Dog shot, 50 pieces of birdshot lodged in skin Lutz, FL (US) Incident Date: Wednesday, Apr 5, 2006 County: Hillsborough Local Map: available Disposition: Alleged Case Images: 1 files available Alleged: Virgil William Sluis Case Updates: 1 update(s) available

Case ID: 8303 Classification: Shooting Animal: dog (non pit-bull) View more cases in FL (US) Animal was offleash or loose Login to Watch this Case

Roxy races enthusiastically around her owner's front yard with such speed that, at first glance, it's tough to see the white scars on the puppy's back. Robin Mannino has the X-rays, a veterinarian's bill and the frayed nerves to prove about 50 pieces of birdshot are lodged beneath the skin of the 14-month-old, short-haired German shepherd mix.

It's been little more than three weeks since Roxy was shot after entering a neighbor's yard on 148th Avenue. Since then, the neighbor, Virgil Sluis, has been arrested twice on animal cruelty charges. He was released from Orient Road Jail on Sunday after posting $2,000 bail.

The first arrest was April 5, after Mannino's family called Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies. Katie Mannino, 16, said she saw Sluis shoot her dog as she tried to bring Roxy home. "She could not have been out of the yard more than five minutes," Robin Mannino said. "Dogs get out, but that does not give anyone the right to shoot or poison them. People are afraid for their animals here."

Sluis, 76, of 3009 148th Ave., was arrested again Saturday, a week after Nina Dukes found a neighborhood dog lying in grass, having a seizure and foaming at the mouth. The 16-year-old mixed breed dog later died. "I was doing laundry, and the dogs kept barking," Dukes said Sunday. "After they wouldn't quit, I went over and saw the dog on the ground, and he was seizing. I told my neighbor a dog was dying in their yard, and they called for help."

Witnesses told a deputy the dog was in Sluis' yard eating from a blue bowl before it became sick, a sheriff's report states. A deputy found a similar bowl Saturday that contained a combination of wet dog food and engine coolant. Mannino said X-rays taken after Roxy was shot showed the dog ate chicken bones just before the incident, which Mannino denies feeding the dog.

Neighbors said it's not unusual to hear Sluis make threats against animals coming into his yard. Paul Moscato, who has lived next door to Sluis for most of his life, said Sluis was attacked by two dogs about 20 years ago. "Since then, he's had this thing against animals, and that's fine, but he doesn't need to lure them into his yard and shoot them or poison them," Moscato said.

In a sheriff's report, a deputy accused Sluis of putting out the combination of wet dog food and engine coolant on April 22, then leaving his gate open to allow dogs to wander inside.

Deputies have been called to the house three times since February 2005 to investigate animal cruelty complaints, according to a preliminary check of sheriff's records, said Detective Lisa Haber. A request from the Hillsborough County Department of Animal Services brought a deputy to the home on April 29. Sluis' wife and grandson declined to comment.

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