{"id":287073,"date":"2026-05-28T04:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/287073\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T04:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:08:07","slug":"owner-arrested-after-loose-dogs-maul-central-florida-woman-to-death-sheriff-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/287073\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner arrested after loose dogs maul Central Florida woman to death, sheriff says"},"content":{"rendered":"

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 After a woman died from dog bites in Brevard County<\/a> last week, the sheriff has announced that the dogs\u2019 owner has been arrested.<\/p>\n

The incident originally happened along Blue Bonnet Drive in Sharpes, where Sheriff Wayne Ivey said a pair of large dogs attacked the woman, identified as Jodi Cowan, 50.<\/p>\n

\u201cCowan attempted to protect her own dog while running from the animals in an effort to keep from being attacked,\u201d Ivey said. \u201cBut (she) was eventually overwhelmed and pulled to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheriff Ivey released “troubling” footage of the incident on Wednesday, May 27. (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

Eventually, Cowan\u2019s spouse heard her screaming and came outside to stop the attack by swinging a knife at the dogs, Ivey added. However, Cowan was taken to a hospital, where she died just hours after the attack.<\/p>\n

Afterward, detectives investigated the death, leading to the arrest of owner Linda Cutler, 29, whom Ivey said had taken \u201cminimal action\u201d to prevent her dogs from getting out of her yard, even after being cited by animal services numerous times in the past.<\/p>\n

Linda Cutler, 29 (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

Cutler now faces a charge of manslaughter.<\/p>\n

Ivey also addressed concerns that animal services hadn\u2019t done enough to prevent the incident, as neighbors had called several times previously about the loose dogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile 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 they don\u2019t,\u201d Ivey explained. \u201cIn fact, even if a dog has previously bitten someone, and it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Ivey said that animal service calls related to Cutler\u2019s home stem back to 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also important to note that during the early calls from 2024 through November of \u201825, the calls at Cutler\u2019s residence were related to other dogs, as the two dogs involved in this attack were puppies back then,\u201d Ivey continued.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Florida neighbors say loose dogs reported to animal services before woman killed in street]<\/p>\n

Ivey said that Cutler was arrested on Wednesday by Melbourne police, who responded to a Hilton hotel near the beach for a disturbance involving Cutler and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you kidding? Folks, an innocent woman is dead, and two dogs are about to be euthanized because of this woman\u2019s inactions and failure to be a responsible pet owner,\u201d Ivey declared. \u201cAnd she and her little honey are hanging out at the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivey added that during her arrest, Cutler feigned having a heart attack, though she was ultimately cleared into law enforcement custody.<\/p>\n

Video released by the BCSO shows Cutler being escorted to jail. (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Cowan\u2019s partner, Donnell Smith, told News 6 after Cowan\u2019s death that he was friends with the dog owner, so he has mixed feelings about the degree of punishment he thinks his neighbor should face.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I want her to rot in jail? No,\u201d Smith said. \u201cDo I want accountability? Yeah. There\u2019s some other individuals that need to be looked at, some other entities that need to be looked at.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 After a woman died from dog bites in Brevard County last week, the sheriff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1684,315,265,4424,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-287073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-animals","tag-brevard-county","tag-crime","tag-death-investigation","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287073","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=287073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}