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Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 21:50:58 +0000 



ADOA NEWS



Pit Bulls In The Doghouse 

Gentle Pet Or Monster? In Massachusetts, The Debate Goes To The Statehouse 

By JESSE LEAVENWORTH
Courant Staff Writer

May 13 2007

Dano the pit bull was brought to Connecticut from Atlanta,where his owner had beaten him with a board for 15 minutes straight. The neighbor who called police timed the beating.

Ginger was left at Stamford's municipal shelter after spending her first year locked in an apartment bathroom. The owner had been hiding the pit bull because dogs weren't allowed in the building.

Frederick Acker, director of the SPCA of Connecticut in Monroe, described Dano as "the best dog in the place." Ginger, according to Stamford Animal Care and Control Manager Laurie Hollywood, is a sweetheart.

Then there's the other side. Hartford police were called to Ridgefield Street about 2:30 a.m. April 17 and found two pit bulls menacing a man whom they had just attacked, department spokeswoman Nancy Mulroy said. The officers rescued the unidentified man, who was taken to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. His facial injuries require reconstructive surgery, Mulroy said. The dogs' owner or owners could not be found.

And listen to Wilma Stevens, a Bridgeport woman who said she was out walking in the city one day when she came upon two teenagers, each with a pit bull on a heavy chain. One boy, Stevens said, asked the other if they should set the dogs loose on the lady walking by.

"I was scared out of my gourd," the municipal secretary said. She doesn't walk in that neighborhood anymore.

Such is the dichotomy of the pit bull, a dog feared and loved throughout the country. The controversy has flared again with talk in Massachusetts of a possible statewide ban on pit bulls. On Monday, the state legislature's joint committee on municipalities and regional government is having a hearing on new dog laws and a possible ban.

"These dogs are kept specifically for fighting or as weapons," Massachusetts state Rep. Vincent A. Pedone, D-Worcester, told the Boston Globe recently, "and I don't think they have any place in civilized society."

In Connecticut, however, some animal-control supervisors, one in particular, are moving in the opposite direction, seeking to educate people about pit bulls and move the dogs from lives of abuse to loving homes.
·  

Discussions in Massachusetts were prompted in part by pit-bull attacks this year on two Lynn police officers and a 10-year-old Taunton boy. The boy was bitten March 1, suffering an arm wound that required 14 stitches, according to news reports. The dog also bit a 60-year-old man who tried to defend the boy.

Pit bulls have been banned from some cities in the U.S., including Denver, and ownership is restricted in many places. Some communities, for instance, require pit bulls and other breeds deemed dangerous to be muzzled in public. Also, some insurance companies will not cover homeowners who own pit bulls.

But Acker, of Connecticut's SPCA, and others say the problem lies not with the dogs but with irresponsible owners who keep "pits" for dog fighting and as status symbols and living weapons.

"You punish the deed, not the breed," Acker said. "The pit bull is the most irresponsibly owned breed, and they tend to make headlines. Twenty years ago, you never heard about pit bulls attacking. Everyone was talking about Dobermans and German shepherds. ... You can make any dog aggressive, but when you make a big, powerful breed aggressive, you end up with trouble."

With his long, graying hair and full beard, Acker is as shaggy as many of his charges in the shelter he runs out of a 19th-century farmhouse. On a recent sunny afternoon, staff members walked dogs in a large yard shaded by an ancient tree. Dano, taken out for a special visit, was friendly and rambunctious.

Some dogs, including several pit bulls, have been here for years. The SPCA of Connecticut, established in 1999, has a no-kill policy, meaning healthy dogs and cats can live out their days there if they aren't adopted.

Rescue and adoption are Acker's constant focus. The shelter takes dogs from Connecticut, New York City, Georgia, Puerto Rico and other locations. Pit bulls and pit-bull crosses are well represented among the abused and abandoned dogs that arrive there weekly. Acker estimated the breed accounts for 20 percent of his dogs.

