The pit bull mauling deaths of Georgia senior citizens Walter Anthony "Tony" Sterno, 78, and Evelyn Farmer, 68, on November 3, 2025 and November 11, 2025 respectively, ran the U.S. dog attack death toll to seventy and the pit bull attack death toll to 54.

That makes 2025 the third consecutive year in which dog attack deaths have reached seventy and the fourth straight year in which pit bull attack deaths have exceeded fifty.

The U.S. record for dog attack deaths in one year stands at 75, reached in 2024; the record for pit bull attack deaths at 59, reached in 2023. The respective tolls, tracked by ANIMALS 24-7 since 1982 and retroactively back to 1833, had never reached even half as high before 2010, and had never reached ten and five before 2000.

Tried to break up fight

Farmer, the most recent victim, was mauled by four of seven pit bulls belonging to her family, Muscogee County coroner Buddy Bryan told media.

Reported Columbus television station WTVM, "The attack happened inside the home when the dogs began fighting and Farmer tried to break them up, Bryan said. The dogs then turned on Farmer.

"Farmer's granddaughter," believed to be Haliey McCook, who reportedly lived at the same address, "came home to find the dogs still attacking Farmer and called 911, according to Bryan."

All seven pit bulls were impounded.

Several of the pit bulls may have been inherited from Farmer's son James Robert "Bud" Bullington, a dog rescuer known to have kept pit bulls, who died on July 10, 2025.

Man killed, woman critically injured

The fatal pit bull attack on Walter Anthony "Tony" Sterno, in Townsend, Georgia, eight days earlier and 250 miles east, was disclosed the next day by a McIntosh County Sheriff's Office media release.

"In the early morning hours of November 3, 2025," the media release began, "McIntosh County deputies and Emergency Services were dispatched" in response to a caller "reported that she and an adult male were actively being attacked by two dogs within their residence.

"Upon arrival, deputies and medical staff discovered a deceased male and a severely injured female, both located upstairs in the residence. The injured female was provided life saving measures before being transported to the Southeast Georgia Health System in Brunswick for emergency medical treatment."

Both pit bulls were impounded and later euthanized by McIntosh County Animal Control.

No information was released about the identity of the injured female.

Sterno, widowed by the January 30, 2024 death of his wife Vicki Atwood Sterno, was reportedly a retired Bass Pro Shop employee and former gun dealer.

Alabama victim still critical

81-year-old Jamie Boyd, mauled by seven pit bulls on September 24, 2025 while walking to his mailbox in Bibb County, Alabama, was at most recent report still in critical condition.

His wife, Martha Boyd, "witnessed the attack and tried to help, despite being on a walker," reported Josh Gauntt of WBRC television news in Birmingham.

Martha Boyd "tried to make her way to her husband and fell. The dogs began toward her, but by that point, Brent police chief Carl McMillan was already on the scene and fired a shot that caused the dogs to retreat into the woods," elaborated Carol Robinson for AL.com.

As of October 21, 2025, Boyd's attorney, Paul Patterson, told Gauntt, "He is facing amputation of his arm and potentially leg in order to stop an infection that is out of control."

Neighbors William Brad Mitchell, 53, and Lacey Suttle Mitchell, 50, the owners of the pit bulls who attacked Boyd, were on October 20, 2025 indicted by a Bibb County grand jury "on a felony charge under Alabama's Dangerous Dog Procedure Act - commonly known as Emily's Law," summarized Carol Robinson. Both Mitchells pleaded not guilty.

Emily's Law is named for Emily Mae Colvin, 24, fatally mauled by a pit bull on December 7, 2017 in Section, Alabama.

"I think the legislature really needs to take another look at Emily's Law to make it a little more punitive on people who have a reckless disregard for the safety of others when they own these types of dogs," said attorney Patterson. "If a court has not declared the dog vicious previously, then the punishment is - - in my opinion - - not as severe as it should be."

The Boyd family has also filed a civil lawsuit against the Mitchells.