
(Beth Clifton collage)
Pit bulls killed more Americans & Canadians in past six weeks than in any year before 2003
Trena Ranee Peed, 46, of Greensboro, North Carolina, four-year-old Lea Freeman of Dallas, Texas, sixty-two-year-old Dennis Moore of St. Louis, and one-year-old Apollo Duplantis, of New Orleans had in common that all four were alive as recently as July 7, 2022, and were torn apart bodily by pit bulls during the next four days.
Peed, Freeman, Moore, and Duplantis were scarcely unique in the manner of their deaths.
Michele Sheeks, 44, of Red Bay, Alabama, victim of an earlier pit bull attack, died on July 12, 2022 at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi.
Sheeks was the second death linked to the pit bulls who killed her.


Soaring body count
Pit bulls alone, as of July 12, 2022, had killed more Americans and Canadians in just six weeks––seven in the U.S., one in Canada––than the sum of all U.S. and Canadian pit bull attack deaths for any year preceding 2003.
The six fatalities inflicted by pit bulls in 2002 were, at the time, the most reported in any one year ever. Unfortunately, that record was more than doubled in 2003, quadrupled in 2009, and the annual toll was up to 32 by 2002.
In 2021 the death toll inflicted by pit bulls was 43.
Less than two weeks past mid-year 2022 the pit bull-inflicted death toll had reached 21.
Nine more people were killed in unwitnessed attacks, any or all of which might have involved pit bulls.


(Beth Clifton collage)
Other dogs involved
One person was killed by a Cane Corso, a close pit bull cousin. (See Cane Corso: A pit bull by any other name.)
Three-month-old Charlotte Hollman, of Gulf Breeze, Florida, the first dog attack fatality of 2022, was killed by a Dogue du Bordeaux, also a close pit bull cousin.
Two people were killed by Rottweilers.
Three were killed by German shepherds or Malinois. (See “Personal protection dogs” kill two in Knoxville suburbs in under 100 days.)
The total of 36 dog attack deaths through July 11, 2022, 34 in the U.S. and two in Canada, would have been a record for any one year as recently as 2010, but now has been exceeded in eight of the past 10 years.
Each victim had a life and a story.


(Beth Clifton collage)
Michele Sheeks
Michele Sheeks, the first of the five early July 2022 pit bull victims to be attacked. was hospitalized on April 28, 2022 after a pack of six or seven pit bulls owned by Brandy Dowdy, 39, attacked Sheeks on a walk near her home.
Thereafter, Michelle Sheeks “never left the hospital,” her husband Wesley Sheeks, 37, told media in announcing her death.
Alabama Department of Public Health worker Jacqueline Summer Beard, 58, was killed by the same pit bull pack at the same location on April 29, 2022 while investigating the attack on Sheeks.
Michelle and Wesley Sheeks on June 6, 2022 sued Dowdy and property owner Billy Joe Crumpton, 50, for damages.


(Facebook photo)
Manslaughter charges
Dowdy, charged with manslaughter for Beard’s death, was released on bond, but her bond was revoked after she was arrested on July 10, 2022 for possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
Franklin County sheriff Shannon Oliver told Jessica Barnett of WAAY television in Huntsville, Alabama that Dowdy would likely also be charged with manslaughter for Sheeks’ death.
“On July 13, the Franklin County assistant district attorney confirmed that the district attorney’s office will be seeking a manslaughter charge against Brandy Dowdy for Sheeks’s death,” reported Nick Kremer and Wade Smith for WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama.


Trena Ranee Peed
Trena Ranee Peed, also known as Trena Fields, mother of eight, was warmly remembered by her daughter Waynesha Peed as “always a true example of strength, love, and determination,” who “endured and overcame so much, most recently losing two of her sons,” ages 17 and 19, “two years apart in tragic car accidents. By her faith,” Waynesha Peed posted to Facebook, “she always had a smile on her face that could light up any room, loved to laugh, cook, enjoy life, and had a heart of gold.”
Many others shared similar impressions.
But in November 2017, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Trena Peed and two other people, Jennifer Peacock Thorne, then 47, and Anthony Jamall-Winston Thorne, then 24, were charged for the starvation deaths of two dogs, believed to be pit bulls, in a case in which two other dogs survived.


