KC DOG BLOG

The anatomy of a dog bite

First of all, I'm going to go on record and say that I've never actually seen a child significantly bitten by a dog. I think the warning signs are usually so readily apparent that paying attention can prevent them most of the time.

But on Saturday, I almost did.

On Saturday, the wife and I went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch. This place has a very large outside area and people usually are out there with their dogs, children, families, etc. It's a fun place to spend a beautiful weekend day.

There were several dogs there on Saturday (per usual) including one that we had seen there many times -- a large, German Shepherd. The dog is very social and regularly goes from table to table meeting people and playing with other dogs that are there.  In spite of the dog's friendly demeanor, I do want to note that this is a very large, athletic German Shepherd -- and if he wanted to do some damage, I'm pretty sure he'd be more than capable.

Shortly after we sat down, there was an incident in which a young girl (I'm going to say around 20 months old, maybe 2 years) who's parents (I assume) were sitting talking to the dog's owner. They appeared to all be friends. The young girl went up to the dog and grabbed the dog's tail with both hands and pulled -- and I mean PULLED. The dog whirled around and pushed the child with it's nose -- hard enough that the girl's grip was loosed and the dog got away.

Whew.

The parents told the child that maybe she should leave the dog alone. The toddler agreed.

About 10 minutes later, things were relaxed. The dog had settled under the table with a toy of some sort, and the girl had climbed off of her mother's lap and then began to crawl up to the dog under the table. So this child, already having had a close call with the dog (and the dog clearly being no fan) comes up to the dog, with a toy.

I missed this part, but the wife was watching and apparently the dog's demeanor changed dramatically quickly. She stood up and then saw the snarl -- and the girl continued on to the dog. She then said "hey" across the courtyard - enough to break the gaze, for the parents and dog owner to notice and disaster was avoided.

All I could think about as this played out was "this is how these stories I read about happen."  A solid dog, but a child, completely unable to read the dog's signals continues to want to play with the dog in spite of the dog's warnings. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

Fortunately it didn't. It usually doesn't.  But you can sure  see how it does happen sometimes.

Very Good Sentences -- Ontario Bill 16 Testimony

Today, an Ontario committee heard testimony from experts throughout Canada on Bill 16 -- a bill that would essentially repeal the Province's 7 year old breed ban and replace it with a behavior-based ordinance.

In response to one expert's testimony about how human behavior often impacts canine behavior and bite incidents, MPP Randy Hillier, one of the bill's sponsors, responded:

"It's one of the unseen consequences of the current law; it takes away the requirement of people to think and be responsible...they no longer have to think when we know the dog because all of the "dangerous" dogs are gone."

In listening to the testimony, it was interesting listening to the overwhelming amount of research and evidence provided by experts in Canada against breed bans and in favor of behavior based ordinances.  There was also a lot of testimony in favor the Calgary model of animal control because of its proven track record for success.

It was great to listen to the expert testimony and the combined decades upon decades of experience these people had in animal behavior, handling, training and identification - and hearing their consensus against breed specific laws. It is very telling....although no surprise as there has always been a lack of professional support for breed-specific laws.

You can watch and listen to the entire testimony below. It's exciting to hear most of the MPPs be on board with changing the legislation, and I strongly hope the momentum continues for repealing this poor law.

 

Cincinnati takes steps to repeal Breed Ban

Today, a Cincinnati Council committee voted 5-1 to repeal the city's breed ban making pit bulls illegal in the city.

The city is considering changing the law after HB 14 was inacted to repeal the state wide breed-specific legislation. Councilman Chris Seelbach, who was elected in December 2011, proposed the ordinance change says he has never supported the city's breed ban. "I've always believed that entire breeds should not be punished -- we need to punish bad owners."  The ordinance is supported by Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls who notes that vicious dogs are not breed-specific.

Councilman Cecil Thomas was the lone dissenting vote. He said he was concerned about enforcement issues surrounding a breed neutral ordinance (more similar to the state law) vs the city's current breed ban.

Apparently Thomas has been numb to the progression of the Cincinnati ordinance. Because of the law, the city 'euthanized" over 1000 pit bulls in 2007, and spent more than $86,000 prosecuting the 50 'pit bulls' taken from people's homes for being there illegally.  In June, 2008, the city passed another ordinance that began training police officers to identify illegal pit bulls because animal control was unable to handle all of the enforcement issues.  And then, in 2009, the city passed a law that made it illegal to bred and sell pit bulls -- even though it was already illegal to own or possess them.

So enforcing the current law hasn't been exactly a dream come true.

