Pit bull fatality streak reaches seven in eight days

(Beth Clifton collage)

Includes new U.K. record for dog attack deaths in a year

            NOELVILLE,  Ontario;  WEST MELTON, South Yorkshire––Chuck Evans,  83,  and Joanne Robinson,  43,  on July 14 and July 15,  2022 respectively became the sixth and seventh known pit bull attack fatalities in eight days,  worldwide.

(See Five pit bull attack deaths in five days: these were the victims.)

Monkeypox,  making headlines globally all year,  is by contrast known to have killed only one person ever.

(Beth Clifton collage)

“My dad was killed by a pit bull”

Evans’ death,  in Noelville,  Ontario,  Canada,  population 250,  was not even reported by mainstream media until four days later,  after the victim advocacy organization National Pit Bull Victim Awareness alerted 27 newspapers and broadcast outlets,  three of which belatedly took notice.

National Pit Bull Victim Awareness learned of the attack from Facebook postings on July 14,  2022 by Chuck Evans’ two adult children.

Wrote Cathy Foskett,  “Tragically today my Dad was attacked and killed by a pit bull.”

Echoed Steve Evans,   “So tragically my father,  83 years old,  was killed today by his neighbor’s pit bull.  The owner was also attacked.”

National Pit Bull Victim Awareness noted that both Foskett and Evans have history of being themselves online pit bull advocates.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Shelter dog?

A third party alleged on Facebook that the pit bull responsible for Chuck Evans’ death had only recently been adopted from a local animal shelter.  The two nearest animal shelters appear to be in Sudbury,  about 50 miles west,  and in North Bay,  about 60 miles east.

Since pit bulls and “lookalikes” have nominally been banned in Ontario since 2005,  neither shelter should have been passing out pit bulls,  even if called something else.

But Ontario prime minister and provincial Progressive Conservative party leader Doug Ford is an avowed foe of the pit bull ban.  Since Ford was elected in 2018,  the Ontario Provincial Police and the police forces of Ottawa and Toronto,  among others,  have joined the Toronto Humane Society and Ontario SPCA in disregarding enforcement.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Denial

Fashionable disregard of pit bull mayhem may also be why CTVNorthernOntario.ca digital content producer Darren MacDonald described the killer dog as a “mixed breed,”  despite four clear mentions of it as a pit bull in the police radio scanner records of the incident obtained by National Pit Bull Awareness from the Greater Sudbury Area Fire & Ontario Provincial Police.

Only in the last sentence of his report did MacDonald acknowledge that “The dog is believed to be part pit bull.”

But a Sudbury Sun account of the fatal attack did not even use the words “pit bull.”

Further covering for pit bulls,  Ontario Provincial Police spokesperson Rob Lewis asserted that Chuck Evans died “due to medical conditions not related to the dog attacking the neighbor,”  even though Evans succumbed to an apparent heart attack in the act of rescuing the neighbor,  who “was airlifted by to the local hospital with serious non-life threatening injuries.”

Two and a half hours west,  two pit bulls running at large injured a man and his small dog in Elliot Lake,  Ontario,  but mention that the dogs were pit bulls was again confined to police radio scanner records.

(Beth Clifton collage)

“American bully XL”

Joanne Robinson of West Melton,  South Yorkshire,  a day later,  on July 15,   2022,  became the seventh United Kingdom dog attack fatality of the year––a dubious new national record,  with nearly half the year still ahead.

Robinson became the third British victim of an “American bully XL,”  a common pit bull variant,  in less than seven months.

Summarized Chloe Mayer of MSN,  “American bully XL Rocco seized mom-of-two Joanne Robinson,  43,  by the throat in a vicious attack,  then turned on her long-term partner James Stead when he tried to save her.  The couple’s other dog,  a female bully XL called Lola,  became agitated and then joined in,  with Stead trying to wrestle her out of the room as Rocco continued savaging Robinson.  Neighbors reported hearing desperate screams from the home at around 10 p.m.

“Robinson leaves behind her two children,  Elle,  24,  and Dillon, 19,”  Mayer continued.

“Stead,  42,  remains in hospital where he has reportedly undergone skin grafts after suffering severe injuries to his hands,  abdomen,  and face.  Both dogs have now reportedly been put down by police,”  Mayer said.

