Dogs kill woman near Thorndale

[Paladin]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10235681/

"The Associated Press
Updated: 4:10 a.m. ET Nov. 28, 2005


THORNDALE, Texas - A pack of six dogs mauled a 76-year-old woman to death as she worked in her yard, authorities said.

Lillian Loraine Stiles was riding on a lawn mower in her front yard Saturday when she was confronted by the dogs, described as pit bull-rottweiler mixed breeds, said Milam County Sheriff Charlie West.

Investigators think Stiles was attacked when she got off the mower and headed into her house.

Stiles had severe bites over her entire body, and a man who tried to help her was bitten on one leg, authorities said.

The dogs were found at the home of Stiles’ neighbor, Jose Hernandez.

The sheriff’s department will send the findings of its investigation to the Milam County District Attorney’s Office, which will decide if any criminal charges will be filed against Hernandez.

Thorndale is located about 70 miles west of College Station"


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http://www.statesman.com/

"MILAM COUNTY

Woman, 76, killed in dog attack near Thorndale
Pack of dogs also injures would-be rescuer.
By Suzannah Gonzales
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, November 28, 2005

On Saturday afternoon, Lillian Stiles was doing what she loved, tending her yard and flowers from atop her riding lawn mower. About 4:15 p.m., she would be found fatally mauled by a pack of dogs.

Stiles, 76, was found lying in her front yard at her home near Thorndale with bites all over her body. She had been attacked by six pit bull-Rottweiler mixed-breed dogs owned by a man living less than 500 yards away, Milam County sheriff's deputies said.

A man who stopped to help Stiles also was badly injured by the dogs.

He was taken to Scott & White Hospital in Temple, where he was treated for several bites on his torso, right leg and groin and later released.

Stiles died of her injuries, according to the sheriff's department. She may have gotten off the mower and tried to make it to her home when she was attacked.

Sheriff's deputies said they expected preliminary results from an autopsy today.

Milam County and Thorndale law enforcement officers took five of the dogs into custody at their owner's residence Saturday night. They are being held at the Veterinary Medical Arts Center in Cameron. The sixth dog was shot dead by Stiles' husband, Jack.

DNA evidence was taken from the dogs to link them to the attack, and they will be tested for rabies, said Milam County Sheriff Charlie West.

The dogs' owner, Jose Hernandez of Thorndale, could not provide records showing that the dogs had been vaccinated, West said.

Hernandez was not home at the time of the attack, said West, who added that he would consult with the Milam County district attorney's office about filing criminal charges.

The dogs apparently were kept in a pen behind a 3-foot chain-link fence with no top rail. Electric fencing low along the inside of the pen was meant to keep them from digging and getting out.

Hernandez could not be reached for comment Sunday.

While his wife of 55 years was out in the yard, Jack Stiles, 76, was inside watching the University of Oklahoma-Oklahoma State football game. It was not unusual for her to stay outside for hours at a time, he said, "especially when I was watching a football game that she cared nothing about."

If Lillian Stiles wasn't mowing the one-acre yard she had landscaped, she was admiring it, her husband said. "I couldn't keep her off the lawn mower. She loved it. She was proud of her yard."

She was found by Weldon and Maurita Smith, both 60. The Smiths were on their way home to Rockdale after Christmas shopping in Temple, driving along FM 486 where the Stileses live, when they saw Lillian Stiles collapsed in her yard.

"That looks like a body laying beside that tractor," Weldon Smith remembered his wife saying.

"You sure?" he asked.

She said she was pretty sure, he recalled.

"You want me to turn back?" he asked his wife.

"Yeah," she said.

Weldon Smith saw blood on the ground around Lillian Stiles' head. He got out of his Ford F-250 pickup and told his wife to call 911.

Smith said he walked about 50 feet and saw four large dogs coming toward him — 70 pounds to 90 pounds each, maybe heavier, he estimated. They stood between him and Stiles' body.

The dogs seemed to work as a team, like wolves attacking a deer, Smith said. "That's the best way to describe it.

"I saw it, and I didn't believe it," he said. "It's like something out of a horror movie."

There was no way he could get past them, Smith said. He started to back up, walking slowly.

