BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A southern Illinois man is dead after being attacked by his stepson’s pet dogs.

Stephen F. Pemberton Sr. was killed Wednesday after two pit bulls got out of a laundry room where they were being held and attacked him. St. Clair County sheriff’s deputies were called to the home in unincorporated Belleville where stepson Kelly Knaup told them the 61-year-old Pemberton had been mauled by his dogs. Authorities say Knaup’s wife and a health care worker was also in the house at the time of the attack. However, they were unable to intervene.

Officials said St. Clair County animal control officers took away the dogs, and they will be euthanized.