Worst dog attack month in two years includes death in Gaza firefight

Malinois,  Rottweiler,  XL Bully,  American bully,  & common pit bulls all contribute to the toll

            GAZA CITY;   CLOVIS, California;  COVENTRY, United Kingdom;  HOUSTON, SHREVEPORT,  FLORENCE,  South Carolina;  TUSCALOOSA,  Alabama––A dog attack death during a Gaza firefight,  an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over use of police dogs resulting in a death in Clovis,  California,  an “American bulldog” fatality in Coventry,  England,  and eight other U.S. fatalities make July 2024 the busiest month for dog attack news since August 2022,  with a week left to go.

Mohammed Bhar

“Mohammed Bhar, a resident of the Shujaiyeh neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, was attacked by an Israel Defense Forces combat dog in his home in the beginning of July,  and according to his family was left to die by Israeli soldiers,”  reported Nagham Zbeedat and Sheren Falah Saab for the BBC on July 22,  2024.

The death was the first by dog of which ANIMALS 24-7 has record in either Gaza or Israel in more than 40 years of logging dog attack fatalities.

“Mohammed Bhar was 24 and had Down’s syndrome and autism,”  Zbeedat and Saab said.  “His mother, Nabila Bhar,  70,  told the BBC,   ‘He didn’t know how to eat,  drink,  or change his clothes.  I’m the one who changed his nappies.  I’m the one who fed him.  He didn’t know how to do anything by himself.”

Heavy fighting

Amid heavy fighting on July 3,  2024,  Israeli troops with a combat dog trained to sniff for explosives entered the apartment the Bhar family were trying to stay out of the line of fire.

Recounted Nabila Bhar,  “The dog attacked him,  biting his chest and then his hand. Muhammed didn’t speak,  only muttering ‘No, no, no.’  The dog bit his arm and the blood was shed.  I wanted to get to him but I couldn’t.  No one could get to him,  and he was patting the dog’s head saying,  ‘Enough my dear,  enough.’   In the end,   he relaxed his hand,  and the dog started tearing at him while he was bleeding.”

“They tried to treat his wounds”

Continued Zbeedat and Saab,  “The soldiers took the young man into another room,  and away from the dog.  They tried to treat his wounds.”

Separating Muhammed Bhar from the rest of his family,  “They told us to be quiet and aimed their guns at us.  They put us in a room by ourselves, and Muhammed was alone in another room. They said, ‘We will bring a military doctor to treat him,’”  Nabila Bhar said.

Resumed Zbeedat and Saab,  “At one point, according to Nabila, a military doctor arrived and went into the room where Muhammed was lying.

“After several hours,  it is not clear how many,  the family was ordered at gunpoint to leave,  leaving Muhammed behind with the soldiers.  There were pleas and cries.  Two of his brothers were arrested by the army.  They have still not been released.”

Called away to treat wounded soldiers

Returning to the scene a week later,  the Bhar family found Muhammed Bhar dead on the floor,  apparently from heavy bleeding from his upper arm.

Gauze and a tourniquet attested to attempted emergency care.

“The Israeli military confirmed to the BBC that an army dog attacked Muhammed Bhar and that after giving him initial medical treatment,  the [medical team] left him on his own,  because soldiers injured by a rocket propelled grenade elsewhere needed help.  One of those soldiers died,”  Zbeedat and Saab finished.

ACLU sues over Fresno police dog use

Similar chaos,  but under dramatically different circumstances,  led to an American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] complaint filed on July 1,  2024 in Fresno County,  California Superior Court,  seeking records pertaining to Fresno Police Department dog use.

The ACLU complaint follows a $1.9 million payout made in December 2023 by the City of Clovis,  a Fresno suburb,  to settle a wrongful death case brought by the family of Isabel de la Torre,  35 when she was killed on March 26,  2022.

Called to the scene by family members concerned that de la Torre was having an apparently methamphetamine-induced mental health episode,  police were shown on body camera video sending a police dog to drag de la Torre from a bathroom,  even though she was coming out voluntarily and was unarmed.

Police officers then forced de la Torre to the floor face down and put their weight on her until according to the Fresno County coroner’s autopsy report,  she suffered fatal “positional and compressional asphyxia due to prone restraint,”  with dog bites identified as a circumstance  contributing to her death.

First fatal dog attacks of July 2024

Fresno County was also the location of the fourth fatal dog attack of July 2024,  the Fourth of July death of a homeless man whose identity has not yet been disclosed,  if indeed he has been identified.  Before he died,  the man reportedly told police he was attacked by either a coyote or a husky,  either of which would be unlikely to kill an adult male.

