A $132,000 judgment in dog attack: Arbitrator finds woman wasn’t properly warned about canine

Broward County’s Animal Care and Adoption Division failed to adequately warn a woman about a dog that attacked her within hours of her taking him in, an arbitrator ruled, awarding her a $132,000 judgment.

Ariel Sackett took Wesley, an American Staffordshire mix, from the Animal Care and Adoption Division to her Fort Lauderdale townhouse to foster him in May 2021. Soon, the dog attacked Sackett, biting her hands and calf, resulting in gashes, 50 stitches and a wrist surgery, according to court filings.

The arbitrator, attorney Rodney Romano, wrote in his decision that Broward County’s Animal Care Division “breached its duty to warn/disclose by failing to make clear that Wesley was (or should have been) a ‘behavior release’ due to ‘unpredictable behavior and possible aggression,'” noting documented cases of attempting to bite at a handler, lunging at a handler twice, and where staff finally no longer felt comfortable walking him.

The decision of the arbitrator became the final decision by the circuit court judge.

When Sackett inquired about the dog, she was told it had been promised to one of the county’s rescue partners, Noah’s Rescue, court records show. Sackett reached out to Noah’s Rescue, and went to the shelter to pick up Wesley as her foster dog, the records show.

Sackett also had no idea there would be a propensity to violence, or that he was on medication including an anti-depressant, according to the complaint filed in Broward courts.

Broward’s advertisement described him as a 52-pound, 2-year-old who was “very friendly with the family that found him prior to entering the shelter but his behavior once in the shelter declined rapidly and has not improved.”

The advertisement described him as highly stressed in a kennel environment, and needed to be moved immediately into a home “that will allow him to decompress from kennel life and relieve his anxiety appropriately.”

Sackett agreed to the dog after a video ad of Wesley “at a pool hanging out with little kids,” she said.

But the arbitrator wrote in his finding that Wesley was “food, animal and people aggressive and that (Broward animal care and control) knew that information prior to the” incident with Sackett.

The arbitrator also noted that Sackett wanted the county agency to “amend its policies and procedures to assure that in the future, full disclosure is made when potentially dangerous dogs are released,” but that was out of his control.

“While improved safety measures are to be encouraged in every area of society, the undersigned has no authority to render judgment in this regard,” he wrote in court documents.

“This pursuit was not about money, it was about holding the county accountable for a preventable incident,” said attorney David Gillis, who represented Sackett. “If they had just provided the knowledge they have to fosters and people adopting these dogs, this incident would not have happened.

Gillis added that, “Our main goal is to provide the public with knowledge.”

Attorneys for the county presented a list of defenses in an 8-page filing, Broward court records show. Among the county’s defenses was the argument that “if the plaintiff has suffered injuries and/or losses as alleged, these are the proximate result of plaintiff’s own negligence.”

They also argued that it was “open and obvious as it is common knowledge that pit bulls are known to (be) one of, if not the most, aggressive and unpredictable breeds of dogs.” And it argued that the woman “was owed no duty of care as the incident did not occur on the county’s property, but rather at the plaintiff’s own home where she had sole and complete possession, dominion and control of the dog and its conditions.”

Sackett, who has since moved from Fort Lauderdale to a northern part of Florida, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel she is still emotional about the trauma.

She said she has several other dogs, and “I love all my animals. They are my life, I treat them like they were children because they are.”

She told the Sun Sentinel it was difficult after the attack, where she was left to question what happened. “It was such a mental game that the shelter played with me, by me questioning myself as an animal lover and them playing it off that it was something I did with this animal.”

County spokeswoman Lori Shepard said the Animal Care Division “continually works to improve its policies, procedures, and documentation” and while the result of this case “has led to no specific changes,” they have since improved its agreements with other agencies “to better clarify, disclose, and document critical animal information exchanged with a partner.”

Sackett’s lawyer said there was no evidence that Noah’s Rescue had any idea about Wesley’s history. Noah’s Rescue’s founder Flor Vargas said it’s her policy to keep everyone safe: “I don’t ever put a dog with behavior issues in a foster’s home, they go straight to trainers. I had no idea, if I would have had an idea, I have trainers for that.”

Vargas told the Sun Sentinel that the dog was sent for training and a boarding facility after being with Sackett. But Vargas said there was a subsequent unprovoked attack, resulting in the dog, deemed a danger to society, being euthanized in 2021.

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash