VALDOSTA —
VALDOSTA — A woman died Thursday afternoon after being attacked by her neighbor’s pit bull.
Shortly after 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Misti Wyno, 40, was reportedly visiting her neighbors’ 4686 Mount Zion Road residence to borrow some grits, according to reports.
The neighbors’ male pit bull either broke its chain or was unchained and attacked Wyno.
She was bitten severely about her legs, arms and head, said Walter Wacter, Lowndes County deputy coroner.
At 12:45 p.m., deputies and emergency-medical technicians were called to the Mount Zion Road scene, said Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine. They discovered a severely injured Wyno and the dog’s owner restraining the male pit bull.
Wyno was transported to South Georgia Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 1:54 p.m., Wacter said. Her body will be sent today to the State Crime Lab in Macon for an autopsy.
Authorities did not release the names of the dog’s owners Thursday evening but did say that the family owned the male pit bull and a female pit bull. Lowndes County Animal Control took both dogs into custody, the sheriff said. Both dogs will be destroyed, he added.
Lowndes County Manager Joe Pritchard confirmed that the same owners of the male pit bull had a complaint filed by a neighbor concerning a female pit bull earlier this year.
A neighbor’s young son had entered the yard uninvited and tried to pull a newborn puppy from the dog. The dog bit the boy once on the cheek. The dog was quarantined for a month at the Animal Shelter and determined not to be a threat.
The dog involved in Thursday’s attack was not the same pit bull.
However, Pritchard said the dog’s owners are distraught and asked the county’s shelter director, Linda Patelski, to put both the male and female pit bulls down Thursday afternoon.
Jimmy Watkins, a neighbor, said he has contacted animal control regarding pit bulls on Mount Zion Road. “I told them three years ago that dog would hurt somebody,” Watkins said.
Sheriff’s investigators are working the case, Prine said.
“We’re trying to determine what went wrong and why, and who was responsible,” the sheriff said. “Charges could be forthcoming.”
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