Staffordshire pit bull.
(Beth Clifton collage)

Mad dogs & Englishmen

The mean South Yorkshire temperature at the time of the attack was approximately 64 degrees Fahrenheit,  and the sun set half an hour before the attack,  but Robinson’s mother,  Dotty Robinson,  alleged nonetheless to The Sun and the Daily Mirror that the pit bulls turned mad in the extreme heat.

“It must have set them off,”  Dotty Robinson insisted.  “There’s a saying about mad dogs going out in the midday sun.”

The midday sun had not been seen in ten hours.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Brains overheating?!

Statements associating dog attacks with hot weather go back to Roman times, if not earlier, when people widely believed that because more rabid dog attacks occurred in summer,  and since rabid dogs suffered from high fever,  rabies was caused by their brains overheating.

This belief was not disproven until the mid-19th century.

Continued Chloe Mayer of MSN,  “According to the UK Bully Kennel Club website,  ‘In spite of its considerable size,  the XL is highly prized for not only its impressive stature,  but also its gentle personality and loving nature.  It is a recent breed, dating back to the 1980,”  whose “distinctive build and height combined with a compassionate nature mean its popularity continues to grow.’”

In reality,  the so-called  “American Bully XL” is simply an extra large pit bull descended from the John D. Johnson line of fighting dogs,  whose name has morphed since 1947 from “American bulldog” to “Ambull” to “American bully,”  with no change in any evident physical or behavioral trait.

John P. Colby & Bill. One of Colby’s pit bulls in 1909 killed his 2-year-old nephew.

“Not a banned breed”

Dotty Robinson also claimed that the “American bully” who killed her daughter is “not a banned breed.”

This points out the major flaw in the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991,  namely that it allows any and all pit bulls so long as they are not called “American pit bull terriers.”

Among the dozens of different names for specific lines of pit bull,  the most deceptive is “Staffordshire.”

This name was never applied to any dog in Britain before the U.S. breeder John P. Colby started his fighting dog line in 1889,  eventually calling them “Staffordshires” as a promotional ploy.

(Beth Clifton collage)

The Natural History of Dogs

The 1818 Manual of British Field Sports makes no mention of any dog called a “Staffordshire.”  Neither does the term “Staffordshire” appear among the descriptions of dog breeds given by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith in The Natural History of Dogs, published in 1839-1840 by W.H. Lizars of Edinburgh, Scotland. This is the book that formed the basis for describing most recognized pedigrees.

Nor is “Staffordshire” to be found as a dog breed description among any of the thousands of pages of U.K. newspapers, 1607-present,  searchable at NewspaperArchive.

Lea Freeman.  (Beth Clifton collage)

Earlier victims

The five earlier pit bull victims in the streak of seven fatalities in eight days were:  Trena Ranee Peed, 46,  killed by two pit bulls she was dog-sitting on July 7,  2022, in Greensboro, North Carolina;

Lea Freeman,  4,  killed by three pit bulls on July 9,  2022,  in Dallas, Texas;

Dennis Moore,  62,  killed by three pit bulls running at large on July 10,  2022,  in St. Louis,  Missouri;

Apollo Duplantis, 1,  killed by his parents’ pit bull on July 11,  2022,  in New Orleans,  Louisiana;  and

Beth & Merritt Clifton

Michelle Sheeks, 44, of Red Bay, Alabama, who died on July 12, 2022, nearly three months after being injured in the April 28, 2022 attack that a day later brought the pit bull mauling death of Alabama Public Health Department investigator Jacqueline Summer Beard.

Please donate to support our work:

www.animals24-7.org/donate/

UNITED KINGDOM DOG ATTACK FATALITIES SINCE INTRODUCTION OF DANGEROUS DOGS ACT 1991 ,  to 7-18-2022

(55 total, 69 dogs involved, 46 of them pit bulls, 21 of the pit bulls called “Staffordshires”)

Victim                                Age              Date                    Dog

Joanne Robinson     43 yrs   07-15-2022   American bully XL
Keven Jones         62 yrs   05-23-2022   American bulldog (pit bull)
Daniel Twigg         3 yrs   05-15-2022   Cane Corso
Lawson Bond          2 yrs   03-28-2022   3 Rottweilers
Bella-Rae Birch     17 mos   03-21-2022   American bully XL
Kyra Leanne King     3 mos   03-06-2022   Husky
John William Jones  68 yrs   01-10-2022   3 “British bulldogs”
2021
Adam Watts          55 yrs   12-22-2021   American bulldog (pit bull)
Jack Lis            10 yrs   11-08-2021   American pit bull
Lucille Downer      85 yrs   04-02-2021   2 pit bulls
Keira Ladlow        25 yrs   02-05-2021   Staffordshire pit bull
2020
Jonny Halstead      35 yrs   01-29-2020   Staffordshire pit bull

