Florida woman mauled to death by dogs that had allegedly terrorized neighborhood, owner charged in killing

A Florida woman was mauled to death by two dogs that neighbors say had terrorized the community — and now the animals’ owner is in jail.

The dogs are being held by the county’s animal services unit and will be euthanized, authorities said. 

And now, neighbors along Blue Bonnet Drive don’t have to worry anymore about the duo that used to “terrorize” them, resident Dominica Midkiff told Fox News Digital. 

Jodi Cowan, 50, had only lived on the street for about two weeks, Midkiff said.

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At the time of the attack, Cowan was walking her small dog on the dark street after midnight, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in a video his office shared on Facebook on May 27.  

Meanwhile, the pit bull pair belonging to neighbor Linda Cutler “had once again gotten out of their yard and were roaming the neighborhood,” Ivey said. 

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A neighbor’s security camera captured the attack in an “extremely troubling and graphic” video, Ivey said. 

The video shows Cowan clutching her tiny dog to her chest, shrieking and trying to flee.

The larger dogs, known as Max and Mako, “began to brutally attack and maul Cowan, forcing her to the ground, viciously attacking her, and eventually dragging her across the ground for quite some distance,” Ivey said.

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Cowan’s partner, Donnell Smith, heard her screams and raced to stop the attack “by swinging a knife at the dogs and trying to drive them away,” Ivey said. 

Smith called 911 while trying to protect his longtime love. 

He could be heard on an eight-minute 911 call trying to drive back the barking dogs and render aid to still-conscious Cowan.

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“It’s brutal,” said Brevard PIO Tod Goodyear, a former homicide detective with 40 years at the sheriff’s office, told Fox News Digital. “She suffered.” 

Cowan was transported to a nearby trauma center. She died about four hours later, Ivey said. 

The little dog Cowan died trying to protect escaped unharmed.

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“She was a great woman,” Smith told a reporter for WESH 2 News. “She just loved people, loved dogs more than people.” 

Dangerous dog law

A sheriff’s office investigation revealed that Cutler knew “her dogs repeatedly got out of her yard and … were attacking humans and … took minimal action to prevent the dogs from getting out of her yard, even after being cited by Animal Services,” Ivey said. 

Cutler also knew that her dogs previously “had bitten a neighbor who had to seek medical treatment,” Ivey said.

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Since October 2024, neighbors had called the sheriff’s office at least 14 times about Cutler’s animals, agency reports show. 

Some callers complained about her dogs roaming the neighborhood. Some callers expressed concern that Cutler’s dogs might be neglected.

Investigators found food and water at Cutler’s home and documented no signs of neglect, Goodyear said.

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In his video address, Ivey fumed at the suggestion that his agency’s animal services unit hadn’t taken appropriate action.  

“While you might think that Animal Services has the authority to seize dogs that routinely escape from yards or that have even bitten someone, the unfortunate reality is that they don’t,” Ivey said.

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If “it’s not a severe bite, the most action our animal enforcement officers are allowed by law to take is the issuance of a citation and a fine,” he said. 

Animal Services officers issued at least five citations to Cutler with hundreds of dollars in fines, Goodyear said. He didn’t have the exact amount. 

But even after a second bite, Ivey said in his address, a “dog still can’t be seized by animal enforcement officers, as it is not the number of bites, but the severity of the bite that elevates the potential for the dog to be declared a dangerous dog and the owner go before a magistrate.”

And even then, under Florida’s dangerous dog law, he added, the “dog owner still has the right to keep the dog or dogs by following the court’s ruling that they must have effective fencing, muzzle the dog anytime someone is visiting the residence, [put] signage on all egress points saying a dangerous dog resides there, and have $100,000 insurance policy in the event the dog bites another person.”

In the case of Max and Mako, Ivey said, some people making complaints about the dogs said they “were not aggressive and that they just keep getting out of the fence and need to be returned to their home.” 

After a report that one of the dogs had bitten a neighbor, the victim “did not cooperate with law enforcement after repeated calls to do so from our animal enforcement officers,” Ivey said. 

“The investigation could not be continued, which prohibited our animal enforcement officers from taking any further action.”  

‘Pinned people on their porches’

As puppies, Max and Mako made friends on their romps away from their own yard, Midkiff said.

“The whole neighborhood was friendly with them until they started to turn on people.” 

As the puppy brothers grew, Midkiff said, they showed signs of aggression. And as adult dogs, their frequent escapes through or over the yard’s chain-link fence frightened people living nearby.

They “pinned people on their porches as people were trying to leave for work and come home,” Midkiff said. “You never knew where them loose dogs would be and who they were going to terrorize next.”

Just 20 days before they mauled Cowan, Midkiff snapped photos of Max and Mako standing outside her car, watching her intently through the windows. 

Midkiff wanted to go inside her home, she said, but she was afraid to leave the safety of the vehicle.

“I waited in my car until they got distracted by something else.” 

Cutler arrested 

During the investigation after the mauling, Cutler indicated she knew her dogs had been escaping, knew one had bitten someone, and revealed “both dogs were becoming more and more aggressive, even towards her,” Ivey said. 

Then, she asked when she could get her dogs back, the sheriff said.

After Cowan’s death, Cutler checked into a hotel on a nearby beach, Ivey said. There, another law enforcement agency responded to a “disturbance” involving Cutler.

Eight days after the mauling, Cutler, 29, was arrested. While being taken into custody, she pretended to have a heart attack, Ivey said. 

Cutler was evaluated at a hospital and cleared of any medical issues, Goodyear told Fox News Digital. It’s common, he said, for people to pretend to have life-threatening medical issues when facing arrest. 

During his update on the case on social media, Ivey shared a video showing him greeting Cutler as she was walked into the jail. The video shows him telling Cutler, “Hope you enjoyed your time at the beach, because you’re not going to be going back.”

She glares at him and retorts, “What is the purpose of that?” 

“A woman’s dead, and two dogs are about to be euthanized because of your uselessness,” Ivey fires back. “So, have a nice visit.”

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Cutler is being held without bond because she was already out of jail on another charge, Goodyear said. She could not be reached for comment. 

“Being her neighbor has been hell,” Midkiff said. “I am praying Linda Cutler gets 15 years.”