The Ponte Vedra Beach couple who were attacked by a pack of dogs last Friday are using private investigators and a reward to help find their owner.
Tim and Joyce Hayes were with their nine-month old Papillon on a stretch of beach near their Turtle Shores home when three unleashed dogs — believed to be pitbull mixes — went on the attack.
Tim suffered lacerations across the side of his face and his traumatized pooch, Rocky, would ultimately have a hind leg amputated due to his injuries.
“We decided that because the owner has not come forward voluntarily that we needed to do a more extensive search with the St. Johns County Sheriff and their investigative division, along with our lawyers and private investigators,” Hayes told The Citizen.
The owner, he said, was a white woman of average height and build in her forties.
Tim’s wife, Joyce, tried to obtain her information after the afternoon assault, but she hurriedly left the beach along with the three pitbull mixes, an American bulldog and a longhaired chihuahua.
“Our primary motivation for posting a reward and expanding the search for this individual and the dogs is to ensure that they’re not a danger to anyone else on the beach. Other small dogs, possibly children, etc.,” Hayes said.
The couple have lived in their home for 24 years and are regulars at the beach. They said they had never encountered the woman or her dogs before last Friday, and that she may have been visiting the area from elsewhere.
The couple brought Rocky home after the amputation and he has been acclimating himself to life on three legs.
