Donald Ray "Ducky" Allen, 65, was killed by a pack of dogs in rural Jackson County.
Suspected Culprits
UPDATE 11/24/20: Authorities captured photos of the dog pack suspected in the mauling death of 65-year old Donald Allen. No one is surprised the dog pack encompasses a number of pit bulls and American bulldogs -- in Florida, particularly, these two breeds are indistinguishable, as the southern American bulldog was built off the back of the American pit bull terrier. An owner allowed this pack of dogs to roam at large. We don't expect any criminal charges in the state of Florida.
Pack includes the southern American bulldog, also identified as a pit bull in other jurisdictions.
There is no doubt that there are pit bull-mixes in this group of at-large dogs that killed a man.
11/19/20: Man Found Dead; Killed by Dogs
Bascom, FL - On Wednesday morning, a man was found dead on the pavement along Kirkland Road after being mauled by a pack of dogs. The Jackson County Sheriff's Office received a call at 7:48 am about a man lying next to the roadway in the 6500 block of Kirkland Road outside of Bascom in Jackson County. Deputies and troopers from the Florida Highway Patrol responded and confirmed the man was deceased. He was identified as Donald Ray Allen, 65, of Bascom.
"Upon completing a thorough investigation, it was determined that the subject had been walking in the roadway when he suffered life-threatening injuries from an animal attack," the Sheriff's Office said in a news release Thursday morning. "The injuries are believed to have been caused by a pack of stray dogs roaming in the area." Investigators have been in contact with Jackson County Animal Control and are placing traps in the area. No other information has been released.
Press Conference -- Jackson County Sheriff Louis Roberts III gave a press conference Thursday afternoon. In a somber tone, Roberts said that the attack occurred sometime after 10:00 pm Tuesday. The drone division has been activated and a nighttime flying unit. Sheriff Roberts asked the public if anyone has seen any aggressive dogs in the 6500 block of Kirkland Road. Authorities will be looking into the possibility of coyotes -- should be easy to clear up via a DNA database. Nothing is being ruled out at this point. The victim lived about 5 to 6 miles away from attack site. Last time someone spoke to the victim was about 10:00 pm when he was dropped off at his home. The autopsy determined his death was caused by the animal attack. Lab results will take time to determine. The dogs may be feral or owned. - Jackson County Sheriff Louis Roberts III
In March of this year -- just 35 miles away in Chipley, Florida -- Beverly Dove, 60-years old, was mauled to death by a pack of dogs on an adjoining property of Home Sweet Home, an assisted living facility in Washington County. "It was a pretty horrific scene," Sheriff Kevin Crews said at the time. "One like they had, in their careers, never been to." Five dogs were eventually removed from the scene. Breed information was never released by the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
The recent fatal dog mauling is about 35 miles away from a fatal pack attack earlier this year.
Donald Allen, 65, was found dead along the side of Kirkland Road Wednesday morning.
Related articles:
03/07/20: 2020 Dog Bite Fatality: Pack of Dogs Kill Woman Living at 'Home Sweet Home'
07/05/19: 2019 Dog Bite Fatality: Man Found Dead, Believed to be Killed by a Pack of Dogs
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.
Last I heard, 99% of all “stray” dogs are not, because they are actually actively owned by someone who just lets them roam. News release? Breed information? Identity of owners? Criminal charges? Criminal conviction? No, because local powers are against all of that. Welcome to The Dogging Of America.
Exactly. This is what happens when dog worship runs amok.
Packs of roaming dogs whether owned or strayed is part of the culture of the rural south. Because of this, not much will come of this attack and by that I expect minimal other details or media coverage.
I have lived in the rural south as well as several other regions of the country. I do think strays are a problem that exists in more remote locations everywhere, not just the south. (For example, reservations in North Dakota.)
A stray in a city or suburb is more likely to be quickly seen and caught, whereas a rural stray is more likely to go unnoticed as it has much more space to hide or roam. There may also be more of a “live and let live” mentality in the country—people are slower to call law enforcement for every problem or infraction. Additionally, rural law enforcement often has less personnel and resources.
Near my grandfather’s farm, people from the city or suburbs would regularly drive out and drop dogs off. “Fido went to live in the country.” There were dangerous dog packs roaming the forests and rural roads as a result. It’s like the people who set their pet pythons free in the Everglades. The pet’s off their mind but they forget about the wildlife, workers, and residents who are now stuck with reproducing abandoned pets.
So I totally agree that rural areas have issues with strays and packs—but the problem is bigger than just rural residents…it also is created by those who abandon unwanted pets in the country.
