Update: Georgia Couple Killed by Stray Dogs

I wrote about this just after the news broke a couple of days ago.  It seems that Sherry Schweder  went for a walk, but with the purpose of finding her missing dog, and she went alone.  When she did not return, her husband, Lothar Schweder went to look for her in his car.  Her found her body, and from the footprints left in the dirt and mud, a scuffle had taken place.  Investigators surmise that Schweder may have taken his phone out of his pocket, and was then attacked. This tragedy has  the  air of a Stephen King novel. 

A group of Jehovah’s Witnesses came upon the bodies.  When the animal control officers came to remove the dogs so the coroner could get to the bodies, they were aggressively protecting their prey, and had pinned two officers up against a car.  Authorities now say 16 dogs were involved in the fatal attacks.

The dogs do not belong to anyone, but a local homeowner had been feeding them.  He had to move, however, for medical reasons, but said the dogs were being fed every other day.  The loss of human companionship may have been a contributing factor.  The homeowner had reported to the police that the dogs had not been aggressive toward him on any occasion and could not believe they were the culprits.

The reports of people being killed by dogs are rare. Kate Brumback of AP interviewed Adam Goldfarb of the Humane Society of the US (HSUS) who commented that you would be more likely to be killed by lightening than a dog, and that it may have been pack behavior that played a role in these attacks. “There have been at least 20 deadly dog attacks in the U.S. this year, 22 in 2008 and 33 in 2007, said the Humane Society’s Goldfarb, compared with about 75 million owned dogs. The National Weather Service says there were 27 lightning deaths so far this year, 28 in 2008 and 45 in 2007.”  Pack behavior can occur in groups as small as two or three dogs, and it is usually one dog that sets off the behavior; the pack then acts as one.  Young children are usually the victims.

The Schweder’s  20 cats and 7 dogs are now at the local humane society.