Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

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reptilist
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Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

Post by reptilist »

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... uling.html


Charges sought in fatal dog
mauling case

Apr. 19, 2009 08:34 AM
Associated Press

YUMA - The Imperial County Sheriff's Office
plans to pursue charges against the owner
of the pack of dogs that fatally mauled a man
last month near the California-Arizona
border.

Sgt. Scott Sheppeard said the office is
sending a report of its investigation into the
death of Gordon Lykins of Winterhaven,
Calif., to the Imperial County District
Attorney's Office in El Centro.

Sheppeard said authorities "feel we have
enough information that we want the district
attorney to move forward with pressing
charges. We expect charges could be filed as
soon as sometime next week."

Sheppeard said the charges being sought
pertain to the owner maintaining a public
nuisance and not properly securing the 11
dogs he owns.

He said it will be up the district attorney's
office to decide if any additional, more
serious charges are warranted.

Lykins, 48, was attacked March 28 while
walking along a drainage canal road about 8
miles north of Yuma.
He died April 10 at Banner Good Samaritan
Hospital Medical Center in Phoenix, where he
was taken after the attack.
Sheppeard said Lykins suffered multiple dog
bites all over his body and eventually had to
have both legs and one arm amputated.
Investigators still are uncertain what
provoked the dogs to attack Lykins.
Sheppeard declined to identify the dogs'
owner because no charges have been filed in
the case yet.
Winterhaven is a small community that sits
on the California-Arizona state line just
north of Yuma.
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Plays In The Dirt
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Re: Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

Post by Plays In The Dirt »

People who don't care for their dogs really tick me off. It's not the dogs fault but I suppose they destroyed them by now.
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Iggy1
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Re: Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

Post by Iggy1 »

The dogs probably will be killed. As of today they haven't been. 2 of the 11 dogs just had pups which brings the total of dogs to 22.
Noted from the Yuma Sun paper.
This happened on the Quechan Indian Reservation.
IMO I think the owner should be charged with murder. :evil:
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Re: Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

Post by Goldseeker »

Sad. Both legs and 1 arm. Must have progressed to a bad infection. Most likely that someone that careless with that many (!) :roll: dogs did not keep up with their shots. Another reason for right to carry IMO.
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Re: Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

Post by reptilist »

Yep, that is a good reason to carry sidearms. When dogs run loose they can be dangerous.
In America, dog bites are many times more common than snake bites, with roughly the same number of fatalities each year.
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Re: Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

Post by Goldseeker »

The same number being about a dozen each?
The poison snakes are part of nature, but the dogs should be controlled by their owners, that being the difference.
But, yes, right to carry laws would help in each case. The dogs moreso, b/c out in the country where snakes are more likely, people naturally carry, and not just for snakes. Some snakes have 2 legs, unfortunately.
But back to the original topic, yes, charge the careless fool. Not that it will do the victim any good.
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Re: Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

Post by Space Cowboy »

I think the best the DA could hope for is involuntary manslaughter. There was a recent dog attack near the Pauma Indian Reservation in San Diego County. The local Animal Control couldn't even seize the dogs because they came from property on the Reservation, and they didn't have the authorization
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Re: Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

Post by reptilist »

http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html

The number of fatalities

In 2007, there were 33 fatal dog maulings in the USA. (The complete list, showing names, dates and locations, is found at Canine Homicides, a section of Dangerous and Vicious Dogs, at this website.)

They took place in 17 states. Ten deaths were in 4 one bite states, of which there are a total of 15. Eight deaths were in the three mixed dog bite statute states. Fifteen deaths were in 8 strict liability states, of which there are a total of 32 plus the District of Columbia. (See Legal Rights of Dog Bite Victims in the USA to learn how the states are categorized.) A chart of these figures appears below:



(33 fatal dog maulings in 2007 is roughly 3x the number of snake bite fatalities.)
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Re: Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

Post by Apache Devil »

Two or three years ago while heading north, I stopped to look over some nice wild desert near Parker, Arizona. The desert I wanted to look at was on the right side of the road and there was a house about a quarter of a mile or more away on the left hand side. On the desert side there were no fences or signs, just wild desert going eastward toward the base of some distant mountains. I grabbed my camera and started hiking out into the desert. I was probably about a hundred yards out into the desert when I heard a commotion to the west. I looked to see five or six dogs coming towards me at a dead run from the house. I reached for my vest and remembered that I had taken my gun out the previous night and I was unarmed. It was going to be a real touch and go to see if I could reach the truck before the dogs reached me. And they were not sounding any too friendly. I made it into the truck while the dogs were about fifty feet away and coming on strong. They halted about fifteen feet away, growling and snarling like a frenzied wolf pack. I tried to force it down, but I felt a deadly cold rage come upon me. This is not good because when these rages hit me, thankfully very rarely, I could end up doing something real stupid, and I nearly did. I found my .38, coldly and methodically checked it for readiness and began to open my door to take care of this situation really quick, but them my common sense finally took hold of me. Since I was now inside my truck, I could no longer claim self-defense. No telling what sort of legal tangle I could get myself into. It took a serious effort to force myself to put away the gun and drive away. I was in such a state of controlled anger that I was somewhere in Nevada two hours away before it occurred to me that I should have called the sheriff. Next time my gun will be on my person and someone is going to lose some dogs.
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Re: Charges sought in fatal dog mauling case

Post by reptilist »

That always pissesmeoff. I used to always notice how city people move out to the country and just figure that now they can let their dogs run loose! Ignorant dog owners....It doesn't matter how far off the nearest neighbor lives, that's where the dogs are going to go!
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