No-kill vs. high human body count: Best Friends fights Arkansas pit bull bans

Arkansas ranks 33rd in population but fourth in people killed by pit bulls

LITTLE ROCK,  Arkansas––At least 30 cities in Arkansas ban or otherwise closely restrict possession of pit bulls,  two more in 2025 than 10 years earlier,  for relatively obvious reasons.

With barely more than three million human residents,  23% fewer than the single city of Los Angeles,  California,  Arkansas ranks 33rd among the 50 U.S. states in human population,  but fourth in human pit bull fatalities since 2017,  behind only California,  Texas,  and Florida.

Surprisingly,  though,  among Arkansas major mass media,  only Ainsley Platt of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Arkansas Online seems to have noticed the February 1,  2025 arrival of the Best Friends Animal Society in Little Rock,  the state capital,  announcing intent to introduce a state law to undo all those pit bull restrictions.

“No kill” of whom?

“The director of legislation and campaign strategy for the Best Friends Animal Society said that Arkansas is within reach of becoming the South’s first ‘no-kill’ state,”  reported Platt,  “and that the group hopes to pass a law during the ongoing legislative session banning so-called breed-specific legislation.”

What relationship do those two goals have?

The Best Friends Animal Society says 6,300 dogs and cats were euthanized in Arkansas shelters during 2023,  of whom 4,500 were dogs;  1,700 were cats.

Of the 4,500 dogs,  national data suggests that upward of 3,000 were pit bulls.

Logical response would be to sterilize pit bulls

Logically the answer to that should be statewide breed-specific legislation requiring––and helping to facilitate––sterilization of pit bulls.

But instead of escalating spay/neuter of pit bulls,  and for that matter,  helping to enable more access to affordable spay/neuter of all dogs and cats,  the Best Friends Animal Society aims merely to enable Arkansas animal shelters overcrowded with pit bulls to rehome more of them.

Note that campaigns similar to the campaign the Best Friends Animal Society launched in Arkansas on February 1,  2025 have already prohibited breed-specific ordinances in 23 states.

None of those states are even within howling distance of becoming “no kill.”  Many have actually experienced increased shelter admissions and euthanasias in recent years,  despite introducing “managed admission” policies meant to keep animals out of shelters.

Repealing breed-specific legislation is not even saving dogs’ lives

Nationally,  according to Shelter Animals Count,  an entity formed in 2011 largely out of denial by several national animal advocacy organizations that pit bull overpopulation can be reduced  in any but a breed-specific manner,  total dog euthanasias in 2024 did not decline at all.

As Shelter Animals Count itself admitted,  “Non-live outcomes in shelters have risen by 0.5% for dogs.  The increase for dogs is driven by government organizations,”  meaning open-admission animal control shelters that cannot legally turn away dangerous dogs,  “where non-live outcomes grew by 1.5%,  now standing 17.5 higher than in 2019,  with a non-live outcome of 15% of total intakes.”

Some government-operated shelters in Arkansas have tried to avoid taking in pit bulls despite their mandate to protect public safety.

John Seales Animal Services Center refuses dangerous dogs

Summarized People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals animal care and control specialist Theresa Chagrin in June 2023,  “HotSR.com reported that a publicly funded facility with “no-kill” policies doing business as Hot Springs Animal Services had refused to accept dangerous animals.”

The shelter in question was the John Seales Animal Services Center,  named after John Seales,  1946-2022.  Seales,  then in the U.S. Navy,  from 1965 to 1969 founded and operated the first U.S.-style animal shelter in Vietnam at Binh-Thuy,  handling both military dogs and strays found on the base.

Leaving the Navy and Vietnam in 1971,  Seales served as Hot Springs director of animal control from 1973 to 1998,  emphasizing both public safety and spay/neuter.

But the John Seales Animal Services Center in recent years has not operated as Seales would have run it.

“We won’t take animals just to euthanize them”

Summarized Chagrin,  “A spokesperson for the facility said that’“many times people want to surrender [an animal] or bring in a stray [who] is attacking other people or animals,  and Animal Services will not take those.  If your animal is vicious and attacking people or other animals,  we can’t adopt that animal.  We won’t take animals just to euthanize them.”

