Bay County Commission appeals ruling - seeks to euthanize family dog that injured family member - fa
By JOHN HENDERSON News Herald Reporter
PANAMA CITY, FL
A local family trying to save their dog from being euthanized by Bay County is hopeful a circuit judge’s ruling in Manatee County will bolster their case.
Bay County Animal Control were notified Sept. 26 that the dog, Marley, owned by Johnothan Jones, had bitten his girlfriend’s 15-year-old son, Taylor Freeman, at their home at 2101 High Ave. On Sept. 27, Animal Control Officer David Chasteen interviewed Freeman, who told him he was playing hide and seek with his younger brother when the dog attacked him and bit him multiple times, the report states. The dog was placed on home quarantine afterward.
On Oct. 6, the day the dog was scheduled to be off his 10-day quarantine, Animal Control received a complaint from Jones’ neighbor that the dog had attacked and bitten Freeman again. A neighbor told an officer that Marley had not been confined during the quarantine period, the report states.
Bay County commissioners recently agreed with Assistant County Attorney Jennifer Shuler’s advice to appeal the decision of a Magistrate Jonathan Dingus, who declared after a hearing that the dog should not be euthanized but is “dangerous.”
Commissioners said they agreed the dog is dangerous and caused the injuries, but they said they also want the dog put down so it causes no more harm. By appealing, the case will now land in a county judge’s court. A court date has not been set.
Bay County has filed formal appeal papers, though.
“It is Bay County’s position that euthanizing Marley is not just mandated by statute; it is the best disposition for a dog that has twice attacked a child in its own home,” Shuler wrote in her filing. “The problem with merely classifying Marley as ‘dangerous’ and imposing restrictions is that this dog will be returned to live in a house with three children and mere restrictions cannot guarantee that another attack will not occur.”
Jones, a former Bay County Sheriff’s Office deputy, befriended Marley while working as a private security contractor in Afghanistan, and the dog was brought to Panama City through a puppy adoption program. He said his family continues to regularly visit the dog, which has been confined in the Bay County Animal Shelter for months.
“We go up there twice a week to see him, and thank God we do,” Jones said. “The county vet wrote him (up) as depressed. They had to change his diet because he stopped eating, but you go down through death row there and it’s solitary confinement, just like you see in a prison.”
County officials declined to comment Thursday.
Court ruling
A judge in the 12th Judicial Circuit in Manatee County last month ruled the same state law that is the legal basis for the Bay County’s law is unconstitutional. The ruling spared the life of Padi, a 4-year-old Lab mix. The Bradenton Herald reported Padi bit a child’s ear June 4 when the child was visiting a veterinarian office owned by Padi’s owner, Paul Gartenberg.
All parties generally agreed Padi had gone into a corner to get away from the child and the child followed. Accounts differ on whether the child lunged at Padi or if Padi lunged first.
In a ruling dated Dec. 14, Manatee Circuit Judge Andrew Owens stated that the state law allowing dangerous animals to be euthanized provides “no clear, specific guidelines as to how or when animal control authorities should apply” the euthanization law.
The Bay County case has many similarities to the one in Manatee County, with one exception being the dog in Bay County is owned by the family of the person attacked. In addition, the family members, including the teenager who was bit, have written letters to county officials pleading with them to save the dog’s life.
The Jones family has hired Panama City attorney Jason T. Johnson, himself a former sheriff’s deputy who served in Afghanistan, to represent them in the case.
“The Bay County Code exactly mirrors the Florida state statutes, with the exception of one regard — the defenses that they give in the state statutes, such as reasons you cannot find a dog dangerous — Bay County conspicuously leaves that out,” he said Wednesday.
Johnson said the dog attacked the first time because Freeman was wearing a Halloween mask and toting a play gun as he chased his 5-year-old brother. He said Marley didn’t even recognize Freeman until he took off the mask.
Freeman “chases the 5-year-old boy, the other son, into the bedroom where the dog is sleeping,” Johnson said. “He startles the dog, a dog which was an Afghan service dog.”
Johnson believes he has another area of legal challenge, saying Bay County’s law does not include a sentence in the state law that reads that a dog shall not be declared dangerous if the threat, injury or damage was sustained by someone lawfully on the property but was tormenting, abusing or assaulting the dog.
“That is exactly what happened,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the second alleged assault only involved a scratch to Freeman, not a bite.
Patricia Rich, the neighbor who reported the attacks, said in a previous interview that Freeman suffered severe injuries and she reported the attacks out of concerns for the safety of the children in the neighborhood.
Freeman “had at least eight puncture marks on him the first time,” Rich said. “He had two on his back, one in the palm of his hand, one in his shoulder, one in his legs. He had multiple scratch marks all over him. It was an attack.”
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