Posted on March 16, 2023 by Colleen Lynn

Arkansas Legislature - House Floor Debate for HB 1519, a Bill Prohibiting Cities from Enacting Breed-Specific Laws

Compelling Testimony by Representatives Who Opposed the Bill

Audio from the March 14 House Floor debate regarding HB 1519 in the Arkansas legislature.

Little Rock, AR - On March 14, there was an impressive House Floor debate concerning HB 1519, a bill prohibiting cities and counties in Arkansas from enacting or enforcing breed-specific laws. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. RJ Hawk (R-District 81), was defeated in a 34-45 vote. Representatives who opposed the bill had powerful, compelling arguments. Representatives who supported the bill voiced "well-worn talking points" from the Pit Bull Lobby. They lost the vote.

Further, supporters of the bill during the debate spoke a number of half-truths and untruths. HB 1519 would have eliminated all breed-specific ordinances in Arkansas, not just "breed bans," as they attempted to portray. Hawk even talks about the "capital city's” vicious dog ordinance, but fails to mention that Little Rock has had a breed-specific ordinance in place since 2009 that declares pit bulls "potentially dangerous." His bill would have killed this local ordinance.

Hawk did not have his facts straight about military breed-specific regulations either. He claimed there were none. The truth is, between 2009 and 2012, all three military divisions -- the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force -- banned dangerous dog breeds on bases and privatized housing, primarily: pit bulls, rottweilers and wolf-dog hybrids. These breed restrictions are still intact today and can be verified through the Department of Defense or that military division.

"As to Brown's testimony, said that the military has banned pit bulls. That's completely false. That is completely false!" - Rep. RJ Hawk

Bill supporters also made false claims about the constitutionality of pit bull ordinances. The false claims come just a few months after the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which governs the state of Arkansas, upheld a city's pit bull ban in November 2022. Further, the city of Maumelle's pit bull ban was upheld by the Supreme Court of Arkansas in 1991. Maumelle city council repealed its ban in April 2021, but not because it was allegedly "unconstitutional."

Rep. Pilkington, who opposed the bill, gave passionate testimony (at 5:57) that included the deaths of two young children, killed by a pair of family pit bulls last October. The family had owned the pit bulls for eight years. Rep. Wooten (at 13:11), corrected another untruth by the bill's supporters, who claimed the bill would only "encourage" cities to adopt breed neutral laws."This [bill] does not encourage [cities] it prohibits" them from having breed-specifics laws, he said.

Rep. Gazaway, a former prosecutor, who opposed the bill (at 17:28), has firsthand experience in prosecuting cases of vicious dog attacks. "Two to one they were pit bulls," Gazaway said. He then proceeded to share a terrifying account of a home-invasion attack by a pit bull: "The pit bull actually left its owner's yard, busted up inside of a person's house and attacked the young boy inside of his own home." The child almost died, "because [the bite] could have severed an artery."

"These breeds are inherently dangerous. They are inherently aggressive. They are by their nature capable of producing fatalities." - Rep. Gazaway

Rep. Brown also shared compelling testimony (at 27:15), including the fatal pit bull mauling of a young boy in Faulkner County in 2020. Robby had gone out to check the mail. When he did not return, his mother began looking for him. "She found his shoes in the driveway, she called 911. His 15-year old sister found his body in the field. He had been mauled to death by two pit bulls," he said. Brown was involved tangentially in the criminal case and would sit in court to watch.

"I had to look at the pictures of this child, this 9-year old boy laying down in the field with his jugular tore out," Brown said. "I had to look at the pictures of him on the medical examiner's table when he had his autopsy," Brown said. "But the most haunting thing I heard was his mother wailing in the courtroom." Having two young children himself, hearing Robby's mother wailing in the courtroom bothered him. "Usually, I am dealing with insurance or banking," Brown said.

Bill Sponsor Closes the Debate

When the debate concluded, Hawk took to the podium again and basically unraveled (at 31:36). In fact, we had to stop the audio at one point in order to make a clarification regarding the former Maumelle pit bull ban. Hawk lashed out at Rep. Pilkington's and Rep. Brown's testimony. Apparently, Hawk had no knowledge of the longstanding military breed-specific regulations on bases and privatized housing. Hawk has only been a state Representative for three months.

