Fox Business anchor Jackie DeAngelis has filed a lawsuit against Whole Foods after a pit bull bit her inside a Manhattan store nearly three years ago, an attack her filing says left her with permanent scarring and limited use of her hand.
DeAngelis, 46, co-host of Fox Business's The Big Money Show, was shopping at the Whole Foods at 10 Columbus Circle in September 2023 when a black pit bull inside the store bit her on her left hand. The dog and its owner fled before NYPD officers reached the scene. DeAngelis later underwent hand surgery and now alleges the grocery chain failed to keep her safe by letting the animal inside in the first place.
Her lawsuit, filed August 20 in Manhattan Supreme Court, names Whole Foods as the sole defendant and seeks unspecified damages. The filing claims DeAngelis suffered "severe, serious and permanent personal injuries," including significant scarring, disfigurement, pain, suffering, and emotional distress. She has been left with limited hand mobility and an inability to perform certain tasks, the New York Post reported.
At the center of the case is a straightforward question: why was a pit bull roaming a grocery store? Whole Foods maintains a "No Pets" policy on its website, with an exception only for service animals. DeAngelis's lawsuit argues the dog was not a service animal and should never have been allowed inside.
The filing accuses Whole Foods of having "failed to reasonably enforce its own policies, practices and/or procedures concerning animals entering and remaining within the subject store." In plain terms, the company wrote the rule, posted the rule, and then, if the lawsuit's allegations hold up, did nothing when a customer walked in with a large, unleashed pit bull.
That gap between policy on paper and enforcement on the ground is the kind of institutional negligence that puts ordinary people at risk. DeAngelis was doing nothing more than buying groceries. She walked out with injuries that required surgery and, her filing says, will never fully heal.
Neither Whole Foods nor the NYPD has publicly commented on the lawsuit. The Daily Mail reported that it contacted Whole Foods, Fox Business, DeAngelis, and the NYPD for comment. No responses were included in the reporting.
NYPD officers responded to the Whole Foods location after the attack. But by the time they arrived, both the pit bull and its owner were gone. Police told the New York Post that a black pit bull had bitten DeAngelis on her left hand. The dog's owner has not been publicly identified, and no arrests have been reported in connection with the incident.
The owner's decision to leave the scene, with the animal that had just bitten someone, raises its own set of accountability questions that the lawsuit does not appear to address directly. DeAngelis's legal action targets Whole Foods, not the dog's owner, focusing squarely on the store's duty to enforce its own safety policies.
Fox Business has been navigating its own share of personnel turbulence in recent months. The network's parent company, Fox Corporation, recently struck a $22 billion deal to acquire Roku, a move that signals the company's broader ambitions beyond cable news.
DeAngelis is not a minor figure at Fox Business. She joined the network in April 2019 after spending 13 years at CNBC, where she served as chief energy correspondent and anchored an online commodities program. She co-hosts The Big Money Show alongside Taylor Riggs, Brian Brenberg, and Dagen McDowell.
Before entering journalism, DeAngelis graduated cum laude from Cornell University with a bachelor's degree in Asian studies and history and earned a Juris Doctor from Rutgers Law School. The combination of a law degree and a career spent covering markets suggests she understands exactly what her lawsuit needs to prove, and what Whole Foods will have to answer for in court.
Fox News has faced other high-profile personnel stories recently. Maria Bartiromo's lawyer disputed reports of her firing earlier this year, a reminder that the network's on-air talent frequently finds itself at the center of public attention for reasons that have nothing to do with the markets or politics they cover.
DeAngelis survived her encounter. Others have not been so fortunate. The broader statistics on dog attacks in the United States paint a grim picture, and pit bulls account for a disproportionate share of the most serious incidents.
Approximately 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year in the United States, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, roughly 800,000 require medical attention. The numbers are staggering, and they do not capture the full toll in surgical costs, lost wages, and lasting trauma.
The nonprofit organization Animals 24-7 recorded 84 dog-related deaths across the United States and Canada last year. Approximately 64 of those, more than three-quarters, involved pit bulls. That ratio has made the breed a flashpoint in debates over public safety and animal regulation. The United Kingdom has gone further than any American jurisdiction, banning five breeds outright: the Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, and XL Bully.
Recent fatal attacks underscore the stakes. Angel Rawlings, 22, was attacked by two pit bulls at her home in Bourbon, Missouri, on December 27, 2025. Emily Panuco, 27, of Parker, Arizona, was mauled to death while trying to shield her young son from three dogs during an attack in California. Panuco died protecting her child. These are not abstract statistics. They are people who encountered animals that should have been controlled, and were not.
Fox News itself has seen considerable internal change this year, including the departure of longtime anchor Maria Bartiromo amid leaked editorial guidance allegations, a separate story, but one that illustrates how much attention the network's personnel decisions attract.
The core failure alleged in DeAngelis's lawsuit is not complicated. Whole Foods says pets are not allowed in its stores. A pit bull was inside one of its stores. A customer got bitten. The dog's owner disappeared. And the customer, a working professional who was doing nothing wrong, now lives with permanent injuries.
Retailers across the country have struggled with the growing trend of customers bringing pets into stores, restaurants, and other public spaces, often claiming, without documentation, that the animals are service animals. Federal law under the Americans with Disabilities Act limits the questions businesses can ask about service animals, creating a gray zone that some pet owners exploit and that many businesses simply choose not to police.
DeAngelis's lawsuit puts the question squarely to Whole Foods: if you have a policy, what did you do to enforce it? And if the answer is nothing, then the policy is just words on a website, and the people who shop in your stores are left to fend for themselves.
The case is pending in Manhattan Supreme Court. No trial date has been reported, and the specific dollar amount DeAngelis is seeking has not been disclosed. The dog's owner remains unidentified. Meanwhile, DeAngelis continues to co-host The Big Money Show on Fox Business, covering markets and the economy while pursuing accountability for an attack that her own filing says changed her life permanently.
Celebrities and media figures alike have found themselves navigating unexpected personal crises in the public eye, Meghan Markle's reported acting return being just one recent example of a public figure forced to recalibrate after a difficult stretch.
When a grocery chain can't enforce its own pet policy and a dog owner can flee the scene without consequence, the system has failed the one person who did everything right. DeAngelis deserves her day in court, and shoppers everywhere deserve stores that take their own rules seriously.
