Posted on December 6, 2018 by Colleen Lynn

San Francisco Animal Control: Vicious and Dangerous Dogs Unleashed -- Second Installment in Documentary Series

San Francisco, CA - This is the second installment in a series of videos about the Department of Animal Care and Control in San Francisco by Mike Black of Black Summers Productions, LLC. This installment is 44 minutes long and focuses on SFACC’s failure to properly manage the risks posed by vicious and dangerous dogs in the city. It also combines parts of a March presentation by John Denny, a veteran hearing officer for the City's Vicious and Dangerous Dog hearings.

The documentary shows trends that we are seeing in animal control departments across the country. There is a decrease in the number of dangerous dog investigations, an increase in failing to follow up on dogs declared dangerous and an increase in adopting out dogs with bite histories and aggression. The priority of public safety is deficient or absent in many agencies today, despite their role as "law enforcement." The priority instead is to increase the "save rate" at all costs.

Overview of Second Installment

From 3:20 to 9:38, one sees dog attack victims testifying during the Vicious and Dangerous Dog hearings. "These hearings do not award any money for damages or cost. That is for an actual court to adjudicate. And while they can offer victims some sense of justice, their real purpose is to protect the public against future attacks from dogs known to be potentially dangerous," the narrator states. Yet, these hearings have since turned into a "kangaroo court," Denny states.

From 10:20 to 24:00, Denny identifies many of the problems at SFACC, including what the death of Diane Whipple taught them. Homicide detectives learned that 66 people had witnessed the two presa canarios acting in a menacing and aggressive manner before her death, but no one had made a report. That's when Denny helped establish the Vicious and Dangerous Dog Unit within the police department, which began collecting all dog bites, attacks and menacing acts for review.

"We are less prepared for a dog attack today than we were before Diane Whipple. Just let that sink in a little..." - John Denny, March 15, 2018

Denny also talks about the underreporting of dog bites and attacks and that when they are reported, they are not being investigated. "There are at least 500 reports sitting in an envelope right next to the dispatcher's office at Animal Care and Control, as we speak, that have never seen the light of day," Denny states. SFACC is collecting bite reports, but is failing to forward them to the Vicious and Dangerous Dog Unit for the vicious and dangerous dog overview process.

From 29:38 to 40:00, the attack of Emma Howell involving a dog named "Hudson" is discussed, which sums up SFACC's willful recklessness regarding dangerous dogs currently. Emma provides testimony in a Vicious and Dangerous Dog hearing where Denny presides. Due to the attack being a "sustained" mauling, the dog was ordered destroyed. We later learn that at that hearing, an SFACC officer, who did not identify herself as one at the hearing, testified in Hudson's defense.

Mike Black provided the top 10 findings of the documentary series so far to DogsBite.org.

Findings by Documentary Creator

As independent filmmakers working on a documentary about the failure of San Francisco to enforce its own dog control laws, these are the ten most shocking facts we have learned about San Francisco Animal Care and Control ("SFACC").

Mike Black
Black Summers Productions, LLC
San Francisco, California

It is SFACC’s express policy not to enforce San Francisco’s dog leash law. Under the city’s Health Code, SFACC is responsible for enforcing all animal control laws. But the current management expressly refuses to enforce the dog leash law. When the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury recently recommended that it start doing so because of dog attacks and bites in the city, SFACC rejected the idea as unwarranted. SFACC leaves any enforcement to the San Francisco Police Department.
SFACC does not accept as a bite any dog bite that does not break the skin. Bites can break bones without breaking the skin, but SFACC will not take a report of any bite that does not break the skin. (See: 19:40)
SFACC does not keep track of and monitor officially dangerous dogs. Related to this, SFACC does not investigate reports of aggressive dogs generally, whether or not skin is broken by a bite.
SFACC has corrupted the hearing process for dogs accused of being dangerous. The Health Code provides that the Police Department or Department of Public Health appoint hearing officers, but SFACC now names the hearing officers, while attempting to control their decisions.
SFACC has no effective oversight. SFACC is allowed to run itself as a kind of rogue agency with no outside power overseeing or reviewing its operations.
The current management of SFACC has no public safety or law enforcement expertise. As part of that lack of professionalism, there has been a history of forgoing written orders and directives as well as memorandums of understanding with other departments.
SFACC has failed to make its database readily, directly accessible to the San Francisco Police Department.
The current head of SFACC, Executive Director Virginia Donohue, has been allowed to maintain a gross conflict of interest in owning a private, for-profit animal boarding and dog training business.
SFACC will not respond to complaints about dogs in national park areas in San Francisco. Bowing to enormous pressure from politicians and some dog owners in San Francisco, the U.S. National Park Service gave way on a strict rule of all other national parks — no off-leash dogs allowed — and has allowed dogs off leash in such popular parts of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area as Ocean Beach and Crissy Field. In return, and despite the fact that the NPS has no mechanism of its own (for obvious reasons) for dealing with incidents caused by dogs, SFACC refuses to respond to complaints about such incidents.
SFACC wants to treat pit bulls like any other dog. San Francisco has a pit-bull-specific ordinance enacted in the wake of the killing of 12-year-old Nicholas Faibish by his family’s pit bulls in 2005. SFACC hearing officers and employees have dismissed that fact, as SFACC pushes pit bull adoptions on the public.

