CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Residents of one neighborhood in Coral Springs say two dogs have been terrorizing their community, mauling two small dogs to death, attacking another dog and biting a person.
The dogs were allegedly left running loose by their owners after there had already been one dog killing reported last December.
“We walk all the time in this neighborhood,” resident Rose Auer said. “It’s a very dog-friendly neighborhood. I’ve lived here for 28 years and never worried.”
That is until the evening of March 2 when a nightly walk with her three small dogs would end with only one coming home with her that night.
“I was just screaming and screaming for help, saying ‘They’re killing my babies, they’re killing my babies!’” Auer said.
Residents say the two large dogs owned by nearby neighbors were terrorizing their neighborhood.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the dog charging across the lawn,” Denise Kaplan said.
Kaplan was knocked to the ground by one of the dogs and bitten on her ankle.
Neighbors screaming for help brought Nicole Dilaura out of her house.
“The dogs were just circling me and, again, my husband was kicking the dogs, and then they ran off and they started running around, trying to attack anybody that was out -- they were running after them,” Dilaura said.
Next to suffer the wrath of the roaming dogs was Rafael Perez and his Frenchie Max.
“He literally jumped out and snatched him out of the house,” Perez told Local 10 News.
Perez’s dog was bitten twice while the dogs tried coming right into his home, and the terror just would not stop.
Ring video shows one neighbor screaming, visibly distraught at seeing the dogs being mauled and not realizing they would quickly turn their attention to her.
The video shows her just barely making it into the house before the dogs are barking on her doorstep.
Nothing was able to end this non-stop attack until a Florida Highway Patrol trooper brought out his Taser.
“I could have taken lethal action against it, but I decided not to, to do something less lethal so as not to endanger anyone else, so I utilized my Taser,” FHP Sgt. John Baker said.
So the dogs are off leash, they’re running through this neighborhood, attacking dogs, biting dogs, killing dogs, and even biting people. So you have to ask, what are the laws regarding a dangerous dog?
According to the Coral Springs municipal code, a dog has to have more than once severely injured or killed a domestic animal while off the owner’s property to be removed.
So even though one of the dogs killed another dog last December, that was only the first report of an attack.
But now, there are three dead dogs.
Auer lost her 7-year-old Chihuahua named Princess and her 7-month-old Boston terrier named Missy.
“Whether it’s a bite, kill or attack, it’s equal and that’s wrong, and that’s what needs to change,” Auer said.
Local 10 News animal advocate Jacey Birch knocked on Heather Dixon’s home.
According to the police report, she’s the owner of KJ and Luna, the dogs who went on the attack that day.
Dixon told Birch she didn’t know what happened.
“You weren’t here? You don’t know anything about that?” Birch asked her.
“No,” she responded.
“Was it your parents or any family members?” Birch asked.
“I don’t know,” Dixon said.
Dixon voluntarily brought both animals to Broward County Animal Care to be euthanized.
“There’s a part of me that’s completely broken that I know I’ll never get back,” Auer said.
Dixon was fined for four counts of animal bites and one bite to a person. She was also cited for two counts of leash law violations.