VIEWPOINT
Letters to the editor unfounded

This is a response regarding the responses of the people towards the dog attacks in Gulf Breeze. When Mr. McDaniel was attacked by the two Great Danes and German shepard, it wasn't very surprising to me because just a month earlier on December 15, I was attacked by the same two Great Danes.

My mom said that there were some pretty misleading responses to the dog attacks in the paper and that I should check them out. I started reading the responses and I couldn't believe how the people where handling the situation.

First off, there was no sign about the dogs when I was attacked and I had been to the owners house many times in the past, and I was comfortable with the dogs around me. Yes, I was bitten by both of the dogs on each of my arms and on my back and my shirt was ripped, and there are pencil sized bite holes on both sleeves, but that is nothing compared to what Mr. McDaniel went through. Mr. McDaniel could have died.

So I'm 16 years old and weigh almost 140 pounds and when you get bit by two 180 pound dogs that sit four feet off the ground, you get a little scared. No one besides Mr. McDaniel and I know what it's like to get attacked by dogs this size.

I've told the WHOLE story to my parents, the doctor who took care of me, and my friends but they still don't know what really happened like Mr. McDaniel and I do. I'm only 16 and I don't know anything about "animal rights" groups but I can tell you that those dogs are capable of killing some one. So yeah, there's a sign in the front saying DO NOT TRESPASS because of the dogs but what about the little kid who can't read. When he rides his bike up the drive way to see the dogs and gets killed, whose to blame for that one? You can decide. I spent that night sleepless and on painkillers, but Mr. McDaniel spent his night in the hospital because he had to get stitches for all of his wounds.

Like I said earlier, you don't understand what it's like being attacked by dogs much less that are bigger than you. If a little poodle bites you, then you can just kick it off, but it took sticks to get these dogs off this man.

In the end, these dogs are hungry for blood and at this rate it won't be long before somebody else is attacked and who knows how that attack would turn out.

I'm defending myself against the owners, I'm just informing the people (who seem to know so much about Mr. McDaniel's and my attack) that if it was you with the scars on your arms, then you would have thought twice before writing such a disgusting response.

Philip Floyd

Gulf Breeze