KC DOG BLOG

Is No Kill leading to more dog bites in Austin? No, but DBO again pushes for failed policy

Earlier this month, Colleen Lynn, writer of dogsbite.org, approached the city council of Austin, TX. In her presentation, she noted that dog bites have increasing in Austin since 2007, and blamed the city's adoption of "No Kill" policy for the increase in bites.  According to Lynn, the combination of pit bulls "flooding" open admission shelters and No Kill leading to "reduced screening of potential adopters and behavior testing, is a considerable public safety risk".

Lynn then went on to kind of propose, but not really propose (it's kind of confusing what she's asking for here) either differential licensing, mandatory spay/neuter, or both.  You can read all the documentation here.

Last week, I got the opportunity to be on the Pit Bulletin Legal News radio program last week and Fred and his team assembled some data to take a deeper look at the situation in Austin.

To be fair, Lynn's data is actually correct -- in as far as it goes. Dog bites have been going up in Austin. It is her desire to only collect and reportthe data that she feels supports her point that causes her to have dramatically inaccurate conclusions in an attempt to provide causal correlation.

First, let me note that there is no evidence (and still no evidence) that No Kill in any way decreases public safety. No Kill is about saving lives. It's about keeping animals in homes that don't need to be removed from homes. It's about increasing adoptions so that animals that find their way to the shelter are given the opportunity to live. Aggressive/dangerous dogs are still humanely euthanized.  And adopters are still screened (although No Kill would does not set arbitrary rules that lead to homes being needless turned away). 

Meanwhile, the city of Austin put together a response to Lynn's assertions -- which involved a much broader range of data.

According to their data, here is the number of dog bites by year over the past decade:

2000        909

2001        947

2002        858

2003        764

2004        776

2005        778

2006        995

2007        1015

2008        1065

2009        1074

2010        1222

2011        1449

Based on the report: "Simply showing a broader timeframe shows that the upward trend in bite reports has remained consistent since 2003 -- 6 years before the Council's resolution."

Whoops.

The report goes on to show the increase in population for the city of Austin and Travis County -- which is now the fastest growing metro area in the country.  Given the large swing in population over the past decade (from about 800,000 to more than 1.05 million), it would seem fairly obvious why there is an increase in dog bites.  Thus, according to the report, "Therefore, the passing of the no-kill resolution has no substantive correlation to bite report increases, whereas population growth provides a strong correlative relation for a consistent increase in bite reports."

Wow, things are going downhill quickly for the dogbites.org folks.

So one other thing I want to highlight are the difference between minor, and severe dog bites.

Again, looking at the data from the city of Austin, here are the number of dog bites by type over the last decade:

Year            Minor            Moderate        Severe        Unknown

2000            610                    218                47                34

2001            689                    188                39                39

2002            607                    167                49                35

2003            599                    113                15                37

2004            583                    138                22                33

2005            603                    133                15                27

2006            687                    207                52                49

2007            708                    228                32                47

2008           682                    260                52                 71

2009            711                    260                44                59

2010            732                    350                45                95

2011            873                    402                62                112

A couple of important points here:

#1) Over the past 12 years, Austin, a city that now has more than 1 million people and an estimated 525,000 dogs, has averaged less than 40 severe bite incidents a year.  Most dog bite incidents are very minor (68% were minor and 23% moderate), again showing how absolutely safe dogs are relative to the populatin of people and canines.

2)  Of the total population of owned dogs, only .007% were involved in a severe bite.

3) Only 1 of the severe bites in 2010 and 2011 were attributed to dogs that had been adopted from the City Shelter.

In conclusion, the city report notes:

"When looking at a more thorough dataset than used by dogsbite.or, we can conclusively say that we do not believe there is any evidence that suggest the no kill plan has any direct affect on bite report volume."

I think this is outstanding information for everyone to read and be aware of. I've often heard the accusations that No Kill = a decrease in public safety, and this is essentially the first real analysis that I've seen address this issue (and shows that the assertion is false).  It also shows that DBO continues to push for inneffective legislation that is aimed at unnecessarily killing dogs that would have no positive impact on public safety.

 

Two dog bite fatalities week of 8/13

As I've noted before, the dog attack fatality stories are about my least favorite stories to cover. Dogs are amazing creatures that have shown an incredible ability to adapt to a variety of lifestyles we subject them to. There are more than 72 million owned dogs in this country, and extremely few end up attacking people, let alone fatally.