A light brown dog jumped at his neck. Smith said he kept his forearms raised, guarding his throat. Meanwhile, other dogs nipped at him.

"I knew my only salvation was to get to the truck," he said.

Smith ran and tried to climb on the truck. He got his left leg on the bumper, but as his right leg went up, one of the dogs grabbed it by the pants leg. Smith kicked, trying to shove the dog away. Eventually, the dog let go.

Maurita Smith stood on a step of the truck, on the phone with 911 operators. She was not hurt.

The Smiths drove up the Stileses' driveway. Weldon Smith knocked on the door, and Jack Stiles answered.

"There's a body in your front yard," Stiles recalled Smith saying. "Do you have a gun?"

The dogs were coming back.

Stiles shot a whitish-gray dog that charged him. The others scattered. Stiles fired a second shot at another dog, but it was too far away.

Stiles saw clothes the dogs had ripped off his wife's body. "If it had not been in my front yard, I wouldn't have recognized her," he said. "When I went out there, I knew she was dead."

West said he did not recall receiving any complaints about the dogs before. Aside from the state dog laws, including those that require vaccinations and give him the authority to take vicious dogs into custody, West said there are no dog ordinances in Milam County.

In his nearly 30 years with the sheriff's department, West said he had never seen an attack like this before.

Lillian Stiles was born in San Gabriel, a farmer's daughter. The Stileses were high school sweethearts. They met as freshmen at Thorndale High School.

"She was beautiful," Jack Stiles said. "Couldn't miss her. She was so pretty."

Lillian Stiles is survived by her husband, three children, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. "

----------------------------------------------------

[HighVelocity]

The sheriff’s department will send the findings of its investigation to the Milam County District Attorney’s Office, which will decide if any criminal charges will be filed against Hernandez.

If?? Are you kidding? Hernandez should be charged as if he killed her with his own hands.

[stevie_d_64]

I happen to have a soft spot for dogs...

I would be a person who would seriously consider doing everything I could not to do anything more, than do my best, to deter even the most aggressive attack from a dog(s) in a similar situation...With either removing myself from the attack, at the least, or discharging my weapon at the attack if that is the only other, and last resort...

I've lived with and trained dogs all my adult life and consider aggressiveness to be a matter of conditioning and environment...I do not fear even the largest or most agressive of breeds, and having no fear (concern at times, but not fear ) is not a bunch of bull that animals cannot sense it...Fear permiates very much in outward appearance in your sweating, breathing and the way you move and or stand...

Fear is a primal trigger that animals who naturally capitalize on that condition hope for, either for them to establish a dominance (alpha male etc etc) or to attack for food...

Of course breeding (cross) between Rots and Pits is a dangerous combo, of which I would avoid so that it did not become necessary to train and condition out the aggressive traits of these breeds to a managable level...

And even then their interaction with other people would be done in steps, and their interation with people who are not part of their lives would be strictly controlled and or eliminated...Thats the big key...

This Hernandez guy should and will be charged with some sort of negligent act...

Reading into the animal control officers accounts of how well the animals act by themselves, is a testimony to the agressiveness (or lack thereof) when the animals are separated and not running in a "pack"...

As far as their disposition, I would say that these animals should be destroyed...Even though I know its not their fault, their actions were instinctive and further aggravated by their environment...

This is certainly a sad incident, and one I think could have been avoided if someone had taken their responsibilities seriously enough...There is no excuse or apology enough for what had failed to keep this from happening...

I think I would have been one to discharge my weapon to deter or stop one or more (or however many continued to attack) of these dogs from the attack...There doesn't appear to have been any other choice to be made if I had been there...I wouldn't like it, but I can live with it...

[rgoldy]

Almost any dog can be trained to be aggressive, conversely almost any dog can be trained not to be aggressive. In this case it would appear that the dogs reacted as they had been conditioned, protecting their extended territory from what they took to be an interloper. Whether their reaction was to the mower or to the woman, we may never know. The fact is that anyone who chooses to train or condition their dog to be aggressive or tolerates aggressive behaviour in their animal, assumes the responsibility for the result of that behaviour. In most places there are criminal penalties for the owner. Whether to charge the owner comes under the same LEO discretion that charging or not charging an adult who allows a child to have access to a firearm after an accidental shooting. The failure to charge under criminal statute will not mitigate the civil charges the owner faces. In fact the failure to charge under criminal may make the civil result worse for the owner. All the parties involved have my sympathy.

