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Expect Pit Bull Attacks to Continue
• State Representative Perry Thurston says too few cities speaking up about change
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Monday,
June 15, 2009
Margate Resident, Alice (Michele) Balaska and her tiny Lhasa-Shitsu mix pet companion Molly were viciously attacked by two pit bulls when strolling along Royal Palm Boulevard last year just before Christmas.
Armed with a 9mm Glock, Balaska's neighbor, Wilson Evelandia, came running from his home and blasted two hollow point bullets into the swale to scare the dogs off Balaska. The plan worked, but not before Michele Balaska suffered 13 bites to the body and Molly was critically wounded.
Six months later, Balaska and Molly both have recovered and the two are finally out walking again – but not too far from home. “It’ll never be the same,” Balaska said.
“I’m petrified of dogs now, and constantly have to look around me when I’m out. Not in a million years did I ever think anything like this would happen to me…the dogs [pit bulls] just kept coming…biting me all over.”
Valska told MargateNews.net that if it wasn’t for Evelandia; the dogs probably would have killed six-pound Molly then her.
“I kept my arms wrapped tight around her, but they just kept pulling on her, trying to shake her loose from my grip.”
Balaska sustained bites and scratches on her arms, legs, back and face. One pit bull pulled her to ground, she said, while the other viciously tore at Molly.
“They worked as a team,” said Balaska, adding that since the attack she never leaves the house without pepper spray.
“When these dogs clamp their jaws down…it’s like a vice,” Balaska said.
Of the 636 total dog bites reported in Broward County in 2008, roughly thirty percent – or 203 bites – were Pit Bull related. Labrador Retrievers came in second at 42 bites; German Sheperds at 34 and Rottweilers at 33. All other breeds paled in comparison.
Two years in a row Florida Representative, Perry Thurston has proposed to state lawmakers a bill that would allow local governments more freedom in passing breed-specific dog laws. Two years in a row Thurston’s ‘Dangerous Dog Bill’ has been overlooked by the Florida Senate.
Meanwhile pit bull attacks across the state continue; disrupting quiet neighborhoods and threatening the well-being and safety of children, adults and unsuspecting pets.
Just last week, a 73-year-old Lake County woman was hospitalized after being mauled by a pit bull that was in the midst of a 10-day quarantine check for rabies. The women suffered puncture wounds to her arms, lower legs and thigh areas, according to a police report. She was airlifted to the hospital.
“Until we can get the support of all the municipalities, it’s going to be difficult to get this bill passed,” Thurston said. “We’ve gotten a positive response from the majority -- but resolutions from just a few cities,” he told MargateNews.net.
“It’s the silent majority that’s causing us not to move forward.”
Currently, Florida state law prohibits municipalities from discriminating against specific dog breeds. Although dangerous dog laws are in place in Margate, the city’s hands are tied in outlawing what is considered by most to be a very dangerous, unpredictable breed of dog.
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Miami-Dade County – and Broward cities Hollywood, Sunrise and Tamarac – had either banned or regulated pit bulls before the State of Florida prohibited cities from doing so circa 1990.
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Margate officials pursued the owners of Balaska’s attackers with the full force of the law at hand. The owners of pit bulls, “Sugar” and “Orion,” who reside at 2100 NW 76th Avenue (just a few houses down from the attack) were not only cited with permitting their dogs to roam at large, Sugar and Orion were officially declared dangerous dogs and required to be quarantined for no less than ten days.
Margate City Attorney, Eugene Steinfeld, said owners of the dogs, Romeo Da Silva and Renita Simon, must now carry $100,000 in insurance in case their dogs bite another person or pet, and must pay $5,729.38 in restitution to Balaska, the cost of saving Molly’s life. If the dogs get loose and injure a pet or person again, Steinfeld said, there’s a good chance the dogs will be put down.
“It’s the worst attack I’ve seen in Margate in the 31 years of being city attorney here,” he said.
Da Silva and Simon have appealed paying the restitution to Balaska, despite the undisputable fact that their pit bulls almost killed the neighbor's dog and mauled its owner. They don’t think it’s their fault their dogs got out, because, according to the police report, they don’t know how the side door of their garage got open.
In fact, at one of the hearings said Balaska, Da Silva's attorney said the garage door may have been opened by an act of god.
One thing is for sure, pit bull owners Da Silva and Simon have never called or visited Balaska to see how she and Molly are doing.
Some neighbors suspect the couple of breeding pit bulls at their Margate home. Studs have been seen coming and going from the residence and, at one point, a dozen pit bull puppies were seen in the yard.
According to unofficial reports, some in Broward raise pit bulls to fight in Miami, where pit bulls are illegal to possess as pets.
“It was the nightmare of my life,” said Balaska. “I couldn’t believe it was happening.”
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Copyright Cassius Group 2009
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