Pam Robb. (Beth Clifton collage)
125-pound pit bull who killed Pam Robb was featured in two online videos
OAKLAND PARK, Florida––Gladys, the supersized star rescue pit bull at the Rescue House One shelter operated by 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida in Oakland Park, Florida, on the morning of February 17, 2022 killed volunteer Pamela W. Robb, 71, of Fort Lauderdale, and seriously injured another volunteer identified by other volunteers on social media as Jan Halas Stenger, 51, of Orange Park.
While Gladys could have been visually identified as a Cane Corso, a pit bull/mastiff mix variant, she was usually called a pit bull or pit mix by 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida personnel before Pam Robb was killed.
(See also Cane Corso: A pit bull by any other name.)
The fatal attack could scarcely have come at a worse time for Miami Coalition Against Breed Specific Legislation founder Dahlia Canes.
Canes, after many failed attempts to repeal the Miami-Dade ban on possession of pit bulls, is now stumping for Florida Senate Bill 614, which would repeal breed-specific ordinances throughout the state.
Dahlia Canes, president of Miami Coalition Against Breed Specific Legislation. (Beth Clifton collage)
Body count
Miami-Dade Animal Services chief of shelter operations and enforcement Kathleen Labrada, meanwhile, has consistently failed to enforce the county pit bull ban as written.
Non-enforcement of the ban to the letter has contributed to at least four fatalities.
Javon Dade Jr., age four, was killed by his father’s pit bull on August 13, 2014.
Carmen Reigada, 91, was killed on September 22, 2015 by a household pack including a pit bull, a Rhodesian ridgeback, and a Labrador mix.
Nyjah Espinosa was killed by her father’s pit bull on December 20, 2015, days short of her second birthday.
Carolyn Varanese, 84, of Margate, was killed on August 31, 2020 by a pit bull released by Miami-Dade Animal Services to Mastiff Rescue of Florida before being rehomed to the victim’s son, Joseph Varanese, 57.
Originally adopted in 1989, the Miami-Dade pit bull ban was upheld by county voters by a 63% to 37% margin in August 2012.
Gladys in the Everglades.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Gladys “suddenly snapped”
Pam Robb, however, was killed in neighboring Broward County.
“The incident happened shortly before 11 a.m.,” reported Laura Rodriguez and Brian Hamacher of NBC News Miami.
Broward Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Claudinne Caro told Rodriguez and Hamacher that Gladys “suddenly snapped and attacked” Pam Robb.
“The second adult female,” Stenger, “tried to aid that first worker and in the process she herself got injured,” Caro said.
Added WPLG Local 10 News anchor/reporter Janine Stanwood and digital journalist Andrea Torres, “Oakland Fire Rescue personnel took the two women to the hospital where a doctor pronounced Robb dead.
“The organization’s Facebook page has videos reporting on Gladys’ progress after a family found the 125-pound dog alone deep in the Everglades, between Alligator Alley and the Miccosukee Service Plaza.”
Jan Halas Stenger and Pam Robb.
(Facebook photo)
What Robb loved most was bleeding to death?
Pam Robb, a retired Broward County school teacher, “died doing what she loved most, her partner of 25 years said just hours after the tragedy in Oakland Park,” continued Stanwood and Torres.
“There’s always risk when you work with abused animals and Pam was well aware of it,” partner Angie Anobile told Stanwood and Torres. “I’m sorry it happened to the love of my life, and I’m sorry it happened to someone who could make such a difference in society.”
Austin Carter of CBS Miami reported later on February 17, 2022 that Gladys was taken to Broward Animal Care and euthanized. A brain tissue sample will be tested to determine whether Gladys was rabid.
Two rabid animals, a fox and a raccoon, were found in Broward County in 2021, but no rabies cases in dogs have been confirmed anywhere in Florida since a rabid terrier mix was found alongside the Florida Turnpike near Wellington in February 2012.
Christine Liquori
Second shelter volunteer killed in under two years
Pam Robb was the first volunteer killed in a Florida animal shelter since Christine Liquori, 52, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, in May 2020.
Liquori bled to death from injuries suffered while she walked or exercised a pit bull alone in a fenced play area beside the older of the two Humane Society of St. Lucie County shelters in Fort Pierce.
