Fatal Dog Attacks in the United States

The task of providing readers my readers with verifiable and accurate  statistics on fatal dog attacks in the USA is a time-consuming task.  Moreover, collecting stats on fatal dog attacks is not as meaningful as it once was. Why? Because the epidemiology and statistics about fatal dog attacks remain approximately the same from year-to-year. Hence, fatal dog attack statistics in USA for 2019 – as presented below – will be the final year in which information of this kind will be published on dogexpert.com.

Annual statistics basically show that about 30-40 fatalities occur each year. The vast majority of victims are the elderly or young. An unsupervised male pit bull type dog is the kind of dog usually implicated. And the incident usually happens near where the dog lives.

Moreover, collecting additional statistics on a yearly basis is of limited value. Such statistics do not further  enhance an understanding of how animal behavior factors motivate a dog to kill a person. For example, how does having knowledge about who was killed, the name of the person, the circumstances of such, viewing the photo the victim published on a website, etc. help with the prevention of future fatal dog attacks?  Probably not much. Nonetheless, we all must realize that each incident must be unspeakably tragic for family members and friends of the victim!!

For students doing research on fatal dog attacks, visit Wikipedia for trustworthy epidemiological findings. However, be critical about the information found on other websites. This information may be misleading, particularly on websites written by individuals who have a strong negative bias against pit bulls. 

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2019 statistics – Summary of findings

Fourty-eight (48) people were fatally killed by dogs in 2019. Most of the victims were children or the elderly and in almost all instances the victim was alone when the incident happened. Many of the incidences happened in the “territory” of the dog or shortly after the dog(s) escaped from the property in which the dog was living. A surprisingly high number people were killed by a dog a “family” dog. 

Various breeds were involved, but mostly pit-bull type dogs, although there were fatalities involving Coonhounds, Rottweilers and even an attack-trained Belgian malinois. The majority of the incidents happened when the dogs were acting together as a pack.^[1]The estimated number people bitten by dogs in the United States in 2019, and not necessarily killed, did not change markedly despite the abundance of information about dog bite safety available on … Continue reading.

