A 17-year-old boy and his father were rushed to a local emergency room by ambulance Monday afternoon after a pack of five pit bulls attacked them while they were out walking in Marion County. The teen's mother, Susan Johns, said the same pack had already been reported to authorities earlier that same morning for attacking neighbors just blocks away.
Johns told Ocala-News.com that her husband and son were both attacked by the five dogs on Monday, September 28, and that both required emergency transport to a hospital. According to that same report, the pack had been called in to the Marion County Sheriff's Office earlier that morning for attacking neighbors along SE 73rd Street, well before the afternoon attack on the father and son occurred. The teen also described the ordeal directly to FOX 35 Orlando, saying he was attacked by the five dogs while walking with his father, who then recounted how he managed to get his son to safety.
Johns reportedly grew frustrated after county personnel told her, when contacted following the afternoon attack, that they were too busy to impound the animals, according to the Ocala-News.com account of the incident. The dogs had remained loose long enough to attack a second set of victims just hours after the earlier report.
A Second Severe Attack in a Single Weekend
The Monday attack came just a day after another serious dog attack elsewhere in Marion County. On Sunday, September 27, Marion County Fire Rescue responded to a severe animal bite in the 17000 block of SE 79th Street Road in Ocklawaha, where one victim was airlifted as a trauma alert aboard a UF Health ShandsCair helicopter and a second victim was taken by ground ambulance, the outlet's reporting notes. First responders from three local fire stations responded to that incident.
Back-to-back severe dog attacks over a single weekend have renewed concerns among some Marion County residents about roaming, aggressive dog packs. In January, FOX 35 Orlando reported that residents of a Silver Springs community in the county had already raised alarms after a roaming pack of five pit bull mixes terrorized neighbors and killed a pet dog, with some residents saying they had started carrying firearms outdoors out of fear of loose dogs.
What Florida Law Requires of Dog Owners
Florida law imposes strict liability on dog owners for injuries their animals inflict on a person in a public place or while lawfully on private property, regardless of whether the dog had shown vicious tendencies before, under Florida Statute § 767.04. That liability can only be reduced if the bitten person contributed to the incident through their own negligence.
Separately, Florida Statute § 767.13 makes it a first-degree misdemeanor if a dog previously classified as dangerous attacks or bites a person without provocation.
Rising Dog Bite Claims Statewide
The Marion County attacks land amid a broader statewide and national rise in dog-related injuries. Research by the Insurance Information Institute found Florida and California had the most dog-related injury insurance claims in 2025, with more than 2,000 each. Florida consistently ranks near the top nationwide alongside California for this category of claim.
Nationally, total U.S. insurance payouts for dog-related injuries reached a record $1.86 billion in 2025 across 28,450 claims, up 18.6 percent from 2024; claim volume rose 25 percent from 2024 and 57 percent over the past decade, per the same institute's findings.
