more dangerous than other kinds of dogs. You can find some of these experts on the National Canine Research Council site (owner: Animal Farm Foundation pit bull advocacy group).

Appeal to Authority: I am a Veterinarian & I support Pit Bull type dogs NOT BSL!!!

6:20 - Many risk factors contribute to heart disease.
While correct, controlled studies had already shown that smokers had a higher risk of heart disease than non-smokers. This argument was copied exactly by the pit bull lobby to hide the fact that pit bulls cause more fatalities than all other kinds of dogs. The NCRC published a paper that describes the “co-occurances”, or common “contributing factors” in fatal dog attacks.

Their study found that there were common elements related to fatal dog attacks. For instance, most victims were less able to defend themselves because of their age. Attacking dogs were more likely to be intact. The NCRC ignored that the dog being a pit bull is the leading factor, by far, in fatal dog attacks.

Experts denying genetic traits of the attacker.

6:50 - The word “cancer” isn’t a scientific term because there are many kinds of cancer.
This is obvious nonsense. The term “cancer” is a term for a group of diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control. And smoking is a leading cause of lung cancer.

The pit bull lobby uses the same exact argument. They say the term “pit bull” is meaningless slang because there is more than one breed of pit bull. This argument is so silly that it is surprising that the pit bull lobby did not make this up themselves. The term describes a group of dog breeds that were originally bred for “sport aggression” for the purpose of dogfighting. And pit bulls kill more people than all other kinds of dogs combined.

10:08 - The Surgeon General's large scale review of literature is flawed.
The "experts" first mention the large report that reviews many studies. Then, they shift to criticizing a single study in the report without explaining the shift. They give the impression that the exhaustive report reviewing thousands of research papers is one single study.

The pit bull lobby uses a similar tactic to mislead by ignoring many studies. The AVMA published a supposed literature review from 2014 entitled “Dog Bite Risk and Prevention: The Role of Breed” However, the authors fail to include all recent studies, of which there are many, on the role of breed in aggression, bites, and attacks. Instead, they cherry pick old studies that support their position that breed has no role in the prevalence of bites and attacks. Many of the cherry picked studies are from a time when pit bulls were rare.

Lobbyists make false claims that only appear to be supported by science.

13:48 - Since not all people who smoke get lung cancer, smoking can’t be the cause.
Doctors know that smoking is a risk factor that raises your chance for getting cancer. Not just a risk factor - the leading risk factor. The hack doctor knows that risk factors increase your risk, they do not guarantee you will get cancer.

The pit bull lobby adopts the same argument. Since not all pit bulls attack, genetics and breed can't be the reason serious and fatal pit bull attacks are so prevalent. This is just as nonsensical as the argument the tobacco industry doctors make. No one has ever said that all pit bulls are going to attack. But pit bulls are indeed much more likely to inflict serious injuries than other breeds.

14:30 Other toxins cause lung cancer, too.
One of their examples is asbestos. In 1960 scientists already knew that asbestos exposure causes a specific kind of lung cancer called mesothelioma. And they knew that smoking does not cause mesothelioma. Bringing up cancers caused by other toxins is completely beside the point. Cigarette smoking was still a leading cause of lung cancer and lung cancer was the most common of all cancers in males in the 1960s.

The pit bull lobby's version of this argument is simple: Other kinds of dogs bite, too. Obviously, though true, the statement is irrelevant because pit bulls are still responsible for 66.4% of all dog bite related fatalities.

17:24 - “Most mortality statistics in the cigarette controversy are based on death certificates, not on autopsies performed.” “Death certificates are notoriously inaccurate.”
Here it is suggested that deaths attributed to lung cancer were misidentified and that another disease or condition was the cause of death. According to the Tobacco Institute only autopsies are accurate enough to determine lung cancer is the cause of death. However, during the sixties, several studies found that death certificates were largely accurate.

There were discrepancies when death certificates were reviewed after autopsy. But, the discrepancies were not extensive enough to render statistical data unreliable. In addition, doctors were better at diagnosing and recognizing cause of death for some diseases than for others. And, regarding Lung cancer specifically, the discrepancies between death certificates and autopsies represented a substantial under count of lung cancer as cause of death on death certificates. Which means that deaths by lung cancer were under reported, not over reported, by doctors. These studies were available when the Tobacco Institute documentary came out. These doctors knew the truth.

The pit bull lobby's version of this argument claims that news articles and medical records are inaccurate because they misidentify other kinds of dogs as pit bulls in dog attack articles and research. But they offer no proof to support this. The pit bull lobby claims that only DNA tests can confirm that a dog is a pit bull. But, the courts have consistently found that a person of average intelligence can visually identify a pit bull. In fact, a recent study shows that pit bulls as well as mixed breed dogs with pit bull characteristics are responsible for more serious attacks and for a greater number of attacks. This study confirms that pit bull mixes with visible pit bull traits are as dangerous as pit bulls.

It is uncanny how closely the pit bull lobby arguments mirror the tobacco lobby arguments. And this is only a few found in this film. You can find many more if you watch the entire thing. It is unclear whether the pit bull lobby actually studied these arguments, or if trying to defend the indefensible always leads you to the same lame arguments. Looking back, knowing what we now know, it is easy to see the tobacco industry’s lies. Someday soon, everyone will be able to look at the pit bull lobby’s lies and see them for what they are. Until then, we need to keep fighting for truth.

tobacco institute, smoker's rights alliance, Dave Brenton

Debates featuring the Smoker's Rights Alliance. Note how lobbying works on a media level.

DogsBite blog ::

General background of tobacco research

Timestamps from Smoking and Health: The Need to Know