Previous July 2024 victims included Theresa Rhodes,  61,  killed by two pit bulls on July 1  2024 in Bolivar,  Tennessee;  Jaxson Dvorak,  6, killed by a pit bull and a German shepherd with six puppies on July 3,  2024 in Lorain, Ohio;  and Johnny Fontenot,  41,  killed by his own XL Bully pit bull variant on July 3,  2024 in Arkadelphia,  Arkansas.

(See Fourth of July 2024 death reports: 3 by dog, 1 by croc, & a famous bull.)

Rottweilers in Houston

Two days after the annual ANIMALS 24-7 roundup of Fourth of July–related incidents involving animals,  just before Hurricane Beryl killed at least 22 people in the greater Houston area,  television station KHOU 11 on July 6,  2024 reported that a man,  not named,  had been killed by his neighbor’s dogs on Corsair Road,  southwest Houston.

Elaborated a comment posted by “@matthollymarshalls,”  “It was five dogs total.  Two Rottweilers ate him.  The 80-year-old Hispanic man living alone was last seen defending himself with his trash cans alongside his own house.   Large amount of tissue were torn off his body.  These dogs,”  impounded by BARC,  the Houston animal control agency,  “lived in the area and got out a lot,  owned by a younger man nearby,”   “@matthollymarshalls”  alleged.

“The dogs all got stuck in the old man’s back yard,  and when told,  the owner’s grandfather went and let the dogs out of the yard to run home,”  “@matthollymarshalls” finished.

The only Hispanic man in his eighties who died in the Houston area on July 6,  2024 whose death has been reported was Angel Mario Leal,  age 89,  but Leal’s last known address was in Richmond,  Texas,  34 miles west of Corsair Road.

Joni Hatcher & Karen Nelson

Joni Hatcher,  59,  believed to have been looking after multiple dogs of unidentified breed,  was found dead inside her Shreveport home on July 8,  2024,  about fifteen hours after a neighbor reported seeing her checking her mailbox the previous evening.

No further information has been disclosed about that case.

Music teacher Karen “K.C.” Nelson, 71,  an avid bicyclist,  was killed on July 10,  2024 in Florence,  South Carolina,  when knocked off her bicycle and bitten in the neck by a pit bull who reportedly broke free of his leash and collar.

Pit bull owners charged

The pit bull allegedly belonged to Justin Conroy,  40,  and Ashley Maclean,  32,  both now charged with owning a dangerous animal.  Bond for each was set at $15,000.

“The warrants state that Conroy and Maclean did or should have known their dog had a tendency to attack unprovoked and was capable of causing bodily harm to others,”  reported Tonya Brown for WPDE television news in Florence.

“The deadly attack is the latest,”  Brown observed,  “in a series of dog attacks in Florence County, including the high profile attack of a 14-month old child, who was critically injured by eight pit bulls in January 2024.  After months of debating,  the city of Florence finally passed a new ordinance that lowers the threshold for a dog to be considered dangerous.”

Renona Ewing

Only one day later,  on July 11,  2024,  Tuscaloosa County,  Alabama dog breeder Renona Ewing,  62,  was killed in one of her own dog pens by an XL Bully pit bull variant.

“The deadly attack happened at a home in the Berry community on Highway 69,”  reported WTVM executive producer Patrick Pierce.  “According to investigators,  the woman was found by a family friend who was doing a welfare check after the woman did not answer her phone.

“The man found the woman inside a dog pen in her yard.  He tried to check on the victim but was also attacked by the bullmastiff and was forced to put the dog down,  according to deputies.

“Officials say the large dog did not have a history of aggression.”

The identification of the dog as an XL Bully came later.

Kelly Reilly

Twelve days elapsed before Kelly Reilly,  33,  a mother of two,  was killed in her home in Wood End,  Coventry,  England by a dog initially identified by police as an XL Bully pit bull variant,  but later said to have only been an American bulldog.

“Neighbors disclosed that the dog had been recently passed on to her by another family member,”  reported Tracey Kandohla for The Mirror.  “Reilly,  who had pre-existing health conditions,  is believed to have experienced a seizure which led to her collapse and screams as the dog attacked her.

“Her partner Noel Spring,  who resides across from her in a flat frantically tried to save her life during the ordeal,”  Kandohla wrote.

Neighbor Lorraine Griffiths explained that,  “Kelly had only had the dog for three or four months.  A relative has five Bully dogs and gave one to her sister.  But for whatever reason her sister didn’t want it and gave it to Kelly to take on.”

Since the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 took effect in England on August 12,  1991,  119 dogs have participated in killing 82 people.  Seventy-seven of the dogs (69%) were pit bulls of various sorts,  including nine called “American bullies,”  14 called “XL Bullies,”  now banned,  and 23 called “Staffordshires.”

            (See “English bulldog”: two dog breeds, one name, & a rising body count.)

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