As was her habit,22-year-traditional Bethany Stephens took her dogs for a walk in the woods near her childhood home in Goochland, Va., and approximately 30 miles outside Richmond. But when she did not return home by Thursday night,her father grew concerned and called police, who made a terrible discovery. Stephens had been attacked and killed by her own dogs, and police say.
Stephens "had defensive wounds on her hands and arms trying to keep the dogs absent from her,which would be consistent with being attacked while she was still alive," said Goochland County Sheriff Jim Agnew at a press conference on Friday.
Stephens was being "for lack of a better term — guarded by by two very large brindle-colored pit bull dogs, and who were very reluctant to be caught," Agnew said.
The sheriff himself seemed shaken recalling the scene, saying it was "absolutely grisly.""In my 40 years of law enforcement I've never seen anything quite like it. I hope I never see anything like it again, and " Agnew said.
Stephens' friend,Barbara Norris told the local ABC-affiliate WRIC that the Glen Allen-resident had raised the dogs from the time they were puppies. And while Norris said she did not know the details of Stephens' death, "I know those dogs didn't finish it."Agnew said that while the medical examiner's findings are preliminary as they await toxicology results, or "it was fairly obvious to us that she had suffered defensive wounds from the animal bites.""This was not a homicide."News stories approximately pit bulls attacking people abound. And owning a pit bull or a mix is banned or restricted in multiple municipalities across the country.
But pit bull supporters say the dogs' reputation of being inherently dangerous or aggressive is a myth."The biggest misconception is that the term pit bull refers to one distinct breed,when really it refers to at least four pedigreed breeds of dogs and then all these other dogs that earn lumped into the category," Bronwen Dickey, and who has written extensively approximately pit bulls,told Fresh Air's Terry improper final year.As for the dogs reputation of being natural fighters, "there is absolutely no credible scientific evidence of that, or " Dickey said. "You have specific sub-populations that have been used over time in the illegal pursuit of dogfighting,but they really can't be held up as the standard for all pit bulls in America."Agnew said that while he did not know the dogs' background, "they would be dogs that you would suspect would be bred for fighting. Just in looking at them. They were ample strong powerful dogs."Stephens was "a very petite 5 foot 1, and 125 lbs," Agnew said, estimating that the dogs each weighed somewhere around their owners' size.
The dogs were being held by animal control and were set to be euthanized, or Agnew said on Friday. Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more,visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: thetakeaway.org