KC DOG BLOG

Panic Policy Making - an academic study & current events

A couple of years ago, two Political Science professors from West Virginia University, Susan Hunter and Richard Brisbin Jr, wrote a paper entitled:  Panic Policy Making: Canine Breed Bans in Canada and the United States. 

I was excited to read the study, as I got a preview of some of the information when Ms. Hunter presented at the KC Dog Advocates Canine Legislation Conference back in 2006.

The paper discusses breed specific legislation, and how it is mostly a symbolic reaction to a crisis, shifts the injury away from the owner and onto the dogs. Also, they claim that breed bans occur in a relatively unusual political context.

"Unlike adoption of some palliatives for risks, breed bans appear in circumstances marked by great emotionalism and limited inquiry into the sources and probability of a risk and limited consideration of altternative policies. Especially the alternatives suggested by animal rights and animal welfare advocates appear to be ignored. Therefore, to address how dog breed bans have come about, this paper proposes a framework to explain panic policy making."

According to their paper, the authors propose that breed bans usually happen in a very limited time frame and without the normal intrustion of new information and without the accumulation of increasing conflict or negative feedback about the policy (which usually occurs over time, which is limited).

For the purpose of the paper, they define Panic Policy Making as:

"The speedy creation of new laws and regulatins or new duties for governmental and private institutions in a situation of sudden, unreasoning and excessive fear and anger."

In the paper, they note 5 different stages of the panic policy-making:

Recognition: Usually a Panic Policy involves a sudden event like a crisis or disaster (often involving a serious injury) that has drawn little attention from interest groups or experts. Sometimes this event happens as a quasi-natural occurance, such as a death from a dog attack or the poisoning of a source of water.  Or it can be a manufactured occurance such as a new danger created by new policy entrepreneurs who are new in office. Individuals will then take the event or intrustion as a cause for alarm because it signals severe, catastrophic or dreadful consequences.

Construction & Interpretation of the event = fear, anxiety and panic. Panic is a self-interested action determined by an emotion-laden calcution of probabilities.  This then follows with contagion - Although panic is an individualized reaction to an injurious event, if it is shared with others, it becomes contagion.  Contagion leads to an emotional assessment of alternatives as the public will often overestimate the rist of infrequent events and underestimate the frequency of common events. Thus, individuals will like alternatives shaped by an affective prediction of panic from the future dangers and anticipation of the worst possible future.

Rationalization - political leaders react to the anxiety and panic by rationalizing a public policy that can confine or eliminate that fear.  Often this comes after the media spreads the collective fear to a mass audience. This opens up the 'policy window' quite suddenly. Unlike other states of moral panic, where lobbying or changes in polical party opens the policy window, in the case of breed bans, they propose that the MEDIA opens the policy window. In these cases, the media can provide very vivid images and reactions, can amplify those reactions and reinforce these amplifications. They can then create an information cascade in which an event is repeated to the point where a rational follower will unconditionally imitate them without regard to information from other sources.

Choice - Panic policy making features limited participation, elite control and groupthink in the formulation of a response to the catastrophe -- often using heuristics and "common knowledge" instead of facts and limiting the scope of alternative policies.  Panic policymaking is thus at the extreme end of a continuum of the amount of alternatives used to formulate the new policy

The final piece is implementation -- because of the speed in processing the legislation, there is limited calculation, planning and assessment on how a new policy will actually be implemented, there is neglect in calculating the sunk costs.  Because the initial panic is cooled by the new policy, the panic eventually fades to where it was before (non-existent) and the media moves onto other issues.

The remainder of the Panic Policy paper then focuses demonstrating how panic policy making exists within the world of breed bans. They interviewed politicians and those involved in enacting breed bans throughout Canada and the United States and provided a lot of examples of how most of these cities passed bans quickly in reaction to an attack or "paranoia regarding certain breeds." One chart within the paper notes that over 40% of people who supported breed bans said they did because of media reports. Around 15% said because of community panic (often also caused by media reports), 13% "all of the above" -- so including media reports.  So media reporting is a major influencer in causing people to support breed bans.

The paper then goes into detailed case studies, including details in Ontario (where more than 40 experts and animal welfare organizations testified against the proposal but were all ignored), New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the Kansas City metropolitan area (and I can personally vouge for the accuracy of their claims for KC and the media cascade was actually the impetous for the creation of this blog) and Wheeling, WV.

The paper is a really good read and overview of public policy decision-making -- and you can read the 51 page article in its entirety here.

