Racheal Honabarger, thirty five year old wife, and mother of two was killed by the family's 3 year old German Shepherd. The attack took place April 30th, she died on May 2nd.
A neighbor driving past the home noticed the attack in progress, pulled the dog off her, started first aid and called for medical assistance. Honabarger was flown to Grant Hospital in Columbus where she died of her injuries. The dog was euthanized and tested for rabies, test results were negative.
Racheal Honabarger
Coshocton County Dog Warden Russell Dreher stated “The investigation is complete,” “It's a very unfortunate accident." Dreher says for some unknown reason, the family's 104-pound German Shepherd attacked the 35-year-old mother of two in the yard of her home on Country Road 23. "It was a scene of controlled chaos at the first. There was a neighbor on the scene that advised us what had happened,” Dreher said. The warden says that neighbor just so happened to be driving by -- right after the initial attack -- and saw Honabarger in trouble. The warden says as the neighbor approached to help the victim, the dog began attacking her again.
The neighbor was able to somehow pull the dog from the victim and secure it in its kennel.
County Dog Warden Dreher said they had no history with the dog but John Speaks, a neighbor, stated of the dog "He's always been very aggressive but he would never go beyond the road he guarded the yard and the house" .
Since the passage of HB 14 last year Ohio has had four dog mauling deaths. The law that was promoted as "finally giving dog wardens the tools to deal with vicious dogs" has failed again. It should be noted that Ohio had a dog mauling death in 2005, Ernie Assad and another in 2010, Michael Winters. With four mauling deaths in a year, HB 14 is an epic fail.