Convicted of not feeding dogs
Both Trena Peed and Anthony Jamall-Winston Thorne were convicted.
Reported WNCN in Fayetteville, “The incident happened in July, according to deputies. Treena Peed was moving and asked Anthony Jamall-Winston Thorne to keep an eye on her four dogs, according to Lieutenant Sean Swain of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.
“Peed checked back in on the dogs a couple of times for the first two weeks, but then stopped, Swain said.”
Trena Peed was reportedly temporarily keeping the two pit bulls who killed her, against the advice of her mother, Helen Harris. The pit bulls reportedly dragged her outside through a doorway before mauling her to death. Neighbors heard her screaming but were unable to see what was happening in the dark. Arriving police officers shot one pit bull dead and impounded the other.


Whose were the pit bulls who killed Peed?
The pit bulls’ actual owner was said to be someone else who has not been identified.
Anthony Jamall-Winston Thorne has an extensive criminal record and may have been incarcerated when Trena Peed was killed.
Were the two pit bulls who mauled Trena Peed the two survivors of the litter involved in the 2017 case? Was Trena Peed looking after the pit bulls for Anthony Jamall-Winston Thorne?
ANIMALS 24-7 has made inquiries, but it is possible that no one other than the pit bulls’ owner actually knows.


(Beth Clifton collage)
Lea Freeman was “scared of the dogs”
Lea Freeman told her grandmother a week before her death that, “She was scared, and she felt scared of the dogs,” Arica Freeman reported Payton Yeager for Fox 4 News.
Arica Freeman “reached out to the Department of Family & Protective Services prior to the attack because she feared something like this would happen,” Yeager said.
The dogs were three pit bulls belonging to a woman so far identified only as “Simone,” from whom Lea Freeman’s mother, Tiara Freeman, 23, had rented a room in the high crime Oak Cliff district of Dallas in March 2022.
Homeless for some time before that, Tiara Freeman in May 2022 “found a job 10 minutes away,” reported Hojun Choi for the Dallas Morning News.


Mother left toddlers with pit bull owner while making beer run
On July 9, 2022, Tiara Freeman made an 8:00 a.m. beer run to a nearby store for several housemates, leaving Lea, age four, and another daughter, not quite age two, temporarily in care of “Simone.”
Tiara Freeman’s third child, a nine-month baby, was with her father.
When Tiara Freeman returned, she found Lea dead. “Simone” had been outside talking with across-the-street neighbor Michael Pennington.
Michael Pennington called emergency services.
“He and others who are familiar with the neighborhood said the dogs got loose on multiple occasions and showed aggressive behavior toward people,” Choi wrote. “Pennington’s sister, Lorie Pennington, said she had called the city’s animal services in May about the dogs escaping the house. Dallas Animal Services declined to answer questions related to how many calls they received from neighbors regarding the dogs.”


Mauled in a St. Louis alley
Dennis Moore, “a retired landscaper known in the neighborhood for helping the elderly cut their grass, always checked on his wife when she worked the night shift at a nursing home,” reported Pepper Baker of KSDK.
“Throughout the night he always call me, like 10:30 p.m., and say ‘Well, sweetheart, I’m about to go to sleep,’ then he’d call me again at 3:00 a.m. and then at 5 a.m.,” recalled newly widowed Melvina Moore, 49.
The Moores had recently celebrated their eighth anniversary.
“Last Saturday night, she knew something was wrong. The police answered the phone the next morning,” Baker narrated.
“I called him at 9:00 a.m.,” Moore said. “That’s when the police charged his phone up and I was the first caller.”


Animal control evades questions
Dennis Moore, explained KYVI investigative reporter Chris Hayes, “was found dead, reportedly with dogs still surrounding him in an alley.
“Melvina said a 92-year-old man spotted her husband,” Hayes continued, “and that man was reportedly attacked too, but survived. She credited him with leading police to the dogs.”
“Animal Control would not answer questions about the dogs seized,” Hayes added, “such as whether they were microchipped or registered and where they were found. Representatives would not answer by email or in person at the Animal Control office, where someone slammed the door on FOX 2’s request to see the dogs.
Who are these people working for?
“The Medical Examiner reported completing the autopsy,” Hayes mentioned, “but said it will be several weeks before they rule on the cause and manner of death. The Circuit Attorney’s Office did not respond to FOX 2’s request for information about possible criminal charges.
“As far as other calls regarding dangerous dogs in this area of the Penrose neighborhood, the Citizen’s Service Bureau reported only two calls for service this year.
“Alderwoman Sharon Tyus said she spoke to the dog owner in question, who reported to her that his dogs had escaped from a fenced backyard.”
ANIMALS 24-7 has previously observed the inclination of St. Louis -area animal care and control agencies to focus on protecting pit bulls instead of on protecting the public.


