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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: January/February 2007

Dog attacks raise issues for lawmakers

 

At least 32 U.S. communities adopted or considered adopting breed-specific dog control legislation in 2006, responding to attacks involving pit bulls and Rottweilers.

The debate over whether possession and sale of pit bull terriers, Rottweilers, and possibly other dog breeds should be restricted to protect public safety is in essence a debate about possibly the oldest of all philosophical questions vexing lawmakers.

Since Biblical times opinions have conflicted as to whether laws should seek to prevent harm by forbidding potentially injurious behavior, or merely punish those whose behavior results in actual harm.

The argument that no one should be enjoined from behavior if it does not do harm tends to be politically attractive, but the counter-argument is that if harm comes to an innocent person and a guilty person is punished, at least two people suffer for an action which might have been prevented.

Further, in the case of a dog attack that kills or maims, the harm may be irreparable. As no amount of punishment can undo the damage, the argument for breed-specific legislation holds, preventing attacks of extreme consequence by prohibiting possession of dogs of high risk potential better protects public safety than relying on the uncertain deterrent effect of punishment.

Non-breed-specific dog control legislation typically relies on identifying dangerous dogs from their past behavior, which does not protect anyone from the consequences of a first incident. Usually it requires that all dogs be securely confined.

Even if pit bull terriers are uniquely dangerous, opponents of breed-specific legislation often assert, they can be kept safely if there are no children or other animals in the home. But the belief that dogs of any kind can both be house pets and be kept completely out of contact with strangers was refuted by the September 22, 2006 mauling of Judy McGruder, 74, in Rifle, Colorado.

McGruder was attacked by a three-year-old pit bull named Butterbean, after knocking on the wrong door while trying to pick up her grandson after a play date. The dog escaped the house to attack McGruder as she was leaving.

Julie Dawn Sullivan, 32, on December 6, 2006 pleaded no contest to possessing a dangerous dog who inflicted bodily harm, and pleaded guilty to not licensing Butterbean, whom she agreed to having euthanized soon after the attack. Sullivan was sentenced to do 40 hours of community service, to pay $469 in fines and court costs, and received a year in jail, suspended.

"Sullivan maintained that the dog did not have any past history of being violent, and that she had owned him since he was a puppy," wrote Heidi Rice of the Aspen Times.

The incident had further repercussions when on the same day in the same court, Garfield County animal control officer Aimee Chappelle pleaded guilty to possessing a vicious dog, identified as a pit bull by Sheriff Lou Vallario. Chappelle "paid a fine, was given a one-year deferred sentence, and was ordered to perform 16 hours of community service," wrote Dennis Webb of the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent.

"Chappelle's affinity for the breed has drawn some criticism from pit bull opponents," Webb continued.

 

"Rob Snyder, who lives south of Glenwood Springs, is among those who say comments made by Chappelle after a September pit bull attack in the Silt area appear to put blame on the elderly victim, Judy McGruder. Snyder, whose dog suffered a pit bull attack this summer, said Chappelle made it sound like McGruder 'did something to provoke the dog who mauled her.'"

Chappelle "was sentenced by Judge Jason Jovanovich," Webb added. "While sentencing [Julie Dawn Sullivan], Jovanovich reportedly said that if he could, he would kill all pit bulls, and that they should be illegal."

Drugs & dog attacks

The November 6, 2006 fatal mauling of Luis Fernando Romero Jr., 2, by two Rottweilers at his family's home in Tucson meanwhile raised other common elements of the debate as to whether such incidents should be ascribed more to the nature of the dogs or to the characteristics of many of their keepers.

"The day of the attack," wrote Josh Brodesky and Dale Quinn of the Arizona Daily Star, "Pima County Sheriff's Department investigators searched the mobile home, finding ledgers, scales, a money counter, weapons and empty suitcases reeking of marijuana. But the grieving parents, identified as Luis Fernando Romero and Jessica Nunez’ were never taken into custody. By the next day they were gone without a trace, having packed their belongings and fled, most likely to Mexico."

Pima County Child Protective Services turned out to have had two previous contacts with Romero and Nunez about broken bones suffered by their four-year-old daughter, whose whereabouts are also unknown.

Romero and Nunez immediately called 911 after their son was attacked, and drove the fatally injured boy two miles in search of help before finding sheriff's deputy Gilbert Hernandez, who called paramedics.

