It's been a heck of a couple of weeks -- but am starting to get back on schedule and will be posting more regularly in the coming weeks. Sorry for missing the roundup last week -- here are this week's top stories, and a few I missed from the week prior.
Cities and Laws
New Florence city council banned 'pit bulls' from their community of about 765 pepole. I cannot imgaine in a community this size that authorities don't know the name of every aggressive dog in the city....
The city council in Whitehall, OH has decided to drop the costly idea of putting the city's breed ban up to a public vote after 2 failed attempts by councilwoman Jacquelyn Thompson to pass a ban in the city with her council counterparts wisely voting down the ban on both occassions.
Marshalltown, IA is considering a new law that would require dogs that had broken animal control laws on three different occassions to be confiscated by animal control officers. While I like the spirit of the law, I certainly hope that officials would focus the law on the dog owner instead of the dog and prevent the dog's owner that is in violation from owning a dog again in the city. Just taking the dog in (and sadly, likely killing the dog) will do no good if that owner is just allowed to get another dog.
The Canadian Community of Nackawic is looking at a proposal that would eliminate references to specific breeds from their dog control bylaw. The revised ordinance has passed its first two readings.
Tulsa, OK is struggling after a decision to cut some of their animal control officers and realizing now that the police don't have time, nor the appropriate training, to deal with animal control calls that are happening during off hours.
Around 100 protesters showed up at City Hall in Denver this week to protest the city's well publicized ban on 'pit bulls'. The city is considering a repeal of the ban because of the high costs of enforcing the ban and defending it in court are a problem in light of the city's $12o million budget deficit. In spite of the reality that the city can show no evidence that the ban is actually improving public safety, some are still in favor of keeping the ban.
Prince George's has onc again stood by their city's ban on 'pit bull'. This is the third challenge to the law that has been denied in spite of continued task force recommendations that the law is costly and ineffective.
Elkhart, IN is considering legislation that would ban pit bulls in their community.
Kingsport, TN is also looking at a potential ban on breeds - -in spite of opposition from every animal welfare organization in the community.
More problems in Omaha -- in spite of the increased money being spent on animal control by the city, dog bites are up significantly on the year.
Highland Park, IL was looking at potential restrictions on certain breeds of dogs, but decided to forgo a ban in favor of strengthening the animal control ordinance. I think it's interesting the subtle note that a ban and strengthening animal control are not the same thing...and in fact, are mutually exclusive.
A newly proposed law in Mashpee, MA would ban several breeds of dogs in the community -- and if passed, would require any puppies of these breeds born to be brough into the shelter and systematically killed.
Hot Springs, AR is considering changes to their dangerous dog ordinance that won't be breed-specific.
Perquimans County, NC; Vestavia, AL; Catawba County, NC; Jonesville, NC (sorry, no link, from the Fight BSL list serve) and Henderson, IN; all are strengthening their dangerous dog ordinances without using breed-specific language. Most cities now that look at potential bans are starting to realize that the actual data does not support BSL and are going with breed neutral options that have proven to be more effective.
Dog bites and attacks
A 12 year old Norman, OK boy was attacked by 5 dogs while he was riding his bicycle -- 4 of the dogs are described as Border Collie mixes (2 German Shepherd/Border collie mixes, 2 Border Collie/Pit Bull mixes) and 1 dog was described as a "boxer/pit bull mix".
A Hoboken, NJ man was bitten in the arm by a Boxer when he reached down and picked up a ball while the dog reached for the same ball.
A father in the Bronx, NY saved his 3 year old son from a dog attack when the child was attacked by a 120 lbs Husky.
A 12 year old Danville, VA boy was attacked while he was swinging on some swings by a "brown and white shaggy haired dog".
A Tucson, AZ man was attacked by three "pit bull mix" dogs that were roaming at large and bit the man.
A 2 year old Harbor Beach boy was mauled by a German Shepherd/Labrador mix -- the boy's father shot the dog in order to stop the attack.
A 5 year old Wilson County (NC) boy was attacked by a Rottweiler while he was swinging on his swing set. The boy's mom left the boy outside alone with the dog and went inside and came back out to find the boy being attacked. What makes this story even worse is that the family had just gotten the dog when they took it in after having been abused by another family.
An 80 year old woman was knocked down by a dog that was clearly running out of control. The large dog knocked the woman down where she ended up breaking her hip. The dog is being called an "American Bulldog/pit bull' Mix. There are no reports of the dog biting the woman. Interestingly, the initial story called the dog a 'pit bull' and put it in the headline.