However, because there are a few sources that would like to spread mis-information about major attacks and focus on breeds, and not circumstances, I feel an obligation to provide as accurate information as possible about the actual causes of these incidents so that we can learn from them to prevent them instead of focusing on non-causal factors like breed. Unfortunately, in all three of the incidents below, there were no witnesses to the attacks so there is little information available.

There were two incidents this week (after over a month since the last attack) -- and one that I have to catch up on because some more information has come out that would cause me to add it to the list.

Charles Hagerman

In Chicago, 44 year old Chales Hagerman was found dead in his Southside home, a victim of dog bites. There were two dogs (one puppy, one adult) inside the home, both described as 'pit bulls'. According to several who were interviewed, the adult dog had exibited aggressive behavior before -- and one of the victim's relatives notes that Hagerman was afraid of the dog and the dog had apparently bitten strangers before.

The 60607 zip code where this took placee has a 36% povery level (nearly triple the state average in Illinois,) and 12% of its residents live on less than 50% of the poverty line. I share this information only because I think poor education on proper animal care is often a cause for attacks like this and that people with low education levels often live in poverty. Low education in regular life often translates into the low education on animal care issues and an inability to get training help necessary to overcome behavioral issues early on and many low-income areas could benefit from having free training classes for pet owners.

My heart goes out to Hagerman's family. The story was picked up in 19 news outlets.

Rebecca Carey

Rebecca Carey was a 23 year old woman in Decatur, GA and was found dead, apparently attacked by dogs in her home.

Carey was a rescuer and worked at a veterinary clinic.  She had four dogs of her own and was pet sitting a fifth dog for the weekend. Carey owned a pit bull, a Presa Canario, a boxer and one other dog (which strangely isn't mentioned in most of the articles but apparently weighed about 15 lbs) -- and was pet sitting a friend's Presa Canario.

Authorities unfortunately euthanized all the dogs at the home without any effort to determine which one(s) were involved and what may have caused the death. Carey is described as a "Very experienced" dog handler and not naive when it came to dogs.  Unfortunately, without any investigation at the scene, we're left with little to determine a cause of attack.

Without anything more, the cause in this attack is merely speculative. It would seem that two of the dogs getting into a fight and her getting into the middle of it is the most likely scenario (particularly with a new dog in the house for the weekend), but even with that, none of the news articles seem to indicate if any of the dogs were injured in any way.

It really is a horrible situation, and I feel sorry for everyone close to Carey. It's a sad moment for someone who obviously had a caring heart and passion for animals.

The story has picked up by more than 150 news outlets including many national news outlets.

Eugene Cameron

This is a pickup from a story from awhile back -- but in Roxboro, NC, 65 year old Eugene Cameron was found dead outside of a friend's home -- due from an apparent dog attack. Cameron was found naked with his clothes balled up beside him (which is odd) in the yard, but had wounds that would have made him likely bleed to death. The dog's DNA was found on the victim and the owner of the dog has now been arrested.

Allegedly, Cameron was visiting a friend's house and the dog next door got free and attacked him.  The dog, a 'pit bull" named DMX, was usually kept "locked up or on a leash".

It's another sad story -- and I feel for the victim and his family.

The story was not widely discussed in the media with only a dozen or so news sources covering the story.

Weekly Roundup -- Week Ending 8/19/12

A lot of news and information going on out there and I'm a couple weeks behind. Here are the top stories for the week and a few back stories from the past couple of weeks to help you get caught up.

Cities/States and Laws

A group in Sioux City, IA continues to try to educate officials about why they should repeal the city's 4 year old breed ban. The numbers are definitely in their favor.

Fairfield County, OH will no longer use the gas chamber for ending pets' lives.

Pit bull 'underground railroad' saves lives for pit bulls banned in Ontario.  

Being a pit bull in the Saginaw County Animal Shelter is no longer a mandatory death sentence after officials changed policies on shelter pit bulls.

Amite, IA passed a law that declared 'pit bulls' to be vicious dogs.

The idea of a breed ban was brought up in Hinesville, GA, but was quickly shot down by the mayor and city council.

After studying the possibility of passing breed restrictions in Sioux Falls, SD, the City Council opted to remain with their breed-neutral law.

Dog bites/attacks

Serious dog bites are rare, but when they do happen, it is usually a series of  events that lead up to the attacks and not breeds that cause them. Here are a few stories of the incidents that are out there.

Two women in Massachusetts were transported to the hospital after they were attacked by two German Shepherds.

A 27 year old Massillon, OH woman was severely attacked by a dog that is described as a "Rottweiler mix" and was aided by another resident of the apartment complex who helped free her from the attack.