Fatal dog attack statistics by breed for 2019

Victim	Location	Circumstances
70 y.o. female	Mississippi	Pack of mixed breed dogs were involved in the incident. The dogs escaped from property of a neighbor.
70 y.o. female	California	Victim was killed by pack of pit bulls owned by a guest living on the victim's property.
85 y.o. male	Texas	Stray dogs, possibly pit-bull and shepherd mix, killed the victim in the driveway of his home.
8 m.o. female	Arizona	German Shepherd, a family owned dog, killed the toddler when the mother was sleeping.
1 y.o. male	Kentucky	This toddler was mauled the death by a pit bull mix owned by his grandparents.
66 y.o. female	Texas	The victim was killed by her own 2 Doberman pinschers in her backyard.
54 y.o. female	California	Victim died two months later after being mauled by a pack of mixed pit bull type dogs in her backyard. She lived in a rural area in Southern California.
77 y.o. female	North Carolina	Victim was taking early morning walk and her body was later discovered in ditch. Victim was bitten extensively throughout her body. However it is uncertain as to specific dogs involved, possibly a wolf hybrid.
52 y.o. female	South Carolina	Victim was play-wrestling with two boxer mix dogs and the dogs violently attacked her.
88 y.o. female	Tennessee	A pack of about 6 mixed breed dogs, owned by neighbor, killed the victim near a ditch in the rear of her home.
88 y.o. female	Texas	Pack of 6 pit bull type dogs belonging to neighbor killed victim in alleyway near her home.
6 m.o. female	North Carolina	Victim killed in her home while being cared for by her grandmother.
2 y.o. male	Florida	Victim killed by pit bull mix and an American bulldog mix while being cared for by his grandmother.
53 y.o. male	Texas	Two mixed breed dogs and one suspected cattle dog mix took part in the incident. The dogs were owned by the victim's brother.
2 y.o. male	California	A pair of stray Rottweilers killed the victim in front yard of his home.
33. y.o. female	Texas	The victim was killed by her own 2 pit bulls while she was visiting them at a veterinary hospital.
15 m.o. female	Nevada	A single Rottweiler killed this infant at the home of her grandfather.
2 y.o. male	Kentucky	This toddler was killed by the family-owned pit bull.
52 y.o female	Florida	The victim killed by pit bull type dog while doing volunteer work at an animal shelter.
14 y.o. male	Massachusetts	4 Belgian malinois and 1 Dutch shepherd were involved in the incident. The victim was killed at the home where the dogs lived. The owner of of dogs was a purported dog trainer. The dogs were believed to have been protection trained by the trainer with Schutzhund techniques. Interestingly, this teenager had made regular visits with the dogs and he had had regularly cared for the dogs without incident prior to the incident.
33 y.o male	Iowa	An American bulldog x boxer mix killed the victim in his front yard. The dogs apparently escape from an nearby home. The dogs were being watched by tenants.
36 y.o. female	California	Three pit bull type dogs attacked the victim near a Cosco parking lot. She was later found dead in the Cosco lot.
2 y.o. boy	California	This toddler mauled to death by the family dog described as a pit bull x mastiff mix. The incident occurred in the backyard of the victim's home.
54 y.o female	California	The victim was killed by her family-owned pit bull mix in her home.
46 y.o. male	Kentucky	Three pit bull type dogs killed this homeless man near where the dogs lived. The victim was discovered dead on side of road.
45 y.o male	Florida	The victim was attacked and killed by a pack of six pit bull type dogs in a wooded area near the neighborhood in which he lived. Over 100 bites were inflicted to his body by this pack of dogs.
3 w.o. infant	Georgia	A husky type dog, kept as a family member, killed the 21-day-old infant in her home.
52. y.o. male	Pennsylvania	A single pit bull type dog owned by the victim killed the victim in his home. News reports indicated that had owned the dog for many years.
40 y.o. male	Tennessee	This man attacked and killed by pack of multiple mixed breed dogs in early morning hours in a residential neighborhood near his home.
16 y.o. boy	Texas	Three pit bull type dogs killed this 16-year-old boy after he supposedly jumped over a fence into the yard of neighbor where the dogs lived. News reports indicated that no criminal charges were pending against the dog owner.
9 y.o. girl	Michigan	Three pit bull type dogs killed this nine-year-old girl while she was riding her bicycle in an alley behind her home.
19. y.o. female	Tennessee	The victim was killed by three dogs, a mastiff type dog, a Rottweiler type dog and a pit bull type dog, after returning to a home she earlier left to pick up a purse she forgot.
67 y.o. female	New York	The victim was killed in her home by the 2 Coonhounds she owned. News reports did not give much detail about her ownership prior to the incident
13. m.o. male toddler	California	This toddler was killed by a single family pit bull type dog in his home while being cared for by babysitter.
56 y.o. male	Oklahoma	Three dogs, suspected to be pit bull type dogs, killed the victim while he was visiting the home of the owner of the dogs in a residential area. news reports are lacking in detail about the incident.
31 y.o. male	Virginia	The victim was killed by her own pit bull type dog in her home.
3 y.o. male	Kentucky	Two family owned Rottweilers killed the toddler after he climbed into the backyard where the dogs were kept. The toddler reportedly went through an open window while his family was sleeping.
21 y.o. Male	California	Two pit bull type dogs killed this young man while he was visiting the home of a family member.
4 y.o. boy	Michigan	This boy was killed by a single pit bull who was living at his home on a temporary basis.
41. y.o. female	Michigan	A single pit bull type dog owned by the boyfriend of victim killed victim in the mobile home where she and her boyfriend were living.
49 y.o. Female	Ohio	Two great Danes, owned by the victim, killed the victim in her home. The dogs were rescues.
95 y.o. Female	Connecticut	The owner of the pit bull type dog which killed the victim was owned by Connecticut state director of the Humane Society of the United States! This tragic incident occurred at the home of the Director where the victim had gone to visit.
38 y.o. Male	California	This man was found dead near a homeless encampment in a river bed. The victim was believed to be killed by a single pitbull.
47 y.o. Female	Georgia	Three pit bull type dogs, owned by a neighbor, killed the victim outside her home on the sidewalk. She was severely mauled and chunks of her body were missing. She survived for about a month before dying from her injuries.
12 y.o. Male	Oklahoma	This young boy was killed by two pit bull type dogs while returning home from school. The victim was alone in an alleyway when the incident occurred.
79. y.o. Male	Oklahoma	Approximately 6 mixed breed dogs, loose at the time of the incident, killed the victim in the neighborhood in which he lived. He may have been walking his dog at the time of the incident. The dogs involved in the incident were owned by a neighbor.
44 y.o female	Massachusetts	A single family-owned pit bull type dog poopkilled the victim in her home
44 y.o. Female	Texas	Three suspected pit bull type dogs killed victim. this 46-year-old lady may been walking alone at the time of the incident. Her body was discovered in a ditch.

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Are pit bulls inherently dangerous?

Granted, pit bull type dogs have likely been implicated in a disproportional number of fatal dog attacks on people. However, this should not be taken to mean that every pit bull or pit bull type dog has the temperament or inclinations to kill a person. Every dog, regardless of breed, must be be judged on its own merits.  How it is maintained, controlled properly, past bite history, etc.  Tremendous individual differences exists between pit bull type dogs. This belief has been stated many times by many animal behavior experts but it is worth repeating again to discredit the nonsense that all pit bulls are naturally dangerous.

Are attack-trained police canines more dangerous than pit bulls?

Certainly, some pit bulls type dogs pose an extreme danger to public safety and in certain circumstances can readily kill a person. However, there are other breeds potentially as dangerous as some pit bulls. For example, I would rank an attack-trained police K9 equally as dangerous, particularly when the K-9 handler loses control over his dog.  And, not surprisingly, there are many anecdotal examples in which this has happened. These instances usually lead to severe dog bite injury inflicted onto the victim by the attack-trained police K-9, but usually not to a fatality.

