People are suckers for dogs, so I found it pretty entertaining with what excuses people came up here, that it weren't the dogs despite the evidence being so clear. I love dogs too, but I do believe it was them and that no mystery was involved.
I too guessed it were Pitbull-like dogs before I even clicked on the article. I think they were trained to be aggressive or to fight on purpose and the friend lied about the death threats to mask this.
However you try to establish it pack, pride, or parental family, there is still some social system in place. How you decide to label it is up to you.
Reward based training is still about control. Dominance training is still about control. Dominance is not some bad word that means beat your dog. You're reaching a role in the relationship where you have control with reward as well. This reward comes through other means that goes both ways. People act like the two are different with fuzzy words, but they aren't. Call it alpha or don't, you still have control.
Read the article. Medical examiner concluded she was mauled to death by the dogs. You're clearly misinformed here and being conspiratorial.
Because dogs are still really weird. WE don't know WHY they do half of the things they do, we can just explain the HOW. The dogs may have been fighting and she broke them up, getting between them and they were still aggressive and fought until she died. They also tore her body into at least 60 parts if one of the other posters who lives there is to be believed, which would go along the lines of eating the body. They'd also be guarding the body because it's food and dogs guard their food.Why would dogs kill their owner since puppyhood - and then guard and defend the body rather than consume it?
I guessed the dog's breed before i even clicked on the picutre.
And low and behold.
But they're just misunderstood big babies right? It's the owner, not the dog right?
Right?
Dogs are stupid... they killed her and then remembered that might be a bad idea because she feeds and houses them and so decided to stick around the body. Its a violent breed and its been seen before. If these dogs are so loyal and its fishy, how did her skin get into their mouths? Why are there bite marks on her? Why didn't they defend her?
Either way, no loss. She and her friend are clear trash. In another 10 years she would have been fat with tatoos living off the tax payer with dogs shitting in her trailer.
If you aren't a dog owner, and most people aren't, then yes they'll be afraid of fairly large dogs. If it's a particular breed that's known for attacking, then even more so. Also blaming the owners for not properly containing their dogs is stupid, as dogs inherently want to escape. What can happen will happen as it does so often. Most owners have the dog roam freely in a back yard or in the home, and all it takes is opening the door and suddenly the dog bolts off and bites someone.
Even still, is a small dog able to hurt anyone? Cats are vicious little killers but nobody is afraid of them killing a person because of their size.No, I just really dislike small dog breeds. They are far more likely to be poorly trained and tend to be kept inside a lot. Worked in a dog pension for a while when I was younger. They'd let out pretty much all the dogs into a single large grassy field. Poorly behaving dogs were kept separate. 90%+ of those were small breeds. Can only remember a single Jack Russell that was well behaved and wasn't an ADHD, frenzied, jumping little freak.
I have a hard time feeling sorry for pitbull owners, I only feel sorry for people who live next to pitbull owners.
This is very strange.
This could have been another animal. The dogs could have had her blood and skin in their mouths from licking her wounds. The domesticated dogs might have thought she was playing with this new friend before they realized it was a predator attacking her and scared the other animal away. Or simply thought their alpha (the woman) would fight off the attacker and ran away and by the time they came back, it was too late. My dog was attacked by another dog while I was walking him. The dog came running out from behind someone's house and apparently thought being on the sidewalk was part of his territory. My dog had about 20 pounds on the attacker, but my dog is a lover not a fighter. My dog was instantly pinned down by the neck and I pulled the other animal off him and my dog just ran about 50 yards away and let me scare off the attacking dog. He could have easily fought him, but often domesticated dogs don't think like that unless they are specifically trained for it. These dogs could have reacted similarly, allowing their owner to fight off the predator and not realizing she needed their help.
Or it could be a tragedy with poorly trained dogs in a very strange situation. Though it's so rare for a dog to turn on its owner, especially if raised from a puppy, I think other possibilities need to be explored.
Last edited by BananaHandsB; 2017-12-19 at 05:21 PM.
If they are half wolf, it's highly possible and not uncommon for wolves to attack owners. They do it to assert dominance in the pack, unfortunately their bite is a little deadly for us and most other wolves... But there is something fishy here. Could also get skin and blood in their mouths by pouring stuff on her skin to try and get them to eat it. They would after awhile.
Personally took one look at her face book and looking at who she supports, any sympathy I would normally have had, went, bye bye
Milli Vanilli, Bigger than Elvis
Heavily tatted pit bull owner. Good riddance. Too bad the cops didn't just shoot those demons from hell on sight instead of wasting time transporting them to be euthanized.
There is no evidence that the dogs were wolf hybrids. I just brought that up as an example earlier in the thread.
The dogs.
There was a new press conference with more details.
http://wtvr.com/2017/12/18/press-con...uling-by-dogs/
http://www.kansascity.com/news/natio...190543199.html
WTVR link has video from the second press conference.
In sum: dogs have been euthanized, they do not think that foul play was involved, blood was found on the dogs, dogs were found eating the ribcage when officers arrived, sexual assault mostly ruled out, bite wounds are not consistent with a larger animal, speculation about possible neglect of the animals due to Bethany being away from home and her father not properly taking care of them.GOOCHLAND, Va. – Goochland County Sheriff James Agnew released new information Monday as he sought to quell rampant speculation about the gruesome death of 22-year-old Bethany Lynn Stephens; mauled by her pet dogs who were euthanized shortly after the attack.