In Independence, MO, a German Shepherd escaped through a hole in the fence bit its owner and then two officers before being shot by the police. Independence has had a breed ban against Pit bulls since 2006 -- but there has been no improvement in public safety since enacting the ban.

A Papillion, NE man was bitten by a dog and likely died due to the bite. The bite was pretty minor and the man refused medical attention. However, the man didn't have a spleen (which clears the blood stream of infections) and became infected due to the injuries and died due to the infections. The bite was considered not-serious, thus this isn't lassified as a fatal dog attack, but it is a lesson to people that if you are injured in an bite, please seek medical attention so you can avoid therisk of infection.

UK Dangerous Dogs Act

Hospitalizations due to dog bites increased by more than 5% again last year in the UK -- continuing a trend of increasing dog bites in the UK, in part because of their national law that focuses on breeds of dog instead of on dog behavior. Here is one example of a recent attack that continues in spite of the ban.

No Kill

Philadelphia has seen two consecutive months of increased intake -- which is overwhelming for a shelter that already takes thousands of animals each month during the busy season. To compensate, the Philly Shelter is offering fee waved adoptions through September 4. 

Manatee County, FL was honored at last week's No Kill conference for their dedication to No Kill. As of July, the shelter had an 81% save rate as they worked toward their goal of No Kill. While it seems it has often become the expectation that shelters would become No Kill overnight, it often takes, particularly larger shelters, a little time to develop the programs that allow them to ge there and I'm pleased to see Manatee County getting some props for their live-saving efforts as they build toward becoming a No Kill community. 

The Animal Shelter in Jeffersonville, KY has announced a dedication toward becoming No Kill. The shelter takes in roughly 2500 pets a year. They believe they can achieve No Kill Status by August of 2013.

A new shelter director in Terrell County, TX has taken a small shelter that routinely used to euthanize animals to one that is saving the lives of all the animals in their care.

A quality article about No Kill sheltering -- helping reinforce that no kill is about saving lives, and not about hoarding.

Linn County, IA has made significant progress toward No Kill since a new shelter director took over in September of last year.

Miscellaneous

In one of my favorite stores of the week, one Los Angeles landlord and rescuer offered discounted rents for people who adopte pets.

76% of dog owners have made online purchases for their dogs -- with toys and medicine being the top sellers.  Saturdays are by far the most popular day for purchases. More info at this infographic.

Some new technology is allowing people to root out the start of rumors and epidemics online. I really wish this technology would have beeen available 25 years ago so we could have sourced out all of the false bite pressure information, locking jaws rumors etc that have plagued pit bulls for a generation now.

According to a report in Houston, the new AVMA Pet census is going to show a slight decrease in pet ownership -- for the first time in nearly a decade.

A great new quirky sofa for you and your cats that doubles as a play area for your cat (and not just as a scratching post as a lot of sofas end up being.

Spay & Neuter Kansas City is introducing Non-Surgical Neutering to the area -- this would allow for male dogs to be sterilized and yet still keep their "Manhood" for owners that think that is important. It's a great new technology and I'm thrilled that the Kansas City area is among the first to introduce it.

A new dog bone comforts pets while owners are away by containing the smells and sounds of a dog's owner.

Neighborhood Pit Bull Day in Kansas City -- August, 18, 2012

Tomorrow, several Kansas City Area organziations are partnering for Neighborhood Pit bull Day.

The event will feature opportunities for pit bull owners to have their dogs spayed or neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and licensed with the city.  All for free.

Also, dog food samples and treats will be made available, as well as trainers on hand to help folks with their training needs.

Help will be available for both English-speakers and Spanish-speakers. 

I'm really excited for the event -- sponsored by Best Friends Animal Society in partnership with Spay & Neuter Kansas City. It's a great opportunity for our animal welfare community to reach out to the pit bull owners in Kansas City and be a part of helping them with their pet ownership needs.

Great program, and great work by both organizations involved.

Breaking down the numbers on last night's lost vote in Miami Dade

Yesterday, voters in Miami-Dade County went to the polls to determine whether or not they would keep the county's 23 year old ban on pit bulls.

And overwhelmingly, voters voted to keep the ban with 63.2% voting to keep the ban, and 36.8% voting for a repeal.

The results are not terribly surprising.

For more than two decades, citizens in Miami have been told by their county government that pit bulls were inherently dangerous. They're, not, but that's what people have been told by way of the 23 year old law.

