Jacksonville Injury Lawyer Blog

While watching the Jacksonville news last night I was incredibly impressed with 9 year old Melinda Miller, a little girl horribly bitten by a friend’s dog. The dog bit her so badly on the face that she needed 200 stitches. While driving to the hospital her father, Putnam County Sheriff’s Detective Elton Miller, was so upset that little Melinda had to calm him down enough to drive. Melinda bravely went thru 3 hours of surgery by a plastic surgeon.

As a father who has had to take one of his children to the ER I can relate to Detective Miller’s feelings.

What was disturbing was that the dog was one that had never bitten before or been aggressive. Most states including Florida have laws meant to hold dog owners responsible for serious injuries resulting from dog bites. In some states, including Florida, owners are “strictly liable.” This means that even if a dog has no prior history of biting, an owner may be held liable for the injuries that a dog inflicts.

A 74 year old Florida grandmother died last week after being attacked by her own two dogs.

On Thursday, police say, the two pets attacked Loraine May, leaving May with a dislocated shoulder and too many bite marks on her body to count. “This poor woman endured a vicious attack,” Lt. Todd Hutchinson, a Titusville police spokesman, said Friday.

Police theorize that May was breaking up a fight between the dogs, who, according to a relative, are mother and son. The animals, which May had owned since they were puppies, had a history of fighting with each other, Hutchinson said.

The relative said the 11-year-old female golden-retriever mix is named Sammy, and the 6-year-old male Australian-shepherd mix is called Seth.

They are being held in separate cages at Brevard County Animal Services and Enforcement in Melbourne while workers there conduct an investigation, said the services’ Capt. Bob Brown. They could be euthanized as early as next week.

Experts agree that no one should attempt to break up a dog fight. The following are methods that should be used if you do try to break up a dog fight: If two people are both available they should grab the hind legs of the dogs, not the head or body, a blanket can be thrown over the dogs to disorient them which allows to be removed.

As a Jacksonville attorney who continues to represent people attacked by dogs this story is very disappointing. This month a Florida appellate court overturned a $2.25 million jury verdict against the city of Delray Beach in a vicious dog attack that left a woman without use of her right arm.

In 2002, hotel housekeeper Marguene St. Juste was attacked by two Rottweiler mixes — Fuzzy and Cinny — as she walked along Northeast Third Avenue. Many prior complaints had been made to the city about these dogs running loose.

Last year, a Palm Beach County jury awarded St. Juste $3.7 million for past medical bills, lost wages, future earning capacity, pain, suffering, mental anguish, physical impairment and loss of capacity for enjoyment of life in the past and money for the future. Jurors found Delray Beach to be 60 percent liable and the dogs’ owner, Keli Nowling, to be 40 percent liable. Collecting any money from Nowling might prove fruitless. After the attack she left Florida and did not mount a defense at trial.

In a two-to-one decision, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that the decision by Delray Beach’s animal control officer and police not to impound the dogs was discretionary and therefore the city was immune.

What do we have to do as citizens to keep ourselves and our children safe from vicious dogs? Too many times we see neighbors who let their dogs run wild on our streets. I am sure that this verdict sent a message to the city of Delray Beach to take these complaints more seriously.

Last week in Jacksonville’s Animal Control Shelter a 7 year old collie was attacked and bitten by a pit bull. An advocate for a local collie rescue group was asking why the ferocious pit bull was placed in the same kennel as the collie. Advocate Sandy Shevlin does not understand why these two very different dogs were locked up together. Animal Care and Control explained that space in the shelter is quite limited.

Shevlin is hoping that someone will rescue the collie named Tippy. The collie rescue group can be reached at collielady@comcast.net. City workers said they had to beat the pit bull off the other dog. We have represented many victims of pit bull attacks. In some cases the pit bull even had to be shot because it’s powerful jaws would not let go of the victim.