Stephens’ body was discovered by her father Thursday evening in a wooded area of Goochland. After an avalanche of phone calls and social media, Agnew cleared up several previously made statements and offered some gruesome details after a long discussion with Stephens’ family.
“Let me cut right to the chase, the most important detail that we did not release because we were worried about the well-being of the family is that in the course of trying to capture the dogs early Friday morning...we turned and looked…I observed, as well as four other deputy sheriffs, the dogs eating the ribcage on the body,” Agnew said.
He said they made the decision to capture the dogs instead of shoot them immediately.
No foul play expected
There was a person considered to be a threat to Stephens, though Agnew emphasized that he does not think her death was foul play. Investigators had CAT scans and X-rays done prior to the autopsy to rule out homicide; there were no broken bones or signs of strangulation. Her cellphone was found in half with bite marks on it.
“We had a number of witnesses came forward and we were able to put a time frame together and people’s movements together and they don’t fit with that particular narrative,” Agnew said of the numerous claims that foul play was involved. “Having said that, we are still following up on those; we are still doing forensic tests.”
The medical examiner also concluded with “complete certainty that there was no sexual assault involved.” Stephens was on her menstrual cycle and had a tampon in place which is part of how they determined she was not sexually assaulted.
tephens left her fathers house with the dogs on Wednesday afternoon, and her body was found around 8 p.m. Thursday. A neighbor later told investigators that she heard screams in the woods around 4 p.m. Wednesday, but brushed it off. Stephens was found after three friends couldn't reach her. Her dad answered the door and said he had assumed she was with them. That is when they started searching the woods where she would walk the dogs.
“There was no evidence of any larger animal there,” Agnew said in response to the widespread belief that perhaps Stephens was attacked by a wild animal, possibly a coyote or bear.
“The medical examiner…made it pretty clear that it was not a large animal, because the bite wounds didn’t puncture her skull,” Agnew said. “There were also scratch marks consistent with a smaller animal than something like a bear.”
Investigators will analyze excrement from one of the dogs that appeared to have "fibers" in it.
One dogs had a significant amount of blood around neck and collar, the sheriff said.
Dogs "neglected toward end"
Stephens worked for trainer Tori Trent, who knew the male dogs Tonka and Pac-man since they were pups. They were from the same litter and were around two and a half years old. Stephens adopted Tonka at eight weeks old and friends said she later adopted Pac-Man from a home that was abusive.
Everyone has said the dogs were socialized, passive and had a significant bond with Stephens.
"They were both very passive dogs,” said Trent, owner of Tori's K-9 Adventures, who came into contact with the dogs when Stephens brought them to work. Trent described the dogs as very friendly and sociable. "She brought them back and forth to work every day and in that time, they came across hundreds of other dogs and people," Trent said.
Sergeant Mike Blackwood said that multiple police departments contacted their office over the weekend to share information on similar attacks. He offered background and said the dogs were a “little bit neglected towards the end of this.” Stephens left the dogs with her father, and Blackwood said; “he wasn’t taking care of them – it wasn’t his responsibility.”
The dogs, who were indoor dogs, were moved out to the kennel where they stayed "in the cold." Blackwood said that with Stephens coming home maybe five times a week, the dogs became more isolated and only had contact with each other.
“We did hear from the medical examiner that Ms. Stephens was in her menstrual period,” Agnew said when asked, but he emphasized he doesn’t think “there is any way definitively that we can say what caused the attack.”
Toxicology report underway
The sheriff recommended that the dogs be put down and the family gave their permission. The dogs were euthanized at 11 a.m. Saturday. The animals are being preserved and the Attorney General’s office has offered to help them find a lab to run toxicology on the animals.
The toxicology report on Stephens will be complete in about 90 days.
“What I observed personally, it was in the community’s best interest,” Agnew said. “Once a dog tastes human flesh it is not safe to have that dog around humans.”
“Since this has happened, I spent a significant amount of time researching attacks by dogs of this sort and while it is not an everyday occurrence, it is not rare and it happens with some frequency in this country,” Agnew said. “I don’t want to disparage any particular breed, but if you do the research you will find that many of them are perpetuated by pit bulls.”
Pit bulls are not a specific breed of dog, but rather a term commonly used to describe certain terrier breeds.
Agnew did clarify his initial statement that the animals were “bred for fighting” and said that a friend originally told them the dogs were rescued from an organization that rehabilitated dogs previously used for fighting.
He said their organization opted for more transparency at Monday’s press conference “because the narrative on social media was so far off the mark.”
“The family is devastated, they are worn out,” Agnew said. “They are dealing with trying to piece everything together…they wish to remain private.”
Sheriff said outright that attacks like this are not common but also not rare, and most attacks are perpetrated by pit bulls. He also said that one source (from Bethany's friend) said the dogs were rescued from an organization that specifically rescued dogs bred for fighting.
I recommend watching the video in the second link.
Last edited by Celista; 2017-12-19 at 10:57 PM.
She looks like a bitch that probably babied her dogs too much, but could also be a bitch to them. She babied them enough to establish them as the Alpha over her, so when she was being bitchy and "get back here", probably gave one a slap and that was it.