The ban has also prevented most in the city from adopting pit bulls, meaning there are fewer advocates in Miami than in other places, and, fewer opportunities for common citizens to meet pit bulls and thus realize they are not the deamons often portrayed by the media.

Meanwhile, early polling showed that this was a major up-hill battle for advocates, and several larger national animal welfare groups opted NOT to pay for advertising to help push the ballot initiative because they felt the money would be better spent on the next round of lobbying.

This left advocates in Miami about 3 months, and minimal cash on hand, to re-educate an entire population about pit bulls and ended up coming up way short.

It would be pretty easy to get down about the vote. It was a loss -- and a win would have sent huge waives across the nation and would have ended the breed ban in one of the most high profile areas left in this country.

However, the detailed voter count tells maybe a more optimistic story.

Based on the numbers, Miami had a fairly large voter turnout by August election standards -- with a full 20% of the 1.2 million voters casting votes.  However, this is where it gets a bit interesting.

Of those 248,496 voters, only 42% cast their votes yesterday on voting day (only 8% of total registered voters).  The remaing 58.6% cast them either during the early voting (14%) or absentee (34%).

The voting split was pretty remarkable.

Of those that voted absentee (and were thus were largely unaffected by late educational pushes and editorials touting the need to repeal the ban), only 31% voted to repeal the breed ban. I should also note that concerns over the absentee voting system has led to many allegations of voter fraud in these early ballots.

Of those who voted early (again, less impacted by the educational efforts), 36% voted to repeal the ban.

Of those who went to the polls, a full 41% voted to repeal the ban.

In other words, when people are provided educational information about the ordinance, about pit bulls and realize there is no professional support for breed bans, they become more likely to vote in favor of the dogs.

This is some positive news (and also not terribly surprising).

As we continue to educate people about the dogs, we'll continue to make progress in this regard. And people seem to be very open to the educational opportunity and it can, and does, impact public perception.

This is all why the support for breed bans is diminishing in favor of more effective, enforceable and common-sensical laws targeting dangerous dogs based on their behavior, not their looks.

So it's a tough loss -- but one that I think gives us a good measure of the work to be done. The groups in Miami plan to continue fighting through the traditional measures of working through the city council and the state legislature and hopefully more progress will be made in the not-too-distant future.

Very Good Sentences -- Breed specific law repealed in Town & Country, MO

Last night, the community of Town and Country, MO voted to repeal their breed-specifc law that automatically declared 'pit bulls' as "vicous".  According to Town & Country Police Captain Gary Hoelzer:

"I think Town and Country is following a trend we are seeing to remove breed-specific language from municipal ordinances and make it behavior- based."

Hoelzer further explained that the community of Town & Country has yet to see a bite by a pit bull. "It's other breeds. So it really isn't breed based. It's how they're raised. Other circumstance."

Hear Hear.

Town & Country is a small community of about 10,000 residents in Suburban St. Louis and is a very upscale community with an average HHI of about $135,000 -- and has joined the rank of progressive communities that are repealing their laws targeting specific breeds. Congrats to Town & Country and their leaders and residents.

Massachusetts state law trumps local laws

A couple of weeks ago, the state legislature in Massachusetts passed a new state law that outlawed the targeting of specific breeds with laws in local communities.  At the time, there was some discussion about whether the state law would over-ride existing breed-specific laws.

Well, after a couple of weeks, it has become clear that existing breed-specific laws will need to be repealed in order to comply with the state law.

Already, several communities are discussing the impact the new state law will have on their local laws.

In Lowell, which passed its pit bull ordinance last year by a narrow 5-4 margin, City Manager Bernie Lynch noted that the state law "may have an impact on whether the pit bull ordinance is sustainable."

In Worcester, they too are considering changes to their law, that was also enacted last year. According to an area lawyer and chairman of the Massachusetts Bar Association's Animal Law Practice Group noted, "I think these breed specific laws have to be changed or they will be invalidated. I find them to be ineffective."

This is definitely great news for dog owners and residents in these communities as the cities are being forced to change their ineffective legislation and change them to more effective laws that will focus dangerous dog resources on dogs that are dangerous based on their BEHAVIOR, not on what they look like (which is never an indicator).

Public policy is definitely building against breed specific laws and toward behavior-based laws. This is great news for dogs, dog owners, and people who prefer more effective public safety policy.

Pit Bull Legal news you can use: Miami, Maryland and the ABA

It's only Tuesday and there has been a LOT of legal news and information this week -- so I'm going to hit a few of the highlights in case you missed them.

