Women charged for the wrongful death of a neighbor

A mother and daughter face criminal charges after their vicious pit bulls mauled their elderly neighbor to death. The 75-year-old woman who lived next door to the pit bull owners went out one morning to grab a newspaper when the dogs appeared in her backyard. The dogs proceeded to attack the woman and severely maul her. The woman was hospitalized for six months after this horrible dog attack and eventually died from her injuries.

Authorities say that the 20-year-old woman and her 39-year-old mother were aware that their dogs were capable of breaking loose from their yard. The dogs had escaped before and attacked a man who was walking a puppy. The man suffered bite injuries in that attack and the puppy sustained a broken jaw.

This situation turned into a criminal matter for the pit bull owners and will likely involve a wrongful death lawsuit. A wrongful death suit is a way to hold negligent dog owners for deadly attacks. In this case, the funds from the wrongful death lawsuit will never bring back the victim, but the funds can help the husband pay for the massive amounts of medical bills that this attack must have generated.

Additionally, a wrongful death action can compensate surviving family members for the pain and suffering they endured in connection with a dog attack. It is unthinkable what the elderly woman’s longtime husband went through seeing his wife struggle for a half year. The woman had both of her legs amputated and one arm amputated before she died. Each of these procedures must have been heart wrenching for the woman and her husband, and highly expensive.

“They deserve the most they can get, even manslaughter,” the woman’s husband said about the criminal charges against the dog owners. “That’s not going to pay for what my wife went through. She suffered so much.”

Source: 10News, “More Charges For Dog Owners In Fatal Mauling Of Elderly Woman,” Jan. 18, 2012