[Texasdoc]

well,My question is Why do you need 6 dogs of this type??? when one will work for a guard dog.

the only time I have seen this type of dog was t oguard a Drug house.


on the news tonight they stated that no charges will be pressed as there is no leash law in Milan county.

they did put the dogs down today but I think they should seek some type of a charge on the owners.


300shooter

[HighVelocity]

I feel this exceeds expectations of leash laws. I'd call it Negligent Homicide at the very least.

[longtooth]

+1 highvelosity.

[dws1117]

well,My question is Why do you need 6 dogs of this type??? when one will work for a guard dog.

Why do you need six handguns when one will do just fine? Sorry if it sounds like I'm doggin' on you, it's not the intention. It is more the responsibilty of the owner to control the animals.

If the what's reported is accurate, it would be a crime not to procecute and hold the dog owner responsible.

[longtooth]

300 shooter. I don't care for dogs, cats, snakes, or hampsters around the place. If they have to be taken care of they are one more thing I have to do & don't have time. Also there is a family down the road with only one pit bull & they take the guard dog w/ them when the teens run. It is for both their exersize. He is no pet. When running he lunges at the leash & snarles at every one they pass & there is no doubt in my mind that sonner or later there will be trouble in the community over the dog. He will get away some day & hurt somebody. With that said I still know it is not my right to tell others they don't need 6 dogs like that any more than I will tolerate them telling me I don't need 6 guns like that because one will do the job. We live today in a country wher people think they have the right to do anything they want but no responsibility for the consequences. He has the right to have 6 dogs like that & the responsibility of paying for their actions. If I am responsible for paying for your fence that my cows tore down when they got out, he is responsible for paying for the death of that poor woman when his dogs got out. [/i]

[stevie_d_64]

If nothing comes from a criminal charge...

A civil proceding is sure to follow anyway...

[longtooth]

I sure hope it does. And a BIG ONE. 'Course there may not be anything there. No liability, renting the place, outright ownes 6 dogs that he fights for bets, and four light leashes that he clips them in an '82 model pickup to get there in.

[KBCraig]

I happen to have a soft spot for dogs...

Me and Mrs. Craig too... perhaps that would explain the four dogs of our own (two of them are rescues), plus one foster dog we're working to socialize so that she can move on to another home. (Not to mention the three cats, ferret, gerbil, turtle, and fish tank... we're critter people!)

I've lived with and trained dogs all my adult life and consider aggressiveness to be a matter of conditioning and environment...I do not fear even the largest or most agressive of breeds, and having no fear (concern at times, but not fear ) is not a bunch of bull that animals cannot sense it...Fear permiates very much in outward appearance in your sweating, breathing and the way you move and or stand...

Fear is a primal trigger that animals who naturally capitalize on that condition hope for, either for them to establish a dominance (alpha male etc etc) or to attack for food...

You're absolutely correct. Any roaming group of 3+ dogs is a pack, and it doesn't matter if they're chihuahuas or rottweilers; they'll play off each other, and as soon as one senses fear, they'll swarm. It doesn't matter if their target is a horse, cow, deer, cat, another dog, or a human: it's all about the fear scent.

The worst combination of roaming dogs are intact male littermates with no socialization. They won't fight each other, but they'll fight anything else. Like teenage boys with whiskey, they go looking for trouble. I've noticed that many of the pit-on-human attacks involve intact mail juvenile littermates who are left free to roam. Gee... anyone else draw the parallel to "dogs in the hood"?

Now, as to pits (my generic term for pit bulls, AmStaffs, American Bulldog, and any and all combinations thereof that are historically bred for fighting)... Fighting dogs are bred to be aggressive against other dogs, but are also bred to not be aggressive against people. I abhor the blood sports, but I know enough to understand that any pit dog that turns on any human must be destroyed on the spot; otherwise, their handlers can't trust them to focus on the other dog. (Again: I abhor dog fighting, cock fighting, Ultimate Fighting, and all other blood sports, but at least the humans have a say in the matter.)

