Posted on January 28, 2009 by Colleen Lynn

Lancaster Passes Mandatory Pit Bull and Rottweiler Sterilization Law

Anti-Gang and Dangerous Dog Law
Lancaster, CA - The City of Lancaster unanimously passed a mandatory sterilization law for pit bulls and rottweilers. The new ordinance is also designed to discourage gangs (and owners of dangerous dogs) by imposing strong penalties on the owners of dogs deemed "potentially dangerous" or "vicious." Under the new law, dogs that act aggressively unprovoked may be considered "potentially dangerous" and required to meet the following conditions:

Chapter 6.04 - Animal Control Regulations
Ownership of Potentially Dangerous Dogs (Section 10.37.130)

Proper licensing, micro-chipping and vaccinations
Secure on-property confinement, which must be inspected and approved
Muzzling and leash restraints when off-property
Completion of approved dog obedience course training
Mandatory spay or neutering
Mandatory liability insurance policy of $300,000
All services performed by the City shall be paid prior to the release of the dog, including the costs of the hearing

A dog may be deemed "vicious" if it has been trained for fighting or inflicts injury or death. If so, the vicious dog could be destroyed if deemed a significant threat to the public health, safety and welfare, according to the new ordinance. If the dog is not destroyed, the owner of the vicious dog would adhere to the same conditions of a potentially dangerous dog with more stringent requirements to secure the owner’s property and confine the vicious dog.

Chapter 6.08 - Mandatory Spay Neuter Program
Statistical Reporting (Section 6.08.100)

The new ordinance also includes a vital element that is often forgotten by municipalities. Section 6.08.100 states that the director (of Animal Control) "shall measure the effects of this chapter by compiling statistical information on dog bites. The information shall, at a minimum identify dog bites by severity, the breed of dog involved, whether the dog was altered, and whether the breed of dog was subject to mandatory spay and neutering requirement of this chapter."

Last year, so many loose pit bulls roamed the streets of Lancaster that Mayor R. Rex Parris ordered Los Angeles County Animal Control to implement a Pit Bull Sweep Operation to pick up the potentially dangerous dogs. Combine this with the fact that Lancaster is situated near 5 fatal pit bull attacks in the past 3 years, and it comes as no surprise that the city enacted a breed-specific sterilization law in combination with a tough dangerous dog law.

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Colleen Lynn

Associated Press Comments on the Many U.S. Cities Proposing Pit Bull Laws

The Pit Bull Problem is National
Washington - A recent Associated Press article states that 86 different U.S. cities introduced pit bull laws in the 2007-08 legislative season. The very fact that the Associated Press wrote the article recognizes that the pit bull problem -- and the constant occurrence of pit bull attacks -- is a national problem that cities across the U.S. are struggling to defeat. The article also points out that the state of Ohio is the only state that has state-level law that addresses pit bulls.

The article quotes Gail Golab, the director of the American Veterinary Medical Association's animal welfare division and co-author of the CDC fatal dog attack study. As recorded in a previous blog post, Golab distorts the truth about pit bulls. In the current piece, she says dobermans were once "a big macho kind of dog." But during the ferocious "doberman years" (1979-1985?), the dogs killed 5 people. In this same period, pit bulls killed 26 people -- 30 if you include their mixes.

The AP article fails to address the real reason why municipalities choose to regulate pit bulls. It's not the frequency of pit bull attacks that matters. It's the tenacity of a pit bull attack that leads a city to regulate them. In the last three years (2006-2008), pit bulls killed more U.S. citizens than all other breeds combined. Though serious injury and maiming data by breed is not tracked nationally, one can presume the same is true regarding these types of injuries and pit bulls.

Video Tribute to Attack Victims

We invite all readers to watch our 5-minute video that documents 127 pit bull attacks on humans that occurred across the U.S. in an 85-day period between July to September 2008. The video includes the name and age of each victim (when it was available) and the city and state of each attack. The video also highlights statistical data gathered from the attacks, including the 6 Americans killed by pit bulls during this period, as well as the 12 cities that passed pit bull laws.

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Colleen Lynn

2009 Dog Bite Fatality: 8-Year Old Girl Killed by Chained Rottweiler-Mix in Beaver County

Brianna Shanor, 8-years old, was killed by a chained rottweiler-mix in Hanover.

Charges Unlikely
UPDATE 01/21/09: Police say that they don't expect to charge the owner of the dog that killed 8-year old Brianna. "Trooper Matthew Roth said the dog that killed Brianna Shanor Monday evening was chained, and the girl had been warned to stay away from him." Yet, it is well documented that the combination of a chained and powerful breed of dog, like a rottweiler, is extremely dangerous to children. Furthermore, the girl had only been living in the household for a few weeks.

There were no witnesses to the fatal attack, so it is unknown if the dog -- now being described as a rottweiler-mix -- attacked the child outside and dragged her into the doghouse, which is a converted trailer, or if the child entered the doghouse on her own and was subsequently killed by the dog. The owner of the dog, William Renda, said he only became concerned after the dog stopped barking. That's when he finally checked inside the trailer and found the girl dead.

"It is my understanding she was not supposed to be anywhere near that dog, but at some point, she must have entered the territory of the dog," said Matthew Roth of the Pennsylvania State Police.

Police said the girl apparently went into an old camping trailer that the dog could enter while chained. That's where her body was found, with serious wounds to her neck and other parts areas.

