LEESBURG, Fla. -- A Leesburg neighborhood is divided. Residents said dogs at a local home have attacked three times and their owner is now fighting to get one of them back. Even animal control workers are fighting to keep the animals from returning to the community.

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The owner of the two pit bulls responsible for the dog attacks was supposed to meet with Animal Control on Monday. But he didn't show and Channel 9 couldn't reach him. Neighbors hope he has a change of heart for everyone's safety.

The two pit bulls are caged up now, but months back they got loose in a Leesburg community and attacked a Chihuahua. Then, just last week, they attacked two more neighborhood dogs in the same day. A terrier got away with a puncture wound, but another dog, Gracie, was hurt badly.

Gracie hid under a car to escape the dogs. The Howards and their kids weren't home, but witnesses said the dogs broke through a fence, that is now repaired, and mauled Gracie.

Neighbors said the dogs also charged at two different people. Jeanmae Cordova's husband was nearly a victim.

"They came at him and he started screaming at them and yelling and they stopped," Cordova said.

Two little kids were around, too.

"It could've been either of those kids. At that point, I don't know what we'd done," said Glen Howard, Gracie's owner.

After hearing the owner wants at least one dog back, neighbors are worried.

"There's a time and a place for all of God's creatures. Having a dangerous animal in a neighborhood with kids is not it," said Howard.

The owner of the pit bulls lives just across from where Gracie was attacked, though he was seen packing up some things overnight and he didn't register either of his dogs as dangerous at Animal Control.

"The main concern is try to keep animals like this that we know are dangerous from returning back to that neighborhood," said Marjorie Boyd, director of Lake County Animal Control.

If the owner of the pit bulls doesn't show up and register the dogs, the dogs will eventually be put to sleep. Animal Control just raised its annual registration fees for dangerous dogs this year from $300 to $500. They're hoping that might serve as a deterrent to keep dangerous dogs from getting back out in the community.