The motion will now go before the entire council for adoption this week - -making Cincinnati primed to join Cleveland and Toledo as major metropolitan cities in Ohio that repealed their breed specific laws and the state of Ohio itself, which no longer has a breed-specific law.

Great job by Councilman Seelbach and Vice Mayor Qualls (and others) who have supported this repeal - and to the many in the Cincinnati area who have worked hard to make this happen. Awesome job folks.

Weekly Roundup -- Week Ending 4/22/12

Um, yeah, it's been awhile since I've done one of these. As such, I have a whole host of links and stories to go through today so I'm only going to hit the highlights. If you know of anything I missed, as always, feel free to post in the comments section. Let's dive in.

Cities and Laws

Earlier this month, Malden, MA passed a breed-specific law targeting pit bulls through their council by a vote of 8-4. However, earlier this week, the city's mayor vetoed the bill because he doesn't feel like the law should be breed-specific.

Last year, Tupelo, MS passed a law targeing owners of "pit bulls".  Now, they're looking at potentially adding Rottweilers and Doberman Pinchers to the list.

Terrell County, GA officials are now dealing with the consequences of their poor decision-making. Last year, the county passed a law restricting 'pit bull' type dogs after two dogs killed over a dozen sheep last year. However, now that the ordinance has passed, people who could not comply with the high licensing fees and insurance, are turning over their dogs. The shelter is full and they are now building more space in the shelter (more than tripling the capacity) to handle the influx of dogs.

Cincinnati, OH is currently working a motion that would repeal the city's breed ban. Pit bulls have been targeted in Cincinnati off and on for decades, but this would be a major step for the dogs if a repeal is to take place and Cincinnati would join other major Ohio cities, like Cleveland and Toledo, in repealing their ban.

North Beach, MD is looking at possibly repealing their breed-specific law - -in large part due to the realization that breed identification is difficult, if not impossible, making their ordinance unenforceable.

Upland, CA is looking at an ordinance that would potentially require all 'pit bulls' to be spayed or neutered. Similar to other cities that have looked at such a law, they seem to be confused why they're even looking at it. At one point they mention that it is to curb the number of pit bulls in the shelter and then at other points, spent a lot of time talking about how it will help with public safety (pit bulls were involved in 4 of the city's 58 dog bites last year -- well behind Chihuahuas and Labs in the number of bites. The reality is that mandatory spay/neuter laws like Upland is proposing have never been effective at doing EITHER of the things they think they want it to do.

Oxnard, CA is also looking at potential breed-specific mandatory spay/neuter.

Bloomer, WI has amended it's breed-specific law. While the former law used to ban 'pit bulls', the law may soon be amended to allow owners to have 'pit bulls' as long as they meet certain requirements. While not a complete win, this would be a major step forward.

Dog bites/attacks

Dogs are very safe. With about 78 million owned dogs in this country, they pose very little risk to us. However, sometimes bad things do happen. Here are a few of the attacks over the past few weeks that help highlight a) they are not a breed-specific issue and b) that circumstances created by humans lead to the attacks.

A 3 year old St. Helena, SC toddler was attacked by a Bull Mastiff. The child was playing with the chained dog without supervision when the attack occurred.

Media Hysteria

Since when does "dog scratches child" become news?

An Omaha, NE man faces trial for child neglect after his 3 year old so was found "wandering around naked with the family pit bull."  I am still not sure what the pit bull had to do with the story other than clearly it wasn't being a danger to the young boy (and may have been doing a great job keeping the toddler safe).  It should be noted that Omaha has breed-specific laws targeting pit bulls -- even though the pit bull in this story seems to be the responsible one.

Miscellaneous

More than 200 animal welfare groups from 53 communities participated in the ASPCA's Mega Match-a-thon promoting adoptions the weekend of March -April 1. During the weekend, more than 6100 animals found homes...congrats to all involved, including the 3 shelters in Kansas City that combined for more than 700 adoptions (including 145 from the KC Pet Project).

A Texas Circuit court judge ruled that a family who's dog was shot by a sheriff's deputy would be reward $620,00 in damages.

No Kill

In Union County, OR officials have become concerned that the shelter's high save rate may be a public safety issue. The former shelter director is raising the concern and thinks that the decrease in killing is leadng to unsafe animals going out into the community -- there is no evidence of this mind you. The new shelter director notes that they are working with more rescues (some of whom specialized in rehabilitating behavioral issues) and more people coming to adopt and more volunteers. Congrats to the new management of the Blue Mountain Humane Society and is there no end to the paranoia by those who desire to protect the status quo?

Positive Press

Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson has adopted a pit bull puppy.

