The owners of the pit bulls that attacked a 70 year old man who was out for his evening walk last week in Monroe County have all posted bond.

Pretrials will be scheduled soon for the four who are all facing misdemeanor charges.

Under current West Virginia law, Monroe County Prosecuting Attorney Justin St. Clair says the dog owners cannot be charged with felony counts based on the current facts of the case.

"The situation appears to be that the owners were inside the house and, despite the breed of dog and complaints from the neighbors, were permitting the dogs to run at large and the dogs attacked a gentleman," St. Clair says.  "So, you don't really have intentional conduct here.  You have negligence or reckless disregard for the safety of others."

Seventy year old Lowell Bowden was out for his evening walk, close to his home near Lindside, when he was attacked by at least four of the pit bulls.  Five dogs were seized last week and four were euthanized.

As for Bowden, "His condition is critical and it's not very good," St. Clair says.  He has talked with Bowden's family members but says he is respecting their privacy by not saying more about Bowden's injuries.

A hunter or hunters came upon the attack and chased off the dogs last Friday. 

Without that intervention, St. Clair says the attack could have been worse.

"We don't know how long the dogs had been attacking Mr. Bowden.  We don't know if it was two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes.  We were just very fortunate someone came upon the attack in progress."  That witness helped get help for Bowden quickly and identified the dogs.

Charged as the owners of the dogs now are 51-year old Kimberly Blankenship and her son, 18-year old Justin Ray Blankenship, along with Mose Christian and Anna Hughes.

All four were arrested or turned themselves in earlier this week.  The charges against them include failure to register the dogs, harboring of vicious dogs and not having the required vaccinations for them.

More than two dozen misdemeanor charges have been filed in all.

St. Clair has sought advice from the Cabell County Prosecuting Attorney's Office which handled a case involving a little girl who was attacked by a pit bull several years ago.  He says he wants to make sure he has filed all of the possible charges.

"It's just a horrible situation," he says.