Tricia Pagoria said it’s normal for her Winter Grove neighbors to walk their dogs without a leash. Although she doesn’t agree with it, she never had filed a complaint with Vero Beach police or the complex’s homeowners association.

Until June 10, 2018. 

“All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I see a dog running through my backyard, and I’m like, ‘Oh no!’ ” said Pagoria, who was letting her 4-pound Maltese out in her front yard when she saw one of her neighbor’s pit bulls charging toward them. 

“I went to reach down and grab Sophie, but she moved, and then the dog leaped on her. It had her by her neck, in its mouth, and began shaking her. I grabbed the dog, screaming, ‘Someone help me, someone help me!’ while it was just shaking the living daylights out of my Sophie.”

With her husband’s help, Pagoria managed to rip the pit bull away from Sophie and rushed her to the veterinary hospital. Two days later, she learned Sophie was paralyzed and needed to be put down. 

Police told Pagoria she had to report the incident to Indian River County animal control, whose officers filed an incident report and urged Pagoria to start taking photos of off-leash dogs. She does, and regularly submits them as evidence. 

Yet the issue persists, daily. And to this day, Pagoria does not know whether her neighbors faced any legal or financial consequences. 

“My dog did not die in vein here, and I’m going to do whatever I have to do to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” she said. 

Odds are, it will.

Lax enforcement

Florida has no law requiring domestic animals be leashed in public.

Though Treasure Coast cities and counties have ordinances requiring not only dogs but cats to be under restraint, animal control and law enforcement agencies do not enforce the leash laws aggressively, a TCPalm investigation found. 

In the three-county area this year, there were 700 dog bites reported to police and the state health department through September, yet only 269 citations were issued for unrestrained dogs in that same time.

That number seems low, considering how common it is to have dogs outside in the Sunshine State, said Colleen Lynn, founder of DogBites.org, a nonprofit that aims to educate the public on dog safety issues. But it’s typical nationwide, she said. 

“They set their own priorities,” said Lynn, who was attacked by a pit bull in her former Seattle neighborhood in 2007. “I think (police) want that image of building a relationship with dog owners through education, but this is the first tenet of public safety — to have your dog leashed — and it’s in the law, and it should be taken more seriously.”

Most Treasure Coast municipalities focus on education over enforcement and are more reactive to complaints than proactive through patrolling, officials told TCPalm. 

“It’s against the law, but is it something we go stake out in the bushes and try to cite them? No,” said Martin County Animal Services Unit Deputy William Weiss. “We don’t write a lot of (failure to restrain citations) just out of the blue. … If you can educate someone without giving a monetary fine, they’re going to heed that advice.” 

Education, warnings, citations

Port St. Lucie is an exception, with officers assigned to patrol for loose dogs about six times a year, said interim animal control administrator Bryan Lloyd.

Like most municipalities though, Port St. Lucie typically doesn’t cite violators until the third offense, first giving a verbal warning and then a written warning. Chronic problems get home visits, but a dog won’t be removed unless there was a severe or fatal bite; and even then, the dog could be returned to the home after the investigation ends. 

Loose dogs are not a priority for Vero Beach police, which receives few complaints about them, spokesperson Darrell Rivers acknowledged. Officers typically won’t even stop when they do see an unrestrained dog, unless it’s alone, he said. 

The majority of issues occur near the beach, not in residential areas, he said, but some residents disagreed with that assessment.

“I have had around a dozen altercations in my neighborhood alone!” Margaret Walls, of Vero Beach, wrote in span Fspancebook comment. 

She’s not alone. Deborah McEntee, Cathy Sleph, Mike Reed, Heather Daves and Joy Williams have all taken to social media to express frustration that loose dogs are a regular, if not daily, issue in their respective neighborhoods and apartment complexes. 

“We walk our dogs every day, sometimes two times. We have to carry a rod and pepper spray,” Reed wrote. “We were attacked by two pit bulls, but since there was no blood, nothing happened. In fact, the police were not willing to do anything.”

Exposure to lawsuits

The push for education-first, or at least issuing fewer citations, started around 2013 with the National Animal Control Association, or NACA, backing the stance.

Low fines aren’t worth the trouble of going to court and judges often dismiss the citations anyway, Lynn said.

But lax enforcement could expose governments to costly, taxpayer-funded lawsuits.