Two Sacramento boys were attacked (one receiving 100 stitches) by a neighbor's Rottweiler.
A 7 year old Lake County (FL) boy was attacked by a pit bull that was chained up in the family's back yard.
A postal worker in Overland Park, KS was bitten by a "small black dog". Overland Park has a ban on 'pit bull' type dogs but had several dog bites this week that made the news.
The UK Breed Ban -- yip, still failing
A five year old girl who "strayed back home" while she was playing at a neighbor's house and ended up getting attacked by the family's French Mastiff.
Another young girl was attacked by what sounds like a Doberman and was rescued by a 26 year old man.
In spite of the country's 18 year old breed ban, the citizens of the country are not safer from dogs because irresponsible owners are not breed-specific.
Ontario's isn't working either
After a 13 year old girl was taken to the hospital after having part of her ear detatched by a dog.
The Media
An interesting article from teh Huron Daily Tribune about whether Huron county should hire an animal control officer in the county following an attack of a 2 year old boy by a German Shepherd/Labrador mix and a fatal dog attack involving three Blue Heeler mixes. What's mostly interesting is that they covered these two stories and never mentioned any of the breeds involved in the attacks. They even ran a second story and never mentioned the breeds.
A story from the St. Petersburg Times (FL) mentions two police officers that were attacked WITH a 'pit bull' (Not BY one). The owner apparently threw the dog at the officers on two different occassions. There is no indication that the dog, in spite of its neglegent owner, was aggressive in any way toward the officers, bu that wouldn't be the first thought you had when seeing hte article.
Blog postings definitely worth reading
LA Animal Watch pleads with the city to quit seizing cats during the high kill season.
One Bark at a Time has a great visual that illustrates the irrational fear mongering that is taking place by many anti-dog people. And yes, idiocy IS a cancer.
Pooch Master -- What did this accomplish?
Miscellanious
A good article from About.com on strengthening the human-canine bond.
A good article on pit bulls and parolees -- how the dogs and the parolees in Los Angeles rehabilitate each other.
A great article on Calgary's animal bylaw program. The city has 92% licensing compliance and their responsible ownership program focuses on four main principles: Licensing and permanently identifying the pet, great access to low-cost spay/neuter programs, proper socialization for dogs in the city's 150 dedicated off-leash areas, and not allowing the pet to become a nuissance or threat to the community. Calgary has one of the lowest bite rates in North America and is essentially no-kill -- all without mandatory spay/neuter laws and breeed specific laws.
Calgary is a great study. Their results are incredible.
I am curious about the number of dogs and cats, however. The AVMA Pet Population Estimator, at http://www.avma.org/reference/marketstats/ownership_calculator.asp, (without taking into account the specific geographic area of Western Canada), would put the number of dogs at roughly 300,000. The articles I see from there talk about roughly 100,000 to 110,000 dogs, and they talk about licensing "compliance" at 90% to 92%. (the Kansas City MSA would be around half a million dogs). There is another demographic book by the AVMA which narrows this by location.
I would really like to know who is off on their numbers.
Either the licensing compliance isn't what they think, or the AVMA calculator is so far off as not to be believable, or Canadians just don't have that many pet dogs.
If it is the calculator, that would be interesting, because a _lot_ of jurisdictions use that to determine how many animals they have, and to push for more "policing", or for more laws, because it indicates licensing is really low, only 10% to 15% of pets in most jurisdictions.
So is it not only the great work that Bryce and his coworkers accomplish, but the incredibly low number of pets?
thanks again for the great weekly summary, brent
Posted by: Jim Tucker | August 31, 2009 at 02:40 AM
Jim,
Most estimates I've seen show their numbers at around 110,000 dogs or so now -- and you're right, that would be nowhere close to the figures they'd have based on US Census numbers.
Based on the AVMA census, 37% of US HHs own dogs with each HH having on average 1.7 dogs. If this applied to Calgary, I figure there would be about 270,000 dogs there.
I would suspect that Calgary could have a lot lower ownership numbers than other places -- in part because their licensing fees are fairly high. I know that Bill Bruce uses the number of animals that they intake being licensed as his way of determining licensing rates, so I would suspect his numbers are fairly close. But even if both numbers are off, it's a long way to the center between those two sets of numbers...and I have no explanation for it at all.
Posted by: Brent Toellner | September 01, 2009 at 04:08 PM