The 90-pound old English sheepdog has no interest in conquering the Empire of Leesburg or its far-flung principalities. He just wants to strut along the sidewalks with the Cleopatra of his heart, Pamela Donahey.
And that's precisely what he was doing on a quiet Sunday night two weeks ago when a dog bolted from a yard and attacked him.
Donahey, 40, watched, helpless and screaming.
"While Caesar was being attacked, three people ran out of the vicious dog's home, and they couldn't stop their dog from mauling my dog. My dog kept crying, and their dog just kept attacking him over and over," she said. "By the grace of God, the dog finally stopped."
"It's all I can think about."
Caesar, whose nickname is "Sheepie," dragged himself home, where he flopped down on the tile floor.
"When he got up, blood was everywhere. I panicked," she said.
Neighbors who heard the ruckus came to the house, the police showed up, and her husband Vic, who owns Vic's Embers Supper Club in Leesburg, arrived at home.
They loaded up 5-year-old Sheepie and hauled him to an emergency veterinarian, who stapled the dog back together and put a cone around his neck to keep him from pulling the staples out of his backside.
Caesar ended up with chunks of flesh missing from his hind quarters and puncture wounds from teeth in various places all over his body. The other dog also had a few puncture wounds from teeth.
The next day, an officer from Lake County's animal-control department came to investigate. Leesburg more than a year ago turned over animal-control enforcement to the county to trim the city budget.
The county has ordinances about animals, and the city has its own ordinances, which typically are more restrictive. The county, however, enforces only its own ordinances. It doesn't have enough staff to enforce what the city might want done. And the city police department isn't getting into animal enforcement.
Result: Pamela Donahey watched her dog get torn up in a jarring attack, fussed over him as he healed, spent hours learning about animal ordinances, finally hired a lawyer to try to get the attacking dog thrown out of their townhouse community and in the end spent more than $500 in vet bills.
And the pit bull's owner? She got a warning not to let her dog run loose again. That's it — just a tap on the wrist.
To her credit, the owner did apologize and offer to make payments on the vet bills. But that's not the point, is it?
Here is Donahey's view: "I asked animal control what the law was, and I was told that a dog can attack another animal unprovoked a total of three times and after that it will be considered vicious and has to wear a muzzle when it is outside.
"I couldn't believe it. How can a dog be loose and viciously attack another dog and it be OK? Now when I walk my dog, I am in fear for myself and my dog. I cannot stand there and watch him get mauled again, which means I will also be attacked."
She's right.
This has to do with understanding that across the country, people increasingly think of their dogs as family members rather than as property and that if you let your aggressive dog run loose you're taking a risk that isn't acceptable.
In Lake, however, dogs are property by law, said Marjorie Boyd, animal control director. The county's ordinances say dogs must be contained in some way — they can't just wander around willy-nilly off the owner's property.
The first time a dog is found running loose, the owner gets a warning from an animal-control officer, she said. The second time, the fine is $150, and the third time it's a $500 violation.
That's not enough when an attack is involved.
County animal-control officers should have the discretion to issue a ticket with a $150 fine the first time a dog is running loose — if it has attacked another creature. That would at least get the attention of an irresponsible owner and make the point that roaming free is not OK.
Giving animal-control officers this little bit more power won't cause more work or require more employees. The officer would be dealing with the situation anyway, and he or she wouldn't be forced to issue a ticket. An owner who wants to fight a citation could still do so by appearing before the county's special master, much in the way that a judge hears a traffic ticket case.
Now is a particularly good time for county commissioners to change the law. On March 13, they'll be considering another nod to the changing culture surrounding dogs. That one would somehow — nothing is definite yet — set limits on how long a dog can be tethered, or in the end they may ban tethering outright.
C'mon, commissioners. This one is easy. Let's do something that may help save Sheepie and other dogs whose owners stay on the right side of the law.
(Orlando Sentinel - Feb 8, 2012)