I've never met a pit who wasn't all tongue and tail, a big slobbery wagging goobernut. Except for those few who had been abused into being aggressive towards people, that is. In those cases, I'd prefer to put down the owner, and see if the dog could be rehabilitated. I have known rotties who are naturally aggressive towards people, but I respect them for doing their job. If they leave their territory and enter mine and still think they're in charge, then they're fair game.

Dogs do have instincts dictated by their breeding: herding dogs herd, tracking dogs track, bird dogs point, and companion dogs flop in your lap. More important than doggie DNA is owner attitude, and training.

Disclosure: I don't own a pit. Our Alpha dog is a 10 year old Standard Poodle. We have a 12 year old Australian Shepherd-German Shepherd cross (rescue dog); a 3 year old Border Collie cross (rescue); and a 5 month old Shih Tzu puppy. And, a gorgeous little blonde terrier mix who's longing for a home, as soon as she realizes that people aren't necessarily bad.

Kevin

[ThunderDownUnder]

One word of caution......(or maybe a few...or more).....

in a dog attack situation , think of using deadly force as you would with a human. And be aware that there are some double standards.

I've trained quite a few people and encourage them to tell me their stories as it relates to self-defense,CHL carry, etc.

I've had two students who have been bitten severely, one's grandson was mauled by wild or uncontrolled dogs. One shot at the dog and the other shot the dog several times and managed to drive him off the grandson.
Both faced criminal liability in the form of animal cruelty/abuse charges. Not sure of the statutes but the threat was there from law enforcement.

As for civil liability, most of these folks who have mean/wild dogs that get loose have very little in the way of financial means or insurance . Suing poor people doesn't pay -anyone , especially the attorney.

A story I followed closely about 7 years ago, dealt with a man in the city of Lufkin whose son was mauled by a dog off his chain. The father, to save his son's life, shot the dog 3 times . It ran and later died. They showed the kid in the hospital, photos of the wounds, and neighbor's witnessed the attack. He was charged and convicted of an animal cruelty charge and was given 30 days in the county jail on the misdemeanor charge. People were outraged. I'm not sure what the jury and prosecutor were thinking. There's probably more to the story though.

My "moral" of these stories is: be very careful who that you tell about use deadly force on animals. Do it only when necessary and don't talk it up after the fact. Catlovers tend to call the cops on catkillers.
I had a student from Dayton in 1996 that bragged about killing cats during class breaks. A lady from Kingwood was shocked to the point of tears. Two nights later in class, she pretended to befriend 'ole catkiller',got his address and filed a criminal complaint against him in Liberty county.
Then she wrote a letter to DPS CHL service and asked that he not be given a CHL. After a month , I never heard anything more about it. But 'catkiller' was denied a CHL -reason unknown to me.

My neighbors at the farm in east Texas have about 40 feral cats (most of them white or part white -good contrast for that front sight post )
and one neighbor talks about killing half of them to 'thin' them out.
While maybe 5 neighborhood cats would be okay with me , I have repeatedly told him to leave them alone because he could face some serious criminal charges for shooting 10-20 of them if caught.
The latest good news for the cats will be that 8-10 will be "relocated" to a new hay barn.
The solution can usually be found by working with local gummint and letting an animal control officer take care of them (assuming that they are not trying to bite your leg or head off).


jay

[anygunanywhere]

Nice post, Thunder. We must all use caution when faced with any self defense situation whether the situation is with man or beast.

The animal cruelty laws and enforcement are a joke. I will not gointo it here lest I go WAY off topic, but needless to say, I believe i am more likely to have to use my weapon against a loose dog than a human....since I have already drawn against a large german shepherd that showed agression and charged me. He was lucky he responded to the loud command "NO!" and retreated. His owner caqme out and saw my .45 drawn. I calmly told her she really neede to keep her dog under control becasuse IT IS THE LAW.

If I am ever sued or charged for cruelty or whatever, and the owner of the animal skates, woe be unto the DA, or plaintiff's attorney. I will not go down without a fight.