Man Mauled to Death by Pack of Dogs, Family Claims

A man from Montana who was found dead on Sunday was killed by a pack of dogs , according to his family.

Duke Little Whirlwind, 58, was found just before noon on Sunday on a dirt road near his home in the Northern Cheyenne Reservation of Lame Deer in Rosebud County.

His niece, Avalee Little Whirlwind, told KRTV that her uncle had ventured out at 11 a.m. that morning to fetch a bicycle that he had repaired. He never returned home and his body was discovered soon after by a neighbor.

Avalee told the news outlet that all signs point to her uncle falling victim to a pack of dogs .

She said that her brother saw Duke's body and claimed "all of his clothes" had been "ripped off." He was found lying "face down" while "those dogs were still running around."

"There's no other reason for him to be laying there in his blood," she said. "The coroner said he was really torn up."

Authorities arriving on the scene had Duke's body transported by the Rosebud County coroner to Forsyth late Sunday evening.

His remains have since been transferred to the state crime lab in Billings where an autopsy will be conducted.

No official cause of death has been released.

Avalee is adamant her uncle died as a result of a dog attack though and told the news outlet incidents of this kind have become "a very big problem" in the town.

"People walk around with scars on them," she said. "There's been near-death experiences."

Tom MexicanCheyenne, a Lame Deer resident of some 40 years, backed up Avalee's claims, telling KRTV that these kinds of attacks happen "all the time."

He claimed that though the incidents are reported to the local Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Police , "nothing ever gets done."

"They say it isn't their responsibility," MexicanCheyenne said.

Avalee later challenged BIA over their perceived lack of action and threatened to "shoot these dogs myself" in a warning that resulted in her being put in handcuffs, though she was eventually let go.

Since then, she confirmed that the owners of the four dogs alleged to have been responsible for the killing have been shot dead by their owners.

Avalee was reportedly shown the spot where they were killed and subsequently took pictures of the dogs that were shot dead.

"They took them out of town and shot them, four of them, because those dogs had blood on them and they knew those dogs had a part in it," she said.

Newsweek has contacted the BIA for comment.

The violent incident is the latest involving a dog in the U.S.

In November, a North Carolina man shot dead two of his neighbor's dogs after he claimed they attacked his daughter and granddaughte r.

Prior to that, in October a 7-year-old Oklahoma boy was mauled to death in his backyard by a dog his family had rescued just three weeks earlier .