First Installment and More

August 5, 2018
First installment - San Francisco Animal Control Calls Police to Deal with Off-Leash Dog

This is the first installment of a multi-part series about the dereliction of duty at San Francisco Animal Care and Control by Black Summers Productions, LLC. The segment is just over 7 minutes long and was released August 5, 2018. The segment highlights how SFACC fails in their duty to prevent attacks by rejecting the enforcement of leash laws. At 3:20, one sees this with stunning precision, when SFACC executive officials "abandon the scene" of a stubborn pit bull owner.

June 25, 2018
Civil Grand Jury Report, City and County of San Francisco. Our Lovable Pets, Dogs and Public Safety in San Francisco.

"We are thoroughly convinced of their devotion to the well-being of animals. Their current practices do not show the same devotion to public safety against dog attacks and bites," states the report. "Since the Diane Whipple attack," we fear that San Franciscans have become complacent about the dangers posed by a small percentage of dogs in the city. "It is our purpose to overcome that complacency and to improve public safety, so that such an event will never happen here again."

March 15, 2018
Presentation by Veteran Vicious and Dangerous Dog Hearing Officer John Denny

On March 15, 2018, former police officer and veteran hearing officer for the city's Vicious and Dangerous Dog hearings, John Denny, made a presentation to the Commission outlining problems at Animal Care and Control that compromise public safety in San Francisco. This video is 49 minutes in length and contains the entirety of Denny's presentation. This is a "must watch" for all readers interested in what is happening to animal control departments across the country.

John Denny - San Francisco Animal Control

Veteran hearing officer John Denny seen presiding over a Vicious and Dangerous Dog hearing.

Posted on November 30, 2018 by Colleen Lynn

Book Review: 'The Scar Dance' - A Couple's Journey of Rebuilding Their Lives After a Traumatic Dog Attack

The Scar Dance is a novel by William Mansfield about a life-altering dog mauling.

The Scar Dance
DogsBite.org - The Scar Dance is a first novel by William Mansfield about the aftermath of a vicious dog attack. The victim of the attack is the author's wife. On a summer day in 2013, she had gone next door where two hulking bullmastiffs lived as a favor to their owner, who had asked her to feed the dogs while she was away. The book is a work of fiction, but Mansfield has experienced similar events. The Scar Dance provides readers a window into a real life-altering dog mauling.

The vicious attack occurs in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago, where the couple had lived peacefully for 14 years.

The book opens with the attack and the frantic chaos that follows. Mansfield is at work when his wife calls his cell phone, screaming incoherently. He drops everything and races home. "She's going to live," the ambulance drivers assure him. "The dog bites just missed major arteries in her thighs and neck." In this moment, Mansfield can't understand why they are rushing his wife to a hospital he's never heard of. "Because it's the best trauma hospital in Chicago," the EMTs said.

Victims of severe dog attacks are nearly always taken to Level 1 trauma centers, where top-notch emergency doctors treat life-threatening injuries 24 hours a day. This is a dramatic scene to those unfamiliar to it, due to life flight helicopters and ambulances whizzing in and out at a rapid pace. "WHERE IS ANNE?!" he asks himself frenzied. "There were stretchers with patients everywhere," Mansfield writes, "with doctors, nurses and technicians running around all over the place."

