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County Launches Web Site Listing Where Dangerous Dogs Live

POSTED: 4:09 pm EST January 12, 2005

THE WEB SITE: Seminole County Declared Dangerous Dogs List

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- Dangerous dogs and where they live will now be posted on Seminole County's website. It's the first county in Central Florida to make the move. This comes after several recent dog attacks.

There wasn't one attack that led to this decision to post dangerous dogs publicly, instead it's the desire to keep more attacks from happening.

"Yeah, it's pretty silly. I think it's silly," says Keith Richards, who lives with dangerous dogs.

The notion of doggy mug shots may be comical to Richards, but this plan is no joke to officials with Seminole County Animal Control. They want to keep tabs on dogs, like Richards' two Doberman pinschers, who have been classified dangerous.

"If you live in the neighborhood, you certainly don't want your child to be playing with this dog not knowing that it's either bit or has an aggressive tendency," says Mike Wittmer, Seminole County Animal Control.

That's why the county will become the first in Central Florida to list its database of dangerous dogs publicly on the county's website.

"If you scroll down the website, it shows where the dog lives, the picture of the dog and I think most of us that own dogs would rather not have that on the website," says Wittmer.

Besides acting as a deterrent for owners of potentially dangerous animals, Wittmer says the new web page will keep folks, like Stephanie Littles, safe. She didn't even know the black lab that lives next door already bit someone.

"I would have never known it was a dangerous dog. I just knew it was a big dog and so now my awareness is raised and I'll handle myself differently," Littles says.

Dogs that have attacked other domestic animals more than once, those that have severely attacked people and even those that have chased or intimidated people would be added to the site.

Even Richards, who swears his dogs Harley and Davidson are sweethearts, can understand that.

"(If) they are considered large and scary dogs, then, yeah, put them on the list. But hopefully people can overlook the stereotypes," Richards says.

Hillsborough is the only other Florida county with a similar system in place. County officials say anything that will prevent someone from going through a dog attack is a worthy step.


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