A great story from the Denver Post about a dog named "Dragon" that was part of a dog fighting operation in Virginia but has been rehabilitated by the great folks at the Longmont Humane Societyand now is a great family pet. It's a great story -- and it's even better that it is being covered in Denver where they need to see more of these types of stories.

Folks from BADRAP visited Toledo, OH this week to do an educational seminar about 'pit bull' type dogs.

A pit bull in Nebraska survived 4 days on his own in the woods after being shot twice and left for dead.

In Sikeston, MO, the Sikeston Area Humane Society is taking a rescued pit bull to schools to help educate kids on the lighter side of pit bull type dogs.

Kansas City Area News

An 11 month old Labrador became the first area dog to undergo stem cell therapy. The young dog suffered from arthritis so badly that it could barely walk, but seems to be doing well following the stem cell treatment. Isn't science great?

The Heartland SPCA, a shelter serving many Johnson County communities based out of Merriam, KS is having to change its name after losing a lawsuit by an area vet clinic that felt they had rights to the Heartland name. An area judge agreed.

Blogs

Can you neuter your way out of killing?  Winograd says adoptions are the most important part of saving lives.

Shasta. She's working on herself -- Love and a six foot leash tells a great story about a dog that is learning to trust, and then learning to cope with the separation anxiety when she begins trusting.

An invocation on beginnings -- Ze Frank has some advice on getting from zero to one (and I realize this may not make any sense to anyone)

Things that make you go "hmm" -- YesBiscuit! notes a peculiar line item on the tax return for the Spartanburg, SC Pound.

On training pit bulls -- love this one by Save the pit bull, save the world.

Doggie Body Language -- from I Love Charts

Text from Dog -- this type of thing is usually not my humor level -but this tumblr site of texted conversations between a guy and his dog is pretty clever, although, with NSFW languange. 

Every picture tells a story -- Kim Beer, a photographer who dedicates countless hours to KC Pet Project in taking great photos of our dogs, talks about one of the dogs at the shelter with a photo that helps tell the story.

Bringing back the mixed breed -- from Shelter Dogs Blog

What is Displacement Killing -- I really want to write a whole blog post about this one at some point -- but for now, some good thoughts from YesBiscuit!

For no kill opponents, we should show animals are valuable by killing them -- a thought-provoking post from Christie Keith over at Honest Dog.

15 steps on how to find your lost pet -- The Pleasant Valley Animal Rescue Examiner has some good advice as many people outside of rescue don't have a good feel for the steps to take to find your lost pet.

Seagoville, TX is Your Town, USA -- Yesbiscuit celebrates the success at ending shelter killing in Seagoville, TX.

Infant dies from dog attack in South Carolina

Yesterday morning, a 2 month old infant was tragically killed by the family's dog.

The child's mother was at a Doctor's appointment with the 7 year old child. The father was asleep in another rom with a 3 year old child. The newborn, identified as Aiden McGrew, was apparently sitting in a baby swing. The family's dog -- a mixed breed dog that is being called a "retriever/lab mix" for lack of a better description, apparently bit the child mutliple times. The child died later at the hospital.

The dog was new to th family as they had dog-sat for the dog before and the owner decided they no longer wanted to keep him.

The story is all over the news - -and has run in more than 300 news outlets.

The community of Ridgeville has a poverty level of 29% -- which is more than double the national average.

There is probably a lot to say about this incident, but then again, maybe not, as it kind of speaks for itself. It's a tragedy and my heart goes out to the family in this tragic event.

The dog is also not likely an aggressive dog either, or a threat to society. It's actually hard to say what led up to the tragedy, but I doubt "aggression" was the culprit. This is a prime example of the reality that no matter how safe dogs are (and they are incredibly safe), they are animals. And as such, can be involved in something like this. And it's why I repeat, over and over, that regardless of how well behaved your dog is, they should never be left alone and unsupervised with a small child. And it shows over and over why people who insist on trying make dog bites a breed-specific issue are tragically wrong - -and why it is leading to people being less knowledgable about dog behavior and making people LESS safe. Because people mistakenly believe that "their" dog is safe, because it's not one of "those" dogs.

Dogs are dogs, and should be supervised with young children. Always.

My heart goes out to the family and if any more details of this tragedy come up I will certainly fill in the details here.

Compassion (and have we lost it when it comes to people?)

Last night, my wife and I went off to dinner in a neighbor near ours. On the way, we happened to pass four young men (all seemingly mid-20s-ish) squatting down, overlooking a dog laying on the ground.

We immediately stopped the car and the wife jumped out to see if there was any way we could offer assistance. We could not. The dog was dead.

