BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Local 10 News Animal Advocate Jacey Birch recently conducted a two-part investigation on a dog that was never deemed dangerous.
That same dog, a large pit bull named Hercules, was responsible for three attacks on humans and three attacks on small dogs.
Hercules, owned by Willford Morris, has since been surrendered and euthanized.
“This could have been avoided, but because of your negligence and you not paying attention to your dog, a big dog too, it almost cost me mine,” said Susan Ramnarian, whose dog Joffer was attacked Hercules while on a walk in Lauderdale Lakes in January.
Miraculously, Joffer was saved after his owner was struck with more than $10,000 worth of vet bills.
“You have to understand this could have been a child,” said Ramnarian.
Local 10 News pulled Hercules’ file from Broward County Animal Care and reports show Hercules attacked a Yorkie named Cash and his owner on July 10 of last year. Cash had to be euthanized.
Hercules attacked again, going after a Shih Tzu named Adonis a month later, on Aug. 5, but there still was not enough evidence to deem Hercules a dangerous dog in court.
Then Local 10 News interviewed a family member of Morris, who suffered bites from Hercules along with her dog Casper in 2023, and had to undergo a painful rabies exposure treatment.
“I go up to try to retrieve my dog from Hercules’s mouth and that’s when Hercules grabs a hold of my right arm,” said Jodi Balom. “He bit this whole entire part of my arm.”
At that point, Morris had racked up more than $3,000 in citations for everything from failure to provide proof of rabies vaccine, failing to muzzle his animal, along with bites to another animal and an attack on a person, but yet the dog was still in his care until March 26.
Speaking on the phone to Morris, he said: “I made the decision to surrender my dog because I could not take care of him.”
This is a horrible end to a horrific story. Six attacks on humans and animals are six too many and if it were not for the owner willfully surrendering his dog to animal care, there could have been even more attacks before the courts could have ever deemed the dog dangerous due to legalities and the need for eyewitness testimony.
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