The Pioneer Press did a story on this topic in today’s paper. Notice the “Dangerous Dog” count in Apple Valley includes 5 labs/lab mix, 5 pit bulls, 4 terrier/mix as breeds.
Dangerous Dogs
-J.
Edited to add text and graphic:
After recent high-profile attacks, some Twin Cities suburbs are considering enacting tougher laws on aggressive dogs.
BY MARICELLA MIRANDA
Pioneer Press
Article Launched: 10/09/2007 12:01:00 AM CDT
Dangerous Dogs (Sherri LaRose-Chiglo, Pioneer Press) It’s been nine years since Libby got a bad reputation as a “potentially dangerous” dog.
The black Labrador retriever earned the title after she chased two neighborhood dogs out of her Apple Valley yard and bit one, said her owner, Annette Larson. The neighbor reported the bite to police. Libby has not attacked since then, but her rap sheet will follow her for life.
If she slips up again, the Larson family fears a proposed stricter Apple Valley ordinance aimed at banning dangerous dogs in the city could take their 14-year-old arthritic pet away.
It’s one of several stricter ordinances being proposed in the suburbs, such as Apple Valley and Cottage Grove, after a recent string of dog attacks in the metro area. Attacks are also causing national concern, which has resulted in locales in other states – such as Florida, Texas and Oregon – adopting tougher laws on aggressive canines.
“Dangerous dogs are a really hot topic right now,” said Adam Goldfarb, issues specialist at the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C. “A lot of times, the news around these attacks is almost immediately followed by some type of legislation.”
In Minnesota, state law currently allows cities to declare dogs “dangerous” if the animal bites a person (and inflicts substantial bodily harm like a fracture or disfigurement) or kills a domestic animal.
Also, a potentially dangerous dog that attacks or endangers again can be labeled as dangerous.
Cities in other states have adopted up to five levels for defining dangerous dogs based on the severity of their attacks, according to Goldfarb. Others have put the responsibility on the owners, such as limiting how long a dog can be chained outside or deeming the dog potentially dangerous if authorities detain it two times or more in a year.
Minnesota law also says dogs can be ruled potentially dangerous if an unprovoked dog chases, menaces or bites a person (without causing substantial bodily harm) or bites a domestic animal.
In Apple Valley, dogs can never ditch the label – even if they never attack again.
“Our kids are concerned what’s going to happen to our dog” if the ordinance changes, Larson said.
TOUGHENING LAWS
Apple Valley Police Chief Scott Johnson hopes the ordinance he is helping draft will prevent dog attacks by banning dangerous dogs from the municipal boundaries. He is looking to other cities that ban dangerous dogs – including Buffalo – for help in crafting Apple Valley’s law.
“The vast majority of dog owners in every community are very responsible people, but there are some that are irresponsible – and that’s why this ordinance has come to (be),” said Johnson.
The City Council first considered revising its dangerous dog ordinance, which currently mirrors state law, at a work session Sept. 12. The council will take up the matter again Thursday.
This year, Apple Valley police deemed four dogs dangerous. Three were euthanized, and the fourth moved. All were pit bulls. The city still has 29 potentially dangerous dogs, however. Otis, a 13-year-old Lhasa Apso, has been a potentially dangerous dog for six years.
His offense happened one day when he escaped from his fenced yard and ran toward a grandmother and her grandchildren in nearby Redwood Park, owner Debra Holm said. The fearful grandmother allegedly kicked Otis.
The dog bit the grandmother on the leg and police declared Otis potentially dangerous.
Police last checked on the 12-pound, deaf and partly blind dog in August.
“He’s shaggy-haired and he can’t hear or see,” Holm said.
But Holm supports banning dangerous dogs in Apple Valley.
“I am concerned about dogs that are on the dangerous list – the ones that are pit bulls and that kind of a dog,” Holm said. She worries about unleashed dogs in city parks.
Of the 25 reported dog bites this year in Apple Valley, seven were from pit bulls.
In Apple Valley, potentially dangerous dogs must have a microchip implanted in them for identification and be registered with police, Johnson said.
Dangerous dogs must meet those requirements – and more. The dogs must be fenced when outside in a locked kennel with a roof and floor, be attended and muzzled while leashed, wear a “dangerous dog” collar tag and be covered by insurance of at least $50,000. The owner of a dangerous dog must post warning signs on the building or enclosure where it lives and must notify police if the dog moves or dies.
Cottage Grove police want to slap those rules on potentially dangerous dogs, too. They also want renters to be notified if a potentially dangerous dog lives in the same building.
Dog attacks in Cottage Grove prompted city officials to consider tightening its ordinance, public safety director Craig Woolery said.
Police have ruled 30 dogs potentially dangerous since 2002, but they haven’t tracked how many are still living in the city.
Two dangerous dogs reside in Cottage Grove.
The Public Safety, Health and Welfare Commission will hold a public hearing Oct. 16 to discuss possibly tightening the ordinance, Woolery said.
BREED-SPECIFIC PROHIBITIONS?
Local officials in Minnesota have played with the idea of banning certain breeds of dogs, especially pit bulls – a breed that’s been involved in at least three major dog attacks in the past two months in the Twin Cities and other, less severe assaults.
Minnesota law currently forbids regulating dangerous or potentially dangerous dogs based solely on certain breeds. But the Legislature could soon change that.
Rep. John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul, in June introduced a bill to ban breeds of dogs deemed dangerous: the Akita, pit bull, Rottweiler, wolf hybrid and chow chow. If the Legislature approves the bill when it convenes in February, owning them would be a misdemeanor.
Other regions, including Denver and Miami-Dade County in Florida, have laws banning pit bulls.
But the problem with banning breeds is identifying them, Goldfarb said. For instance, pit bulls have several look-alikes, such as the boxer, American bulldog and mastiff.
Goldfarb said breed-specific legislation is ineffective because it fails to target the owners of dangerous dogs. Abusing dogs or failing to neuter male dogs can lead to dog attacks, he said.
Goldfarb said the large number of pit bulls gives them a bad reputation.
“If there’s more of them, there’s going to be more bites by them,” Goldfarb said. “When you look back through history, there’s always the dog that’s the ‘dangerous’ dog.”
The Rottweiler was “that dog” in the ’90s. The Doberman pinscher and German shepherd were it in the ’60s and ’70s, as were bloodhounds and Newfoundlands 100 years ago.
“Right now, the pit bull is that dog,” Goldfarb said.
Maricella Miranda can be reached at [email protected] or 651-228-5421.
WHY DOGS ATTACK
More than 70 percent of dogs that bite are male and have not been neutered.
Dogs chained outside regularly are nearly three times more likely to bite.
An aggressive dog might be abused, neglected or untrained.
IF YOU GO
The Cottage Grove Public Safety, Health and Welfare Commission will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Oct. 16 at City Hall, 7516 80th St. S., to discuss passing stricter restrictions on potentially dangerous dogs in the city.
