No breed type other than pit bulls suspected
ACERRA, Italy; ENTWISTLE, Alberta; ANTONITO, Colorado; WICHITA, Kansas; CAPE CORAL, Florida––Denialists could find many excuses for the pit bulls believed to have killed two infants, two troubled women, and a 57-year-old man in recent attacks, including denial that pit bulls were even involved.
Be that as it may, the known U.S. dog attack body count in 2025 is up to 11, plus two more abroad, in eight weeks through February 23, with no other dog type suspected.
Pit bull advocates rise to the defense before pits are accused
Pit bull advocates quickly rose to defend pit bulls after several of the fatalities were disclosed, even as police cautiously held back from identifying the dog breeds responsible for the deaths while describing pit bull physiques and behavior.
Neighbor statements and in one case a photograph put pit bulls at the scenes of the deaths.
Dogs of other breeds were quickly named as perhaps having roles in the mayhem. But the probable presence of a pit bull, officially acknowledged or not, was the common denominator.
“Francesca Giulia”
The first victim in the string, a nine-month-old baby girl in Acerra, Italy, was named in news reports as both “Francesca” and “Giulia,” suggesting her full name may have been “Francesca Giulia.”
Her father, a bartender who was at home with “Francesca Giulia” while her mother worked at a pizzeria, told police he fell asleep on a couch, but awakened at about 10:30 p.m. to find the baby in her blood-soaked bed, having suffered severe head and facial injuries.
“The tragedy could have been avoided, according to the residents of the neighborhood,” reported the newspaper L’Unione Sarda. “According to what they say, the pit bull escaped from the apartment last summer and attacked another dog who was walking in the neighborhood in the company of a dog sitter.
“Everyone said that the owner should put the pit bull down, but the owners didn’t understand that the dog could hurt people, especially children, including their little girl.”
Parallels to Kingsley Renee Wright case
The death of “Francesca Giulia” came only four days after Warren Houston, 45, was on February 11, 2025 indicted by a Hamilton County, Ohio grand jury for involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, and endangering children in an at least superficially parallel case.
Houston’s three pit bulls on December 27, 2024 killed his biological daughter, three-year-old Kingsley Renee Wright, on her first overnight visit to his home in the Roselawn district on the north side of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Houston claimed he was asleep in an adjoining room, with the pit bulls in cages they somehow got out of and then got back into before he found his daughter’s remains about eight hours after her death.
(See Pit bull victim Kingsley Wright, age 3, was 70th dog attack death of 2024 and Cincinnati pit bull death indictment; owners guilty in Circleville pit death case.)
Francesco Pio
Within Italy, the pit bull attack death of “Francesca Giulia” recalled the April 22, 2024 death of 13-month-old Francesco Pio in Campolongo, identified by L’Unione Sarda as “a hamlet of Eboli in the Salerno area.”
Five adults are reportedly under investigation in connection with Pio’s death, including the two owners of the pit bulls, his two uncles, and his mother, who was injured trying to save her son.
Whistle stop case
A 14-month-old boy who has not been identified was killed on February 17, 2025 by “a medium-sized dog” who has also not been identified, in Entwistle, Alberta, literally a former railway whistle stop, population 425, about 63 miles west of Edmonton.
“Mounties confirmed there were three adults and the baby living in the home when the attack happened,” reported Craig Ellingson for the CBC.
“They would not confirm if the baby’s parents owned the dog, or if the third adult did, but said the animal was surrendered to authorities.
“Constable Julie-Ann Strilaiff said officers were looking at the health of the dog and not considering criminal charges,” Ellingson continued.
Breed identity
“Once the dog has an examination, we can have more determination about what specific breed it is,” Strilaiff told Ellingson.
“She added that the newborn was the only child in the home, and the dog was the family pet,” Ellingson said.
Note that official alleged uncertainty about dog breeds tends to involve only the many variants of pit bull. In the 43 years that ANIMALS 24-7 has logged fatal and disfiguring dog attacks, there has never been any dispute or hesitancy on the part of authorities to identify any other type of dog.
Franklin Anthony Baca
Franklin Anthony Baca, 57, of remote Antonito, Colorado, was found dead in a ditch on the morning of February 19, 2025.
According to Rob Lowe, strategic communications director for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, “Lacerations from possible dog bites were observed on the victim’s body. Investigators are exploring several possibilities surrounding the man’s death, including the possibility of an animal attack.
“Two dogs are being considered as possible factors: a neighbor’s pit bull and the victim’s own dog, a Labrador mix,” believed to be a pit bull mix.
A probable scenario is that Baca intervened in a fight between the two dogs.
(Crawford County Sheriff’s Office photo)
Moeshae Thomas
This also appears to be what happened to Moeshae Thomas, 40, owner of two pit bulls, on the evening of February 22, 2025 in Wichita, Kansas.
Found by police in “extremely critical condition,” reported Kara Nixon for KWCH television news, Thomas died soon afterward.
“The Wichita Police Department said, based on the investigation, there were two pit bulls inside the home fighting. Both pit bulls were family dogs. Thomas attempted to break up the dogs when she was attacked,” recounted Nixon.
Moeshae Thomas, according to her booking record, spent most of the last seven years of her life in jail.
Picked up on a warrant on November 27, 2017, Moeshae Thomas was charged on October 30, 2018 with a variety of drug-related offenses including possession of opium and other opiates, as well as possession of stolen property worth less than $1,000.
Moeshae Thomas was then booked at least eight times for further alleged offenses while still in custody, and was then booked again for an alleged probation violation on March 1, 2024.
Areles Llanes
Moeshae Thomas’ death recalled that of Areles Llanes, 58, found on January 13, 2025 by her brother Alejandro Llanes in her Cape Coral, Florida back yard.
Areles Llanes’ decomposed remains had been dismembered by her three dogs, identified as “a shepherd mix, a Labrador retriever and an unknown breed” by Becca Longmyre of WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, Florida.
The dogs had reportedly separated Areles Llanes’ arms and legs from her torso.
A photograph identified at least one of the dogs as a pit bull.
Theorized Alejandro Llanes, “She was not living a healthy life. Drinking a lot of wine, not eating properly. She probably collapsed in the backyard, and after, like, a week, those dogs — they were hungry. They’re animals. They need to survive, so they just started eating her.”
Was Areles Llanes also trying to break up a dogfight?
That seems to be a reasonable hypothesis, but the condition of her body left a precise identification of her cause of death unlikely.
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