Seized dogs not known to bite

"They have split personalities," an animal control official says of pit bullterriers. He advises that children not be left with them unsupervised.

By WILLIAM YARDLEY and JORGE SANCHEZ

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 16, 1999

INVERNESS -- The attack by pit bullterriers that killed Melissa Hunt -- the first fatal dog attack in Citrus County -- left many people wondering how a girl so small could be left alone to supervise four animals so potentially fierce.

One of the dogs taken and impounded from the scene of the attack is caged at the Citrus County Animal Control. [Times photo: Steve Hasel]

"They're just ferocious dogs," Citrus County Animal Control Director Hank Baggett said Thursday. Baggett said no small child should play with pit bulls without supervision.

But the only way criminal charges would be filed in such a case would be if the dogs had been labeled "dangerous" by the county and the owner was aware of the designation.

The four dogs that authorities believe attacked Melissa apparently had not caused trouble before, Baggett said. They belonged to Claude Blount, the live-in boyfriend of Melissa's mother, Sandra Yates Hunt.

Neighbors said the dogs often roamed the streets around Melissa's home at 6707 Turner Camp Road. They could be intimidating, the neighbors said, but no one interviewed Wednesday or Thursday recalled them as vicious.

A day after Melissa was found floating in the lake behind her home, her naked body ravaged with bite wounds, Baggett said the case could help prevent future tragedies.

"Maybe the increased awareness (from the attack) will help other parents supervise their children," he said, as television crews gathered to interview him at the animal control headquarters on U.S. 41 south of Inverness.

In the building next door, caged behind signs depicting a snarling dog and the words "Dangerous Dog" in red letters, the four pit bullterriers were docile. One wagged its tail at a visitor. The smallest, an 18-pound male puppy no more than 3 months old, curled into a corner and ducked its head beneath its water trough.

"They have split personalities," said Baggett, paging through a three-ring notebook on the case he had begun putting together that morning, just 12 hours after Blount pulled Melissa's body to shore.

Baggett

Pit bullterriers can be sweet and friendly, Baggett said, "But if something happens, they go into an attack mode. And they're in that attack until it's finished. There's no quitting. It's very destructive. They have very strong jaws."

One of the dogs had joined the pack just a few weeks ago, a factor Baggett said could have contributed to unsettling their hierarchy. "They've got their established pecking order," he said, "and the new dog's going to upset it, for sure.

Would pit bulls have barked and bayed loudly during an attack? Not necessarily, he said. "They just go in, and crunch," Baggett said, slamming his fist into his palm. "They're on it."

Baggett said the four dogs captured at the house Wednesday night will remain impounded until the Citrus County Sheriff's Office completes its investigation into Melissa's death. But with preliminary autopsy results indicating it was the dogs, and not alligators, that killed Melissa, the dogs likely will be euthanized.

Blount could have the chance to fight for their custody in court. "Those dogs are so cool," Blount said Thursday morning, before the autopsy results were returned.

"We have the right to hold them during the investigation," Baggett said. "But it's just like any other crime. You've got to provide evidence."

If the dogs are guilty, Baggett said, "I'm going to go after them."

The largest dog impounded is a 59-pound black-and-white male. The others are a 54-pound male, a 39-pound female and the puppy. "I don't know if these are pedigreed dogs," Baggett said. "Not every bull dog is a pit bull."

An aerial view shows the property where 5-year-old Melissa Hunt was killed Wednesday. Melissa was found floating in the lake behind her home, her naked body ravaged with bite wounds. [Times photo: Steve Hasel]

Pit bullterriers earned their name from being trained to fight dogs or other animals in enclosed arenas or pits. In recent years the dogs have grown in popularity in both urban and rural areas.

There were 199 fatal dog attacks on people from 1979 to 1994 in the United States, according to statistics from the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Nearly a third of the attacks, 60, were attributed to pure- or mixed-breed pit bullterriers. Rottweilers were second, responsible for 29 fatalities in the same period.

Florida had 14 fatal attacks by all types of dogs during the period. There were a total of 279 deaths nationwide from dogs during the period, but the type of dog was only known in 199.

A number of pit bullterrier attacks on people have been reported in Citrus County:

• In March 1998, a Homosassa man was attacked by a pit bullterrier during a family fight. Tim Courtney, 19 at the time, was hospitalized with severe bites to his neck, ribs and chin. The dogs' owner, David Stultz, allegedly ordered the dog to attack Courtney during a fight, according to Sheriff's Office reports. Courtney was charged the same month with causing the death of his 4-month-old daughter, Nicole. He was acquitted this spring.
• In 1993, Lindsay Fassold, 10, was attacked by a mixed-breed pit bullterrier in Homosassa at her babysitter's home. The girl sustained facial and head wounds.
• In 1990, a pit bullterrier attacked 71-year-old Luther C. Cook of Homosassa. The dog bit Cook's legs and inner thigh while he was walking with a smaller dog in a neighborhood street.
• In 1989, 8-year-old John O'Brien was bitten by two pit bullterriers and a Labrador retriever in Crystal River. The dogs bit and mauled the boy in the face and neck.

Pit bullterriers were also involved in numerous fatal and non-fatal attacks on farm animals and other dogs in Citrus County.

Throughout the state, the dogs have been responsible for several attacks, some fatal. In 1992, a pit bullterrier killed a 2-year-old Orlando boy who wandered into a neighbor's yard to play with the dog. In 1995, a 67-year-old Hillsborough County woman was mauled by two dogs that entered her house. Deputies shot and killed the dogs.

The number of dog bites requiring medical attention has increased nationwide, from 585,000 in 1986 to 800,000 in 1994, according to statistics from the center.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.