Two Chihuahuas Uninjured in Jacksonville Dog Attack

A neighbor's loose dog attacked two chihuahuas and chased a teenage boy through a front yard on Crescent Street in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida, in June 2022, according to home surveillance video aired by the local NBC affiliate News4JAX. The chihuahuas, the boy, and the boy's mother were not injured.

The video, shared with News4JAX by the family, shows the boy walking his two chihuahuas in the front yard when the neighbor's larger dog pushes through a partially-open gate, crosses the property line, and reaches the smaller dog within a few seconds. The family identified the chihuahuas as Lilly and Sammy and the boy as Jamil George.

"I saw that dog first like pop its head out the gate and take it back in," Jamil George said in the on-camera interview with News4JAX. "That's the point that I knew the dog was going to come out of the gate again."

Curated Pick

From the Journal · Health

Chihuahua Health Problems: 3 Things Every Owner Must Know

The three chihuahua health problems your veterinarian wishes you knew about before your first visit.

Read the article →

The attack

The attacking dog, a large mixed-breed from the property next door, cleared the gate and reached Sammy, the smaller of the two chihuahuas, within approximately three seconds of entering the yard, according to the video timestamp. Sammy ran across the street to escape; Lilly followed, drawing the larger dog into a second engagement in the across-the-street yard.

Stacey George, the boy's mother, was inside the house when she heard her son call out. She came to the door, saw the larger dog through the front bushes, and ran outside to help.

"I heard him screaming, then came up towards the door, and I saw the dog careen into these bushes," Stacey George said in an interview with News4JAX. "He was attacking my smaller boy dog."

The owner of the larger dog crossed the street with a neighbor and helped Stacey George pull the dog off Lilly. The total elapsed time from breach to recovery, on the visible footage, was under a minute. Both chihuahuas were examined and found uninjured. The boy and his mother were not bitten.

The response

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services, the city agency responsible for animal-related complaints, were called to the property, according to News4JAX. No citations were issued against the owner of the larger dog. The two families agreed to handle the matter informally and to make changes to the fencing between the two yards.

News4JAX reported, in follow-up reporting, that several neighbors had previously called animal control about the George family's two chihuahuas being walked off-leash on the block. In the specific incident captured on video, both chihuahuas were in their own front yard, on their own property, when the larger dog crossed the line.

The owner of the larger dog declined to comment on camera. She told News4JAX that she had not seen the surveillance footage and wanted to move past the incident, according to the station's reporting.

The pattern, briefly

Loose-dog incidents are the single largest category of animal-related complaints in most American cities, according to the National Animal Care and Control Association. In Jacksonville, Animal Care and Protective Services responded to more than 18,000 calls for service in fiscal year 2021, the most recent year for which the city publishes detailed call data. Loose-dog complaints, which include both straying and fence-breach cases, accounted for the largest single share.

Small-breed owners, including chihuahua owners, are disproportionately affected. Toy breeds are more likely to be the smaller party in a multi-dog incident and more likely to require veterinary care after a bite, according to a 2019 review published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior. The case in Murray Hill ended without injury. Many do not.

How to help, in your neighborhood

Residents in neighborhoods with a history of loose-dog incidents can take several specific actions, according to guidance published by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the National Animal Care and Control Association:

• Report repeat off-leash sightings to your city's animal control agency in writing. Most cities track call patterns by address, and a documented pattern is what triggers enforcement.
• Walk small dogs on a short leash, no longer than six feet, in any front-yard space that is not enclosed by a closed gate. The case in Murray Hill happened in an unenclosed front yard.
• Audit the perimeter of any shared fence line. Gaps under a fence, partially-open gates, and damaged panels are the three most common breach points in residential loose-dog cases.
• If your own dog has a history of running the fence with a neighbor's dog, talk with the neighbor and your veterinarian about the behavior before it escalates.

Where the case stands

The George family told News4JAX that they planned to retrofit the shared fence to prevent the dogs from reaching each other through the boundary. The owner of the larger dog has not, on the available reporting, publicly committed to changes on her side of the line. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office considers the case closed without citation.

"I feel very blessed and fortunate because I know it could have bitten me, and I know it could have attacked him and been a hospital visit or worse," Stacey George said.

For deeper reading on the broader loose-dog and chihuahua-rescue beat, the Matilda case in Nova Scotia covers a small-dog incident with a very different outcome.

Original reporting by News4JAX, June 2022.