The girl was living with a guardian, William Renda, in Hanover Township, Beaver County, because her mother recently lost her job, police said. - WPXI, January 21, 2009

01/20/09: Child's Mother Speaks Out
A separate article reveals more information about the tragedy of Brianna Shanor. The young girl had been staying at the home of Bill and Diana Renda for only a few weeks prior to the fatal attack. According to her mother, Tara Wood, the couple had taken in Brianna because Wood had recently lost her job and her rented Beaver Falls home, and didn’t want her only child living on the streets. There were no biological ties between Brianna and the Rendas, according to Wood.

Wood said that she visited her daughter often, she even stayed overnight at the Rendas, while trying to rebuild her life for her and Brianna, reports Times Online. Wood said she is still struggling to find a job and is currently living with friends. She last saw her daughter Sunday afternoon. "I promised her that Mom would get a job, and we’d be back together real soon," Wood said. That will forever be a promise that Wood said will remain forever unfulfilled, reports Times Online.

Hermick said Renda told state police that the dog had been barking while he and Brianna were outside but then fell silent while he was still at the chicken coop.

Renda went to the trailer to see what was wrong, and found the dog and Brianna in the trailer. Hermick said Brianna may have gone in the trailer.

Wood said she found that hard to believe, given that it was dark outside and that Brianna usually stayed away from the dogs.

“She’s the only one who knows what happened,” Wood said. “And that’s something that’ll haunt me for the rest of my life.” - Times Online, January 20, 2009

01/20/09: 8-Year Old Killed by Dog in Hanover
Hanover, PA - In a developing story, an 8-year-old girl was killed Monday night after she was attacked by a dog. Pennsylvania State Police are investigating the incident, which happened about 6:30 p.m. along Sutherin Road, not far from the West Virginia border, reports WPXI. Brianna Nicole Shanor was mauled by a large mixed-breed dog owned by her guardian, William Renda, according to police. She was transported to an area hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

"It is my understanding she was not supposed to be anywhere near that dog, but at some point, she must have entered the territory of the dog," said Matthew Roth of the Pennsylvania State Police. The girl apparently went into an old camping trailer that the dog could enter while chained. That's where her body was found, with serious wounds to her neck and other parts areas, police said. The dog was taken into custody by a Pennsylvania dog officer from Lawrence County.

View the DogsBite.org Google Map: U.S. Fatal Rottweiler Attacks By State

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Colleen Lynn

2009 Dog Bite Fatality: Olivia Rozek, 3-Weeks Old, Killed by Family Husky

Olivia Rozek, 3-weeks old, was pulled from her bed and killed by a rescued husky.

Officials Probe Death archived
UPDATE 01/21/09: Police officials continue to investigate the death of a 3-week old baby girl. Bourbonnais Police Chief Joe Beard first described the incident as a mauling. The dog dragged Olivia Rozek, who was a twin born the day after Christmas, by her head through a hallway. The mother told police the twins were lying on the bed while she was in the kitchen cooking dinner. She heard the baby cry and saw the dog walking through the hallway with the baby in its mouth.

The family got the 4-year old male husky from a Chicago rescue group in November 2007, Beard said. The dog was taken into custody by Kankakee County Animal Control. The agency's director, Julie Boudreau, said the dog will most certainly be destroyed. The family also has another husky, a female. The department will be looking into whether that dog will remain in the family's home. Beard has not yet spoken to the infant's mother, who remains too distraught to answer questions.

A 3-week-old baby was dragged from a bed Monday afternoon by her family's Siberian Husky into a hallway of their Bourbonnais home and mauled to death by the dog.

The child, Olivia Rozek, was lying on a bed in the master bedroom of the home on the 1600 block of Sun Ridge Drive, in the Sunridge subdivision in Bourbonnais, when she was taken from the bed by the family dog and dragged into a nearby hallway.

The child's mother, hearing her daughter's cries, discovered the baby in the dog's grip, a release from Bourbonnais police said. Police got a 911 call at 5:45 p.m. reporting the attack, the release said. - Chicago Sun-Times, January 20, 2009

01/20/09: Family Husky Kills Infant
Bourbonnais, IL - A 3-week-old child was mauled to death by the family dog in Bourbonnais. The child died late Monday in Chicago after being transported from a Kankakee hospital. The family's names have not been released. The child's mother called 911 about 5:45 pm. Monday to report that the family's Siberian husky had pulled the infant off of a bed in the master bedroom and dragged the child into a hallway, killing it. The infant suffered multiple bite injuries to the head.

Olivia had been laid in bed along with her twin sister by their mother, who went to do something in the kitchen, Bourbonnais police Chief Joseph Beard said. No one else was in the home at the time, he said.

Police and firefighters received "a very distraught" 911 call from the girls' mother about 5:45 p.m. and were dispatched to the family's home in the 1600 block of Sun Ridge Drive, Beard said. They found Olivia, who was still breathing, with puncture wounds to her head as well as crushing injuries from the dog's jaws, he said.

The girl's twin sister was unharmed, Beard said. - Chicago Breaking News, January 20, 2009

In 2008, husky type dogs killed three young children, two of which were only several days old. Alexis Hennessy, 6-days old, was attacked while lying in her crib by the family dog husky named Shadow in Hopatcong, New Jersey. Kylie Mae Daum, 3-days old, was bitten while lying in a bassinet by the family husky in Warren, Ohio. And Abraham Jonathan Tackett, 2-years old, was killed after wandering next door and being attacked by a chained husky-mix in Fort Yukon, Alaska.

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