After being knocked over, Smith said, he suffered a broken elbow. “I had to have an elbow replacement,” he said.
The operation and medical care cost close to $200,000. After that, it took Smith 4-1/2 months to recover, after going through painful physical therapy.
Cathy Schwartz Lukovich recounted another disturbing experience on Facebook involving dogs.
“I was walking my two small dogs on a leash in Highlands Ridge and was attacked by a pit mix that ran out when the owner opened his garage door,” she said. “The pit mix got a hold of one of my dogs right above his hind legs, pulled him right out of his harness, shook him back and forth, flipped him up in the air, and grabbed him again. Somehow my dog got loose and ran home when I knelt down on the pit’s neck.
"I yelled for help and one of the neighbors finally restrained the pit. The owner stood by and did nothing. My dog ended up with puncture wounds and a nasty 2-inch laceration on his side between his ribs and hind leg. I haven’t walked my dogs in my neighborhood since then.”
In many such cases, under existing laws, the bicycler or the pedestrian must seek redress through civil lawsuits, said Darryl Scott, director of Highlands County Animal Control.
Some cases have been referred to the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office, which determined those instances were civil in nature, Scott said.
Scott said Highlands County has a leash law, and dogs outside generally must be under the owner’s control. But Highlands County Animal Control can only cite someone for violating the leash law if the animal control officer sees the violation.
Where does it say that in the laws? I've never heard such a thing. If a witness is willing to go on record and go to court, you cite the owner based on the witness statement.
Read: Highland County Florida ordinances
Even though the dog may have been off the leash earlier, that doesn’t matter if the animal is leashed when the animal control officer is in the area, Scott said. However, he said, animal control officers contact the owner and talk to them about the leash law.
There are also cases where if a dog attacks a person, the dog could be declared dangerous, he said.
A group reviews each case and determines whether the dog should be declared a danger, he said. If the panel declares the dog as dangerous, then the owner must follow certain rules to keep the dog, Scott said.
Those include paying a fee to the county to own a dangerous dog, posting a sign stating that a dangerous dog is on the property and keeping the dog in some sort of enclosure, such as a pen, where it can’t escape, If the owner walks the dog, Scott said, then it must be leashed and wear a muzzle.
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| Gail Ball comforts Chelsea, her golden lab, that was attacked by a pit bull in Highlands County, Florida. What was done about the pit bull? |
If the owner doesn’t follow those rules, Scott said, the dog can be confiscated. And if the owner doesn’t follow the rules and the dog attacks someone, the owner can be charged with a crime that could be a third-degree felony, Scott said.
Scott said at least four dogs in Highlands County during the past several years have been declared dangerous, but he said there haven’t been situations that reached the level of someone being charged criminally.
In Smith’s case, he said, the owner would not accept responsibility for the dog knocking his bicycle over. Since then, he said, bicyclists have avoided that street.
But, Smith said, other dogs also seem to target the bicyclers.
(highlandstoday.com - Feb 13, 2016)
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