After getting home from work Tuesday, Joe Desousa took his 11-year-old pit bull, Troy, out for a walk and moments later he was running for his life. He kept to his property and the sidewalk behind his house along Library Road and then started back toward his home on Muffin Court when he saw his neighbor coming toward him. Then he saw the machete in one hand and gun in the other as the man approached, he said. Peter J. Petraglia, 62, screamed to Desousa he was going to kill him, according to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report, and squeezed the trigger, firing the gun but missed him. Desousa started to run toward his porch with Troy in tow. ...more

September 10, 2008

What's the difference between the presidential campaign before and after the national political conventions? Lipstick. The colorful cosmetic has become a political buzzword, thanks to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's joke in her acceptance speech that lipstick is the only thing that separates a hockey mom like her from a pit bull. ...more

September 10, 2008

A Dover woman was being held at Orient Road Jail on Friday after animal investigators and deputies found 10 emaciated dogs at her house. ...more

August 30, 2008

A Dover woman is being held at Orient Road Jail this morning after animal investigators and deputies found 10 emaciated dogs at her house. ...more

August 29, 2008

I could feel her eyes watching my every move. "Wait a minute!" she snapped. "What are you doing? You go first! She goes second! Are you the lead dog around your house or not?" ...more

August 18, 2008

Bernann McKinney says her beloved pit bull Booger saved her life when another dog attacked her, then learned to push her wheelchair while she recovered from a severe hand injury and nerve damage. ...more

August 8, 2008

Pinellas County Animal Services has initiated a dangerous dog investigation now that officials have been told the bites inflicted on a 6-year-old boy Sunday by a mixed-breed pit bull were severe. Linda Britland, the field enforcement manager for Animal Services, said investigators are seeking a copy of a Pinellas sheriff's report on the attack. Investigators are also asking that the parents of the boy, Tydal Sugar, provide specific information on the boy's injuries. ...more

August 5, 2008

The mixed-breed pit bull that bit a 6-year-old boy Sunday remains in quarantine while its owner decides whether to have the animal euthanized. ...more

August 5, 2008

The mixed-breed pit bull that bit a 6-year-old boy Sunday remains in quarantine while its owner decides whether to have the animal euthanized. The dog, a 2-year-old named Tucker, is the property of Dunedin Doggie Rescue, founder Ken Koenig said. ...more

August 4, 2008

A 6-year-old boy was bitten today in the shoulder and head by a dog his family recently adopted, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said. ...more

August 3, 2008