Gerald Adelmund, 60, of Rubidoux, was mauled to death by his own two pit bulls when he stepped into the backyard of his home to smoke on December 19, 2008. According to this news report in The Riverside Press-Enterprise, Riverside County Sheriff’s officials are calling it an “unfortunate accident.” The dogs are described as a 4-year-old, 107-pound male part pit bull part mastiff mix and a 6 year old, 52-pound female pit bull. Both dogs, as well as the female pit bull’s nine puppies, were euthanized soon after the attack.
Adelmund’s neighbors were shocked by this brutal dog attack. One of his neighbors said the dogs were always “mild-mannered” and that he even took his own dog to Adelmund’s house to play with the pit bull mastiff. Adelmund always kept the male pit bull in an enclosure surrounded by a 6-foot tall fence, says his neighbor, who called it a “random” attack. However, other neighbors say they have always been afraid of Adelmund’s pit bulls and describe the dogs as “vicious.” One neighbor said the pit bulls always growled and snapped at her through a chain-link fence that divides their property. Other neighbors said they did not even know about the pit bulls.
I do not believe that this fatal Riverside dog attack was a random one. Statistics compiled by Animal People magazine shows that pit bull breeds were responsible for 110 human deaths between 1982 and 2006. Second on that list were Rottweilers at 60 followed by German Shepherds at 14 and Huskies at 13.
This brutal Rubidoux dog attack was not an accident. These dogs were not running around the yard. They did not accidentally knock Adelmund down. The two dogs brutally and purposefully tore him apart. The news report has one neighbor saying he was not afraid of the dogs. Another neighbor says she was terrified and yet another says he did not even know there were pit bulls in his neighborhood. It seems to me that these types of pit bull attacks are more common when there is more than one pit bull. These dogs seem prone to act like a pack and egg each other on during an attack. This story, as well as the fatal human attack numbers attributed to pit bulls over the last 15 years, clearly show that you simply cannot trust a pit bull.
Sorry as I am for the dog owner and his family in this case, I should say I’m relieved that the victim here was not a neighbor or worse, a neighbor’s child. The pit bulls could have mauled one of his grandchildren who apparently lived with him! If you own a dog that attacks someone else, remember that you could be held liable for the injuries and/or fatalities caused by your dog. Our firm, on behalf of many clients, has gone after dog owners who we believe must be held financially responsible for causing injury to others because of their own negligence, denial and ignorance.