In municipal shelters, pit bulls and mixes are much more prevalent. On a recent visit to the Bridgeport pound, Acker walked between cages filled with barking, leaping dogs, pointing out the pit bulls. By his count, 85 percent to 90 percent of the kenneled dogs were pit bulls or pit-bull mixes. A representative of Bridgeport's animal-control facility could not be reached for comment.

Hollywood said about half the dogs dropped at Stamford's shelter or picked up wandering the city streets are pit bulls. Stamford's municipal facility is unusual in the state for its no-kill policy. Vicious dogs and those that are too sick or badly hurt to save are euthanized, Hollywood said, but all others are kept for adoption.

A short woman with long, fair hair, Hollywood became Stamford's animal-control manager about two years ago and moved immediately to increase adoptions. Her methods, she said, included the surprisingly simple - returning phone calls and e-mails from potential adopters and ensuring that doors were open and someone was available to show dogs at all times during business hours. The shelter also advertises adoptable dogs and solicits volunteers, Hollywood said.

Both she and Acker said some pound managers around the state do not make even minimal efforts to avoid euthanizing dogs. Some avoid volunteers because they perceive animal advocates as overzealous and difficult to work with, Acker said.

But volunteers, he and Hollywood said, are key to a no-kill policy. They spread the word, and they're passionate about saving dogs.

"It's very easy to get people to volunteer," Hollywood said. "It's [about] not telling people, `No.'"

The other key, she said, is being proactive. When the Stamford facility is 75 percent full, Hollywood and her staff launch an adoption blitz, advertising on the Internet, in newspapers and circulars and holding adoption-day events.

"It's not just sitting there at a desk and saying, `Go take a look,'" she said.
·  

Although there is disagreement about the origin and labeling of the pit bull, the dogs are generally divided among three breeds: the American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier and Staffordshire bull terrier.

In England, this type of dog was bred for bloody confrontations with bulls and other dogs.

Brought to the U.S. in the 19th century, pit bulls continued to be used as fighting dogs, but also as working dogs on ranches and farms. They became American icons, featured on war posters, magazine covers and product endorsements. Petey, the kids' pet in the "Our Gang" film series, was a pit bull.

Beginning in the 1980s, the breed gained popularity with young, mostly male city dwellers. Built like brick outhouses, the pit bull exudes muscle and menace, and young men trying to mark their places on violent streets have used the dogs to defend themselves and project machismo. Newspapers frequently run stories about confrontations between police officers and pit bulls owned by suspected drug dealers and other criminals. The dogs, bred for fighting, also can be very aggressive toward other animals, and another prominent news story throughout the country involves pit-bull attacks on other dogs and their owners.

Breed-specific bans, however, are not the answer, Hollywood, Acker and the Hartford Police Pepartment's animal-control supervisor, Sgt. Garth Perri, all agreed. About 60 percent of the dogs Hartford handles are pit bulls or pit-bull mixes, Perri said.

"We're not set up to deal with that kind of situation," Perri said. "If they banned all pit bulls, we don't have the facilities to feed them and house them." Mass euthanization, Perri said, "would cause serious problems for us."

People who array their pit bulls with heavy chains and other weights - both to add to the dogs' intimidating image and to build shoulder and neck muscles - usually don't license their dogs anyway, Perri said. The pit bulls that attacked the man on Ridgefield Street, for example, both had collars and appeared to be well fed, but neither was licensed, he said.

Also typical of urban pits - the dogs involved in the attacks in Hartford and Taunton, Mass., had not been spayed or neutered. Perri said many urban pit-bull owners believe fixing their dogs lowers desirable aggressiveness. He suspects that many Hartford owners get their dogs from underground breeders. Acker said they're also widely available, with no questions asked, both at websites and in advertisements posted in dog magazines.
·  

Although one of Perri's Hartford officers suffered serious injuries in a pit-bull attack two years ago, people who come to know the dogs often admire them, he said.

"I wouldn't categorize them as a dangerous dog," he said. "A lot of them become wonderful family pets. Many officers who have come across these dogs - once they're up for adoption - have adopted them themselves."

