FLORIDA -- When three pit bulls escaped from their Port Orange home then charged and injured a couple and their two dogs in a street confrontation, Jeffery Macklefresh thought the city should have the power to seize the attacking dogs.
Macklefresh and his fiancee, Michaela Ledbetter, suffered cuts and scrapes but were not seriously injured. Their dogs fared worse. Both needed staples to close the wounds inflicted by the attacking pit bulls, according to a police report.
Macklefresh told an officer he was “useless” after the policeman explained they were not allowed to take the dogs responsible for the attack, according to the report. A frustrated Mackelfresh told the officer “to get the (expletive) off of his property” and slammed the door in the officer's face, the report states.
Neither Macklefresh nor the owner of the pit bulls, Kim Nigro, could be reached for comment Friday.
Though the pit bulls got a reprieve that night, they may still be facing their demise.
Florida law states Nigro has 10 days to request a hearing for an appeal, otherwise the three dogs will be “destroyed in an expeditious and humane manner.”
Macklefresh and Ledbetter were walking their black Australian shepherd and yellow Labrador retriever in their neighborhood Sunday evening when three pit bulls inside a home in the 400 block of Wiltshire Boulevard began barking at them through an open window. Macklefresh told police that about a minute later, the three dogs escaped and attacked them, according to the report.
Macklefresh, 42, and Ledbetter, 31, suffered cuts and scrapes on their hands and arms, and their two dogs suffered injuries to their legs -- the shepherd requiring six staples to its right rear thigh, and the lab requiring a total of 24 staples on three legs, according to the report.
Nigro, who told police she runs an animal rescue, accepted full responsibility and agreed to pay for all of the medical costs incurred by the couple, the police report states. She said she had left a window open about 5 inches because the house was "stuffy."
An officer checked on the couple Monday, and Macklefresh said Nigro, 39, had stopped by to see how the couple's dogs were doing, according to the report. He told the officer he believed Nigro's apology was sincere but didn't let her inside to see the dogs because his fiancee “would not have let (her) leave the residence alive,” according to the report.
Macklefresh asked the officer “if he was allowed to protect himself against those dogs by shooting into the home if they barked at them as they walked by,” according to the report. The officer told him he couldn't do that.
All five dogs are under quarantine since the couple “were unable to determine which dogs caused their injuries in the commotion of the dog attack,” according to the report.
The case is under investigation by Animal Control.
(News Journal - February 22, 2013)
