Woman found mauled to death by her Staffordshire bull terrier

UNITED KINGDOM -- A woman has been mauled to death in her home by her pet dog.

Louise Caygill, 43, was killed by her Staffordshire bull terrier in her flat.

Her body was found on Sunday and at first police treated her death as ‘unexplained’, the Liverpool ECHO reports.

But detailed post mortem tests have concluded that she died from “multiple dog bites”.

The animal has been put down.

Merseyside Police investigating the death in the Old Swan area of Liverpool have informed her relatives.

A spokesman for the force confirmed: “Merseyside Police can confirm that a post-mortem to establish the cause of death has provisionally concluded that she died of multiple dog bites, pending the results of toxicology and other tests.

“A Staffordshire bull terrier belonging to the woman was seized by officers from the property and was destroyed.”

She is the fourth person on Merseyside to be killed in dog attacks since January 2007.

Five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson died in January 2007 and four-year-old John Paul Massey in November 2009.

Both were killed by pit bull breeds banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

Army veteran Clifford Clarke, 79, was killed in May last year by neighbour’s starving bull mastiff.
He had opened the rear door to his house in Clubmoor to air his kitchen when he was mauled.

A total of 17 people - many of them children - have been killed in dog attacks in the UK since 2005.
More than 200,000 people a year are estimated to be bitten by dogs in England with the annual cost to the NHS of treating injuries about £3million.

The last victim, eleven-month-old Ava Jayne Marie Corless died in hospital from her injuries after she was mauled to death by an American pit bull-type at her home in Blackburn, Lancashire.

Police described the scene as “horrific” after finding the little girl upstairs. Neighbours had complained about the family pet being aggressive.

Six-day-old Eliza-Mae Mullane, from Pontyberem, Carmarthenshire, died in February this year after being left alone in her pram for a “few moments”

She was bitten by the family pets, a husky-like Alaskan Malamute called Misha and a terrier called Roxy. Both were put down.

In November last year, mum Jodi Hudson stabbed her pet Mulan with a kitchen knife as it mauled daughter Lexi Branson to death at their flat in Mountsorrel, near Loughborough.

Neighbours said the four-year-old had been “shaken like a rag doll”,

Jade Anderson, 14, died horrifically in March last year at the house in Atherton, near Wigan when she was mauled to death by four dogs.

Magistrates heard how one of the first policemen on the scene would “never forget” encountering a bull mastiff-type dog covered in blood.

At present only the pit bull terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino and Fila Brasileiro are banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act. But concern over the safety of some breeds - particularly bull mastiffs - has risen sharply in recent months following the death of 14-year-old Jade Anderson in Wigan last March after she was mauled by four dogs which were later put down.

At present four breeds – the pit bull terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino and Fila Brasileiro – are banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act. But out of at least 17 death from dog bites from 2005, only two are said to have been from illegal breeds.

Laura Vallance, from Dog’s Trust said: “It’s not about the breed of dog because any breed is dangerous in the wrong hands.

[Yes, a Sheltie in the "wrong hands" will rip people's faces off, break their bones, be impervious to tasers, baseball bats, lead pipes, police batons, tire irons... Oooh those Shelties!]

(Irish Mirror - July 22, 2014)