Panic Policy-Making in its current form

I've been interested in the Panic Policy-making idea after I witnessed it in action in my own area - and was further confirmed when a former Denver City Council member referred to the passing of Denver's breed ban as occuring during "The Hysteria of the Moment".  Denver, of course, is still struggling with the enforcement of their breed ban.  

Ohio, the only state with any type of breed specific law, is talking about repealing their breed-specific law after their state legislature tacked the breed specific languange onto another bill back in 1987 just one day after the death of a man who was killed in a dog attack.

Meanwhile, the panic-policy-making continues.

Lincoln Park, MI is currently looking at a breed ban on 'pit bulls' following a fatal attack of a 5 year old boy involving 2 dogs -- neither of which resembled 'pit bull' type dogs.

In Waxhaw, NC, just a week after a girl was fatally attacked by two 'pit bulls', the community is considering new dog legislation. Despite the fact that the dogs' owner was recently released from jail, and had been talked to by police about allowing his dogs to roam at large, and despite the fact that the parents of the girl had been reported on "three or four occassions" as not supervising their child, and despite the fact that Waxhaw has no animal control department (in spite of a rapidly growing population, the city quickly jumped to possible new laws as a solution to the attack.

Often times, the very fact that some cities have placed bans on particular breeds of dogs is used as a reinforcement that such bans are either effective legislation or well-thought-out legislation. However, when you look the circumstances that led up to the passing of this legislation - and the often hurried approach to passing the legislation such as is panic policy making, it becomes very clear that these breed bans are most often the result of emotional, panic-driven decisions vs well-thought-out and well crafted laws.  It makes these laws take on a whole new meaning.

Meanwhile, when cities actually take the time to really study a solution, and listen to the experts in their community on the topic, they nearly always come out with a policy that focuses on reckless owners and on a dog's behavior, not breed.

If we are to make improvements to the way p0licy is handled in this country, we must put an end to the panic policy-making that rushes to quick decisions to put an end to civic panic - and instead, focuses on meeting with experts to explore all of the possibilities and effectiveness of ordinances that really do improve public safety. Knowledge and understanding how panic policy-making works is critical to ending the cycle.

Helping urban youth

  When our group first formed, we began meeting with neighborhood leaders in some of Kansas City's urban neighborhoods. Our hope was to develop some programs reaching youth that would encourage them to spay/neuter their dogs, as well as to come to our low-cost dog training classes so they could teach their dogs the basic skills of walking on a lead, sitting, staying, etc.

One quote really stuck out at me from one of the leaders - -she said that whoever she helped would have to care more about the people, than the dogs.

Tio Hardiman has probably developed one of the best such programs out there. Tio works in Chicago's urban neighborhoods, working with inner city youth on how they SHOULD be caring for their dogs. He's built programs designed to give the youth other reasons to be proud of their dogs vs fighting them for pride. Through his programs, youth learn the pride of having a well-trained dog -- and the bond with the dog that comes from that work.

The USA Today covered Tio's program this week in what is yet another great read. I think it's awesome that the story focused on the reality that MOST of the kids in the inner city are not fighting their dogs -- however, some are. And they want to reach the ones that are.

I think Tio's program is great at reminding us that as much as we want to help animals -- it always still comes back to helping the people.

For more on Tio's program, including video - you can check out this old post.

Wallace the pit bull unable to defend world title

Well, the other dogs couldn't beat him. But a spatula sure did.

Last year's Purina World Free-Style Flying Disk Champ Wallace (and his frisbee thrower Roo Yori) will not be able to defend their world title in St. Louis next month. In an effort to lure Wallace into the pool for a training session, Roo had a some cheese on a spatula -- and in Wallace's gusto for cheese, he ended up eating the rubber end off the spatula. 

So last night, Roo had to undergo season ending surgery to remove the piece of spatula.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch had a good story on Wallace in the newspaper today.  I think Wallace is the perfect example of what goes wrong with so many bullies. He's a high energy dog -- and loves to play.  If you ever get a chance to watch him chase frisbees and jump and catch them you can see the joy and excitement he has for playing.  In many ways he reminds me a lot of my dog Stella -- who has the same fun and is very toy motivated.

I often think about a dog like this if it is left out in a small kennel for days at a time or on a chain for years and years - -with no one playing with them, and no positive outlet to channel their energy.  It seems obvious how they might channel it inappropriately if left unchanneled for years at a time. 

So with that, Wallace will not be able to defend his world title.  I hope the guy has a full recovery -- he truly is an example of what a great dog with a great owner can do.  So with that, I'll leave you with a video of Roo and Wallace's 2007 accomplishments with some awesome footage from his successful 2007 season.  Here's to a great 2009.

