CALLAHAN, Fla. – A Nassau County family is fed up and calling for action after three family pets have been shot and killed in the last eight years.
A miniature dachshund was the latest animal to turn up dead on or around the family's property on Pinebreeze Boulevard in Callahan.
Tina Desislets said she and her family are being terrorized at their own home.
The spacious property has plenty of room for pets to roam, but that apparently didn’t stop someone from shooting and killing two cats and a dog, she said.
“We went out and found the cat running into the garage bleeding, took him to the vet, and they said he had been shot with a .22 and we needed to call the police,” Desislets said.
That was eight years ago. But two months ago, the family found another cat shot to death with an arrow, and just last week, a miniature dachshund, named Sophie, was also shot and killed.
“My dad came out -- he's 83 years old; we have an autistic 19-year-old, grandkids -- my dad came out and asked the police is there something they're going to do about this?” Desislets said.
A report from the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office shows that deputies responded to the home last Monday after the homeowner found the family’s dog near the back of the property shot to death inside a trash bag.
The report shows that a juvenile living next door admitted to shooting the dog, saying it was chasing and killing his chickens.
The sheriff’s office said that because the neighbor claimed he was defending the chickens by killing the dog on his own property, he legally did nothing wrong and was not arrested.
Desislets said that now she worries for her family’s safety on their own property.
“It's probably going to take one of us to get injured or killed for them to come out and do something,” she said. “It's just very scary that we can't do anything about this until someone is hurt.”
Desislets said she and her family feel helpless, but they're planning to install cameras around the property and are praying that this doesn’t happen again.