Some cities in Arkansas have already repealed pit bull bans,  notably Dardanelle, population 4,500,  in 2022.  The animal control strategy there,  a spokesperson told the Dardanelle Courier,  was to “place our animals with different people,  different groups,  who relocate them all over the United States,”  intending “to eventually become a no kill shelter.”

While Dardanelle does not appear to have had a catastrophe yet in relocating pit bulls “all over the United States,”  several other Arkansas small town shelters and rescues have.

(See 19 dead puppies & $12,000 in fines, but shelter director says he’d do it again?)

The human pit bull toll in Arkansas since 2017

            The human toll since 2017,  during which time only pit bulls have killed Arkansans:

Clint Fontenot,  41,  of Arkadelphia,  Arkansas,  was on July 3,  2024 killed by own XL Bully.

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

Reuben Pierce,  70,  of Jacksonville, Arkansas,  was mauled by pit bulls on October 30, 2023.  He died from his injuries on January 24,  2024,

(See Pit bulls kill two men miles from home, one in home, & one in front yard.)

Jeane Bennett,  93,  of Blytheville,  Arkansas,  was attacked by three free-roaming pit bulls on June 3,  2023.  She died from her injuries on August 16, 2023, Neighbor David Veasey,  43,  was charged with two counts of felony aggravated assault,  two counts of unlawful dog attack,  and various violations of city ordinance.   

(See Pit bull death of 93-year-old woman ends streak of 4 killings of adult men.)

 James Woodrow McCool,  39,  of Star City,  Arkansas,  was allegedly pulled out of his wheelchair by multiple pit bulls on October 29,  2023.  Cousin Scott Alan McCool,  48,  owner of Copperhead Kennels,  was on January 18,  2024 charged with manslaughter.

Brenda Witt, 60,  of Genoa,  Arkansas,  was killed by five free-roaming pit bulls on September 24,  2023,

(See Pit bulls kill 2 women, 2 days apart. Small town cares; does Toledo?)

Sam Sullivan, 57,  of West Memphis, Arkansas,  died on November 21,  2022,  after having been attacked by a pit bull on November 8,  2022.)

Unidentified child was killed on November 3,  2022 in Nob Hill,  Springdale,  Arkansas.  The dog involved was identified by neighbors as an “outside” pit bull.

[See Tyson executive bust upstages three dog attack fatalities in a week.]

Patti Webb,  65,  of Avoca,  Arkansas,  a pit bull rescuer , was killed on September 24,  2021 by two pit bulls kept by a renter on her property.

Roger James Kirk, 69, Horatio, AR, attacked 3-19-2020, died 3-26-2020 of injuries.

(See Pit bull attack deaths only slightly slowed by COVID-19 stay-home orders.)

Robbie Taylor, 9,  of Mount Vernon, Arkansas, was killed on May 28,  2020 by two pit bulls belonging to neighbor Trey Edgar Wyatt, 25, who was criminally charged.

(See Wrestler Megan Milner is first Canadian pit bull fatality of 2020.)

Bill Deneke,  70,  of Pine Bluff,  Arkansas,  died on December 8,  2017 of head injuries suffered when a pit bull knocked him down.

Sharon Lindemann, 75,  was on October 30,  2017 killed by two pit bulls in her driveway in Hartman,  Arkansas.

Two ambiguous cases

2022 also brought two ambiguous cases,  not included in the 2017-2024 total of eleven confirmed pit bull attack deaths. 

Timothy Reels,  62,  of  Spadra,  Arkansas,  an amputee and former polio victim,  was found dead in a wooded area on February 21,  2022,  after a multi-day search in sub-freezing weather.

Spadra was discovered beside his wrecked 4-wheeler,  with his 13-year-old pit bull.

While the dog’s behavior in theory might have contributed to the accident,  for example by occasioning a sudden swerve into the icy ravine where the 4-wheeler landed,  no evidence was reported to establish exactly what happened.

Guillermo Guzman,  39,  was found dead on November 21, 2022 in Little Rock,  apparently some time after he died.  Reported Jack A. Webb for KATV,  “Authorities noted that “suspicious trauma” on Guzman’s body appeared to be caused by post-mortem animal predation,  which means animals had fed on the body after his death.”   No cause of death appears to have been identified by the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory autopsy.

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