‘Please return my child’: Dania Beach man beaten while walking dog wants pet back after animal was adopted while he was hospitalized - WSVN 7News

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A Broward County man who ended up in the hospital after he was beaten while out walking his dog said he wants his pet back after the animal was taken to a shelter and adopted, leaving his owner with emotional pain on top of his physical injuries.

Dania Beach resident Timothy Sweat found out that when you are injured and your pet is taken to Broward County Animal Care, there’s no guarantee the animal will still be there once you recover.

Speaking with 7News on Friday, Sweat said he adopted Bear just as the pandemic started.

“He is a very sweet little boy. He is a Yorkie-poo, spoiled,” he said. “He’s 3 years old, and we have never been apart.”

Sweat said he and Bear saved each other.

“My career was falling apart because of COVID, and I needed the emotional support,” he said, “It was the only thing keeping me mentally balanced.”

But that changed on July 19, when Sweat took Bear for an evening walk near Federal Highway and Northeast First Street in Dania Beach.

“I was approached by a young man who seemed very interested in my dog, and then he attempted to take my dog,” he said, “and when I stopped him, he assaulted me.”

Sweat, who is currently living in a hotel, said he rushed Bear back to his room but doesn’t remember much after that.

“I woke up the next morning with the bed covered in blood, with the floor covered in blood,” he said.

Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies were called.

“So, instead of calling [emergency medical services], they decided they were just going to ask me, ‘Are you feeling suicidal?’ Of course, my answer was yes. I was just aggressively mugged, I’m bleeding. I can’t figure out what to do.” he said. “So, instead of helping me, they just immediately put me in handcuffs and took me to the hospital.”

Sweat said the doctors found he had a severe brain injury and needed emergency surgery.

“So they ended up cutting me from ear to ear, and I now have a giant hole in my head,” he said. “I spent a week in [the intensive care unit] and then another 10 days recovering in the hospital, and they released me on August the 2nd.”

Before he was taken to the hospital, Sweat said, BSO deputies took Bear and assured him he would be OK.

They took him into Protective Services, saying that he was going to go to Animal Control,” he said, “that they would be notified that this is a wanted animal and that I could pick him up shortly after I would get out of the hospital, that he would be held safely. And I believed them.”

But while he was recovering in the hospital, Bear was adopted out to someone else.

“The minimum that we have to hold that animal waiting for you to reclaim them is five days,” said Emily Wood, animal care director at Broward County Animal Care.

Bear’s shelter records show, “Per Dania BSO, the owner was hospitalized,” but it also notes deputies said his owner “will pick up once he gets out of hospital in 3 days.”

Wood said shelter staff relies on what authorities tell them.

“We often don’t have a lot of information, and we’re really working with our jurisdictional partners, our police partners, to get as much information as possible,” she said. “So we’re working to better that, and then we can make some slightly different choices in how to seek safekeeping for these animals.”

Sweat’s only hope is that the woman who adopted Bear will voluntarily give him back.

“Please return my child. To you, he’s a thing and to me, he’s my life,” he said as he fought back tears. “Have heart. Please, have a heart. We’ve never been apart for three years.”

The shelter has reached out to the new owner. So did Sweat, his attorney and 7News. As of Friday night, she has declined to return Bear.

“I feel like I am being held emotionally hostage in this situation,” he said.

Broward Animal Care officials said there is nothing they can do if the woman who adopted Bear refuses to return him.

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