Pit bull attacks three joggers and man who comes to their rescue

NORTH CAROLINA -- A pit bull attacked three women runners Saturday, seriously biting one woman twice.

Tonia Lambert, Cathy C. Starnes and Tracey Leary had jogged the Oakboro neighborhood before without incident. On Saturday, however, the run turned unexpectedly violent. As the trio arrived at the corner of Hurley Road and 8th Street, a 50-pound male pit bull charged them.

“Cathy said ‘keep moving, and he’ll leave us alone,’ ” Thomas said.

 That did not stop the 2-year-old dog from biting them.

“Even when we were atop a car, he didn’t leave us alone,” Thomas said.

 Thomas suffered the most severe bites, one to the right thigh and another on the calf, she said.
 Starnes also suffered a bite.

Leary was the only one to escape injury. She said she kept yelling “Stop!” Between her stern command and a pointed finger, the dog bounced back and forth long enough for her to find safety in a fenced yard.

“I’ve never been so scared in all my whole life,” Leary, 47, said.

“When we came around that corner he came right at us.”

Thomas, 27, and Starnes, 45, managed to climb on top a junked car. The dog kept charging them as he did Leary behind the fence.

They managed to flag down a town employee in a pickup truck. When he exited the truck, the dog charged, forcing him to leap into the bed of the vehicle for safety, Leary said.

Otherwise, nobody from any of the neighboring houses stepped outside to help.

“It amazed me that nobody heard anything,” Leary said.

The town employee called 911. An Oakboro police officer arrived on the scene armed with a shotgun. He fired into the air in hopes of scaring the dog away after he couldn’t get a clear shot to shoot the dog, police said.

Shortly thereafter, Animal Control arrived on the scene. When it appeared the dog was going to be shot, the dog’s owner ran from her house yelling “don’t shoot my dog,” Leary said.

The dog came to its owner when she called it, Leary said. She then carried the dog to the Animal Control truck, Leary said.

Thomas said her thigh bite is more bruising, but more painful than the calf wound that punctured the skin.

Doctors thought about stitches, but because dog bites typically lead to infections they decided against it, Thomas said.

Starnes’ bite is said to be a bruising injury.

Dennis Joyner, director of the Health Department that oversees Animal Control, said the owner has since surrendered the pit bull, which will be euthanized because of its aggressiveness.

“I hate that it has to come to that,” Thomas said.

“But if it later bit a child, that would be on my conscience.”

Surrendering the dog will not relieve the dog’s owners of civil penalty, Joyner said. The owner was fined $500 for having a dog run at-large that bit someone. Plus, there’s another $50 fine for violating the county’s restraint ordinance.

“People have to keep control of their animals,” Joyner said.

“I know it can be a challenge.”

Neither had the dog been vaccinated for rabies, Joyner said.

Before the dog is euthanized, Animal Control will monitor the dog’s behavior for the next 10 days per state law to determine if the animal displays evidence of rabies.

Thomas has opted to wait and see what the dog demonstrates, instead of choosing to undergo a series of painful vaccinations unnecessarily. 

(Stanly News & Press - ‎Feb 26, 2014‎)