FLORIDA -- A Sebring man is in critical condition at Tampa General Hospital after falling and striking his head Saturday when a dog attacked his poodle as he walked it.
The attack on the brown poodle belonging to 85-year-old Thomas Rivers Johnson Jr. of 1513 Ho-Ti-Yee Ave. happened on the sidewalk in front of a home at 1327 Ho-Ti-Yee Ave. shortly before 7:20 p.m. Saturday, according to a report city police Officer Tommy Haralson filed.
Haralson found Johnson's poodle dead in the front yard of 1317 Ho-Ti-Yee Ave.
Kyle Kinnaman witnessed the attack as he was skating across the street and said a black dog that appeared to be a Rottweiler ran north from Lakeview Avenue and attacked Johnson's dog as Johnson walked the poodle on a leash south on Ho-Ti-Yee Avenue, Haralson reported.
Johnson, who has only one arm, "pulled on the leash … and tried to pick (the poodle) up to protect it from the Rottweiler," Kinnaman told the officer.
Johnson was unable to clutch his dog "before the Rottweiler attacked the poodle in mid-air" and pulled it "away from (Johnson) and began to shake it violently, killing the poodle," Haralson wrote.
At this point, Johnson "lost control of the leash and … fell to the ground," Haralson wrote.
"Kinnaman said the last time he saw the Rottweiler, it was running away toward Lakeview Drive and turned left (headed east) going toward town."
Johnson was taken to Highlands Regional Medical Center, then to Tampa General Hospital.
Kinnaman, Johnson's neighbor Dale Poston, and two others who were walking nearby said they hadn't seen the dog in the area before. Haralson searched for the dog and couldn't find it. On Monday, the officer notified Highlands County Animal Control and sent it a copy of his report.
(Highlands Today - July 20, 2011)
