Florida: Woman pushing to change laws after owner of dogs which attacked and mauled her Yorkiepoo to death is fined just $27.50 - and allowed to keep his killer dogs

FLORIDA -- Seminole County officials seek to strengthen penalties against people whose aggressive pets attack other animals.

A Casselberry woman, whose dog was killed last year by unleashed dogs, said she welcomes the proposed changes to the current penalty, which is less than $30.

Donna Syracuse said she still thinks of the Sunday evening in November, when two large dogs charged at her 7-pound Yorkipoo, Reese.

"The pain of it -- it's just like a hole in my heart," she said. "The one just came at Reese and grabbed her and shook her and just kept shaking her. At one point, I went to grab Reese and she bit me."

The injured dog died on the way to an animal clinic.

"I still cry when I look at her pictures. She was my constant companion," Syracuse said. "She was full of love and full of life."

Syracuse said the punishment for the dogs' owner was also devastating.

"It was almost embarrassing," she said. "I mean, for a first offense, it was $27.50."

She and her wife joined their neighbors in launching an online petition, which caused Casselberry officials to meet with representatives from Seminole County Animal Services.

A plan for an ordinance proposal was created three months later. Seminole County officials received approval for a draft last week.

The county said that although it's still sorting out the specifics, it's committed to stiffening fines and penalties for irresponsible owners of aggressive pets who attack other pets.

Officials continue to study enforcement tactics in other counties to customize a plan for Seminole County.

"If her death was going to do anything, at least it would have some meaning -- that it would be able to hopefully prevent others from having to go through the pain that we had to go through and still go through," Syracuse said.

The city of Casselberry plans to hold a meeting Wednesday to discuss the proposal.

The county said it hopes to have the proposal ready by the end of March.

(WFTV - March 6, 2018)

Earlier:

• Florida: After their small dog is mauled to death, family starts petition to make city do something about vicious dogs

Florida: After their small dog is mauled to death, family starts petition to make city do something about vicious dogs

FLORIDA -- A Casselberry couple is devastated after two big dogs came bolting at their 8-pound dog.

"She was full of life, she was full of joy,; she would make us laugh," said Donna Syracuse.

Syracuse is devastated after seeing her beloved Reese mauled and killed. She blames aggressive dogs that live in the area.


"All I remember was that Reese was out front and I heard Cindy say uh-oh," said Syracuse.

She tells us they were one driveway away from their home when the large dogs came running from across the street and attacked.

"It's like they came out of the darkness and just pounced for no reason at all, they were completely unprovoked. Reese laid down in a submissive pose and the one dog charged her, grabbed her by her body, and put her in his mouth and just shook her like a rag doll," she added.

Neighbors came together to lend their support, exchanging stories of close calls with unsupervised pets in their neighborhood.

"Apparently it killed another animal here,; down the street we just found out it killed a cat," said Katie McGlynn.

Reese's owners tell News 6 they started a petition pushing for safety, hoping the city will take their concerns seriously.

 

 

"If it's charging at people, running at people, running into people's property and threatening people, it doesn't belong in a community where there's kids," added McGlynn.

News 6 reached out to animal control, and officials there tell us they are looking into the case.

Reese's owners will be going to the City Council Monday hoping something will be done soon.

(ClickOrlando - November 15, 2017)

Arizona: Phoenix woman Deanna Zapata, 44, arrested after her YorkiePoo died in hot car

ARIZONA -- Phoenix Police Department arrested a woman after her dog died from being left inside a hot car on Sunday, May 14, 2016.

Deanna Caroline Zapata, 44, was booked into jail on one count of animal cruelty.

According to police, Zapata left her Yorkie-Poo in the car near 24th Street and Thomas on Sunday.

The dog had been left in the car for approximately five hours while the temperature outside was more than 90 degrees, Officer James Holmes told 12 News.

Zapata told officers she had left the windows down and the air conditioning running in her car because the storage facility she was visiting did not allow dogs inside.

Zapata also said she left water in the car for the dog.

(12News - May 17, 2016)

Killer pit bulls allowed to live, despite little boy's testimony of seeing them kill his two dogs

PENNSYLVANIA -- Rudy led his puppy into the yard on Blue Sage Drive in Upper Macungie, he said.

