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Family Upset, Fearful After Pit Bull Jumps Fence, Kills Dog

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By PETER BERNARD

News Channel 8

Published: March 10, 2009

A Seminole family is upset with the law after a neighbor's pit bull escaped from its yard and killed its puppy Saturday.

The pit bull jumped the six-foot fence in Jennifer and Joe Paolillo's backyard with ease and got to their Pomeranian puppy, Honey.

"That dog had my dog in his mouth and was shaking her side to side like a stuffed animal," Jennifer Paolillo said.

"I took the board and I was knocking him on the head a bunch of times and my husband was trying to punch him and pull him off of Honey," she said. Their dog was soon dead.

A Pinellas County ordinance says a dog must attack an animal more than once to be considered dangerous.

Just minutes before the pit bull made it into the family's backyard, Joe Paolillo noticed two young men chasing after the pit bull.

"The owners are running by me, and one of the owners says, stay back because this is a bad dog," Joe Paolillo said.

The Paolillos feel trapped in their home by fear of the dog owned by Chauncie Glenn Stipp, but there's nothing they can do.

"It's ridiculous because, had it been five seconds earlier, I was out here," Jennifer Paolillo said.

"He could be the one we're talking about, about how my son is dead or my son is injured."

She said no one has offered an apology, and the dog still lives 50 yards away.

Attempts to reach Stipp were unsuccessful.

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