Cape Coral, Florida



Perhaps an arguable case, from the December 7, 2003 News-Press:

A Cape Coral man shot his neighbor’s pit bull Thursday morning after the dog jumped a fence and apparently chased the man’s five small terriers, police reported.



The man said he shot the dog in self-defense, but his neighbor said his dog and two other pit bulls are gentle and play well with his children.



“He wouldn’t hurt nobody,” said Ron Jiles, 35, of his 65-pound male pit bull Case. “That dog was so docile. You’d think he was a cat.”



That’s not what Gary and Diane Honas said.



...



“I heard a deep growling,” said Diane Honas, 40. “I turned around and there was this big dog in the yard. The dog charged at me.”



She said she screamed and ran inside. “I thought he was going to kill me or chew me.”



Husband Gary Honas, 41, said he wanted to get his beloved 15-pound terriers inside, but the dogs were running around wildly as the pit bull chased them. He was afraid the pit bull would kill the terriers before he could grab them.



So Gary Honas went inside and grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun. When the pit bull charged him, he said, he pulled the trigger twice.