"He ate my dog. I'm just glad it wasn't my daughter"

[from the video clip: "You't think it was an overreaction, that .380 on Andy Webb's belt. But then you hear that snarl, only slats of weathered wood stand between you and that snarl, that barking..."]

NORTH CAROLINA -- A Fayetteville family said its pet beagle was attacked and eaten by three pit bulls in a neighbor's yard Thursday evening.

Graham Webb got Jack a few weeks ago as a present for his 10th birthday. He called the puppy "my special-ist birthday present in my whole life."

 

Jack was in the family's back yard Thursday while the family was out and somehow got into the neighbor's yard. Andy Webb, Graham's father, said Friday that he thinks a neighbor's pit bull pulled the puppy through a hole in the fence.

Once Jack was in the adjacent yard, a witness said, two other pit bulls joined in the attack and devoured it.

Andy Webb said the family searched for Jack when they got home, only to learn about the puppy's horrific fate.

"We're going up and down the road looking for our dog, which has already been eaten by him," he said.

A Cumberland County Animal Control officer said there's no proof that the pit bull yanked Jack through the fence. In this case, he said, it appears the beagle was the stray.

Animal Control officials said that, because the pit bull was in its own yard and wasn't aggressive toward a person, they cannot take custody of it.

Dave Perschbacher, the pit bull's owner, is out of town, but he left a message on Webb's cellphone to apologize and assure him he would take care of the situation.

"This is a dog that needs to be watched, obviously. The dog needs to be put down, frankly," said Webb, who carried a .380-caliber handgun in his back yard Friday as the pit bull barked and growled at him from the other side of a weathered wood fence.

"I got four kids, and they're home-schooled, and this is their play area," he said. "He ate my dog. I'm just glad it wasn't my daughter."

(WRAL - Sept 27, 2013)