Miami Dade set to vote on the repeal of their Pit Bull ban

Miami-Dade has a 23 year old ban on pit bull type dogs. It has been the subject of several legal challenges, including one in which the law violated due process due to the arbitrary nature of enforcement and nearly repealed by the state legislature earlier this spring.

In order to stop the state repeal, the city opted to put the subject up for a vote in a city-wide election -- which will be held next Tuesday, August 14.  County Commissioner Sally Heyman noted that the ban was "an emotional respnse to a travesty in 1989...Now it's time for us to make an intelligent decision."

I don't know if this is the first vote of its kind, but I'm not aware of any other situation where a breed ban has come up for a public vote. It's a tough, up-road battle for the advocates in this situation as most Miami residents haven't seen a law abiding Pit Bull owner in 23 years -- and there are fewer pit bull enthusiasts there than in other places where they aren't banned. However, an August vote will be fairly light at the polls, which could allow for pit bull advocates to be very influential. On the flip side, August elections generally draw older voters who will likely be opposed to the repeal.  

The people opposing the repeal are up their normal fear tactics -- raising fears that if the law is repealed pit bulls are going to be 'running loose all over the place' -- as if Miami's leash law will be repealed also.

There are a lot of high profile advocates down there, including Marlins Pitcher Mark Buerhle and his wife Jamie, and the issue has been getting quite a bit of press (and the repeal got the support of the Miami Herald), so there may be a good turnout. Will be very interesting to watch.

American Bar Association Urges Breed Neutral Laws

Yesterday, the American Bar Association passed Resolution 100 that urges legal professionals to pass breed-neutral dangerous dog laws that focus on behavior of dogs, not their looks. This resolution continues the trend of there being no professional support for breed-specific laws.  Congrats to the folks at the ABA.

Update on Maryland

It looks like the Maryland General Assembly is going to have a special session in which they will discuss making legal changes that will over-ride a very controversial court ruling this spring. This would be a great step in overturning the controvsial and ill-advised court ruling. This would be great to not have to wait until the regular session for this to be inevitably overturned.

Top 5 +1 for July 2012

The Top 5 is a monthly look at the most popular posts on this blog for the month based on readership information from Google Analytics. The +1 is my chance to highlight a post I wish had been in the top 5, but wasn't.

1) Lennox the dog is dead -- and the power of channeled passion -- after a 2 years of fighting to keep their dog, the owners of Lennox lost and Lennox was killed based on his perceived breed. While Lennox's story is tragic, it is a story that is replayed daily in cities with breed bans across the United States.

2) Fatal Dog attack in Cincinnati -- and more evidence why the breed haters are wrong -- a 40 year old Cincinnati man was killed by his dog -- and the series of circumstances that surrounded it is exactly why targeting breeds with laws is ineffective.

3) Breaking down the Manitoba BSL Effectiveness Study - - Some researchers created a study to try to justify breed bans in Manitoba by mixing and matching data, however, scrutiny of the data and their own analysis suggests that breed bans did not improve public safety in the communities that passed them.

4) Sioux City should repeal their breed ban; and celebrating decreases in public safety -- Sioux City, IA has had a multitude of problems with their breed ban, including an increase in dog bites since it's passing -- and advocates of the ban are LOL'ing at the results.

5) New ASPCA Study on the frequency of lost pets and their reclaim by owners -- this is a good study about how many lost pets are reclaimed by their owners and how it is they are reunited.

+1

Enabling, empowerment and forcing change in Wilmington -- Wilmington, DE decided to repeal its breed ban after struggles in finding anyone to take their animal control contract because no one was willing to enforce it for them -- a nice power play that many organizations can do themselves in their own BSL communties.

Breed-specific laws now illegal in Massachusetts

Yesterday, Massachusetts Governor Patrick signed bill 2184 into law. The law is fairly comprehensive and calls for a statewide spay/neuter program, requires animal control officers to receive training, prevents gassing as a form of euthanasia, provides protection for both animals and people in domestic violence cases and prevents communities from declaring a dog aggressive or dangerous based on its breed, or look.

You can read the law in its entirety here -- I confess that I haven't gotten all the way through it but there certainly appear to be some very good changes here and some definite progress. Meanwhile it also prevents breed bans or other breed-specific laws from taking shape -- making Massachusetts among (I think) 14 states in the US to do so.  Cool.

It's unclear if or how the law will affect communities like Boston that already have breed-specific laws in place, but for now, celebrate more progress for the dogs.