(Facebook photo)
Apollo DuPlantis
Apollo DuPlantis, the last to be attacked and the youngest of the five pit bull fatalities in five days, was just a month past his first birthday when attacked at his home at about 6:45 a.m. on July 11, 2022.
According to a Louisiana SPCA statement, the Louisiana SPCA’s New Orleans Humane Law & Rescue responded to the 911 call, along with the New Orleans Police Department, “and awaited a warrant to enter the property to seize the dog while the child was transported to receive immediate medical care.”
The pit bull, named Bear, by then was in a fenced back yard.
Two New Orleans Humane Law & Rescue officers tried unsuccessfully to catch the rampaging pit bull with animal control poles, coming under attack themselves. A New Orleans police officer then fatally shot the pit bull.
The victim’s mother, Amanda R. Brooks, a former travel agent, now operates a physical conditioning business.
The victim’s father, Dominic DuPlantis, is an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Tulane University Green Wave football team, as well as for other Tulane athletic teams.


International incident
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran of combat in Afghanistan, Duplantis was named but acquitted in a notorious November 2005 rape case, People of the Philippines vs. Dominic Duplantis, Keith Silkwood, and Daniel Smith.
The alleged victim, Suzette Nicolas, initially claimed she was gang-raped, but several days later recanted her accusations against all but Smith.
Duplantis and Silkwood established that they were elsewhere buying pizza when the alleged incident occurred.
Convicted, Smith spent three years in U.S. Embassy custody, facing a 40-year prison sentence, but was released after Nicolas surprised the prosecution by recanting all of her testimony in a handwritten affidavit delivered to the court by her mother.
The case “caught wide media coverage and achieved political and international significance,” recounts Wikipedia, “because of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the United States and the Philippines, which had been the subject of protests from the beginning.”


