BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Melrose Post Office will soon bear the name of a letter carrier killed by dogs in Putman County two years ago.
Five dogs attacked Pamela “Pam Jane Rock after her vehicle broke down near Interlachen on Aug. 21, 2022.
A resident stopped the attack by firing a weapon into the ground and scaring the canines away. Rock was flown to UF Health Shands in Gainesville, where she died.
President Joe Biden recently signed a bill authorizing the naming designation. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Aaron Bean and introduced on the House floor by Rep. Kat Cammack.
“Pam had a servant’s heart, and it was obvious in the way she lived her life,” Bean said in a news release. “While her time on this Earth was tragically cut short, she served the U.S. Postal Service with passion and integrity. Designating the Melrose Post Office in her name will honor her legacy in the community she loved. I am very proud to see our bill signed into law officially memorializing Pam’s memory and commitment to Floridians.”
After Rock’s death, State Attorney R.J. Larizza declined to prosecute the owner of the canines after an investigation concluded that the dogs’ owner tried to surrender the animals twice, including 10 days before the attack.
The report stated that before the fatal incident, at least one of the dogs attacked a 50-year-old man, sending him to the hospital, and charged a woman’s car, damaging the vehicle.
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office recommended a misdemeanor charge for the owner of the five dogs, but Larizza’s office declined, citing the owner’s efforts to repair the fence that restrained the animals and his attempts to surrender the canines to animal control.
The attack also prompted State Rep. Bobby Payne to sponsor a bill in the Florida House that would have required the Department of Agriculture to maintain a dangerous dog registry. The new database would have allowed residents to look up dogs declared dangerous by local authorities. However, Payne’s bill died in committee.