Great Program. Great Stories. Wrong Sponsor?

NBC Channel 5 in Chicagohas a great story on the work Tio Hardiman is doing in the inner city of Chicago. Several years ago, Tio was began going into Chicago's inner city and working with dog fighters, gang members, and others to change the way they perceive their dogs. Instead of being proud of their dog for being a good fighter, they are teaching the owners of these dogs to be proud of them because of how well they're trained.

Tio spoke at our Canine Legislation Conference last fall and shared many stories of his success. This video covers off on several other dogs that came out of fighting situations and are being rehabilitated for normal life. It's a great video (although warning, HSUS's dog fighting footage gets shown a couple of times and it's a bit more graphic than I feel is necessary for this feature). But if you can, you should watch the video.

Tio's program is an excellent one. Working not only on rehabiliting dogs, but on rehabilitating owners.  The biggest problem I have with this is the amount of attention HSUS is getting for this in the story -- and that Wayne Pacelle took credit for this in his blog today. 

Let's make no mistake on this. This is Tio Hardiman's program. Tio was doing this on his own because it was the right thing to do and because he has an amazing gift at reaching these people. HSUS saw what was going on, and decided to offer to help him. In many ways, this is great for Tio.  He is getting access to resources he never would have had without HSUS's help.  In other ways it is infuriating.  Infuriating because HSUS is now taking credit for the work Tio has been doing.  Infurating because even less than a year ago, HSUS recommended that all of Michael Vick's dogs be killed because they assumed they would be too dangerous to be rehabilitiated.  They weren't,*and the folks at Bad Rap, Best Friends, and the ASPCA (and other folks) are doing excellent work rehabilitating these dogs and finding them homes. 

* Be sure to watch the video behind that link --I actually somehow missed this one and it's really an awesome heartwarming video.

HSUS has not been a friend to fighting dogs over the years. Even the Vick dog in the NBC video above (that is currently a service dog bringing joy to cancer patients) was recommended to be killed by HSUS. Now they're taking credit for helping other fighting dogs.

So a huge tip of the hat to Tio Hardiman. Great program. Great work. You're awesome. And I hope you are able to continue your great work. And may your work do wonders in changing minds -- the minds of the public in how they view these dogs, in the minds of the men that your are helping educate on how to raise a dog, and the minds of the organization that is sponsoring you...

For more on Tio:

http://btoellner.typepad.com/kcdogblog/canine_legislation_conference/

http://btoellner.typepad.com/kcdogblog/2007/08/clc-speaker-tio.html

Ending Dog Fighting in Chicago

This is a great video about work that is being done in Chicago to encourage young men in the inner city to take pride in their pit bull type dogs for reasons other than their fighting ability. Hat tip to Mac's Gang at Barking Mad for pointing to this.   I'm going to post it here too (sorry Mac), just because I think it's really important for a lot of people to see this.

The video features Tio Hardiman, who was a guest speaker at last year's Canine Legislation Conference that we held here in Kansas City.  He's running a great program in Chicago and it's great to see some of the video of what's going on up there.

On another note, we're also starting another session of "Pit Bull University" here soon -- I'll post the details once we get this all worked out.  PBU is our Kansas City version of helping high risk dog owners (we welcome all breeds) with basic obedience training. 

Second Chance to be Top Dog

So, hopefully Roo will get he and Wallace's video of their winning the Purina Dog Flying Disk Freestyle match up on Wallace's website soon so everyone who may have missed the showing of it yesterday will get the chance.

Meanwhile, here's a great article from Wallace's Hometown TV station on his victory. 

For those of you that don't know, not only is Wallace the best high-flying-frisbee catching dog out there (and the only "pit bull" in the competition) -- but he is also a rescue dog that was saved from doggie death row by 'Roo and Clara.   This is a fabulous piece, and a HUGE thumbs up for Roo and Clara for being such great ambassadors for Wallace and these types of dogs.  This story couldn't come at a better time for the folks in Minnesota.

There are a couple of great scenes in the video clip and some great lines.   Here's a sampling:

"It’s just some of the best times of my life just being out on that disc field with him; just having the whole world melt away and just have him and me connecting through the training that we've been doing. You just can't put words on it,” says Andrew.

Go, read the article and watch the video.

Weekend Plans?

Be sure to make time on Sunday to catch the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge -- it will air at 3:00 PM CST on ABC TV on Sunday, Jan 13. 

