A Letter from a Florida Pet Owner

Dear Representives:

 

I would like to share a story about one the most scariest moments in my life.  It was almost 4 years ago.  My family and I was at a very close friends house.  The plan was to have cookout and let all of our kids play together and have fun.  Instead, we all spent the night in the emergency room with my youngest son who was only 3 years old at the time.   

 

The night started when my husband and I ran into my friend and her husband at wal-mart.  We were all  buying food to grill for dinner that night at their house.  After we were done making our purchases.  My family followed their family  back to their home.  As the adult walked into the house, I was about to put down the groceries down on  the counter when I heard my oldest son  running into the house screaming that  Jake (my 3 year old) was bleeding really bad.  I immediately ran outside and saw my 3 year old son sqwatting down, holding his face and blood prefusely pouring thru his hand onto the cement.  What you must understand is that we were only in their house for approximately 3 minutes (and that’s being extremely generous).  It is was not like my son was a stranger to this dog, for you the owner was my best friend.  My family spent countless h ours, even days at their house.  So  this came as tremendous shock to us all that this attack had occurred.  And  it was an even bigger suprise, when we learned that the only thing that my son had did to the dog when he arrived at the house was to bend down and pet him on the head. 

 

Needless  to say, my son’s face was mauled by this dog.  He had over 12 laserations to the right side of his tiny little face.  When we arrived at the hospital, I layed him down on the gurny to find chunks of his flesh stuck to my shirt. He had to have a plastic surgeon operate on his face to close his wounds.  This was due the fact that is laserations had laserations.  My precious little baby, had to have almost 100 stitches to the outside as well as the inside of his face to close his wounds.  In total,  that surgery cost over 12,000 dollars to fix my son’s face that night. 

 

I share this story with you because I read a statement that was  made about the viciousness of one dog versus another.  I dont know that I agree with this mindset, for you see the dog that mauled my son was not a dog listed on the “top most dangerous” dog list.  It was not a pit bull, doberman or even a rottweiller. It was a blue healer.  The dog only stood about 10 inches from the ground.   He was consider to be a small dog but he did a tremendous amount of damage. 

 

Finally,  I must comment on the “danger” of certain dogs.  I currently have one of the famous “bad” dogs.  Her name is ginger.  She is a rottweiller and she is the biggest mush face, you have ever seen.  She is the gentlest dog in the world.  My children feed her treats from their lips. 

 

Another quick story about another one of our pets.  Her name was lady.  She was a golden retriever.  We adopted her from the pound and later came to the conclusion that she must have been beaten by her previous owners because every time I would try to sweep the house, she would bark and cowar down.  She was affraid of the broom and sticks. Needless to say, We had to put her down due to the fact that she bit on 2 separate occations.  The first time was our niece.  She was trying to play fetch with lady and when she drew back the stick to throw, Lady bit the stick and part of her cheeck.  It  was a clean bite only 4 small puncture wounds.  My husband and I decided right there that we were going to put her down but everyone involved convinced us not to do it.  The doctors, the nurses, the police officer who filed the report and even the person from the animal shelter said that this was a freak accident, it not in a golde n retriever’s nature to be vicious.  We listened and a few years later, she bit our nephew in the face.  He got too close to her face while she was eating and she snapped.  This time it wasnt so clean. He received 36 stitches to his head, face and arms.   We should have stuck with our initial decision and not allowed anyone to convince us otherwise. 

 

I asked you,  PLEASE  vote against the HB101 bill because you really cant judge dogs by their breed.  If that is  the case, then one day in the near future, the state of  florida will ban all dogs because if the irresponsible dog owners can’t have thier dog of choice then they will settle for the next breed and ruin it as well.  And the cycle will keep repeating until all dogs are banned.

 

Not to mention, I dont think my poor children could not handle loosing another dog.  We just lost our 13 year Doberman on July 4, 2007.   She was here before we had kids therefore, she was a constant  love in their lives.  As well as, I really dont think my husband could stand returning home from Afghanistan to find out that his “daughter” was gone.  You see, our rottweiller is not just a dog to us.  She is part of our family

 

 Thank you for your time.