Owner of pit bull mixes that killed pomeranian on Friday had been cited several times

FLORIDA -- A South Ponte Vedra Beach woman was badly bitten Friday while using her body as a shield to protect her little 8-year-old Pomeranian from being killed by two pit bull mixes.

Janice Kathy Doolittle, 66, survived with deep punctures and bites, but she couldn’t save her tiny Cassidy.

St, Johns County Animal Control reports said Doolittle was walking down a path to the beach about 6:45 p.m. Friday when she spotted the two pits, Sunshine and Bosco, in the water.

Did Animal Control honestly do everything in their
power to protect this little dog?

Bosco had been previously designated a dangerous dog, a legal definition requiring his owner to take reasonable precautions to protect the public and other animals. The owner had been cited several times.

According to Assistant Animal Control Manager Ed Martin, these restrictions include muzzling and leashing the dog when in public, buying liability insurance, required spay or neutering, microchipping and keeping the dog under physical control in a secure structure.

Doolittle knew the two pits had attacked other dogs multiple times on that beach, so she immediately scooped up Cassidy and ran toward home, which was roughly 150 feet away.

A simple walk to the beach from her house...

 

Both pits ran after her, and Bosco jumped on her back and knocked her down.

The man walking the dogs — Kenneth Savage, 43, of Ponte Vedra Beach, handyman for the dogs’ owner, 52-year-old Julie Chase Shumer — ran after them.

The report quoted Doolittle as saying, “I tried to protect my dog in my belly area and [Sunshine] grabbed me by the leg and pulled me down to the sand.” Both dogs grabbed Cassidy.

Doolittle suffered “numerous injuries and punctures” to her hands, ankles, left knee and thigh.

But worse was losing her Cassidy. “She was the light of everybody’s life. Pure, uninhibited love. She’s the child we never had,” she said.

Somehow during the struggle, Savage tried to get both dogs off Doolittle and reportedly killed Sunshine by choking her to death.

Shumer received two citations from Animal Control — one because Bosco “was not under the control of custodian and was involved in an attack”; the second because Bosco and Sunshine “did attack and kill another dog.”

Under county ordinances, Bosco was subject to an immediate death sentence, which was carried out late Friday at the request of the dog’s owner.

Ed Martin with St. Johns County Animal Control says the owner of the pit-bull mixes, Julie Shumer, was given a verbal warning in 2008 for letting a dog run loose.

In July 2012, Bosco got off his leash and attacked a woman and her pet, biting the woman at the beach. Shumer and the county's attorneys (NOT Animal Control) settled the case. The outcome: Bosco was no longer deemed a dangerous dog but he'd have to be on a leash and wear a muzzle.

In August 2012, the woman who'd been terrorized and attacked by the pit bull mix Bosco complained to Animal Control that Shumer’s dogs were on the beach without leashes or muzzles. Shumer received a citation.

She can't stop crying over her beloved Pomeranian

In April 2013, Robin Saltman said her husband David was walking their Tibetan terrier Cooper on the beach when Shumer’s pits pulled away from a housekeeper and charged. He said the larger dogs pushed him and Cooper into the water.

"The big one had a muzzle on his face. He knocked my dog down and stood over him and kept hitting him in the face with the muzzle. The other smaller dog was biting his leg," Saltman recalled.
“Our dog was bitten in four or five places,” she said. “He was traumatized, he couldn’t stop shaking for three days. If one of them didn’t have a muzzle on, my husband and dog would be dead.”

Martin said the State Attorney’s Office will look at the Doolittle case.

(Jacksonville.com - July 24, 2013)