Man, 83, dies after 4 dogs attack him at his home
Resident of rural Morgan County was mauled by animals owned by a neighbor.

By John Tuohy, The Indianapolis Star

Multiple dog bites killed Boyd W. Fiscus, 83, on his rural Morgan County property, according to an autopsy Saturday. Fiscus' body was found about 8 p.m. Friday near a pond behind his home.

Sometime Friday, while his wife watered plants in the front yard of their home in the 12600 block of North Mann Road, south of Camby, Fiscus was attacked by four dogs owned by a neighbor, the Morgan County Sheriff's Department said Saturday.

On Saturday morning, an autopsy determined he died of multiple dog bites, according to the Sheriff's Department. Authorities sent the four dogs to a veterinary clinic in Indianapolis, at the owners' request, to be destroyed, deputies said.

In the rural, northern Morgan County neighborhood of secluded ranch homes tucked behind leafy trees, residents said pets regularly wander from one large yard to another.

"A lot of people have dogs here, and there is a lot of other wildlife, like coyotes, but no one's ever had a problem," said Donna Baker, 66. "If you don't want them around, you just shoo them away."

Police would not say what type of dogs mauled Fiscus, but neighbors described them as two mastiffs and two bulldogs.

Jim Baker, Donna Baker's husband, said that after Fiscus' wife had watered the plants and walked back to the house, she saw her husband's hat lying near the front door, shredded.

She called for her husband but got no answer. She sought the help of the next-door neighbor who owned the dogs, he said. The neighbor found Fiscus facedown near the pond in the back, his shirt torn open.

The Bakers said Fiscus often fed the dogs when they came onto his land. Authorities did not indicate what might have prompted the dog attack. ------------------------------------------------
You really never know what pet dogs are going to do. My youngest daughter and her husband own a 5-yr. old lab, usually just a big, loving sissy who thinks everyone is his friend. Their neighbors purchased a Jack Russell puppy and brought him over for them to see. The lab was standing by the puppy sniffing him, and the puppy became afraid and started barking. The lab bit him pretty good. Needless to say, they were stuck with some vet bills.

What a sad story. I have never really thought of mastiffs or bulldogs to be that aggressive. I have to wonder if they had been fed recently. It seems really odd for them to do that,especially to someone that would give them food on occassion. We have several Rotts living next door,and I was afraid of them for a while,even thought I am a huge dog lover. I started throwing treats to them on a pretty regular basis,and I can now reach over the fence and pet them and even get some big slobbery kisses!!! Again,I wonder if the dogs in this story were hungry and acted like a pack. Still doesn't make it right though,a well trained and good natured dog would obviously never do something like this.

My bet is Pit-bulls..
anyone else?

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PC=Public Cancer....and it's TERMINAL..IMO.

Could be. I recently saw on the news that Pits were named the number 1 most agressive dog,followed by Rotts(uh oh). I think German Shepards were number thress or four,which actually surprised me. I haven'tknown too many agressive ones,unless they were old,or had idiot owners that trained them that way. Beleive it or not,threw work,I know some very nice Pits,but I suppose it's wise to always use caution!!!

Two of them were pit bulls. One was a mastiff and the other was a border collie. In a new article in the paper today, these dogs had somewhat of a violent history. A couple of them had previously attacked a young girl in the neighborhood. Her parents were new to the neighborhood and did not want to get off on the wrong foot with the neighbors, so they did not report the attack to the police. The dogs had killed both chickens and sheep, and the son of the owners had told some neighborhood children that the family often did not have money to buy food for the dogs. So I guess this situation was just a time bomb waiting to go off. Not as out-of-the-ordinary as first report indicated. The owners have been arrested and charged with two separate counts, one for not having dogs on leash and one for lying about the history of the animals to police.

yeah that sucks. pits were bred for one reason.

one of the things that sucks about my job is having to deal with animals. and you can probably imagine the size of some of them. but the real bad ones are the ancle bitters that thing they are 200lbs. while the 200lbs are the ones that are real friendly.

not to long ago here at the humane society there was an english mastif that attacked an 80-some year old man after she gave birth. that was ugly.

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Yes, I know what you mean. I volunteer at our local animal shelter a couple hours each week, and you really learn a lot about animals and people--a lot more than I had known previously. Usually dogs that will attack humans are dogs that have been severely abused by humans, but pit bulls are an entirely different story. From what I have read about this particular news story, there has been nothing to indicate that these four dogs were ever abused by humans.

These dogs must have been hungry. A border collie is not know to be an agressice dog at all. I have yet to encounter an agressive one at work. If these dogs were eating livestock,that would definitely breed some agression. This is sad for all involved(except for the owners,how could you not know it would take a lot of money to feed dogs that size?!!!)