An elderly North Carolina couple recover together from a pit bull attack that resulted in the amputation of the woman’s leg.
Bobby Joyner, 82, and Annie Joyner, 78, were attacked while out for a walk in Rocky Mount, North Carolina on Sunday.
Officers were called to the scene and saw a pit bull attack the couple. The responding officer was also bitten on the thigh.
The officer then fired her gun twice, hitting the dog, which was taken into the care of Rocky Mount Animal Control.
The owner of the property where the attack took place is Julie Proctor, who said the dog belonged to her grandson. After the attack, Proctor said the dog was euthanized.
Authorities say the dog was roaming loose, in violation of a city ordinance that Proctor faces a subpoena for disobedience.
Annie Joyner (right), 78, and Bobby Joyner (left), 82, are recovering together in hospital after being attacked by a pit bull on Sunday
A Rocky Mount couple is recovering after their neighbor’s pit bull attacked them and Ann Joyner’s foot had to be amputated.
They say the dog was not restrained and the owner was irresponsible. But the owner’s family says it’s not their fault. @WRALhttps://t.co/u9M0bLNBAn pic.twitter.com/D2jB3L2nrR
— Keenan Willard (@KeenanWRAL) October 10, 2022
Annie Joyner lost a foot after the attack and requires skin grafts on her remaining foot. Bobby Joyner had to have an arm operation
The Joyners were taken to ECU Health with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The responding officer was also treated and fired.
Melissa Joyner, the couple’s daughter, said she was still in shock.
“I’m still kind of in shock. I know my sister is too, but we will only be with my parents for as long as they need,” she told WRAL News.
Melissa added that she expects the owner to be responsible for the dog’s behavior.
“I mean, I have dogs too, and we love dogs,” she said. “So in our eyes it really isn’t the dog’s fault. The owner had to be more responsible.’
Proctor and the Joyners had been neighbors for years prior to the attack.
Home in Rocky Mount, North Carolina where Sunday’s pit bull attack took place
Melissa Joyner, the couple’s daughter, said she was still in shock at the attack, which resulted in her mother losing a foot
A police officer who arrived at the scene on Sunday was also bitten on the thigh by the unruly dog
Proctor said the dog was leashed and harnessed in the yard before the attack.
‘He sort of backed out of the harness. I appreciate the adrenaline in him,” Proctor told the local outlet. “So they think he wasn’t on his harness, but he wasn’t.”
She continued, “As a pit bull, he was just very protective of his property and people, and I hate it more than anyone that it happened.”
“They put him to sleep. My grandson is very upset but I didn’t know what else to do.
When asked if she felt she had any to blame for the attack, Proctor said, “No, not really, because like I said, [the dog] was harnessed and leashed in his yard.’
The couple’s granddaughter, Ann Joyner, started a GoFundMe to support her grandparents’ medical costs following the vicious encounter.
“The dog’s owner (,) well (,) doesn’t get any help there and the expenses add up,” she wrote. ‘God bless you all.’
Mia and Cheech, the two pit bulls who fatally attacked two young children and abused their mother, have been euthanized. The family referred to their dogs as “house lions,” and it’s not known why they’ve been aggressive lately
Two-year-old Lilly Bennard and her five-month-old brother Hollace were killed on October 5 when the family’s two pit bulls attacked the children. Her mother, Kirstie, tried to fight off the dogs, but was seriously injured herself in the attack on her Memphis home
The Joyners are the latest victims of a series of attacks by pit bulls and two Dogo Argentinos that have either seriously injured or killed the victims.
On October 5, two children were killed when their family’s two pit bulls – who have owned them for eight years – attacked them and their mother.
Two-year-old Lilly Bennard and five-month-old Hollace died after the attack in Memphis, Tennessee.
Kirstie Bennard, 30, was seriously injured and was covered in bite marks.
The two dogs were euthanized.
On September 14, an 89-year-old woman was killed by her family’s two pit bulls in Golden, Colorado. Her 12-year-old grandson was also seriously injured.
Police officers tried to get the animals away from the woman with non-lethal shotguns but were unable to save her life.
Both animals were euthanized.
Finally, an 80-year-old Californian woman was killed by two Argentine hounds that attacked her while out walking in Baldy Mesa, a town in the Mojave Desert, last Friday morning.
The woman – Soon Han – was found dead on the street in the rural community of San Bernardino. The coroner said she “suffered serious injuries during the attack and was pronounced dead at the scene.”
The Dogo Argentinos breed of dog was first bred for big game hunting in Argentina almost a century ago. They were developed to hunt wild boar and pumas.
The breed is officially banned or has ownership restrictions in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the Cayman Islands.
A Dogo Argentino (pictured) killed an 80-year-old woman in California on Friday