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Pit bulls' path of fear

Neighbors worry for the safety of their pets after recent dog attacks.

By THOMAS LAKE
Published January 28, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Janel Schroeder-Norton] Fran Cianfarani holds an old photograph of her 16-year-old Siamese cat, Ming, as she stands where Ming was killed by dogs at her home in Hudson. "Before I go to bed, I cry, almost every night," Cianfarani says.

HUDSON - Oreo was a tomcat. He died New Year's Day. His people buried him in the back yard, wrapped in a dolphin-print blanket, after three dogs crushed his body and tore out his eye.

The dogs lived across the street. Their leader was a pit bullterrier named Goliath. They liked to run in a pack and swim in the olive-green canal. They had killed before, but authorities returned them to their owner.

"They just slap him on the hand and fine him," said Mary St. Germain, whose adult son owned Oreo. "And he goes on his way."

Paul Soprano's dogs have killed at least two and as many as four cats, according to county documents obtained by the St. Petersburg Times. They have sown terror in the Leisure Beach and Signal Cove subdivisions for two years. And even though Soprano admitted the dogs have killed other animals while illegally running loose, officials from Pasco County Animal Services said there's not enough evidence to justify taking them away.

One exasperated neighbor is trying to accelerate the investigation. Richard Mariotti, who lives near Soprano and saw the dogs kill Oreo, recently installed a closed-circuit television system in the hope of catching their transgressions on tape.

"This is what we're forced to do," he said. "It's either take cameras or buy guns."

* * *

Fran Cianfarani cries almost every night. She misses her cat, a 16-year-old Siamese named Ming, who turned up dead outside her garage on Keel Court on Nov. 27, covered in blood and saliva. A neighbor said he had recently seen Soprano's dogs in the area.

Eighteen months earlier, on nearby Freeboard Court, Regina Nash found a dead black kitten in her yard. She had seen loose dogs around in the hours before her discovery; another man recognized them as Soprano's.

Animal control officers warned Soprano in both cases. They couldn't go further because no one saw the attacks. In other cases, people told officers they had seen the dogs loose and menacing but declined to sign witness affidavits. One said he was afraid of retaliation.

"They have to help us so we can help them," said Lynne Deddo, an Animal Services supervisor. "There's strength in numbers."

Soprano has been warned numerous times about his dogs' behavior, but Deddo said warnings alone would never result in their removal.

In order to be declared dangerous, which is one step away from quarantine and possible euthanasia, one of several conditions must be met. Among them:

- The dog attacks a human.

- Someone signs a sworn statement saying the dog has chased or menaced them on public property.

- The dog leaves the owner's property and badly hurts or kills more than one domestic animal.

Regarding the last condition, Deddo said Animal Services has proof of only one cat slaying by the dogs - that of Oreo on New Year's Day.

But here's an excerpt from a May 2005 Animal Services report, taken after the dead kitten was found:

"He stated the dogs constantly get out of the yard," the officer said of an interview with Soprano. "He stated he had to pay $15,000 to repair a cement driveway that his dogs ran through and that the dogs had killed a cat before."

Deddo said Soprano's admission does not count as a strike against his dogs.

"If my officer didn't move forward with it," she said, "maybe it wasn't anything to go on."

* * *

Soprano turned 31 on Wednesday. He has a cactus in his front yard and a birdbath inside a landscaped island. He told an animal control officer earlier this month that his dogs get out because his elderly parents open the doors when he isn't home.

When a reporter stopped by Thursday morning, he came out cursing in the cold.

"I'm in compliance with f------ animal control!" he said, adding that he'd recently bought a $3,000 kennel to confine the dogs.

He refused to answer most questions, but he talked a lot.

"My dad just had a heart attack!"

"My mom and dad are sick."

"Dude. A dog's a dog. A dog's not intelligent."

"It was an accident. You don't think I feel bad about this?"

He looked across the road at the reporter, who stood where the dogs had torn Oreo apart, and said:

"They need to have a law against cats."

Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 20:45:13]