Case in point: a wrongful despanth spannd personspanl injury lspanwsuit was filed Montgomery County, Ohio, and Mark Kumpf, the former director of the Animal Resource Center, Lynn said. The suit claims a woman called the agency at least 13 times expressing fear and concern about her neighbor’s unrestrained dogs — mixed-breed pit bull mastiffs — being on her property. 

She was found mauled to death by them in February 2015. 

Kumpf had switched from “enforcement mode” to “education mode” in 2006, and the number of citations dropped by over 33% in the first two years of his tenure, the lawsuit states. Of the more than 20,000 calls ARC received about animals in 2013 and 2014, about 697, or 3.4%, resulted in citations. 

Not enough manpower

Treasure Coast agencies would need more time and resources to step up enforcement, said Jason Ogilvie, animal control manager for Indian River County, whose four officers are constantly running from one complaint to the next.

“If they had the time,” they would be more likely to patrol for loose dogs in problem areas, he said. “We just don’t have the manpower to do that. … With more officers, we’d be able to expand our service hours and handle these situations faster and more frequently.” 

Vero Beach police have one animal services officer, but adding staff wouldn’t change much, Rivers said. All police officers are trained to handle dog-related incidents, and he thinks responding to complaints is the best use of the department’s resources. 

Dog owners are the key to preventing loose dogs, said Lloyd and Peggy Arraiz, of Fort Pierce’s animal control.

“This is a community issue that can only be addressed by educating the public,” Arraiz said. “Pet owners need to understand the dangers they expose their pets to when they let them out unrestrained and without supervision.”

Lloyd agreed more officers would cut travel time to complaints and increase chances of observing violations. But most often, the damage is already done when officers arrive, so it’s the pet owners’ responsibility to not let their dogs run loose. 

“How we can prevent that is the million-dollar question,” he said. 

How do I report an issue?

• Indian River County Animal Control — 772-226-3485
• St. Lucie County Animal Safety, Services & Protection — 772-462-8120
• Martin County Sheriff’s Office Animal Services Unit — 772-463-3211
• Vero Beach Police Department Animal Control Officer — 772-978-4600
• Fort Pierce Animal Control — 772-467-3149
• Port St. Lucie Animal Control — 772-871-5042

How much are citations?

• Indian River County: Start at $115 and increase with each repeated offense. On the fourth citation, the pet owner must appear in court. 
• St. Lucie County: $100 per animal on the first citation and $200 for the second. Owner must appear in court on the third offense. 
• Martin County: Start at $105 and increase $100 with each additional offense. 
• Port St. Lucie: Starts at $50 and doubles with each repeated offense. 
• Fort Pierce: The amount is based on the situation and number of offenses, and it can cost anywhere between $50 and $200
• Vero Beach: $50 for the first citations, and $100 for each repeated offense 

Where can my dog run free?

Indian River County

• Vero Beach Dog Park, 3449 Indian River Drive East
• Sebastian Bark Park, 245 Keen Terrace
• Indispann River Shores bespanches, from sunrise to 9 span.m. spannd from 5 p.m. to sunset

Fort Pierce

• Maravilla Dog Park, Oleander and Maple avenues
• Savannas Recreation Area, 1400 E. Midway Road

Port St. Lucie

• Lyngate Park, 1301 S.E. Lyngate Drive
• McChesney Pspanrk, 1585 S.W. Cspanshmere Blvd.
• Woodland Trails Park, 1485 S.W. Calmar Ave.

Jensen Beach: Walton Rocks Beach, 6700 South Ocean Drive

Stuart: Poppleton Creek Dog Park, 51 S.E. Central Parkway

What are the local dog laws?

• Martin County: Animals are not allowed off the owner’s property unless it is under restraint by a chain, leash or similar device, or is in a secure enclosure. All animals must be securely confined and not permitted to run loose.
• St. Lucie County: Animals are not allowed off the owner’s private property unless the animal is under restraint by a leash.
• Indian River County: Owners must keep animals under restraint when outside the home by a leash, cord, rope or chain no longer than 6 feet.
• Port St. Lucie: All domestic pets must be properly restrained on a leash or within an enclosed area at all times while outside the confines of the owner’s home.
• Fort Pierce: Animals shall not be allowed outside the confines of their own homes without proper restraint: leash, fenced area, electronic barrier, cage or crate.
• Vero Beach: No owner can allow its dog or cat to be at large, meaning off the owner’s property and not under control by a leash no longer than 8 feet. In an open vehicle, the leash must be securely fastened to it and not be longer than 4 feet.