Apparently one of the young men was out walking his dog, off leash, and for some reason, even though the dog well trained and voice responsive, it decided to dart off into the neighborhood street and, though the street isn't a busy one, happened to get hit by a car. The driver stopped to help. Others who saw it happen stopped to help. But the dog died quickly.

Then, 10 minutes later, we showed up. The dog's owner wasn't mad at the man who hit his dog, or at the dog for darting off. Heck, he barely seemed sad. He seemed -- stunned. Completely in shock over what happened.

I, of course, went directly to that place with him - -how would I be feeling if that were me squatting there, with one of my dogs. I can't imagine.

And then I went to a different place. I imagined the man taking his dog to get a proper burial (which he planned to do) and getting lectured by someone about why he didn't have his dog on a leash. And I then imagined, after some time had passed, him wanting to get another canine companion and being rejected by the rescue organization for because he was honest and said his last dog had been hit by a car.

And I felt sad.  I felt sad for the young man who lost his dog. And I felt sad for being a part of an animal welfare community that I feared wouldn't be compassionate to a young man who clearly loved and cared deeply about his pet. It saddened me to think that a movement founded on compassion, can sometimes seem to not have it at times -- at least toward the people involved.

 

Los Angeles takes new approach (after Mandatory Spay/Neuter fails)

Well, this is a start.

This week, a series of advertisements for a group called No Kill Los Angeles has broken with the goal of raising awareness of the problem of high euthanasia rates in Los Angeles area shelters -- the advertising is hoped to facilitate adoptions and encourage people to spay/neuter their pets.

The advertising campaign is a new approach for LA -- made possible by Best Friends Animal Society that began operating a shelter in the Los Angeles area after the city built the shelter at a cost of more than $19 million -- but then lacked the funds to open the shelter and manage it. Yeah, really. Best friends turned the facility into and adoption center and plans to spend about $1 million a year running the shelter.

In 2008, Los Angeles passed a law mandating that all dogs and cats be spayed and neutered.  The results have been, well, disasterous.

The following are the numbers of DOGS impounded, and euthanized, over the past 11 years.  The numbers come from ShelterTrak and from the Los Angeles numbers published online:

2001 Intake: 40,442   Euthanized: 22,675

2002 Intake: 34,295   Euthanized: 17,335 (-24%)

2003 Intake: 30,605   Euthanized: 12,821 (-62%)

2004 Intake: 26,949    Euthanized: 9,985  (-22%)

2005 Intake: 25, 740   Euthanized: 8,127 (-19%)

2006 Intake: 24,999     Euthanized: 6,949 (-15%)

2007 Intake: 25,792    Euthanized: 6,051 (-13%)

In 2008, the mandatory spay/neuter ordinance was passed:

2008 Intake: 30,813     Euthanized: 7,518 (+24%)

2009 Intake 31,869   Euthanized: 7,624  (+1.5%)

2010 Intake : 33,396  Euthanized: 8,210 (+7.7%)

2011 Intake: 35,589  Euthanized: 9,452 (+15.1%)

In 2011, 5 years after the mandatory spay/neuter ordinance was put into effect to try to DECREASE shelter euthanasia, 38% more dogs were impounded and 56% more dogs were euthanized than the year prior to the ordinance taking effect. Ouch.

The numbers for cats, equally poor:

2006 Euthanized: 12,277

2007 Euthanized: 8,960 (MSN begins after this year)

2008 Euthanized: 12,099

2009 Euthanized: 11,938

2010 Euthanized: 12,435

2011 Euthanized: 13,561

From the outset, the law was a failure. Shortly after passing the ordinance, the city became unable to offer low cost spay/neuter services because they ran short of money to meet the high demand. And in spite of insistence that the law was a good idea, an independent report noted that the city had "No Plan" for how to enforce the law, or get people into compliance.

So, with no plan or financial ability of how to HELP people get into compliance with the mandatory spay/neuter law, the city passed the mandatory spay/neuter law -- and with it, both intakes, and shelter euthanasia, have increased EVERY, SINGLE, YEAR since the law was passed 5 years ago.

Fail.

So after years of failure in trying to create a law to punish people for not spaying or neutering, finally, the folks at Best Friends, who are now running one of the city's shelters, are finally trying a different approach. This approach involves educating people on why spay/neuter is important, and why adoption is important, in the reality that if you ENCOURAGE the public to help you in your efforts to save lives, they will respond in a far more positive way than if you try to punish them into compliance.

For very real reasons like this, major national orgnaiztions like the AVMA, ASPCA, Best Friends, American Humane, Ally Cat Allies, and No Kill Advocacty Center are all opposed to mandatory spay/neuter laws -- joining a near national consensus opposed to such laws.

