Man Dies at South Dakota Hot Dog Eating Contest

A Fourth of July sausage consuming challenge in western South Dakota turned unfortunate when a candidate stifled to death.

Walter Eagle Tail, 47, of Custer, passed on at a healing facility Thursday after endeavors to spare him at the scene fizzled, Custer County Sheriff Rick Wheeler told the Rapid City Journal.

"There was somebody doing CPR when we arrived," Wheeler said. "He likely simply suffocated. It got stopped in his throat and they (paramedics) couldn't get it out.

"Everything happened inside minutes," the sheriff said.

The Custer Chamber of Commerce, which supported the challenge, crossed out a pie-consuming challenge planned for Friday.

"We are speechless," Chamber Executive Director Dave Ressler said. "We are grieving for Walter and his family at this time."

Velocity consuming rivalries are well known over the Fourth of July weekend. Eight-time champion Joey "Jaws" Chestnut figured out how to consume 61 franks in 10 minutes at a yearly challenge in Coney Island, New York, on Friday — eight short of the record 69 he swallowed in the 2013 rival.

George Shea, director of Major League Eating, an aggressive consuming association situated in New York, said coordinators do whatever they can to avert losses throughout challenges, however his gathering had nothing to do with the South Dakota occasion.

"We generally verify its in a the earth," Shea said. "We sort out the whole thing around security. (In the same way that) in the event that its football or hockey or auto dashing, we approach it as a top necessity."

Burial service game plans were pending for Eagle Tail, whom companions depicted as a carefree, kind and minding man.

"Walter was simply being Walter, having a ton of fun when he participated in this challenge," said Ardis Mcrae. "He was simply having a decent time."