The attack happened about 11:30 a.m. at 33 Hollywood Boulevard NW. Two pit bull mixes, who live about a half-mile away, have been confiscated.
The victims — Yorkies named KiKi, TeeTee and Boo-Boo — had just been let out in their back yard along with three other small dogs. The yard is surrounded by a 6-foot privacy fence.
“I let my little ones out to do their running around in my yard,” said one of their owners, Wayne Patton. He heard some small noises, which escalated to “screaming” and went to the back yard to check on them.
He saw a brown pit bull chasing KiKi and a white pit bull with Boo-Boo in its mouth. Patton picked up a dog’s water dish and started hitting the white dog on the head to try to get him to drop the teacup Yorkie.
“He was still chomping very hard,” Patton said. “I reached inside his mouth and pulled out what I could.”
The pit bull dropped Boo-Boo and Patton quickly grabbed him, holding him against his chest and making a run for the back door. The other pit bull had already killed KiKi and was mauling it.
The white dog nipped at the back of Patton’s pants, causing him to trip and fall on his way into the house. At some point in the chaotic sprint, the white dog bit Patton’s hand, penetrating down to the tendons, he said.
He estimated that he spent about 45 seconds in the yard during the attack.
Once inside the house, Patton called 911 and remembers yelling, “I’ve been attacked by pit bulls and they’re killing my dogs.”
The dispatcher told him if his dogs were in the house safely to go out front and wait for police. As he was sitting on the front porch, the officer drove up and, as he was getting out of his car, the brown pit bull jumped back over the fence and came toward them.
The officer pulled out his gun and mace, instructing Patton to move toward him. He used the mace on the dog, who then jumped back over the fence into Patton’s yard.
“The mental part of it is so hard right now. I can’t get that picture out of my mind,” Patton said.
Patton and his partner, Greg White, said the white pit bull had been in their yard a year ago and that they’d called to complain about it.
“Nothing was done,” White said. “This time, I want something done.”
PIT BULLS HAVE KILLED BEFORE
Mary Rudder, supervisor of Animal Control for the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society, said the owner of the pit bull mixes was cited last August for letting his dogs roam after they allegedly attacked and killed two cats.
Only one of the owners was willing to fill out a statement. Florida statute requires that a dog has to attack and kill another domestic animal “on more than one occasion” in order for the animal to be confiscated.
The owner was cited and paid a fine for the attack on one of the cats.
Rudder said that the pit bull’s owner had already called her Monday and told her he needed to talk to her about his dogs.
“ ‘I know they’ve done something really bad,’ ” he told her, according to Rudder.
The dogs, named Lambeau and Honey, will be held at PAWS until the outcome of any proceedings to deem them “dangerous” under state statute. She said it wasn’t immediately clear if their vaccines were up to date.
More than four hours after the attack, Patton said he was shaken and traumatized.
“I’m 49 years old,” he said. “I’m scarred to witness all this in a quick amount of time. I’m a sensitive person. I take my animals to heart.”
(NWF Daily News - July 18, 2016)
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