Dog bites father walking with 7-year-old son

SPRING HILL (FOX 13) - Two dogs on the loose in a Hernando County neighborhood are accused of attacking a man and his child. One of the dogs was taken into quarantine.

The incident happened Sunday morning off Pinehurst Drive in Spring Hill.

According to witnesses, the pet boxers were roaming their front yard and nearby streets freely after somehow getting out of their owner’s fenced in yard while she was away.

“People were passing by with bicycles and everything, and they would try to bite those people,” said Christel Hernandez, who called 911 after noticing the dogs on the loose. From behind her fence, she tried yelling at pedestrians to warn them before going near the dogs, including a man and his 7-year-old son out on a morning walk.

“I was screaming at him to be careful,” said Hernandez, “but the dogs came to him, running and biting him.”

The father was bitten by one of the dogs on the back of his leg. He said he tried to fight them off by punching one of the dogs, as a neighbor pulled the boy into her fenced yard for protection.

According to witnesses, drivers passing by began to blow their horns to scare the dogs away. Eventually, they retreated back to their yard.

On Monday, Hernando County Animal Control officers took one of the dogs into quarantine.

Their owner said her boxers, “Kerwin and Cash,” a 4-year-old and nearly 9-month old, are not vicious.

She said she has never seen them attack anyone, including her young children, and the dogs would not bite unless they were provoked.

Upon returning home from a weekend vacation, she said it appeared as though someone opened her fence, allowing the dogs to get out.

“Cash,” the younger dog, is being held by Animal Control on a 10-day quarantine, so officials can insure it is safe for him to return home.