A Vulnerable, Powerful Voice

This urgency sets the initial tone of the book. Along with the profound openness and honesty of Mansfield's voice, which is one of the aspects you will remember the most while reading The Scar Dance. You will also remember that in his role as the supportive partner, the emotional and physical trauma of the vicious dog attack happened to both of them. Mansfield also has the duty of dressing his wife's horrible wounds for weeks after she is released from the trauma center.

"I was shocked and appalled when the doctors removed the bandages and I saw the wounds on Anne's body for the first time." - Chapter 2

The book is written in the style of a post-traumatic stress memoir as it moves in and out of time, recalling haunting details and foreshadowed events from the past, then fast-forwards back to the main narrative timeframe. There are also repetitions of memories. Our reading of it reflects listening to victims and family members after violent dog attacks. In some cases, you even sense the revelations Mansfield has in real time as the pieces fly together in his mind for the first time.

Owners of the Vicious Dogs

Most of the tension in the book lies between the couple and the owners of the attacking dogs who live next door. Though they had been cordial neighbors before the attack, the true colors of the dogs' owners illuminate afterward. They are illustrated as manipulative and sociopathic. We have certainly seen these types of owners before and researchers have examined them as well. All three of their large dogs were involved in the brutal attack, two bullmastiffs and a labrador.

The dogs' owners, a married couple, use all kinds of intimidation and nefarious tactics after the attack to harass Mansfield and his wife and to keep their vicious dogs. Like all victims of violent dog attacks, Mansfield and his wife were thrown into a legal system that often supports these manipulative and sociopathic owners, instead of victims with serious injuries. No victim of a violent assault by a human being would experience this, but victims of severe dog attacks routinely do.

The Unraveling of Their Lives

Mansfield carefully details how the attack, the dogs' owners and a failed legal system caused an unraveling of the couple's lives. He describes a disorientation and loss of identity too. "I felt lost because I had become another person," he writes, "but I did not know him." Next he faces the reality that all attack victims face -- you can never return to who you were before the attack. In The Scar Dance, that includes the inability to return to the same married life they had lived in the past.

"I felt locked into an alternative reality as though I was walking through a strange landscape I had never seen before." - Chapter 16

Mansfield even mentions how an older film he had seen in the past took on entirely new meaning while watching it after the brutal dog attack. This is all part of the disorientation after a traumatic attack. A vicious dog mauling alters -- through explosive realignment -- many perspectives a person once held. Simultaneously, as Mansfield also touches on, trauma from a severe dog attack can rekindle old issues and traumas a person had long ago overcome. The issues come back.

The Impact of a Vicious Dog Attack

How is a marriage impacted after a vicious dog mauling? Mansfield explains this vividly in The Scar Dance, from his wife's severe injuries, to the emotional trauma they both experienced, through multiple court battles against the dogs' owners and all that lies in between. Nearly each new page brings a new adversity and ways the couple struggles to overcome them. You will keep turning the pages to discover how the couple rebuilds their lives after a traumatic dog attack.

For those who know a dog attack victim, The Scar Dance will paint a complete picture of how the person's physical, emotional and spiritual worlds are impacted by an attack. For survivors of dog maulings, the book will evoke parts of your own attack, particularly the jolting legal injustices that many victims face after an attack. For all readers, The Scar Dance is a story about how love is stronger than hate, how courage is stronger than fear, and how the truth is stronger than lies.

After receiving his Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing in the mid-eighties, William Mansfield spent the next 30 years focusing on his visual art rather than his writing. Mansfield’s way of looking at the world and his art changed abruptly in 2013, when his beloved wife suffered a horrific experience. William turned to writing as a way of coping and chronicling the profound struggles that ensued. | View a Q&A with The Scar Dance author William Mansfield

Posted on November 19, 2018 by Colleen Lynn

My son "is a victim of a vicious animal, poor judgment and political correctness. As a parent of a dog bite victim, I am left feeling helpless."

A photo showing her son's facial injuries after multiple layers of sutures were placed.