First, he looked to see if the neighbor's pit bull-boxer mixed breed dogs were out.

He said he never saw them behave aggressively toward another dog, but he didn't want to risk it with his new 4-month-old Irish Setter.

"I had Duke in the yard and they weren't out right away," 12-year-old Rudy Bailey III of Upper Macungie testified Wednesday morning. "And (the pit bulls) ran out and I said, 'Duke, come,' and he didn't. He thought they were playing."

But the pit bull mixes weren't playing. One went for Duke's neck and one for his belly.

Rudy said he never heard his neighbor, Nicole Pugliese, yelling as she lay over Duke to protect him. She was asking him to get Duke, but he didn't.

"I knew he was already gone."

As he sat in a plastic seat at the prosecution's table next to Upper Macungie Detective Adam Miller, Rudy told the story three times. He started by telling District Judge Michael Faulkner's courtroom the story of the Oct. 12 incident from beginning to end.

Then he walked through it slower a second time as Miller asked him a series of questions, noting how his other dog, King, ran outside to protect Duke's body, but was attacked as well. King, a Yorkshire terrier-poodle mix, later died of his injuries.

When defense attorney Eric Dowdle, who was representing the pit bull-boxers' owner, Nicholas Okane, gently quizzed him about a few points, Rudy stayed steady. He didn't waiver, he didn't hesitate and he was direct in his answers through all 30 minutes. But when it was over, he couldn't hold it in anymore. The boy wept for his puppy and his terrier.

aulkner found Okane guilty of two counts of harboring a dangerous dog.

"You can't look at a dog like you do a person," Faulkner said, noting dogs act on instinct and people can reason. Faulkner said Nicholas Okane, the owner of the pit bull mixes, seemed to be a "responsible owner," with a large, metal, 6-foot fence.

Faulkner ordered Okane to pay two $250 fines, court costs and ruled the pit bulls are "dangerous dogs."

It was a tense but sober hearing.

As the second witness, Rudy's father, Rudolf Bailey Jr., entered the courtroom he could hear his son's sobs, and he shot Dowdle a look before testifying. He told Faulkner that his son came running into the house yelling, "'Duke is dead, Duke is dead.'"

A construction worker, who was working on a job site about 50 to 70 yards away also testified.

David Gobrecht, of Kay Builders, said he heard a scream that sounded like a little child. But when he turned it was the puppy.

"It looked like two sharks attacking something in the water," Gobrecht said. "It was aggressive. It was coordinated."

Upper Macungie police shot the male pit bull with a Taser before they could coral the two dogs back into their home.

Pugliese also testified. She said she saw Duke poke his head through the fence and she warned, "Pick your dog up, I don't know if they'll hurt him."

Because the two pit bull-boxer mixes have been deemed dangerous by a judge, Okane will have to register the dogs with the state and follow a series of restrictions, including posting a "dangerous dogs" sign, keeping them confined and, when they are outside their enclosures, they'll have to be muzzled and leashed.

Okane has 30 days to appeal Faulkner's ruling to the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas.

(The Morning Call - Dec 16, 2015)

German Shepherd attacks tiny Yorkie-Poo at off-leash park

CANADA -- At first, she hoped it might just be severe scratches.

But when Brigitte Malana rescued Oscar from the water’s edge, it was clear the tiny Yorkie-poo had been savagely bitten by a German shepherd more than six times his size.

Moments earlier, Malana and her dad, Michael, were watching their dogs — Oscar; Stanley, another Yorkie-poo; and Molly, a Maltese Shih tzu — happily play in the shallows on Sunday evening at the far end of McDonald Beach off-leash park with two other dogs.

But on the flip of a coin, Malana said one of the other dogs, a German shepherd called Chloe, appeared to single out Oscar before snapping and biting at him.

“We kind of froze for a second or two as we were worried we were going to get bitten,” said Malana, a second-year Simon Fraser University student.

“It probably was all over in a few seconds and the woman grabbed her dog by the collar and pulled it away.

“She kind of downplayed the whole thing and said it was just scratches; but I looked at Oscar and it didn’t seem to be scratches. There was sand all over the wounds that may have covered it up.”

