Sorry for the light posting this week -- it's been a really hectic week. Here are a few of the major stories I missed this week.
Cities and laws
The West Columbia (TX) city council has decided against pursuing a ban on particular breeds of dogs.
Lake Cherokee, MI is considering breed specific restrictions.
From the folks at Families Against Breed Bans, Black Diamond, WA is considering a potential ban on pit bulls.
A Park Ridge, IL Alderman is seeking new regulations for dog owners....that may or may not include breed specific measures.
White County, TN has decided against breed specific laws -- noting that singling out a breed would be impossible on the county level.
Springdale, AR is considering different regulations to crack down on dangerous dogs -- including potentially a ban on particular breeds of dogs. Brett Harris, the Animal Services Manager for Springdale isn't sure that's the right choice. "If you ban pit bulls specifically, you're leaving 50% of the problems out of the mix....from my experience, it's better to target a behavior of an owner who's responsible for the animal rather than the breed itself." Hopefully the city council will listen to their animal control officers when it comes to this law.
Williams Lake, BC is looking at changes to their dangerous dog law and looking at focusing on the behavior of the dog, not how it looks.
The state of Illinois just passed a law that would prohibit individuals who have been convicted of dog fighting from owning an unsterilized or vicious dog. The law is there to try to prevent someone from getting back into dog fighting upon their release from prison. I'm not sure why such laws don't exist already.
Nackawic, CA is still looking at changes that would eliminate the city's breed specific prohibitions.
Dog bites and attacks
A San Antonio man was bitten by two dogs that escaped through an open gate in their back yard. The dogs were described as "pit bulls or pit bull mixes" (isn't everything?) that the owner says he got purposefully for protection after both his home and his truck had been broken into. Dogs that are gotten for the primary purpose of protection tend to be very suspicous (and even aggressive) toward strangers because keeping them poorly socialized is part of what makes them effective at 'protecting". Until we end the use of dogs as a form of protection -- by either eliminating crime or by providing propery police resources in particular neighborhoods, bites like this will still be a problem.
A grandmother in Skagit County, WA, was charged for criminal negligence, a felony, after her 10 month old granddaughter received dog bites from her Rhodesian Ridgeback/Labrador mix bit the child two days in a row. It is my understanding that at least one of the attacks involved both the child and the dog being given pancakes to eat at the same time. The dog finished the pancake first and then reached for the child's and bit the child...and then, bit the child a second day too. Most dog attacks like this are not because the dog is aggressive, necessarily, but more of a situation where a dog was put in a position to fail and did....because the dog and child were not completely socialized appropriately. But we must steer our conversations toward managing children and dogs instead of always focusing on "breed".
A 9 year old Hillsboro, OR girl was bitten by a dog that "resembles a German Shepherd". The girl needed 15 stiches for her wound.
A 13 year old Poland, OH boy was hospitalized after being attacked by a "German Shepherd/Chow mix" at his uncle's home.
An Alaskan Malamute is being declared dangerous in Lakeville, MA for its role in killing a neighbor's Chihuahua.
A "mastiff-bulldog mix" was responsible for attacking an 8 year old Town & Country, FL boy causing him to have to be hospitalized.
A 5 year old Wasilla (AK) boy was bitten by a northern breed of dog and was required more than 50 stitches.
The UK Dangerous Dog Ban Still failing
The UK's 18 year old ban on four different breeds of dogs continues to be a failure as now bites are occuring by a variety of different breeds because they never dealt with irresponsible ownership issues.
A 16 year old paperboy was bitten by a Labrador Retriever/Staffordshire Terrier cross that sprung on him while he was working his route.
A 13 year old boy was attacked by a Japanese Akita in a park. The boy needed six hours of surgery to repair damage to his arm from the attack.
Abuse Cases
Seven men were arrested and 9 scarred pit bulls were rescued from a Kankakee County (IL) dog fighting ring.
80 dogs were seized from two raids of suspected dog fighting operations in Southern Indiana.
Miscellanious
Chaining dogs unleashes bad behavior. Ok, shoot the messenger for the source here, and the person intervied by the source, but I applaud the effort to talk about how we should keep and maintain our dogs.
A great article from K-9 magazine on the Anatomy of a Dog attack.
Do Dogs Turn on their Guardians? An article by Bark Magazine.
Another great article on the growing field of Animal Law from out in Texas. The article focuses on a few folks in Texas that are working for better case law in the state -- including an archaic law that says that if an animal is wrongly killed by the city, the dog owner can only recoup the market value of the animal, and not sentimental value - -a precedent that is based on a ruling from 1891. We view dogs much differently now than we did in 1891 and the laws should reflect that. Good article.
Blog postings worth reading
Pet Connection: This is how an animal welfare organization should talke about Michael Vick.
Move to Act: Cannibalism within animal wefare organizations takes precedent over focusing on animals. I think this scenerio plays out in cities around the country as people who should have one goal in mind, the welfare of the animals, end up using politics to undermine their main goal.
For the Love of the Dog Blog: A Tax Deduction for our Furry Family Members?
Winograd: Riding on Vick's Bloodstained Coattails.
Word has it that this area of Indiana / Kentucky already has an awful lot of BSL talk and this raid has made it worse. I wonder when politicians and fear mongerers will finally get that dog fighters already don't care about EXISTING laws so implementing BSL will not solve their problems?!
Posted by: IndyElmer | August 16, 2009 at 01:14 PM
There is an old saw about not bringing a knife to a gunfight.
I think the same thing applies to this issue. Looking at it from the "politicians" viewpoint, she/he gets a few hotheads who see BSL as a "quick fix" and becomes their darling.
That is all emotion.
We come along and try to point out that the dog is the victim, that the politician/voter is not seeing the real problem, the owner/fighter/abuser.
That is logic.
We try to bring logic to fight emotion. It is ineffective, because they are not thinking with those rules.
When we help them understand how many places are trying (ineffectively) to ban a dog, places that are spending big taxpayer money on enforcement and lawsuits which will cause this politician to answer to the unions for why they had to lay off city workers, or not plow streets, or take money away from his or her favorite program, we begin to fight with the same weapons.
Maybe bring in an Iraq veteran who had to move from his city even though his dog was not a threat? Maybe get the local veterans group to ask why this politician wants to make their life difficult after so many of them fought and died for this city?
But we also have to have an answer for them as to what we _are_ going to do. Bans on alcohol, drugs, premarital sex - nothing has had more of an effect on those than education.
Have at least an outline for a bully breed owner education program and some attention to the (likely unenforced) laws already on the books ready.
dan
Posted by: Dan | August 16, 2009 at 02:26 PM
I'm always and sadly surprised by exactly how low so-called humans can sink. One of the accused in the Kankakee County (IL) dog fighting bust apparently brought his 5 year old daughter to the fight. Child abuse should be added to his charges.
Posted by: Social Mange | August 17, 2009 at 06:42 AM
I have quit using the word "seized" and use "rescued" now for dogs taken from dogfight arrests.
We don't "seize" victims.
Posted by: Dan | August 17, 2009 at 10:53 AM
http://network.bestfriends.org/themes/hubs/campaigns/news.aspx?App=pitbulls&pID=11949
Yay Brent!
Posted by: EmilyS | August 17, 2009 at 07:33 PM
Dan,
I don't disagree. However, until very recently we didn't much "rescue" these dogs either...as few were ever given a chance at life beyond a few days in the shelter after their "rescue". As the animal welfare community is waking up and realizing that these dogs do deserve a chance to be evalutated on their own merits, rescue may be becoming a better word for what is happening.
Posted by: Brent Toellner | August 18, 2009 at 08:16 AM