FLORIDA -- Frances Peltier was making the last lap of her morning walk around a vacant lot along McGregor Boulevard when she spotted Sasha, a 3-year-old pit bull, who had sidled out the side door of a home on Euclid Avenue.
“I could see this dog running like a bullet,” Peltier said. “I just froze. … Once I realized it was a pit bull, I thought, ‘I’m dead meat.’
“It didn’t sniff you like a normal dog. It saw me and it attacked. There was no hesitation on its part whatsoever,” she said.
The dog bit the 70-year-old Peltier in the abdomen and thigh, then broke off the attack. From there Sasha headed south on McGregor to West First Street, where Dawn Kelly was riding her bike.
Kelly saw the dog approaching and got off the bike, fearing if she didn’t, Sasha would knock her off. Sasha clamped down on Kelly’s calf.
“I screamed like a girl and (she) wouldn’t let go of my leg,” Kelly said. “Then I got calm … and (she) let me go.”
Peltier and Kelly called 911.
Kenneth Graves, Sasha’s owner, said he called the police when he realized the dog was out.
“I said there’s a dog running loose who could bite someone. I explained elderly and kids are in this area and it was very well an emergency,” Graves recounted.
Graves said the police refused to get involved, and when he located Sasha she had already bitten the two women.
Graves said Sasha had once before had an aggressive encounter with a smaller dog, but didn’t even “break the skin.” He denied the 45-pound dog is vicious.
“She’s not the aggressive type,” Graves said.
Graves contends that if Sasha were vicious or dangerous she would have mauled Kelly and Peltier. Instead, their wounds didn’t even require stitches.
Dr. Sophia Yin, a California-based veterinarian and animal behaviorist and an executive board member of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, never saw Sasha, but she didn’t have to. She knows dogs and knows this type of behavior gets worse.
“Dogs who maul did not start at nowhere. There was lunging, then growling, grabbing, biting and then mauling,” Yin said. “Usually dogs have to practice to get better. … If the dog has ever bitten, you always have to treat him like he will bite again.”
Kelly, too, thinks Sasha will bite again. That’s why she called me. She’s trying to bring attention to this incident and to the fact that there are no laws allowing the county to seize and destroy dangerous dogs.
“Mark my words, this dog will kill a kid,” Kelly sadly predicted. “And I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do anything.”
Sasha’s March 18 rampage has already cost Graves $300 to get Sasha out of the pound. He’ll also be on the hook for fines and the hospital bills of Sasha’s victims after his court appearance May 1.
Ria Brown, spokeswoman for Lee County Domestic Animal Services, said Graves was cited for allowing the dog to run at large and for the dog’s menacing and threatening behavior. And he has been warned that if there is a second incident (this is counted as one incident) the agency will launch a dangerous dog investigation.
If Sasha were to be designated a dangerous dog, Graves would have to pay $1,500 and a $500 registration every year. He would also have to muzzle her in public and install impenetrable fencing around his home. If a dog designated as dangerous bites someone, the owner could serve jail time, Brown said.
But there is no law allowing Animal Services to remove and destroy a biting dog. And the way the ordinance is written, Sasha wouldn’t qualify as a dangerous dog anyway, Brown said.
“This wasn’t a life-threatening attack,” Brown said. “Do you want to declare a dog dangerous for this one time?”
Sasha doesn’t need a second time. This dog is a danger to society.
Full disclosure: When I was a small child, I was badly bitten by a dog. And I own two dogs, a Labrador retriever and hound/Lab mix. And, as much as I love my dogs, if one of them bit two people in an unprovoked attack, I’d have to put him down.
But if I couldn’t or wouldn’t do it, there should be a law giving Animal Services the authority to do what needs to be done to protect people.
(News Press - Apr. 21, 2012)
