An eight-year-old boy in Florida was mauled and killed by a pair of dogs in a “horrific” attack on Monday, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Michael Chitwood told reporters that the young boy was riding his bike with his friends when he spotted a pair of dogs in the subdivision where he lived and approached to pet them.
The dogs reportedly were initially receptive to the attention but then began viciously attacking the boy, according to Chitwood. The boy died at the scene from his injuries.
Chitwood said the dogs were taken by deputies and were put into a quarantine and that the sheriff’s office is waiting for a response from the dog owners. He said the owners can either sign the dogs over to the sheriff’s office, or if they refuse to give up custody law enforcement will have to take the issue to court.
“We will do everything humanely possible to hold the owner of these dogs responsible, and we’re going to do everything possible to ensure that these animals are destroyed,” he said during a Tuesday press conference.
An eight-year-old boy in Florida was killed after being attacked by two dogs in the subdivision where he lived (Volusia County Sheriff’s Office)
Chitwood asked that anyone with information about the dogs or the dogs’ owners to contact law enforcement, noting that deputies were told stories of the dogs’ past destructive and aggressive behavior.
“As we went door to door last night, we heard horrific stories of how the dogs are always at large, of how they’ve destroyed chickens, and we’ve gotten some information from another county that they were involved in some other type of an incident there,” Chitwood said.
He noted that there had been no previous official police calls or 911 calls concerning the address or the dogs, and asked residents not to be afraid and to share information with the deputies.
“These dogs have been terrorizing the neighborhood for awhile and nobody decided to call us,” he said.
Volusia County’s director of animal services, Angela Miedema, said that the dogs running stray was a regular occurrence based on what she had been told by neighbors.
She described the dogs as a Pit Bull Terrier and a “Catahoula or herding breed mix.”
Police have called for the dogs to be killed and residents spoke about how the pets have frequently roamed the neighborhood (Volusia County Sheriff’s Office)
Chitwood said the boy’s injuries “just horrific,” and noted later that the boy had 12 bite wounds.
He said that the child’s mother dove on top of her son to stop the attack, and her cries that her son was not breathing were audible over a 911 call made by a witness. The mother was not injured in the attack.
During the 911 call, the witness can reportedly be heard telling other people to stay away from the dogs, fearing they’ll attack again, and calling for someone in her house to get her gun so she could shoot the animals.
The sheriff said that the Florida state attorney is already involved in the investigation and that law enforcement is working “really hard” to make sure the dogs’ owner is charged.
“That’s the ultimate goal; to charge her, and destroy the animals,” he said. “She needs to be held accountable.”
When deputies arrived on scene they had to chase the dogs away from the boy before they could take the animals into their custody. The dogs reportedly ran approximately a half a mile back to their owner’s property, where deputies gained control over them, according to Chitwood.
Body cam footage of the incident shows a deputy chasing the dogs down a long road from the site of the attack — where the boy’s mother can be heard wailing in agony. When another deputy approaches the property, the dogs charge, prompting the deputy to pull his pistol and scream at the dogs to stop.
No charges have been brought against the owner as of Tuesday afternoon.