JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Residents of a Lakewood neighborhood say it’s happening again — and they’re outraged.
In June 2018, News4JAX learned of a problem involving two dogs roaming neighborhoods along St. Augustine Road between San Marco and Lakewood. Those dogs were believed to be responsible for killing 16 house cats and seven chickens.
Now, neighbors said, two more roaming dogs are believed to be on a cat-killing spree in the same area.
We first met Cynthia Carter-Ross back after her 8-year-old cat, Big Baby, was killed in her front yard by two roaming dogs.
“They [dragged] him through the ditch. He was pretty much eviscerated,” Carter-Ross said in 2018.
At the time, “Big Baby” was one of more than a dozen cats killed by what was believed to be the same two roaming dogs between Lakewood and San Marco.
“I came running out just to see the two dogs carrying my cat away in their mouth,” then said resident Mark Bronstein.
One of the dogs, Ross later said, was hit by a car. The attacks stopped. But now, neighbors say two new dogs have been recently roaming into the neighborhood and killing people’s pets.
Most recently, Carter-Ross’s elderly cat, Mi, was sitting on the hood of her car in her driveway along Bishop Circle. Surveillance footage caught one of the dogs lunging at the cat, which, unfortunately, couldn’t get away.
“It was very brutal and very sad,” Carter-Ross. “And to think this happened to my other cat just a few years ago, the same thing. Somebody doesn’t care of the dogs and just let them run around.”
Betty Griffith lives several doors down from Carter-Ross and believes the same two roaming dogs recently killed her cat. While she’s concerned about other neighbors’ cats, she’s also concerned about the safety of her neighbors’ small children.
“They walk and they ride their little scooters through here. We’ve never had a problem before. But now, it’s beginning to be a concern with the vicious dogs,” Griffith said.
I reached out to the city to find out what animal control is doing about this problem and was told they can’t comment because it’s an active case.