{"id":273237,"date":"2026-05-16T07:13:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273237\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:13:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:13:25","slug":"pit-bull-to-be-euthanized-after-attacking-winter-haven-foster-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273237\/","title":{"rendered":"Pit bull to be euthanized after attacking Winter Haven foster mom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mother Mother mauled by foster dog<\/a> <\/p>\n

A Polk County mother is recovering in the hospital after a vicious dog attack inside her home. FOX 13\u2019s Carla Bayron reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – A Winter Haven<\/a> woman is recovering in the hospital after a vicious dog attack inside her home.<\/p>\n

Winter Haven dog attack <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Kimberly Thompson began fostering a pit bull from Broward County-based Rescue Paws on Monday night.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, officials said that Thompson’s personal dogs began barking, startling the pit bull. The dog jumped on Thompson\u2019s chest and began biting her arms, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n

Thompson’s 6-year-old daughter called 911 while the attack was happening, telling dispatchers there was blood everywhere.<\/p>\n

Thompson got the dog the night before the attack.<\/p>\n

Her six-year-old daughter, who witnessed the attack, bravely called 911.<\/p>\n

\u2018She really got bit a lot\u2019 <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

In a statement, the sheriff’s office wrote: “Kimberly’s personal family dogs began barking, and it startled the pit bull. The pit bull began barking and began jumping at Kimberly and attacking her. Kimberly stated the dog originally jumped on her chest and then began biting her arms and tearing her skin.”<\/p>\n

“She really got bit. A lot. There’s blood everywhere,” her daughter is heard saying on another portion of the call.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The daughter of a woman who deputies say was attacked by a pit bull called 911.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Florida foster safety <\/p>\n

Local perspective:<\/p>\n

SPCA Florida has had its foster program for decades.<\/p>\n

Humane Programs and Public Media Director Randa Richter said fostering can be a very rewarding experience; however, she advises people fostering or adopting to keep pets and family members away from new dogs or cats for seven to 10 days.<\/p>\n

Afterward, have slow introductions to see if they all get along, which can prevent serious accidents.<\/p>\n

“Just letting them run your house initially with your kids or with your animals is setting them up for failure because they don’t know this new environment. They don’t know the behaviors, and so it’s not giving your animals the best chance to be the best they could,” said Richter.<\/p>\n

Support for Kimberly Thompson <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

Deputies say Thompson needs surgery to repair the wounds on her arms.<\/p>\n

Her family is trying to raise money through an online GoFundMe to help with those medical expenses.<\/p>\n

Rescue Paws dog status <\/p>\n

What we don’t know:<\/p>\n

It is currently unclear if the pit bull had a history of aggression before being placed with Thompson by the rescue.<\/p>\n

While the sheriff\u2019s office confirmed the dog will be euthanized, the specific timing for that action has not been released.<\/p>\n

The Source: The information in this story was gathered from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, who provided a written statement and details on the 911 call, as well as an interview with SPCA Florida Humane Programs and Public Media Director Randa Richter.<\/p>\n

Winter Haven<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mother mauled by foster dog A Polk County mother is recovering in the hospital after a vicious dog…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[47,28,30,29,115,7153,628,21956],"class_list":["post-273237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-news","tag-polk","tag-us","tag-winter-haven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}