IRVING, Texas—Police say a Dallas-area woman was mauled to death by her two pit bull terriers as she tried to feed them at a veterinary clinic where the dogs were in quarantine for a prior attack.
Irving police say 33-year-old Johana Villafane of Irving was pronounced dead Saturday at a Dallas hospital.
A police statement says Villafane was at the clinic Saturday morning, March 23, to feed the dogs and was in an exercise area when they attacked her.
Attached is a media release regarding an investigation into a dog attack that occurred this morning. pic.twitter.com/YG80Hxfji1
— Irving Police Dept. (@IrvingPD) March 23, 2019
The aggressive dogs prevented medical personnel from quickly reaching Villafane. A police officer shot and killed both animals and the woman was taken to a hospital where she died.
The statement didn’t describe the initial biting incident that led to the pit bulls being quarantined.
Research On Dog Bite Incidents
DogsBite.org says that “each day, about 1,000 U.S. citizens require emergency care treatment for serious dog bite injuries. Annually, about 9,500 citizens are hospitalized due to dog bite injuries.”
In a 13-year analysis, the website says that of 433 fatal dog attacks in the United States, pit bulls contributed to 66 percent, or 284 deaths.
Rottweilers, the second on the list, inflicted 10 percent of attacks that resulted in human death, the report says.
German shepherds accounted for 4.6 percent of fatal attacks.
Mixed-breed dogs accounted for 3.9 percent and the American bulldog was next at 3.5 percent, the report said.
The Mastiff and Bullmastiff accounted for 3.2 percent of deaths.
Last on the list were huskies, which accounted for 3 percent of fatal attacks.
The report compiled fatal dog attacks between 2005 and 2017, showing that 48 percent of the victims were children aged 9 or younger.
Do Animals Grieve Their Owners’ Death?
Animals don’t grieve the way humans beings mourn, but they do feel emotional when they sense things around them are not normal, according to The Nest.
“If an animal’s human companion suddenly disappears, it can be confusing, and can even lead to depression,” wrote Lisa McQuerrey.
Animals can form an emotional bond with their caretakers and can even go in search of them when they don’t find them around.
They can exhibit signs of grief by “acting out, demonstrating behavioral issues like destructive chewing, clawing or digging, or suddenly having accidents in the house. Exceptionally sensitive animals may hide, be unwilling to eat, interact or engage with other humans.”
Pets need care when their owner dies. In the United States, there are organizations that care for the pets after their owner dies.
An organization called Animal Friends has admitted 16,263 animals since 2006 that arrived after their owner died, according to the Post Gazette.
Pit Bulls
Pit bulls, and any dog deemed to look like one despite not having any pit-bull DNA, are the most prevalent in shelters (pdf). Dogs labeled as “pit bulls” spend more than three times longer in a shelter than similar-looking dogs not deemed pit bulls, reports the Washington Post. Many are among the 670,000 dogs euthanized each year, according to the ASPCA.
The Epoch Times Staff contributed to this report.