In other respects, the Arizona case paralleled the October 2005 fatal mauling of Jonathan Martin, 2, in Whaleyville, Virginia. Two pit bull terriers allegedly bit Martin more than 100 times, while his parents, Heather Frango, 26, and James Jonathan Martin, 30, used illegal drugs in another part of the house.
Frango and Martin in May 2006 pleaded guilty to charges of involuntary man-slaughter and felony child abuse and neglect. Frango and Martin were in August 2006 sentenced to serve three years each in prison.

Not known is whether the victim received any warning signals from the dogs before they mauled him, whether he was killed or disabled early in the prolonged mauling, and whether both dogs were part of the initial attack.

Central to the argument that pit bulls are uniquely dangerous is that they tend to attack without the series of warnings that most other dogs provide first, and often inflict immediate severe injuries, as do Rottweilers, whereas most dogs inflict disabling, disfiguring, or fatal injuries only in sustained attacks or pack attacks.

"The prosecution told the court about Martin's long list of past offenses that included 11 charges of driving without a license and a drug charge," wrote Sabine C. Hirschauer of the Hampton Roads Daily Press. "The couple's history of drug abuse soon emerged as the center of the case. Police found a bong, a container used to smoke drugs, in their master bedroom. Frango confessed that both had smoked marijuana the night before the mauling. She also told investigators that Martin grew marijuana and kept the pit bulls to guard the drugs. An inmate testified that Martin told him he and Frango were both high on cocaine and marijuana the morning of the mauling."

"The old family home" where the attack occurred "was later condemned," wrote Linda McNatt of the Virginian-Pilot. "Code violations included a septic system rigged to pump raw sewage outside a window."

Not seeing risk

Virginia in May 2006 adopted legislation creating felony and misdemeanor penalties for keeping a dog who attacks a person, but Frango and Martin were sentenced under the older legislation used to convict Deanna H. Large, 37, of Spotsylvania, whose three pit bull terriers in March 2005 fatally mauled Dorothy Sullivan, 82, and her Shih Tzu, in Sullivan's own front yard. Large was on March 30, 2006 sentenced to serve three years in prison for manslaughter.

A central element in the Large case appeared to be that Large did not accept that her dogs were dangerous, despite many complaints from neighbors about their behavior.

However, San Francisco prosecutors failed to persuade a jury in July 2006 that denial of risk was sufficient evidence of criminal negligence to convict Maureen Faibish, 40, of felony child endangerment in the June 2005 pit bull mauling of her son Nicholas, 12. The jury of eight men and four women reportedly split 7-5 in favor of conviction, well short of the unanimous verdict required to convict.

A case involving similar issues appeared to be heading toward a swift conclusion in Bossier City, Louisiana, when Mary and Christopher Hansche reportedly agreed on December 21, 2006 to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of improper supervision of their child, perform community service, attend parenting classes, and surrender possession of a pit bull terrier and a ferret.

"The Hansches were arrested on December 7 after they woke up and saw that one of their pets had gnawed off four of their month-old daughter's toes," reported Associ-ated Press. "Mary Hansche, 22, said the ferret did it; police said Christopher Hansche, 26, thought the dog was responsible."

Other cases of note

A case demonstrating that any dogs might be dangerous to a defenseless person came to an end on November 28, 2006, in Marion, Indiana, when Linda Kitchen, 58, drew four years in prison and three years on probation for criminal recklessness resulting in serious bodily injury, two counts of obstruction of justice, and one count of false reporting. Her husband Michael Kitchen received the same sentence, on the same charges, one week earlier. On May 1, 2005, the Kitchens reported that two stray dogs had entered their home through an open door and killed Linda Kitchen's mother, Julia Beck, 87, who was an invalid. A police investigation established four days later that the attackers were the Kitchens' own Labrador and Dachshund.

Among pending U.S. criminal cases involving dog attacks, Bentley Collins, 53, of Dillon, South Carolina, is facing involuntary manslaughter charges after six of his bull-dog/boxer mixes killed John Matthew Davis, 10, on the evening of November 3, 2006, as Davis walked home from a neighbor's house.

No suspects have been identified in the case of an undersized and underfed pit bull mix who fatally mauled Pedro Rios Jr., 4, on November 21, 2006 in an unincorporated suburb of Houston. The dog is believed to have been a stray.

However, Firas Beseisso, 22, of Willis, another Houston suburb, was charged with a Class A misdemeanor count of possessing a dangerous dog, after his pit bull killed David "Ted" McCurry, 41, on October 29, 2006. Recounted the Houston Chronicle, "McCurry and Kimberly Cunningham, 19, had gone to Beseisso's home to look at the pit bull because they wanted to buy a dog for home protection."