Tennessee man adopts Rottweiler, then gets mauled to death hours later
JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities say a Tennessee man was killed by a Rottweiler that he had adopted just hours earlier.
Multiple news organizations report 57-year-old Anthony Riggs' wife called deputies Thursday afternoon upon returning home and finding her husband unresponsive on the floor around 3:30 p.m.
"The husband was all chewed up," Madison County Sheriff's Dept. spokesman Tom Mapes told The Huffington Post. "There was blood everywhere. The sheriff's report said [Riggs] was found 'mortally wounded on the floor from the dog attack.'"
Sheriff's deputies shot the 5-year-old dog after it ran out of the house.
The Madison County Sheriff's Office says Riggs had adopted the Rottweiler earlier that morning around 10:30 a.m. from Jackson-Madison County Rabies Control, the county-run animal control facility.
Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department Director Kim Tedford said the dog had been a stray, and was picked up five days before being adopted. Tedford said the dog will be autopsied. She said it showed no signs of aggression while at Rabies Control.
Jackson is about 90 miles northeast of Memphis.