Lake County Health Department officials learned Dec. 31 that a Eustis first-grader was gravely ill with what doctors believed to be rabies, but five long days went by before they bothered to order the impound of the family pit bull, which had played with both the infected boy and a rabid bat.
When sheriff’s officers came to get the dog Jan. 5, they instructed the family member who met them to keep the garage door closed to keep the dog contained. Michelle Sill, who lived at the house, deliberately opened it anyway, freeing the dog Cali, which immediately tried to attack officers.
Three days later, the health department decided that the dog, described as “extremely aggressive,†could stay with another family member for “home quarantine†in the Metrowest community of Orange County. This would be the same family that hadn’t been able to keep Cali from running loose in the past and had broken state law by failing to vaccinate her for rabies since 2014.
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/lake/os-lauren-ritchie-mishandled-rabies-case-20180202-story.html