DogsBite.org - A mother shares her story after her son was bitten in the face by a recently adopted "rescue" dog during a visitation with his father. Over the last decade, many mothers have shared similar accounts with our nonprofit, but only privately, as these cases involve difficult legal issues. We deeply thank this mother for sharing her son's powerful and heartbreaking story with our readers. It is a story of the legal injustices that are designed to "protect everyone but the victims."

Dear DogBite.org,

My son was visiting his Father's home in February 2015. His Father had recently replaced his long loved black lab that had passed away with a "rescue" from a no-kill shelter not-for-profit organization. The new dog, I will refer as "M," was described to me as a "lab-mix, mostly lab." Although the male dog did appear to have some features of the lab, the obvious "pit or bully type" characteristics were apparent to me on the single time I observed "M." I was never given any confirmation of "M's" breed other than a Lab-Mix. My son was 10 years old at the time.

"A towel was covering my son's mouth. I will never forget the smell of that towel. Dog breath saturated that towel as well as my son's face."

It was a Sunday afternoon when my son's Father phoned me. He stated that our son had been bitten by "M." When I asked how serious the bite was, he answered, "I mean, he's gonna need some stitches." Fearing the worst, but praying for the best, we met at the Hospital where my son's Father had transported him. I arrived while my son was in the triage department with his Father and a nurse. A towel was covering my son's mouth. I will never forget the smell of that towel. Dog breath saturated that towel as well as my son's face. I embraced my son and then removed the towel. To my horror, his lip was torn partially from his face. The entire section of lip was severed. He had a puncture wound on his cheek, and abrasions from "M's" mouth and teeth scraping my son's face as he bit down. The inside of my son's mouth had tears and ripped gums.

My beautiful child, his cherubic cheeks and baby doll lips, were now mangled and would never be the same. My heart sunk, the terror in my child's eyes overshadowed the heartbreak I was feeling. I asked what happened, but his Father answered swiftly that my son was keeping food away from "M" and that is how this happened. The typical answer of a vicious dog owner, blame the victim at all costs.

Together, we waited for the Doctor to return to my son, who was then sedated and sutured with multiple layers. During this tense wait, I controlled my tears, and questioned his Father as to his intentions now that his newly adopted vicious dog had attacked our child. Mere centimeters could have been the difference in life or death. His Father would not make any decision at that time. The next few weeks were difficult in our home. My son's physical and emotional pain endured for quite some time. Insecurity for his appearance slowly crept in. Although his scar healed beautifully, his face and lip have permanent nerve damage.

Ultimately, his Father refused to even consider rehoming "M." He took a stance claiming that our son somehow must have done something to deserve his injury. My son's Father had a "professional behavior specialist" deem "M" to be harmless and not food aggressive. I refused our son to be near this vicious animal. Despite difficult threats made in my direction, I chose to allow my child to visit ONLY if "M" was locked away and in no way able to have physical contact with my son. This was the arrangement I made with his Father.

"An attorney advised me that if I denied my son's Father's visitation, I could be held in contempt of court."

The sound of a dog barking, any dog, the sight of a dog on television caused panic in my son and inconsolable fear. The health department, who is responsible for filing these types of reports, did not after my son's bite. The animal control department in our county, who is responsible for the quarantine of an animal after an attack such as this, did not after my son's bite. An attorney advised me that if I denied my son's Father's visitation, I could be held in contempt of court.

This is when I began researching dog bites. I was inundated with information that opened my eyes to the epidemic of serious, fatal or near fatal dog bites in this country. I found Dogsbite.org and felt this was an organization that left no room for confusion or misleading propaganda when discussing dog bites. The fact that "M" is still in the home of my child's Father today is shocking. I learned later too, that despite the arrangement his Father promised, my child was burdened with the task of feeding and watering this vicious animal just a short time after he was attacked.

When my son's Father sued for lower child support a year later, my attorney felt this was an opportunity to force him to answer to his poor judgment regarding my son's bite, and the choice to further put our child at risk thereafter. We countersued and claimed that he should be held in contempt of court for negligence. A day of reckoning for my child's unnecessary trauma and continued forced contact with this animal would finally arrive.

A county court Judge would be shocked at my son's Father's conduct and negligence, right? This would be some measure of redemption for my son and I.

The trial came, and to my surprise, the Judge barely let me begin testimony regarding the bite incident -- he refused to listen to any part of it. He stopped me by asking, "And has there been, to your knowledge, any injury from a dog since then?"