The public protests associated with that one incident dwarfed in magnitude all of the protests held to date over the 484 pit bull attack deaths occurring in the U.S. since then.
Thank YOU for your endeavor for Justice for the victims.
Great report. More or less an outbreak. And far worse than the monkeypox. Thanks.
According to the police the dogs that attacked Michelle Sheeks and Summer Beard were not pit bulls. I know because that’s the first question I asked when they came at got me at work to tell me about Summer.
Law enforcement agencies and mainstream news media these days often shy away from making breed-specific identifications of dogs, to avoid the wrath and distraction created by pit bull advocates, and in some instances to avoid questions about non-enforcement of breed-specific legislation which could prevent fatal and disfiguring attacks. Brandy Dowdy, meanwhile, now facing manslaughter charges for the deaths of both Jacqueline Summer Beard and Michelle Sheeks, was a known pit bull advocate who had often posted photos of her own pit bulls and pit bull advocacy memes to social media, most recently on December 5, 2021.
Merrit, your response is solid. Sounds like what we call reporting bias. Not uncommon in science where negative results (they are results) are often not reported.
A current and classical example of this are the details of adverse effects that are found in reports from Pfizer regarding its COVID-19 vaccines. Pfizer and FDA did not willingly release these reports. FDA/Pfizer were compelled by a Federal judge.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/paramount-importance-judge-orders-fda-hasten-release-pfizer-vaccine-docs-2022-01-07/
https://www.fdanews.com/articles/206113-federal-judge-tells-fda-it-must-make-public-55000-pages-a-month-of-pfizer-vaccine-data
Who’s going to do the same for pit bull menace reporting bias?
And still, the advocates/apologists/out-and-out nutcases insist on these killers having more rights that everyone else.
Sharing with gratitude.
Perhaps more rights than Homo sapiens.
During that same six week period cited, how many elephants, lions, wolves, elk and sailfish were killed by trophy hunters? Not to mention how many billions of cattle, pigs, chickens, et al. were brutalized and killed to indulge overfed Americans and Canadians. Try, Mr. Clifton, to incorporate some mathematical perspective into your thinking — 8 or 9 orders of magnitude difference in individual deaths is a really big number. Only a consummate speciesist would equate (and write so many articles about) the occasional dog-bites-man violence of pit bulls with the carnage visited by humans on non-human animals.
ANIMALS 24-7 reports about animal issues where they intersect with public health and safety, for an audience of people who have mostly been occupationally or very strongly avocationally involved with animal issues, public health, and safety for an average of 20-plus years.
Dog issues are particularly important from this perspective, as dogs are the animals most closely involved with humans, in the most contexts, having the most direct influence on both the animal/human relationship generally, and most influencing public perception of animal advocacy as a cause.
When humans come to mistrust dogs, and to mistrust organizations advocating for dogs, every animal suffers, in every way that humans interact with animals.
Pit bull attacks, on both humans and other animals, have now affected approximately as many Americans and Canadians over the past decade as are either vegetarians or vegans, or are sport hunters.
Despite the multi-millions of dollars per year spent by pit bull advocates to try to hide the extent of the harm done by dog attacks, especially the 80%-plus of the attacks that are done by pit bulls, it would be both naive and statistically illiterate not to recognize that pit bulls are having a cumulative influence on society comparable to that of vegan and vegetarian advocacy, on one side of the coin, and sport hunting advocacy on the other.
No other media are addressing this. Several small victim advocacy groups are also tracking the data, but ANIMALS 24-7 is the only voice pointing out from within the animal advocacy community the magnitude of harm that promoting pit bulls has done, and is still doing, to public trust that the humane sector has struggled to earn over the past 160-odd years.
Meanwhile, a search of the ANIMALS 24-7 archives turns up, as of this minute, 559 articles pertaining to pit bull attacks; 508 articles pertaining to consumption of animals and animal byproducts; and 404 articles pertaining to sport hunting, plus another 218 articles pertaining to both sport and commercial fishing. These other topics are scarcely ignored.
There are, however, several outstanding online periodicals focused on meat issues and plant-based diet, including VegNews, Sentient Media, and Live Kindly. The Facebook pages of the Committee Against Sport Hunting and Fish Feel do excellent news aggregation pertaining to sport hunting and fishing issues.
No one else, however, does the sort of coverage that ANIMALS 24-7 does pertaining to dog attacks.
“When humans come to mistrust dogs, and to mistrust organizations advocating for dogs, every animal suffers, in every way that humans interact with animals.”
This. So much this.
Geoff, you must be joking. You don’t think five deaths by pit bulls in five days is worth making a big deal of? It was one a month five or six years ago and four a month a year ago and now it’s daily. When is enough human blood spilled by DOGS going to be enough to be alarming? A lot of animal “lovers” are misanthropes and seem to think humans deserve it when they’re killed by animals. It’s sickening.
We live in strange times. Going by this Animal 24-7 article, pit bulls have had more fatal devastating but preventable consequences on human life in the last six weeks in the U.S. and Canada than in any year of the 19th and 20th centuries, but no one seems to care.
Rarely read about attacking pit bull dogs anywhere but here, yet actually often read of pit bulls (or mixed pit bull breeds) who are docile loving pets. I don’t know why that is but just doesn’t seem to make sense.
From the 1986 formation of the pit bull advocacy organization Animal Farm Foundation by leading New York literary agent Jane Berkey, with the help of later longtime Humane Society of the U.S. senior vice president Andrew Rowan, and especially since the April 2007 Michael Vick dogfighting case, pit bull advocacy has been boosted by an increasingly well-funded publicity machine without parallel in the history of human & canine relations.
The annual pit bull advocacy budget, among the contributions of the Animal Farm Foundation, Best Friends Animal Society, Humane Society of the United States, ASPCA, American Humane Association, & others, would by itself be greater than the total budget of any other animal organization except possibly PETA.
Conversely, no agency or institution anywhere tracked fatal & disfiguring dog attacks in a systematic manner to even know what the scope of the damage was before ANIMALS 24-7 initiated our log in 1982, and no one else did on a sustained basis until 25 years later.
No organization with even a fraction of 1% of the pit bull advocacy budget exists to publicize pit bull attacks and campaign on behalf of the many human and animal victims, yet even at that, disfiguring and/or fatal pit bull attacks on humans and fatal pit bull attacks on animals have been reported by mass media somewhere around the U.S. & Canada every day since 2013 and on approximately 250 days of each year for at least five years before that.
Please keep up the good work.
Hmmm. Try this.
In parts of Africa, malaria, and maybe cholera, is killing more people than COVID-19. Just an example. And because you don’t hear about it- due to reporting bias- does not mean it does not make sense.
Animals 24-7 doesn’t enable dogfighters, that’s why. Pit Bulls have lobbyists and a multi-million dollar marketing campaign paid for by people who don’t care about the health or well being of pit bulls, judging by the result, which is to allow dogfighters to traffic, operate and hide in plain sight.