Elderly California woman, 78, has foot AMPUTATED after she and husband are attacked by neighbor's pitbull
ROCKY MOUNT, NORTH CAROLINA: An elderly couple is recuperating from a vicious pitbull attack that resulted in the woman losing one of her legs.
Bobby Joyner, 82, and Annie Joyner, 78, were out for a walk on Sunday, October 9, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, when they were attacked by the pitbull. Law enforcement responded to the scene and saw the dog attacking the couple. The responding officer was also bitten in the thigh before she fired her gun at the animal twice, hitting the dog, which was later seized by Rocky Mount Animal Control. Julie Proctor, who said the canine belonged to her grandson, was charged with having a dangerous animal run or running at large, rabies inoculation and failure to register. The dog was euthanized following the attack.
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Police said the dog was running loose, which is reportedly a violation of a city ordinance that Proctor was said to have disobeyed. The Joyners were rushed to ECU Health with severe but non-life-threatening injuries and the responding officer was also treated and released. However, Annie is still in the hospital after doctors had to amputate her foot and are now preparing to do skin grafts on other injuries from Sunday’s attack. “I heard my wife hollerin’, so I looked out and the dog had… [Ann] was laying on the ground, and he had already chewed on her foot. It was just terrible,” Joyner told CBS17.
The couple's daughter Melissa said she's still in shock after the ordeal. "I'm like kind of still in shock a little bit. I know my sister is too, but we're just going to be here with my parents as long as they need," she told WRAL. Melissa said she was seeking responsibility from the owner for the dog's actions. "I mean, I have dogs too, and we love dogs," she said. "So, in our eyes, it's really not the dog's fault. The owner needed to be more responsible."
A Rocky Mount couple is recovering after their neighbor’s pit bull attacked them, leaving Ann Joyner’s foot needing to be amputated.
— Keenan Willard (@KeenanWRAL) October 10, 2022
They say the dog wasn’t restrained and owner was irresponsible. But the owner’s family says they’re not to blame. @WRALhttps://t.co/u9M0bLNBAn pic.twitter.com/D2jB3L2nrR
The Joyners had been Proctor's neighbors for years prior to the attack. She claimed the dog had been leashed and harnessed in the yard before the attack. "He backed out of the harness somehow. I guess the adrenaline in him," Proctor told the outlet, "That's why they think he was not on his harness, but he wasn't." She added, "Being a pit bull, he was just very protective of his property and people, and I hate it more than anybody that it happened. They euthanized him. My grandson's very upset, but I didn't know what else to do."
Proctor was asked if she felt she was to blame for the attack. "No, not really because like I said, [the dog] was harnessed and leashed in his yard," she responded. Ann Joyner, the granddaughter of the alleged victims, set up a GoFundMe page to help cover medical expenses following the vicious episode. "The owner of the dog, well, they won't get help there and the expenses are adding up," Ann wrote, adding, "God bless u all."
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That said, the Joyners are the most recent victims of a pit bull attack. MEAWW previously reported how two children were killed when their family's two pit bulls, whom they had owned for eight years, attacked them and their mother without provocation. Two-year-old Lilly Bennard and five-month-old Hollace died in the vicious attack on October 5 in Memphis, Tennessee. Their mother Kirstie Bennard, 30, was left with life-threatening injuries and covered in bite marks. The two dogs were put down shortly after.