Local authorities in Arkadelphia verified the man who was discovered dead outside his house at 1030 Evergreen Drive early last Wednesday morning had been viciously attacked by his own pit bulldog.
When tthe Arkadelphia Police Department and ambulance workers arrived at the Evergreen Drive address at 7:20 a.m. on July 3 in response to a 911 call from a female, they found the corpse of 41-year-old Johnny Clint Fontenot lying in the driveway.
According to an APD press statement, "it was determined that the deceased victim had been attacked during the night."
The dog turned out to be a Bully XL, a pit bull kind that was designed to be larger in stature than its more popular version.
When police arrived at the location, they discovered the dog had been shut inside the house by other at the scene inside. The male pit had been neutered, but the city's Animal Control Department did not have him an active registration for the animal.
At the scene, authorities took possession of the canine and took it to the local pound. Its immunization records were verified to be current.
The family requested that the dog be put to sleep, and a court decree supported their decision.
Police said there were no known incident reports or complaints of dog bites from the residence in the past.
The death of Fontenot, and the killing of a 52-year-old homeless man in Fresno, California on the Fourth o f July brngs the total number of reported dog bite-related deaths in the United States in 2024 to forty-nine with victims ranging in age from six weeks to 83 years old.
Of those attacks, twenty involved either pit bulls or pit bull mixed breeds.
Comments