Hartford contracts with Connecticut Save A Pup in Newington to house stray, abandoned and abused dogs. Perri estimated that 85 percent to 90 percent of Hartford's impounded dogs are adopted. He, along with Acker and Hollywood, said educating people about the true nature of pit bulls is key to finding them good homes.

Many people come to the SPCA in Monroe looking for "anything but a pit bull" because they have an unreasonable fear of the breed, Acker said. The media, he said, is largely responsible for spreading that fear. A related problem is the misidentification of any short-haired, muscular dog as a pit bull or mix, Acker said (test your own knowledge at www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html).

Hollywood said she hears the same comments all the time. Some people won't change their minds, but others, who hear that the pit bull is intensely loyal and known as "the nanny dog" in England because of its loyal, caring nature, come to trust and love their pits, she said.

"The dog," she said, "is only as good as its owner."

Finally, Acker had been worried that Dano, the Georgia pit bull who survived a brutal ownership, would not find a home away from the shelter. But about one week ago, a Newtown couple adopted him.

Contact Jesse Leavenworth at leavenworth at courant.com. 
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant 
 
BOSTON 
Monday, May 14, 2007
Dog lovers lambaste lawmakers for considering ban on pit bulls
By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff
Pit bull supporters vastly outnumbered opponents at a State House hearing Monday on whether the Legislature should consider a statewide ban on the breed.
About 150 dog owners, trainers, and animal advocates, many sporting T-shirts and jackets emblazoned with images of pit bulls, made for a sometimes raucous crowd, grousing at what they saw as antagonistic questioning from members of the committee considering the ban after a series of highly publicized attacks on children and others.
Most of the veterinarians and animal behavior specialists who testified said a pit bull ban would not protect people from attacks. Instead of focusing on the breed, they said, the state should hold breeders and owners more accountable for vicious dogs.
Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman, director of the animal behavior clinic at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, also said that pit bulls were difficult to identify and therefore difficult for a law to target and that other big, strong dogs can be as dangerous as pit bulls if improperly cared for or bred. 
"I think breed-specific legislation is odious," he said. "It’s fraught with all kinds of problems."
No legislation banning pit bulls has been filed, but Representative Vincent A. Pedone, House chairman of the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, has expressed interest in the idea and scheduled the hearing to explore ways to control vicious dogs. 
Posted by the Boston Globe City & Region Desk at 09:54 PM 
Related Items
A bill that has passed the state Senate and gone to the House would require owners of dogs officially deemed "dangerous" by new county boards would have to be able to post a bond or show they have insurance for up to $5,000 in damages.
Video

NORTH CAROLINA
Owners of Dangerous Dogs Would Need Money or Insurance
Posted: May. 14 8:26 p.m. 
Updated: May. 14 8:42 p.m.
Raleigh — A bill that has been passed by the state Senate would establish dangerous dog boards in each county and would require that owners of dogs deemed dangerous show they could pay $5,000 if their animals harmed someone.

Supporters hope the legislation, which is now in the state House, could prevent incidents like a recent one in Rocky Mount.

Rocky is a dog who is living under quarantine at the Rocky Mount animal shelter because he attacked a 75-year-old woman. His owner, Tom Van Ness, recently pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault in the case, was put on probation and was ordered to pay more than $3,000 for his neighbor's medical bills.

Sen. Edward Jones, a Democrat who represents seven eastern counties, including Halifax, co-sponsored the legislation.

“I think the end result is that people will take a lot more responsibility for the animals that they have,” Jones said.

The legislation known as the “dangerous dog financial responsibility” bill, would require each of the 100 counties to set up a dangerous dog board. The board could classify a dog as dangerous if an animal attacks someone without provocation or a dog is trained to fight.

If the dog is labeled as dangerous, its owner would then be required to prove financial responsibility, usually by posting a bond or having an insurance policy.

If an owner could not prove financial responsibility for a dangerous dog, the board could order officers to take it into custody and euthanize it.
Reporter: Mike Charbonneau 
Web Editor: Ron Gallagher 
Copyright 2007 by WRAL.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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