Not that I want to spoil it for anyone, but Roo and Wallace end up taking first prize in the Freestyle Flying Disk competition.  They certainly put on quite a show when they were in Kansas City for our Canine Legislation Conference back in September (a couple of weeks before the actual event). 

Wallace is a fabulous example of how great "pit bulls" can be when they are handled and trained and loved by good owners.  Everyone would love to have a dog like Wallace (I know that they inspired me to start tossing a frisbee to my dog).  So set the DVR or check them out live on Sunday afternoon.

If you miss them on Sunday, the event will be replayed on ESPN2 (also available on ESPN2HD) on Monday the 14th at 12:00 CST.    Enjoy the show.

Followup on fatality in Middleburg, FL

I have been waiting to post this information as I was waiting for the last of Jim's interview to be completed.  But given the discussions over the past couple of days, I think it's important to post what I know as of now, and I'll let Jim tell the rest of the story later.

Last week I got an email from Jim Crosby regarding the fatality of a 42 year old woman, Tina Canterbury, that occured the first week of October.  When this story broke two months ago, I was really shocked at the news.  It is very rare for a dog to attack and kill its owner -- and even more rare when the dog is kept as a family pet...ie not kept outside or in a basement on some type of tether.

This appeared to be an outlier of a case.  Quotes were what you would expect them to be: "It's a tragic and horrific situation that brings to light the danger of these type of animals," said county Sheriff Rick Beseler.  "These dogs had never bitten a human before, but they did today -- they did turn on their owner."

The image of the pit bull that could snap at any moment comes to the forefront. 

For those of you all who aren't familiar with Jim Crosby, here's the down and dirty.  Crosby is a retired police officer who goes to the scenes of as many of these types of incidences as possible.  He works with the dogs, interviews family, neighbors, friends, and tries to get to the true behavioral reasons of why a major dog attack occurred.    Crosby spoke at our Canine Legislation Conference last September and blew me away with the stories of major attacks, how they were reported by the media, and the stories behind the stories in these incidences that are seldom made public. 

Based on Jim's analysis of the situation from interviewing several members of the family and neighbors and friends, it sounds like this woman wasn't just one day randomly turned on by her dogs. 

While it is true that the dogs were raised as pups with the family and had never bitten a person before, they had been responsible for killing at least one cat and another dog within the past year.  They had also shown aggression toward several people, including several members of the family, and had fought with each other and dogs on either side of the fences that ajoined their property.  In fact, the couple had decided to get rid of one of the dogs because the woman who was killed "couldn't handle him".   It appears as if the woman had the two dogs together on leashes, they got into another fight with each other and she got caught in the middle of the fight. 

It's horrible that an attack like this hit this family.  I feel sorry for all the members of the family who sound like wanted to do the right thing.  I also think it's horrible that the media used this as an example of "the danger of this type of dog" vs using this woman's death as a way of showing people the REAL reasons why dogs attack...and the dangers of letting aggressive behavior fester in a dog and build over time.  Serious attacks are almost never the first sign of aggression by dogs, regardless of breed. 

By the way, I'm thrilled to note that Jim has started his own blog called Canine Aggression Issues with Jim Crosby.  It's my hope (and understanding) that Jim will use this forum as a way of getting out real information about the reasons behind major dog attacks instead of us relying on people sititng behind desks and reading newspaper clippings about these stories making these determinations. 

Thanks Jim for the info -- and I look forward to more installments on your blog....including the final story behind the story in this case once you've completed all your interviews.

Congrats to Roo & Wallace!

ma Congrats to Roo & Wallace -- exhibitioners at the Canine Legislation Conference in Kansas City.

Roo and Wallace finished 1st in the Purina Incredible Dog Chalenge in the Freestyle Flying Disk event.  Yup, that's right, for the 2nd time in 3 years, Roo and Wallace are WORLD CAMPS!

VERY COOL.

Also, check out Wallace's website as they've updated pibble tv which has some excellent video footage that has recently been updated.  What's even more impressive than winning the World Championship is that Roo has become such an awesome spokesperson for "pibbles" and is taking his show on the road to share the very best in bullies to the masses...and is a great spokesperson himself.

Roo and Wallace Rock (and thanks so much for coming to our conference and showing off all you do)!  I'm proud to say I know ya.

Canine Legislation Conference Speaker Review - Bill Bruce

When it comes to speakers, movies, etc, I always try to temper my expectations.  Usually when I get excited about how great something, I leave disappointed.  I'm the only person who was disappointed by the movie Forrest Gump -- because I had built it up to be so great in my mind before seeing it that no movie could have met those expectations.

