Mastiff san francisco attack

Toliver, an employee at the San Francisco medical examiner's office, was unavailable for comment. A medical examiner's official said yesterday that Toliver was "injured" and would not be back at work for several weeks. Kathy Letourneau , 38, a Cane Corso breeder in Connecticut, said yesterday that she was surprised by the attack.

Cane Corso dogs are "usually aloof with strangers -- they don't care one way or another," she said. It all depends on how people treat them and how they're trained. He also asked about the breed, "Question is never had this breed before so anyone out there know anything about them please share. Unfortunately, it truly is a "life or death" decision every adopter accepts -- knowingly or not -- when adopting a dangerous dog breed from a public shelter today.

Notably, during the news coverage, a bright, colorful Best Friends Animal Society transport van was seen in The Animal Foundation's parking lot. Best Friends is the largest promoter of reckless no kill policies , which places "save rates" an order of magnitude higher than public safety.

The cause of death was ruled a dog mauling. On October 1, Las Vegas police were dispatched to a home in the block of River Splash Avenue around pm after a family member called saying a woman appeared to be deceased. The family member told police they had only had the mastiff-mix for a few days. The victim's family recently started a GoFundMe page.

Sweeney leaves behind two children and a husband of 26 years, states the page. According to her husband Patrick's Facebook page , the couple adopted a 3-year old male mastiff-mix on September 28 from an unspecified shelter.

The dog literally attacked and killed her three days later. The shelter facility has not been identified. The husband also posted on September 6 , saying that his family dog had recently been laid to rest.

This may have been why the couple decided to adopt a dog a few weeks later. That should have never been a "life or death" decision, but it is today when you adopt certain dog breeds from a rescue or shelter. Sweeney's mauling death marks the fourth deadly dog attack this year by a recently adopted or rehomed dog.

Three of these fatalities involved rescue pit bulls. Sweeney's death also marks the seventh dog bite fatality in , where the animal fatally attacked its owner. Five of these owner fatalities involved pit bulls, one fatality involved a dogo argentino and Sweeny's death involved a mastiff-mix.

So far in , at least 24 Americans have been mauled to death by a canine. It was adopted from The Animal Foundation, which is the "highest volume single-site animal shelter in America," according to their website. Las Vegas Animal Control said the dog's behavior was assessed before it was adopted.

Apparently, the nonprofit still maintains this contract. There are no words that can appropriately convey the deep sadness felt by The Animal Foundation. The Animal Foundation now joins a growing number of shelters that adopted out a dog that killed a person. In September, the Logan County Pound WV allowed a rescue to "pull" a death row pit bull, which quickly killed its new owner.

In late , the New York City municipal shelter allowed a rescue to "pull" a death row pit bull, which killed its new adopter. Also in , the Asheville Humane Society adopted out a pit bull that killed a 6-year old boy three weeks later. Asheville Humane used the "state-of-the-art" temperament test, SAFER, to test the dog, which cannot measure unpredictable aggression nor can any temperament test.

The newly adopted mastiff-mix as seen on the victim's husband's Facebook page September No one responded when a reporter rang the doorbell. The couple took in the dogs three months ago. A woman who had been raising the dogs for the inmates for two years had become fed up with trying to control them, according to published reports. The woman, Janet Coumbs of Hayfork, a rural town in far northern California, could not be reached for comment today but told The Chronicle earlier this week that the dogs had eaten all her sheep, as well as chickens and her house cat, and that she had warned the lawyers of their viciousness.

Neighbors at the Pacific Heights apartment house, who would not give their names, said they too had known the dogs were vicious. Those who saw the couple walking the dogs in a popular park nearby would stay clear.

There is a loose but warm fraternity of dogs and their owners at the park, as at many parks in the city, and most owners know the names and temperaments of others' dogs, if not of one another. But Bane, the dog who lunged at Ms. Whipple's throat and did not let go, and Hera, whom the authorities are keeping in custody pending a public hearing, were not well known or well received among the dog crowd. One man with a golden retriever puppy, who did not want his or his dog's name published, said this morning, ''They looked like dogs that belonged in another neighborhood.

View on timesmachine. Bane started walking down the hall, not bounding, but dragging Knoller along. Just a few feet from Whipple, Knoller said, the dog pulled her to her knees. Bane leaped up, pinning Whipple to the wall inside her apartment.

Both women went to the ground, with Knoller crawling on top of Whipple, she said, calming the dog. But repeatedly, Knoller said, Whipple crawled away, stirring up Bane. For some reason, Knoller said, Whipple crawled back into the hallway.

Again, Bane tried to get at Whipple, and again, Knoller said, she tried to shield her, lying on top her. Meanwhile, Hera was behind Bane, barking. Wriggling free, Whipple, Knoller said, threw the punch. By the end of the attack — which may have lasted 10 minutes, she said — both women were covered in blood and their clothes were shredded.