This browser does not support the Video element.
Dog attacking neighborhood pets: residents
Some Melbourne, Florida residents say they are terrified of a neighborhood dog that keeps getting loose and attacking other dog owners and their pets.
MELBOURNE, Fla. - Some Melbourne, Florida residents say they are terrified of a neighborhood dog that keeps getting loose and attacking other dog owners and their pets.
"Out of the blue, this dog comes charging full force, knocked me down all three times into the road, and grabbed my dog," Cindy Ingraham says.
She said she fractured her knee after a neighborhood dog named Ko-Ko escaped its home.
"I was terrorized, completely terrorized. Spit coming all over my face. I could feel its hot breath on my cheek. I was just laying there waiting to be grabbed. It kept ‘Grrrr!’ right here, and then biting at my dog, grabbing at her."
Ingraham is not the only neighbor in Woodland Manor afraid of the Labrador Hound mix breed. In a doorbell video camera recording, you can hear one of Ingraham's neighbors screaming in the distance. Ingraham says the neighbor's finger was fractured during an attack.
"My dog was attacked twice, unprovoked on a leash," explains Donna Beiler who is also afraid to walk her dog. "Grabbed her by her head, punctured her eye, and blinded her in her right eye."
They say five people have been attacked in the last two years. Ingraham says they have called Brevard County Animal Control for answers.
Cindy Ingraham says a neighborhood dog continues to terrorize other pets and pet owners in her Woodland Manor community in Melbourne, Florida.
"They tell us if no one has stitches, basically it doesn’t matter if your dog was blinded or if your dog was hurt," Ingraham says, "or you were hurt or even had or had a fractured knee cap."
A Brevard County Sheriff’s spokesperson says they have responded to the dog owner's home and have issued citations, but don’t have authority to take the dog. That’s because the owner says the dog didn’t actually bite anyone.
"Basically, the law’s not set to protect anyone who’s being attacked," Beiler adds. "The laws need to be addressed somehow."
FOX 35 News talked to the dog’s owner. He says Ko-Ko has gotten out of the house accidentally a few times and apologizes to all his neighbors for the trouble. The neighbor says he has paid for the veterinarian bills after Beiler's dog went blind.
Ingraham says everyone is scared and wants the dog relocated. She is collecting information to give to her state representative and the sheriff asking for changes.
"Notarized, signed affidavits by our community in Woodland Manor to get this dog labeled a dangerous do,g so we can somehow have some level of protection."
The elderly man that owns Ko-Ko says he loves her and doesn’t want to get rid of her. Deputies say they are working with him, to find ways to keep the dog from getting loose.