2019
Elayne Stanley      44 yrs   09-24-2019   2 pit bulls
Sharon Jennings     55 yrs   06-10-2019   Named “Pyscho,” probable pit **
Frankie Macritchie  09 yrs   04-13-2019   Pit bull
2018
Reuben McNulty      05 wks   11-18-2018   2 Staffordshires
2017
Mario Perivoitos    41 yrs   03-20-2017   Staffordshire
2016
Archie Joe Darby    04 mos   10-14-2016   Staffordshire
Dexter Neal         03 yrs   08-21-2016   American bulldog (pit bull)
David Ellam         52 yrs   08-16-2016   Staffordshire
Stephen Hodgson     45 yrs   05-22-2016   Staffordshire/pit mix
Liam Hewitson       22 yrs   01-01-2016   Pit bull mix
2015
Bill George         68 yrs   10-09-2015   Pit bull (sepsis)
Irene Collins       73 yrs   09-04-2015   GSD/spaniel mix police dog
Reggie Young        03 wks   06-20-2015   Patterdale terrier
Rhona Greve         64 yrs   03-20-2015   American “bulldog”
2014
Lexi Branson        04 yrs   11-04-2014   Aylestone bulldog
Molly Wotherspoon   06 mos   08-03-2014   American pit bull
Eliza Mae Malone    06 dys   02-18-2014   Malamute
Ava Jane Corliss    11 mos   02-10-2014   American pit bull
Barry Walsh         46 yrs   01-09-2014   Staffordshire pit bull
2013
Emma Bennett        27 yrs  12-??-2013    Staffordshire & U.S. pit (2)
Lexie Hudson        05 yrs  11-05-2013    Doge du Bordeaux
Leslie Lawn *       40 yrs  09-??-2013    Staffordshires (2)
Clifford Clarke     79 yrs  05-26-2013    Staffordshire/bull mastiff
Jade Lomas-Anderson 14 yrs  03-26-2013    2 Staffordshires, 
                                          2 bull mastiffs
2012
Harry Harper         1 wks  11-21-2012   Jack Russell
Gloria Knowles      71 yrs  10-30-2012   2 French mastiffs,
                           2 American bull dogs, one “small mongrel"
Brian Cruse +       78 yrs  09-20-2012   Pit bull
2011
Leslie Trotman @    83 yrs  01-23-2011   Pit bull
2010
Barbara Williams    52 yrs  12-24-2010   Cane corso
Zumer Ahmed         18 mos  04-17-2010   American bulldog
2009
John Paul Massey     4 yrs  11-30-2009   American pit bull
Oluwaseyi Ogunyemi  16 yrs  04-27-2009   2 Staffordshires #
Jaden Mack           3 mos  02-06-2009   Staffordshire 
                                               & Jack Russell
2008
James Rehill        78 yrs  01-27-2008   Rottweiler
2007
Archie-Lee Hirst    13 mos  12-28-2007   Rottweiler
Ellie Lawrenson      5 yrs  01-01-2007   American pit bull
2006
Cadey-Lee Deacon     5 mos  09-24-2006   Rottweilers (2)
2005
Liam Eames           1 yr   07-11-2005   American bulldog
2003
George Dinham       45 yrs  05-16-2003   Staffordshire
2000
Kirsty Ross         25 yrs  07-11-2000   Doberman
1996
David Kearney       11 yrs  01-03-1996   Rottweilers (2)
1994
Ashley Wilson        1 mos  12-22-1994   Staffordshire
1993
Dean Parker          7 yrs  11-21-1993   Pit bull

* No evident cause of death;  coroner claimed dogs dismembered body after death.
+ Suffered fatal head injury responsible for the death.
@ Died of injuries six days after the attack.
# Dogs disabled the victim on command;  Chrisdain Johnson,  22,  was convicted of then stabbing him to death.
** Broke up fight at dog park;  died of sepsis.