In spite of these efforts, I was really excited to listen to Bill Bruce speak at the Canine Legislation Conference.  Calgary has had a tremendously effective animal control program, and I couldn't wait to hear more about it.  Mr. Bruce didn't disappoint.

Calgary has a 90-95% dog licensing compliance rate.  Most cities hover between 10-20% licensing compliance....and 20% are the good ones.  Calgary has done this by providing benefits to people for licensing their dogs....for animal cotnrol being a SERVICE instead of a pain in people's butts.

Overall, they have about 95,000 licensed dogs (in a city with the population of about 1 million).  Licensing fees are $31 per year ($52 for an unaltered dog). 

In 1990 they raised the fines for getting caught with an unlicensed dog from $30 to $250 - -Bruce said that fines should generally run about 10x the cost of actually obeying the law in the first place in order to encourage compliance with the law.  They also made it very easy to license your dog -- online, via phone, at your vets office, and keosks at the animal control office, etc. 

Every dollar that they raise from animal licensing (and fines for non-compliance) go back into funding animal control -- not back into the city's slush fund.  So with an operating budget of $3.5-4.0 million, they are able to really do some things right with their animal control department.

They strongly encourage all people who license their dogs to also have them microchipped (which allows the dogs to be scanned and the owner determined immediately).  Every animal control vehicle is equipped with a scanner -- so if they find a stray dog, the animal control officer can instantly scan the dog for the chip, and deliver the dog home free of charge (although there are fines if your dog becomes a frequent flyer).   

This home delivery a) is a service for people who obey the rules and b) saves money in animal control costs because stray dogs seldom even make it to their shelter.   They are returned home where the dog belongs.  The city then doesn't incur the costs of putting the dog in the shelter, maintaining the dog while it's in the shelter, food etc.  Bruce's goal for next year is to gett 50% of the dogs returned directly home without ever reaching the shelter.

If a dog does end up making it to the shelter, its photo is taken immediately and placed on their webpage within 15 minutes of the dog reaching the shelter.  All the dogs in the shelter are treated for the basic diseases - -and if a dog is found injured, animal control will take the dog to a vet.  The vets treat the dogs because a) animal control is usually able to find the owner of the dog because they're all licensed and b) if they don't, animal control will cover the medical costs associated with treating that dog.  Wow.   

Calgary built a new shelter for their animals about 5-8 years ago that is state of the art...and has never been filled to its capacity.

Calgary also focuses a lot of its energies on education and encouraging responsible dog ownership.  They have a full time staff member, that is trained in education, that puts together a public education program.  They have six specific programs that are part fof their public school's curriculum that emphasizes respect for living things.   

Calgary also has 140 dedicated off-leash areas for dogs -- so that's 140 "dog parks".  Kansas City, MO is struggling to find a way to get a second one.  These off-leash areas provide a ton of areas for socialization for the dogs to learn how to enteract with other dogs and other people.

The net results of their efforts have been impressive.  Over the past 18 years, the city of Calgary has cut their number of dog bites and chases by more than 50% (all the while, the human and dog population of Calgary has doubled).  Last year calgary only had to euthenize 256 animals (Kansas City, KS alone euthenized 5,000 DOGS last year, the KC metro area kills in the neighborhood of 40,000 dogs and cats each year).   Almost all of the euthenizations came from dogs that had behavioral or health issues.  Bruce estimates that Calgary will become a true no-kill city within the next 3-5 years.

When Bill was talking it sounding like a utopia.  I hear stories about local animal controls breaking through locks to steal people's pets based on what breed they think it might be, the massive killing of dogs in our shelters, dogs that are put to sleep because they've been in the shelter too long but never made it up on the website or petfinder or anywhere so people knew where to find them.  I hear about dogs being taken out of someone's loving home and euthenized because someone was over the pet limit -- apparently death is perceived to be better for animals than having to live with 3 other dogs.

Calgary has accomplished so much by focusing on root issues of problems, providing service to their "customers" (it was so weird to hear an animal control officer refer to their constituents as "customers"), and getting people to obey their current laws.

They did it all without mandatory spay/neuter laws, breed specific laws, anti-tethering laws or pet limit laws.  And through paying animal control officers a fair wage -- as Bill said, "If you pay peanuts,  you'll only get monkeys."

I really wish that more cities (ahem, KCMO) would look at successful ordinances around the country (or in Calgary) and model their ordinances and enforcement efforts off of true success stories.   

All of the city administrators were invited to attend Bill's speach, unfortuantely only one city council person and two animal control officers were able to make it.  I'd have loved for them to hear Bill's message and start working toward Calgary as a model of success.