Deputy opens up about vicious pit bull attack in South Carolina

The owner of three pit bulls, who brutally abused a South Carolina woman and left her without arms, once told police that “once a dog tastes blood, that’s it” after some of them killed his chickens, according to witnesses at one preliminary hearing in the case Thursday.

Abbeville County Sheriff’s Investigator Lt. Jeffrey Hines, also revealed in the new testimony that dogs belonging to Justin Minor, 36, also attacked someone else on Christmas Eve.

The deputy shared the details the same day he reported in court about the “cruel” pit bull attack on Kyleen Waltman, 39, off Minor’s property northwest of Columbia last month, according to WYFF 4.

“She had bites from the top of her head to the soles of her feet, including her entire body,” Hines told the court. “It was one of the most horrific animal attacks I’ve ever seen in my career.”

Body shots showed Waltman being carried on a stretcher with “her entire triceps removed and nothing but the bone on her left arm,” Hines said, according to the outlet.

A farmer witnessed the final end of the attack and was almost attacked himself as he got off his tractor to help Waltman, Hines reportedly testified. The dogs eventually dispersed when the Good Samaritan fired a gun to startle them, according to investigators.

Hines reportedly testified that Minor’s property was not fenced and his many dogs roamed freely in the area. Animal control officials had previously confiscated 11 dogs from his land, the article said.

Hines also testified that Minor had told cops he wanted to put his dogs to sleep after they killed his chickens, saying, “‘One time a dog tastes blood, that’s it,'” but his wife thought they could be trained according to the local outlet.

The lieutenant added that a neighbor told investigators he was afraid to go outside because Minor told him “those dogs are going to bite anyone.”

Local dispatchers also reported an earlier attack on a person by underage dogs on Christmas Eve, Hines reportedly testified.

“No connection has been made as to whether they were the same dogs from the Christmas Eve incident,” defense attorney Charles Gross said, according to the article.

“Although this is a tragic situation, it does not necessarily mean it is a criminal situation and I would just ask everyone to remember the presumption of innocence,” Gross said.

The judge ruled that there were enough probable grounds in the case to go to court, the broadcaster reported.

Minor is charged with three counts of possessing dangerous animals, assaulting a human, committing a rabies injury and letting dangerous animals off his property unhindered.