"No," I answered.

"All right," the judge said. "Then, let's move on."

As fast as I could blink, it was over. So if a county judge, an appointed official doesn't see this situation as serious, and a Father doesn't see any need for concern, maybe I am overreacting right? Wrong. My poor child has been disfigured for life, was forced to have contact with the vicious dog that harmed him, and left to feel that no protection is warranted for him. Dogsbite.org is a wholly informational, up to date and factual website for anyone searching for accurate statistics, grieving a dog bite, or is curious as to what this legislative hype is all about.

"The trial came, and to my surprise, the Judge barely let me begin testimony regarding the bite incident … As fast as I could blink, it was over."

Although my son has recovered beautifully, and certainly more severe bites overwhelm this website, he is an absolute victim. He is a victim of a vicious animal, poor judgment and political correctness. As a parent of a dog bite victim, I am left feeling helpless. We as a family are in full support of your website and all of the positive it brings to the public at large. Keep up the good work.

This is our story. Please share this story. Post it to your site; post it wherever you can to inform those who need support or a better understanding of the impact of a vicious dog bite. I have tossed the idea of sharing our story for quite some time. I have chosen to share it with Dogsbite.org because I feel even a story with a less than tragic ending is one that many can relate to, when the fatal mauling cases are sometimes too difficult to comprehend. Thank you for your continuing crusade to protect against the many senseless dog maulings, deaths and legal injustices designed to protect everyone but the victims.

-Alabama Mother

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Colleen Lynn

2018 Dog Bite Fatality: Family Pit Bull Fatally Attacks Newborn in Crib in Citrus County, Florida

The Citrus County Sheriff's Office released a photo of the fatally attacking pit bull.

Pit Bull Kills Newborn
Dunnellon, FL - A 5-day old infant is dead after a family pit bull attacked the newborn while lying in her crib. The attack happened on West Ranchetta Street in Dunnellon at about 12:20 am Sunday. Citrus County Sheriff’s deputies arrived to a family member performing CPR on the newborn. A deputy proceeded to take over by performing chest compressions. The infant at that time was still slightly responsive, according to a report obtained by the Citrus County Chronicle Wednesday.

The newborn was airlifted to Bayfront Health Seven Rivers, where she was pronounced dead about 1:40 am Sunday, according to the report.

A female relative in the residence told deputies the pit bull leapt onto the bed, which was next to the bassinet where the infant was lying, and began attacking the infant while she was in a different room, states the report. Citrus County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lindsay Blair said Wednesday that no criminal charges are expected to be filed in connection to her mauling death. Detectives are still waiting for the medical examiner to determine the official cause and manner of death of the baby.

This newborn's death marks the fourth death of a child due to a dog mauling in Florida this year. 75% of these victims were less than a year old. In May, Liana Valino, 9-months old, was killed by a family pit bull while under the care of her grandmother in Miramar. In July, Jaelah Smith, 6-years old, was killed by a pit bull her family had been dog sitting in Jacksonville. In October, foster baby Khloe Williams, 7-months old, was killed by her babysitter's recently adopted dog in Clearwater.

The last recorded fatal dog mauling in Citrus County occurred in 2014. Christopher Camejo Jr., 2-years old, was killed by his grandfather's rottweilers. The boy was alone when the attack occurred, and was dead when emergency medical responders arrived. The boy was bitten over 200 times by the rottweilers. The boy's family had been staying at the grandfather's home when the dogs attacked. Both parents were later charged with negligence and third-degree murder.

View the DogsBite.org Google Map: Florida Fatal Pit Bull Maulings.

DogsBite blog ::

San Francisco Animal Control: Vicious and Dangerous Dogs Unleashed -- Second Installment in Documentary Series

Book Review: 'The Scar Dance' - A Couple's Journey of Rebuilding Their Lives After a Traumatic Dog Attack

Mother Shares Story After Rescue 'Lab-Mix' Bites Son in the Face During Visitation with His Father

My son "is a victim of a vicious animal, poor judgment and political correctness. As a parent of a dog bite victim, I am left feeling helpless."

2018 Dog Bite Fatality: Family Pit Bull Fatally Attacks Newborn in Crib in Citrus County, Florida