Is there a leash law in this area? If there isn’t, there should be. Packs of dogs are dangerous. Many of these dogs are owned and turned loose at night when nobody sees them. The owners might get calls if people see them in daylight hours.
It should be legal to shoot freeroaming dogs. I’d bet that would put a quick end to this kind of murder.
I think it is in many states as long as you are the proper distances away from buildings and roadways…but many municipalities may create their own laws that prevent this. With a hunting license, you can shoot a coyote 7 days a week in my state.
Not only should it be legal, animal control and sheriff’s deputies should be required to regularly drive around the county and dispatch roaming dog packs. In so many of these cases the dog pack has been known to the community, people have been threatened by the dogs, animal control has been called yet nothing has been done. After someone gets killed animal control may go out and set some traps, catch a few dogs and call it good. That order seems backwards to me. Dog packs should be getting caught/dispatched BEFORE they kill someone.
This is horrific. That poor man died all alone, mauled by a pack of dogs. Those dogs need to be rounded up and put down.
I am so sorry for this man and his family. I don’t believe there is a remote chance this attack was caused by coyotes. A pack of dogs, whether awol, stray, or feral, is more dangerous, in my opinion, than a pack of coyotes. And they should be eliminated before, not after, something like this happens. Florida Caverns State Park, near Marianna, FL (not far from the two attacks on the map) was home to a pack of wild dogs in the 80’s. My family and I saw them while camping there.
We had coyotes near where I lived, even had a few of them on my lawn one night. When they see humans they don’t attack–they flee. So do wolves, for the most part.
Dogs don’t have that inhibition.
Another dead senior citizen.
My deepest sympathies to this family.
I too, wonder if at least some of these dogs are from dog owners letting their dogs loose without proper supervision, for a nightly romp.
Wolves in North America essentially never maul or kill humans, unless confined or rabid.
Wolves in Russia and Norway, they do attack and kill humans. I don’t know why there’s a difference.
When I was in college, the vet school was called over an elderly man feeding his many dogs. He lived in a small area attached to his garage. He was feeding dog chow to around seventy unsocialized dogs.
Students came out, snared, and euthanized over fifty dogs that day. The dogs were locked in the garage. As students brought dogs out, he gave the okay to euthanize or told students to release dogs outside.
These dogs were medium sized with erect ears and medium coat length. None was handleable. Probably none was altered.
Still, none of these dogs had attacked people. They would bite in fear if cornered. They were loaded with worms, and litters were dying from worms.
These dogs did not have any evidence of pit bull breeding, and pit bulls were rare in the area in the early 1970s. I believe breed matters. If the man hadn’t been feeding them, they might have tried to attack people. He carried a large bag of Purina Dog Chow around, and the dogs followed him.
I’m not at all shocked by the breed types shown here. Surprise, surprise, coyotes weren’t to blame but fighting breeds of dogs were!
That poor man. When on earth will people have to start taking responsibility for their dogs? If someone had shot or injured one of those dogs a couple weeks ago, the owner could probably have pressed charges for animal cruelty and destruction of his property. But let his dogs kill a man, and suddenly the owner can say “not my problem.” What a broken system.
A pack of pits. No surprises here. Have those landsharks been rounded up and disposed of yet?
I hope they took some DNA from this poor man. This is becoming common place…a teenager, a senior citizen, a bike rider, it goes on ad infinitum. People are living in a war zone in their own neighborhoods. This man suffered a horrendous death alone on a dirt road. My heart aches for him and his family. The saddest thing is, that nothing changes if nothing changes.
That poor man. I do hope someone explains to him that it’s entirely possible the attack was silent; the dogs might have damaged his throat on their first leap, and the dogs themselves might not have made a sound, either. As awful as this all is, it would be even more awful to believe that someone heard it, heard the cries of this poor man, and did nothing.
Colleen, this is a fascinating story in an era when human life was placed above the life of a dog. What terrible fate she met. Seems that nothing was learned. History repeats itself almost everyday with these monsters among us.
If you report loose dogs in my neighborhood AC comes out, jokes around with the owners, returns dogs. Almost never writes a citation and won’t ask to see license or vaccination papers. After they leave who ever complained is retaliated against. As the problem worsens, AC will tell the complainte to continue to call AC. Police and code enforcement won’t get involved. This is an ongoing problem that’s tolerated by neighbors who are afraid to get involved.
God forbid you shoot someone’s mauler while it is on your property however. Those same “overworked” civil servants that have no time to enforce the law when you call about the beast running lose will show up in force to collect evidence to convict you of animal cruelty.