Lake Mary police said Chewy was attacked Monday in the Brabb family's front yard on Gehr Lane.
Neighbor Jackie Crawford heard the owner of the pit bulls, Kathy Hammond, screaming and watched as Hammond tried pulling her dogs off Chewy.
A neighbor called 911.
"There's a lady out here getting attacked by a bunch of dogs. She's screaming. There's blood. She's asking for help. I'm not going over there."
Chewy died in the attack.
A Seminole County deputy said he used his baton against the pit bulls, but the dogs then began approaching him.
"They were circling around him. I thought, 'You just need to shoot them,'" said Crawford.
He fired, killing two of the pit bulls. The third pit bull survived.
Brabb says Chewy did hold on until his daughter came home from school.
"When Chewy heard her voice, he kind of picked his head up a little. His breathing picked up. Within a minute it had stopped. He had passed. I think he was waiting for her to say goodbye," Brabb said.
Because the third dog is back home, the Brabb family remains uneasy. They said all of the dogs are aggressive, and that they have called animal control about them.
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| RIP Chewy |
"If my kids had been home, it could've been one of them," said . "I don't understand what has to happen for this to not happen again."
Hammonds declined to speak to Local 6. A relative of Hammonds said she was sorry and that her dogs hadn't acted aggressive before.
Animal services said a citation would be issued. Lake Mary police say it has answered eight complaints about the home since June.
Even now, the surviving dog cannot be declared vicious.
"Florida statutes require that the animal be involved in more than one attack before we can deem the dog dangerous," said Morgan Woodward with Seminole County Animal Services.
(WKMG - Jan 11, 2012)