As Malana was on the phone to the vet, she said the German shepherd was shaping up to do the same thing to her other Yorki-poo, Stanley.

“She didn’t seem to have much control over the dog and we told her to get her dog on a leash,” added Malana, who volunteered for five years at the Richmond Youth Foundation and was president of the Animal Rescue and Care Club at high school.

“She just walked up ahead and didn’t even apologize.”

Almost $1,000 in vet bills have been run up for emergency surgery and subsequent cleaning of several wounds from an incident the City of Richmond’s bylaw department has categorized as a “mauling.”

Malana said the woman gave her name as Vanessa Calero and offered her phone number, arranging to meet Malana’s dad the next day at a Vancouver coffee shop.

“Since then, my dad, me, my mom and the City of Richmond bylaw officer have been unable to speak to her, despite calling her numerous times,” she said.

“We’ve texted her as well, but she’s not responding at all.”

Malana described the woman as in her mid-20s, of Hispanic descent, about five feet, four inches tall and of medium to heavy build.

Richmond News called the woman at the number she gave Malana and left a voicemail, asking for her version of events.

Later the same day, a man saying he knows “Vanessa” called claiming she was too busy to come to the phone and added that the wounds on Oscar must have been inflicted by another dog in a subsequent attack, as only “nips” had taken place when the dogs were playing.

He also claimed he and Vanessa had already spoken to a City of Richmond bylaw officer, who had dismissed the claim.

The city said that, in fact, neither of them had spoken to the officer.

The man further suggested Malana and her father were “scamming” them into paying for a vet bill which looks set to top the $1,000 mark by the end of the week.

The City of Richmond confirmed Wednesday that its bylaw department is investigating the incident, but couldn’t release any more details.

Malana said it may be a little while before she’s confident enough to venture back to the beach with her dogs.

“Thankfully, my dog lived, but I don’t want this to happen to another dog,” she said. “I want as many people as possible to know what happened.”

(The Province - July 31, 2015)

Earlier:

• German shepherd that 'mauled' tiny terrier in Richmond deemed dangerous, costly recovery may lead to court battle

German shepherd that 'mauled' tiny terrier in Richmond deemed dangerous, costly recovery may lead to court battle

CANADA -- Wee Oscar, the Yorkie-poo who was attacked and badly wounded by a German shepherd July 26 while splashing around in the off-leash area along the shoreline at Richmond's McDonald Beach Park, is making a good recovery.

You can’t say the same for his owner’s bank account. Medical bills for Oscar have almost doubled from his initial treatment total, topping $2,000. And with financial help from the owner of the dog who bit him likely not coming, court action to try and get some compensation may be in the future, said Brigitte Malana.

“When the woman who owned the German shepherd talked to us after Oscar was bitten, she told us to ‘keep her in the loop.’ I understood that as her wanting to help out for what her dog had done,” Malana said. “I don’t think she would have given us her name and phone number if she wasn’t willing to do that.”

While how Oscar’s vet treatment will be paid for is still up in the air, the German shepherd involved in the incident may end up paying the ultimate price after the City of Richmond investigated the case and ruled the animal a dangerous dog, Malana said.

Brigitte Malana, her dad, Michael, and her Yorkie-poo, Oscar, return
to the scene of Sunday evening’s attack on McDonald Beach. Malana
claims Oscar was mauled by a German shepherd belonging
to a woman calling herself Vanessa.

According to the city’s bylaws, that means the owner must license the animal under the Dangerous Dog category and pay a higher fee of $272 if it is un-neutered pet or $218 if it has been neutered.
Regular dog licenses cost $33 for neutered animals and $76 for un-neutered.

Malana, who declared she is a devout animal lover — she was president of the Animal Rescue and Care Club at high school — said she fears another dog, or even a person, could be involved in an attack involving the German shepherd who bit Oscar.

“Personally, I don’t want to see this dog destroyed, but what happens if it bites someone else, maybe even a child?” said Malana, who is a second-year Simon Fraser University student.

If Malana’s family is unsuccessful at getting in contact with the German shepherd’s owner to arrange some form of compensation, she said legal action is the next step.

“She (dog owner) was made aware of that,” Malana said.

(The Province - Aug 13, 2015)