Irresponsible Dog Owners (Metlakatla: live, fence, law)

[SheridanPDC]

I am so sorry this happened to your mom's dog The two attacking dogs should be put down ASAP, and the owners should be prosecuted & barred from owning any more dogs, let alone breeding them!!

I do not think pitts or any other dog breed should be banned, but I think it would be wise to enact a law stating that owners of "dangerous" dog breeds should have to go through a screening/licensing process. Not because these breeds are bad, but because if one of these dogs is not trained properly or has a poor temperment, they are physically built to do more damage than other dog breeds.

At our dog park, there are quite a few pitt bulls and other large/medium breed dogs. Any one of them, from the pitts to the retrievers to the cattle dogs could be potentially dangerous. I spend a lot of time watching all the dogs, how they interact with each other and how they react with the people. Some individual dogs I steer clear of, never because of breed alone, but because of how they act.

[Captain Crunch]

"carry special liability insurance"

Cities have researched that option quite thoroughly prior to outright banning pit bulls, I know ours did that, but in the end once they license a dog (city license) those requirements don't completely relieve the city of potential liability....lawyers can worm their way in and loopholes where there isn't one, and the city usually suffers the loss in the end

Besides its totally impossible to enforce a mandatory insurance requirement like that, these type people will purchase a policy to satisfity that city requirement, present the paperwork so they can obtain a City Dog License...next day cancel the policy, its been common practice with pit bull owners

[Marty Van Diest]

Originally Posted by alaskamomto4

The owners of these 2 dogs are renters, just moved in. I'd be surprised if the landlords or insurance company knew about them. The houses are packed in like sardines with as little as 5 feet between roofs, so it takes an extra effort to be a good neighbor. What bothers me the most is that living within city limits, you have a reasonable right to assume some measure of security/safety. My kids and I have been approached (once almost attacked) by aggressive dogs just walking to get the mail. I will say that most of our neighbors are great dog owners, who keep their pets leashed of the time. It's sad that the few who don't ruin it for all.

And come on...all pit bull owners aren't crazy, but most are too arrogant for their own good.

This is the only thing I have a little bit of an issue with. If the neighbors have pit bulls who is responsible to keep the dogs in their yard?

Obviously the owners bear the first and greatest responsibility.

Second in line is probably the landlord, especially if they knew the dogs were there.

After that, who???

Does the city have responsibility to keep peoples dogs in their yards? Do they need to inspect fences?

Other than outlawing the specific breed of dog, I don't see how the city has responsibility here unless there have been complaints by neighbors of something similar that was ignored by the city.

As far as I know, the only type of dog outlawed by the state are wolf hybrids. Do any other local governments outlaw pitbulls in Alaska? Seems to me I remember a discussion on this in some city, maybe Anchorage?

[Captain Crunch]

Sheridan...licensing/screening of pit bull owners will not prevent these attacks by their so-called loving pets on their neighbors, their children or other animals

Need to get way beyond that to begin to solve this nationwide problem with pit bulls and their owners...

[Alaskapat528]

Originally Posted by Barkingowl

Some people shouldn't be able to own pets if the way that they "care" for them is by chaining them to a tree 24/7 or otherwise neglecting them.

Barkley, I know that Ohio requires an insurance liability policy of $100,000. Should they get a complaint and the person can't produce proof of this or if there isn't the 6' fence, they can and will take the dog. There are suburbs where if one is being walked without a muzzle they will also take the dog for that.

People that tie to their dogs to a tree 24/7 should not have dogs.

[Captain Crunch]

One woman is dead and her sister is in the hospital after a family pit bull attacked Friday morning.
The sheriff's office was called to 1608 Roble Lane in Deltona after receiving a frantic 911 call reporting the attack as it was happening.


The attack was still going on when the first deputies arrived on scene at 9:05 a.m.
Witnesses said Mary Bernal, 63, was visiting her sister, Estela Macias, 52, when she bent down to pick up another dog in the backyard. That was when the pit bull attacked. One of deputies used a taser on the dog to get it to stop attacking.


Bernal was flown by a sheriff's office helicopter to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach with a critical head wound. She later died at the hospital.


Ealiasar Macias, the owner of the dog and husband of the victim's sister, said he had never seen their male pit bull snap before.

[Rance]

Years ago my best friend and neighbor had a pit bull. He hadn't had it very long, and it was one strange dog. Would spend hours humping an orange fishing bouy they had in their yard. So it's winter..about 5 or 6 of us kids out in the middle of Scout Lake, walking through a foot of snow...my buddy had his dog along for the walk, and the dang thing went nuts. It started charging and attacking. It took turns on all of us. I must have punted that dog 15 times in the chest, and fortunately it was still young and not full grown. Of course we ran...but in that snow we didn't get far and we were winded beyond the point of running. We had nothing to fight it off with except our snowboots. So basically thats all we could do was kick at it every time it made a charge. Fortunately none of us ever went down. After we kicked the crap out of it it was either too tired or hurt enough we could scramble for home.
The dog eventually made it to the house and was shot on site. Just another true story in the life and times of a pitbull. Who knows what makes them tick. But I for one do not think they are a family type dog or one that should be left to roam about free as they please.

[alaskamomto4]

I learned today that both dogs were euthanized. (Thank God, because I don't want them anywhere nearby.)

I agree with you, Marty, that the city can't be responsible unless there were previous, ignored complaints. The fact remains that most of these attacks are unprovoked, with no history of temperment problems in the dogs. A particular breed proven to 'lose it' for no reason, even turning on their own caretakers, have no business being around people. The city wouldn't be responsible if they passed those ordinances. However, that's no doubt a lengthy process and one that won't happen until a person is killed within city limits. Then, imagine the public outcry. 'Why was this allowed in the first place?'

The ones defending no laws/restrictions on animals that can cause serious injury or death fail to recognize the indisputable proof that you can't guarantee Precious-Wouldn't-Hurt-A-Fly, indeed would never hurt a fly. I'm sure the people whose dogs have killed someone rethought their position. And if they haven't, that's why we have so many laws, to protect us from people with no common sense and no respect for others.

[Metlakatla]

This is an interesting article.

Scared of Pit Bulls? You’d Better Be! by Brian C. Anderson, City Journal Spring 1999

[Captain Crunch]

What Rance posted isn't a surprise actually...those pit bulls are like that, even w/o training and stupid owners

Mets link is a great read....

Thanks for the update alaskamom

the ole saying " common sense isn't very common"....we certainly know who that fits here don't we