Concerns about false or misleading information on other websites

• First, as mentioned some website authors have strong biases against pit bulls.  These authors present dog bite fatality data that are “cherry picked” for the purposes of promoting a campaign demeaning pit bulls. These authors appear to be on a mission to destroy the breed. They ignore the fact that not all pit bulls are dangerous by nature. There are tremendous individual differences between dogs. In fact, the vast majority of severe or fatal dog attacks on people by pit bulls are inflicted by poorly bred, untrained, unsocialized, poorly supervised dogs running loose in packs. In nearly all instances these pit bulls are maintained by irresponsible owners. In contrast, many honorable Americans were and continue to be proud owners of pedigreed pit bulls: Thomas Edison and Theodore Roosevelt.

  

• Second, the accuracy of data on fatal dog attacks depends on the validity and accuracy of facts about the incident as reported in news stories by the journalists who write the stories.  Website authors depend on this information to create the content on their sites, yet the extent to which the information published is independently verified remains dubious.  Generally, the information is taking on face value. This may be problematic for a number of reasons. Particularly significant is the information reported about the breed of dog involved.  Occasionally, mistakes in correctly identifying the breed of dog(s) involved in a fatal attack happen (see problems with pit bull terrier identification). Likewise, other data collection techniques (animal control reports, police reports, witness observation) used for breed identification purposes in fatal dogs attack investigations may  be flawed because of problems inherent with accurate breed identification through visual means.
• Third, because breed identity may be mistaken, the numbers may be inflated for certain dogs, such as pit bull dogs. That it is a mastiff-type dog was implicated in incident but mistakenly identified as pit bull.
• Fourth, it is important to note that a pit bull is not a breed of dog.  Instead, the term “pit bull” only describes a dog that has an appearance similar to a American Pit Bull terrier or American Staffordshire terrier.   In some cases a dog identified as a pit bull, based on its physical appearance, may be genetically similar to the American Staffordshire Terrier (AKC recognized) or an American Pit Bull (UKC recognized), but in other cases the dog is genetically dissimilar.

  

• Fifth, the reader should note the incidences of fatalities listed on any website may not represent every case in the United States where death was caused by a dog attack. It is conceivable that some fatal dog attacks in the United States go unreported and never make news headlines, particularly in rural areas.
• Sixth, the fatalities reported on many websites may not be a direct result of injuries sustained from a dog attack.For example, in some dog bite fatalities the primary cause of death is secondary to bite injuries caused by an attack.  Examples include caradic arrest, freezing to death after falling unconscious following an attack, rabies, septicaemia, infection or falling on head as a result of being attacked. I recall a reported incident in March 2010 incident in Lucknow, South Carolina involving a 65-year-old lady.  Several websites reported this as a dog bite fatality caused by a pit bull attack, but subsequently the autopsy indicated a fatal heart attack was the primary cause of death (presumably from the stress of the attack). Also, note that a human fatality can be caused by the behavior of a dog that does not involve aggressive intent (e.g. smothering). Click here for medical perspective on the causes of death as a direct result of the dog attack.

Related content about fatal dog attacks

• Six critical animal behavioral factors likely to cause death by a fatal dog attack.
• Recent peer-reviewed about fatal dog attacks in the United States.Animal behavior experts have long believed that the majority of fatal dog attacks can be prevented. This belief was again reiterated that in a recent paper that now stands as the most definitive study on the topic of fatal dog attacks in the United States  …. Read more
• DNA analysis fails to identify dogs involved in fatal dog attack in Dallas, Texas. DNA analysis of fatal dog attacks is used for good reason: Namely, each individual dog has its own unique DNA profile. Each cell of a dog contains 39 pairs of chromosomes comprised of strands of DNA shaped in the form of a “double helix” .. Read more
• Factors affecting fatal dog attacks

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• Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks in the USA between 1979 and 1998
• Forecast for fatal dog attacks in 2015
• Criminal prosecutions of fatal dog attacks
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• Fatal dog attack kills 92-year-old lady in Olympia, Washington
• What caused a fatal dog attack on an elderly lady in North Carolina?
• Are pit bulls different?
  
• Two hard-to-believe dog bite fatalities by pack of dogs in Georgia
• Did a mother’s coughing  trigger a predatory fatal dog attack on a newborn in California? 
• Criminals, dangerous dogs and expert opinion about a Nevada fatal dog bite
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• Wikipedia
• Pack a stray dogs kill 52-year-old lady in Dallas, Texas
• Did a mother’s coughing trigger a predatory fatal dog attack on a newborn in California?
• Labrador retriever led dog pack in Texas kills process server in Austin

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Richard Polsky, Ph.D. is an academically trained animal behavior specialist in Los Angeles, California. He was a defense expert in the  San Francisco dog mauling.  Dr. Polsky welcomes inquiries from attorneys.