As a human being, I love dogs. As a runner, not so much.
On a blustery morning in December 2005, I was jogging through a rain-splattered suburb in Folsom when a gust whipped open one home's back gate. Out strode two dogs, one a shaggy retriever already baring its teeth as it bound over AT me, big gruff barks lunging from its throat. By some miracle, I was able to convince this golden hellhound to head back to her yard, which she did with wincing reluctance, like a child that had just been scolded. A similar strategy almost went horribly wrong a year later in a Citrus Heights neighborhood, where an unsecured gate led to another close call. I stamped my foot at an approaching dog, which only cheesed it off more. For the next five minutes, I maneuvered to keep a chipped, white sedan between myself and the muscular canine. Eventually, the dog got bored and wandered back across the street. I, on the other hand, ended up a jumble of nerves and way late for work.
Compared to Yvonne Adrian, I got off lightly. The Buckhorn mother and her 7-year-old son were walking their two Australian shepherds recently when a female pit bull-mix leapt out of a neighbor's open window and attacked, injuring both Adrian's son and her dogs. Her son suffered three puncture wounds, for which he was given a tetanus shot. One of her dogs ended up with an assortment of wounds, on its face, the inside of its mouth and on its backside, where the pit bull-mix latched on. Amador County Animal Control quarantined the offending dog and will ultimately euthanize it, both standard practices.
Adrian's frightening ordeal happened the night of July 14, one day before Elisa Teel's labrador-mix, Sammy, was brutalized by a pack of pit bulls next door to her Jackson home. Adrian was compelled to call the Ledger Dispatch after reading of Teel's experience in Tuesday's issue. "It's a horrible situation and I'm very sad someone else had go through that," Adrian, herself a dog lover, said. "It's getting out of hand and getting very scary."
So what's the deal? Are pit bulls a bad breed?
Not necessarily. My brother currently has a 7-month-old whose name, Roxy the Vicious, belies a goofy, playful spirit. And, as Jackson police Officer Troy Ortega suggested, a pet's bad behavior can reflect more on the owner than on the breed.
Lindsay Pollard-Post, a staff writer with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, points out in an upcoming letter to the editor that any dog is more likely to bite if it hasn't been neutered, as may have been the case with one of the pit bulls that mauled Sammy. Pollard-Post suggested a mandatory spaying law for pit bulls. Thousands of shelter cats could also avoid certain death if only their owners took the same path. Meanwhile, mandatory spaying legislation at the state level has gone nowhere due to heavy opposition from pet owners.
Teel suggested banning pit bulls within Jackson city limits. Other communities, including ones in Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Utah, Washington and several countries overseas, have done just that. That may be a bit extreme. Dog attacks of the severity Adrian and Teel experienced remain thankfully rare in Amador, according to Animal Control Director John Vail. Near-attacks may be more common, however. Both Adrian and Teel contacted Animal Control multiple times about problems with their respective neighbors' dogs. Both women said they first tried to work with their neighbors before calling authorities. When they eventually did, Animal Control officials' hands were tied because the confrontations, however frightening, didn't result in documentable violence.
It's clear the regulations we currently have don't always work. Leash laws and dogs-at-large ordinances are only good when enforced, but violations can be difficult to substantiate. During my conversation with Adrian, we wondered whether there could be some acceptable way to flag the bad owners rather than further regulate misunderstood and often mistreated pets.
Teel said her neighbor kept her dogs in hot outdoor kennels and believed the female pit bull to be in heat around the time of the attack. If true, this dog owner should be prevented from owning future animals, just as someone convicted of a gun offense shouldn't be allowed to own firearms. Conversely, Adrian referred to her neighbor as someone who "wants to save the world," adopting special education children and mixed-breed shelter dogs that might not have homes otherwise. It sounds like her heart is in the right place, but sometimes the kinder act is realizing your limitations. The dog that ended up attacking Adrian's son was a Second Chance graduate from the pound.
Sadly, it won't get a third.
| Raheem Hosseini |