FLORIDA -- July third was a normal day for two little boys who were riding their bikes in their neighborhood.
But then the unexpected happened.
"I received a phone call at about quarter to five that my son was mauled by two dogs," one of the boy's mother said. She asked us not to reveal her or her son's identity in fear of retaliation.
"He had big hunks torn out of his skin and he was screaming in terror, in pain," she said.
She said her eight-year-old son was with a friend on Tina's Lane in rural Lee County when the two dogs ran out from under a neighbor's fence.
They bit him on his arm, back and neck.
But things could have been a lot worse if the boy's friend, 11-year-old Robert Collins, hadn't been there.
"I looked down and I saw a rock and I grabbed it and I started sprinting towards them and I threw the rock at the dogs and they got off of him," Collins said.
The boy is still recovering, but this mother still has one complaint.
"At this point the dogs are still loose and they haven't done one thing to capture the dogs," she said.
So Fox 4 went to Lee County Domestic Animal Services to find out why.
"Basically we are still trying to identify the dogs that were involved in this bite," Glenn Johnson said.
Johnson said they have a description of the dogs who attacked the boy, but since the owner has more than one dog that matches that description, it will take time to identify the right dog.
Johnson also said every time they go out to the dog owner's home, no one is there. But he assured us, he's not giving up.
"It's an in depth investigation," Johnson said. "That's what people don't understand, they want us to take action and I can't just go in someone's property and take animals unless I have the facts and the investigation doesn't support that."
In the meantime, this little boy won't be riding a bike anytime soon.
"Only if they get taken somewhere else where they can't bite me anymore," he said.
The family said this isn't the first time the dogs have gotten out of the yard. They have filed a complaint against the dog owner in court.
[It's not rocket science, people! You do DNA swabs on the boy's injuries, get the health department to write a statement saying the boy is at risk of developing rabies, put that letter in your affidavit, get a warrant to seize all the dogs that match the description from the victim and his friend, do DNA swabs and have them analyzed. It only costs about $60 per dog. Meanwhile, all the dogs remain in quarantine until the tests come back - this way the boy doesn't have to endure rabies shots. When the tests come back and clear the other dogs, you release them back to the owner. And then you build a case against her for the attack dog, which is in your custody.]
(Fox 4 - July 9, 2013)
