Sherry Schweder worried about a group of mixed-breed dogs she saw wandering near her home, a pack that authorities say mauled her and her husband to death along a rural road in northeast Georgia.
The 65-year-old animal lover was taking an evening stroll last week when she was attacked by the feral dogs, authorities believe. Her husband, Lothar Schweder, a retired professor, fell victim to the pack when he went out looking for her.A shredded piece of shirt, some strands of hair and bloodstained dirt were all that remained Tuesday where the couple was killed. Paramedics who came to the grisly scene Saturday morning found the suspected attackers standing guard. While it's unclear exactly what happened because there were no witnesses, officials have rounded up 16 dogs they believe were involved.
Schweder had told one of her sons that no one seemed to be caring for the dogs, said Jim Fullington, special agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Experts say the attack is extremely rare — so rare "you are more likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning than by a dog," said Adam Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States.
The dogs didn't belong to anyone, but a man who owns a house at the end of the road had been feeding them, said Oglethorpe County sheriff's Capt. Shalon Huff. The man told authorities the dogs never behaved aggressively toward him, and he did not believe the dogs had killed the couple.
The good news for Pit Bull owners is that these dogs were not Pit Bulls, but dogs that appear to be a motley cross of mixed-breed Shepherds and Dobermans.
The suggestion that these dogs were "feral" or "wild" does not appear to be true. In fact the owner of the dogs, Howard Thaxton, had moved away from his home about a month ago due to medical problems. He left the dogs behind, and a neighbor, Lanier Bridges, fed the dogs. The remains of the deceased, for the record, were found on "Howard Thaxton Road."
The owner of the dogs, of course, denies his dogs could have done this. "Must have been coyotes.'
Right.
Coyotes. Maybe it was even a "mountain lion."
Right.
Coyotes. Maybe it was even a "mountain lion."
.
4 comments:
What a horrific thing.
The dog at the top picture actually looks like a Beauceron. Some of the black & rusts really do look like Dobes.
Either way, breeds aside, elegy said it: this is really horrific. And the sad thing is, they'll probably never really piece together what happened, and the dogs will be destroyed.
Whatever happened to the pack of feral dogs that attacked you (you mentioned it in your Cesar Milan post)?
Not mountain lions.
Not dogs.
Not coyotes.
This was Georgia--
Must be sasquatch.
Remember that's where some people found one. It turned out to be a Halloween costume with some chitlins placed on top of it. But who is to say that it wasn't real. It was just a government ploy to make you think that it was a Halloween costume. That's just what the government does when it doesn't want you to know-- it lies.
No way those dogs did it.
Dobermann/Shepherd dogs wouldn't hurt a fly!
-- Rusty Shackleford
All I can say is dogs are animals and I think so many people forget that. No matter what breed they are they are still animals and will behave in that way. I got bit by a dog and there is nothing like it.Especially when people can care less about what happens to you to protect their precious animals. I almost lost my leg from it and could have lost my life.I feel really sorry for this couple. This was a painful death. A death they didn't deserve.
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