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Rottweilers kill neighbor's dogs
By LOGAN D. MABE, Times Staff Writer LUTZ -- Laura Beuhring knew something was wrong the minute she opened the door to her Carrollton Lakes home. The dogs, two miniature pinschers named Fred and Zoe, weren't there to greet her. "I had a horrible feeling because I didn't hear them and normally they meet me at the door," said Beuhring, a professional golf instructor. Instead, she discovered three massive Rottweilers roaming her house. "When I saw those three in there, I was basically in shock," she said. "The blood was dry by the time I got home (about 7:30 p.m.)." The Rottweilers had killed the "min pins," and by all signs, they suffered a vicious death. "Rugs and chairs were damaged and the dogs were found in separate rooms of the house," said county Animal Services investigations supervisor Sgt. Lois Wimsett. "Zoe was in the dining room and Fred was in the kitchen." The scene was so grisly that Beuhring had to get professional help cleaning the house. Investigators determined that the Rottweilers, estimated to be between 90 and 100 pounds each, came from a neighbor's house April 5, dug under a fence in Beuhring's back yard and entered through a doggy door. "This is kind of a bizarre circumstance," said Animal Services communications director Dennis McCullough. "We do run into situations where an animal is off its owner's property and is killed by another dog, or in another yard. But to have the animals actually go into someone's domicile is pretty serious." Beuhring said she has had pets all of her life, but these were her first dogs. She got Fred and Zoe a little more than a year ago as pups. Beuhring said she had complained about the dogs in the past. "They were always coming onto my property and harassing me and my dogs," she said. Animal services investigators answered her complaints on two previous occasions, and the Rottweilers' owners were issued one warning for the dogs being loose. Once the dogs were taken into custody, their owners, Susan Arroyo and Juan Carlos Scull, signed away their rights to the animals. All three were euthanized Wednesday. Arroya and Scull did not return calls from a reporter. The couple were cited for allowing the dogs to get out, for owning vicious dogs and for their not having rabies tags and vaccinations. They will need to appear in animal court to answer the charges. If found guilty, they could be fined a minimum of $460 for each dog, according to state law. But that was no solace to Beuhring. "I'm not mad at the dogs," she said. "When they're in a pack, they're going to act like that. But they could have easily killed a child; that was my concern. "There's nothing I can do. I just have to keep going," said Beuhring. "I'm not going to ever have any more animals, I can tell you that. I've had pets all my life and this is the first time I've ever had dogs, and I'm not going to do that again." -- Logan D. Mabe can be reached at 269-5304 or at mabe@sptimes.com.
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