This doesn't mean there is opposition to spay/neuter -- but an opposition to mandating it for individuals when the laws have continued to fail, over and over, and targeted, voluntary, low cost spay/neuter programs continue to prove to be effective and efficient ways of generating positive results.

This hopefully is a good first step for Los Angeles -- whose punitive approach has proven to be a failure, and left thousands of dead animals in its wake.

Two more cities repeal breed-specific laws

Morris, IL has repealed its long-standing law that required all residents who wanted a 'pit bull" to get a license from the city 48 hours before getting the dog and required the city to inspect the area where the dog would be kept before approving the license and for signage of a pit bull being on the premises to be present.

The law is now gone.

The city quite enforcing the law several years ago when an Illinois state law made the city law no longer viable, but has been going through their codes and getting rid of outdated laws and this was one that was marked for repeal.

Meanwhile, in Plymouth, MA, representatives at a town meeting voted to eliminate a permit process that called for "pit bulls' to obtain a "wild animal" permit to keep the dog and to purchase a certain level of insurance. One Precinct rep noted that requiring wild animal permits for pit bulls was unreasonable since there were dangeorus dogs of other breeds and it wasn't a breed-specific issue.

The new law will taret dogs based on behavior, not looks.

Thanks to Jodie at Bless the Bullies for both of these updates.

It's exciting to see the changes in attitudes toward the dogs and a greater focus on rational-based decision-making instead of fear-based decision-making. More very good news.

Elderly man killed by dogs in Mead, OK

Sadly, earlier this week 92 year old James Hurt was found dead in his front yard after being attacked by two dogs.   The man was apparently out gardening when the attack occurred.

Based on the reports this isn't the first time that dogs have been a problem in Mead as dogs have been known to run lose in the neighborhood and have on many occassions threatened residents and even bitten people before.

At the present time, authorities are unsure of what dogs were responsible for the attack as no one witnessed the attack, but authorities to suspect two "pit bulls" that live a few homes down from the victim.

Meade, which has a population of just 130 people, has a leash law in town but no animal control and the county sheriff says he just doesn't have the resources to enforce the ordinance.

Mead's population has an average household income of $14,668 -- this is down 30% from the $21,071 in 2000 (and much less than the average of $41,664 fr the state of Oklahoma) -- so obviously this small, rural community is not tremendously upscale.

The story has only been picked up by a small number of media outlets.

My heart goes out to the Hurt family and to the residents of Mead.

Miami Dade to put pit bull ban up for county-wide vote

Earlier this week, Miami-Dad Commissioners voted 3-1 to put the county's breed ban up for a county-wide vote.  The county has had a breed ban on 'pit bulls' for 23 years.  Pressure on the county to repeal the ordinance has been mounting and was nearly overturned by the state legislature earlier this year. Miami-Dade is the only area of Florida with a breed ban as state law prohibits such legislation, but Miami was grandfathered in because their law preceeded the passing of the state-wide law.

The law will go before the voters on August 14.

While I would have loved for the state legislature to overturn Miami's law - -the voter initiative will be interesting to watch. I've been following this closely for the last 6-7 years, and I can't recall a city every having a vote on whether or not to have a ban on breeds.  I think the outcome of the vote could have an interesting impact nationally.

While I won't begin to guess on whether or not I think the repeal will pass, I think there will be a lot of interesting dynamics.

1) I have long contended that I think public opinion about pit bulls is changing and that most people don't believe bans are a good idea. I think we may see this in the election as there will be a lot of passionate people pushing for a repeal of the law.

2) While there will certainly be a lot of people who wish to keep the law, most people will generally be apathetic. I don't expect strong opposition to the law -- and certainly not organized opposition that can match the strength/organization of the people pushing for the repeal. I also expect that there will be some national organizations that get involved, along with high-profile Jamie Burhle, that will help get a lot of positive support for the repeal.

3) Voeter turnout in August elections is notoriously pretty poor. The people who vote are either those who are passionate about an issue (which will help with the repeal) or the elderly who usually come out to vote (many of these people will likely be opposed to the repeal).

4) It may be hard to convince people that pit bulls are not bad dogs when most have not had the opportunity to meet a legally owned pit bull in more than 2 decades.

5) It's also important to note that the biggest opposition to th repeal is likely from the city leaders - -the city itself cannot legally wage a campaign opposing the repeal.

It will be interesting if advocates for the repeal can motivate people who generally support their cause to go to the polls to overturn the law.  It would be an amazing feat after such a long time. I fully expct a lot of people to be watching this...and best of luck to our friends in the Miami are who I know will be working hard on this repeal.