(See Why did pit bull & Malinois victims Liquori & Hazel die alone?)
But Pam Robb was at least the twenty-first Floridian in ten years to be mauled by a rescue pit bull, and the fourth to be killed.
The other fatalities were Tanner Kinnamon, 2, of High Springs, whose aunt Jessica Hoffner was a pit bull rescuer, and Carolyn Varanese, 84, of Margate.
Carol Daniello & Amy Roman.
(Facebook photo)
At least the second 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida volunteer mauled on the job
Pam Robb was also at least the second 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida volunteer to be mauled on the job.
WSVN television investigative reporter Carmel Cafiero, now retired, on June 16, 2015 detailed how 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida volunteer rescuer Sarah Martin, 19, was mauled by five pit bulls when she and another volunteer were sent to pick up a dog named Taco in Riverview, a Tampa suburb.
Details of that account, which is no longer accessible online, were disputed on July 27, 2015 by the Orlando Pet Examiner, extensively quoting 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida founder Amy Roman, 52, formerly Amy Restucci, and her partner Carol Daniello, 50, along with volunteer Jenn Kate, who was present during the incident and was the senior representative of 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida at the scene.
Jan Halas Stenger and pit bull Gladys
(Facebook photo)
Blamed victim
The accounts by Roman, Daniello, and Kate tended to blame the victim, Sarah Martin, for allegedly entering the property where she was injured without permission.
Hillsborough County dangerous dog hearing officer Autumn George eventually released all of the pit bulls involved in attacking Martin back to their owner.
Roman, identified in 2013 by Susannah Bryan of the Florida Sun-Sentinel as “a former manicurist from Wilton Manors who has made rescue work a full-time job,” started 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida in 2011, soon joined by Daniello.
100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida ran into trouble in 2012 with the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services for allegedly collecting donations before becoming a registered charity, and because Roman allegedly charged personal expenses to the nonprofit organization.
Gladys. (Facebook photo)
Money questions
Reported Brian Entin and Daniel Cohen for WSVN-7 News in Miami, a Fox affiliate, “The state found 960 debit transactions, including $34,050.99 on food and restaurant expenses; purchases at Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond and Bath & Body Works; $10,097.74 to pay off a personal credit card; $6,876.83 for car payments; and $4,705.40 on insurance premiums.
“The state says there was also a $30,000 loan from the rescue to buy a BMW registered to its president. According to the investigation, she paid back $20,000 of it.”
In December 2016, updated Tony Pipitone of NBC-6 on May 1, 2017, the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services “proposed imposing a $10,000 fine and repealing the group’s charity status. But the group appealed, claiming all that money [attributed by the state to personal expenses] was spent on charity business.
Amy Roman Daniello.
(Facebook photo from screenshot)
Settlement
“After months of negotiations,” Pipitone reported, “the group and the state [in April 2017] signed a settlement agreement that requires payment of a $5,000 fine, as well as modifications in how the group does business.
“The charity must pay for an audit of all its records going back to its incorporation in 2012 and, if discrepancies are found, must amend tax returns. If any of the money spent was not a legitimate business expense, it must be treated as compensation to founder and president Amy Roman, the settlement states.”
Continued Pipitone, “The state questioned what it said was $30,000 in loans provided to the Roman to help her purchase a vehicle. Roman did put $30,000 down on a 2011 BMW X5 luxury SUV in July 2013, according to records subpoenaed by the state. The charity also paid nearly $6,900 in payments for an auto loan on the vehicle, which was titled in Roman’s name and not the charity’s.”
Gladys the pit bull.
(Facebook photo)
“Rescues” challenged
Attorney Jeffrey Neiman, representing 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida, responded to the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Pipitone said, that “the loans for the car from the charity totaled $20,000 – money repaid by Roman by April 2014 – and that the other $10,000 referenced by the state was the amount of a bonus Roman received from the group in 2013, though it was not ratified by the board until February 2014.”
(Beth & Merritt Clifton)
Even before that controversy erupted, WSVN television investigative reporter Carmel Cafiero on October 1, 2013 described several incidents described to her by dog owners in which Roman allegedly trespassed on private property to “rescue” pets she believed were neglected, and/or failed to take dogs found at large with identification to Miami-Dade Animal Services.
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