We encourage readers to send a thank you message to the Arkansas Representatives who provided powerful testimony in opposition of this bill, including: Rep. Aaron Pilkington, Rep. Jim Wooten, Rep. Jimmy Gazaway and Rep. Matthew Brown. Their email addresses are located on the Legislators List page. It's uncommon to see an assembly of well-versed legislators come together to defeat an anti-BSL preemption bill driven by a "little special interest" group.

"I want prevention. I want to stop this. This is not a solution. So that we can help some little special interest group 'get a win' here..." - Rep. Pilkington

On March 13, the House Committee on City, County and Local Affairs held a hearing for HB 1519. Best Friends Animal Society lobbyist Eric Swafford was the "guest" of Hawk during the hearing.

House Floor debate HB 1519, Arkansas House of Representatives

Left: Rep. Pilkington spoke passionately against the bill. Right: The bill's sponsor, Rep. Hawk.

House debate HB 1519, Arkansas House of Representatives

Several Arkansas Representatives that spoke against HB 1519 during the House Floor debate.

Transcript Opposition HB 1519 | Video of HB 1519 (starts at 1:57:44) | HB 1519 (Bill Text)

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Colleen Lynn

2023 Dog Bite Fatality: Man Killed by Protection Breeds at Jurupa Valley Business Property in Riverside County

A man was killed by three Belgian malinois' and a cane corso in Jurupa Valley.

Dogs Kill Man
Jurupa Valley, CA - On Tuesday, a man was attacked and killed by four dogs near Jurupa Valley High School. Riverside County Animal Services responded to a property at the corner of Bellegrave Avenue and Martin Street after receiving a call from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department for assistance. Deputies arrived at the property -- a residential home converted into a business -- at about 7:30 am after someone called 911 with a report of a person screaming.

The property owner was not present during the fatal mauling. When he returned, he surrendered all four dogs to officials -- three Belgian malinois dogs and one cane corso -- for humane euthanasia. The victim’s identity has not been released. “He was reportedly at the property to do some work for the owner. It was also reported that the victim did some prior work for the man and had been at the property previously without incident,” states a release from animal services.

Owning three Belgian malinois -- a breed most often used for police and protection ("bite") work -- is usually the role of a professional dog handler, not someone wanting a few “guard dogs.” The fourth dog, a cane corso, also used in protection work, just adds fuel to the fire. Both breeds are typically costly and papered. But the owner surrendered all four dogs, which is atypical behavior of an owner of purebred working breeds. Perhaps he had become afraid of his protection dogs?

NBC Los Angeles identified the business that owns the property, which is an electrical company. The property used to be a home that was converted into a supply yard for the business. "Beware of Dog" signs are posted all around the property, along with a "Guard Dog on Duty" sign. There are multiple surveillance cameras on the property too; the fatal dog attack might have been captured on one of them. The footage also shows two large metal dog pens on the property.

Two other dogs were found on the property that apparently were not involved in the attack. One neighbor said the dogs would often escape because workers entering and exiting the business would leave the gate open. On several occasions, she has seen the dogs chase students coming to and from the high school across the street. "It's scary," she said. The school's crossing guard has also been alarmed by the dogs being loose in the past, shouting at the dogs to "Go home!"

The Press Enterprise identified the victim as 42-year old Mateo Salvador. He had been hired to do construction work on the property and was attacked by the four dogs as soon as he entered the property. Riverside County Sheriff’s Department deputies found him unresponsive in the front yard suffering from dog bite injuries. He was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he died at 8:15 am Tuesday morning. Salvador had previously worked at the property without incident.

The back of the electrical company's Jurupa Valley property shows two large metal dog pens

Baseline reporting requirements:
Law enforcement departments across the United States should release consistent "baseline" information to the media and the public after each fatal dog mauling, including these items.

Posted on March 1, 2023 by Colleen Lynn

2023 Dog Bite Fatality: Dog Pack Kills 74-Year Old Man in Jefferson County, Alabama

The coroner’s office identified the victim as 74-year old Joe Cleveland Scott.1

Man Killed by Dogs
McDonald Chapel, AL - On Tuesday morning, just before 7:00 am, a man was discovered dead by a passerby in the 5700 block of Iceland Avenue with several dogs surrounding the body. Investigators said the dogs were hindering their investigation. Animal control came and trapped six dogs, as seen in the photo supplied by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, and took the dogs into custody. At that time, it was unclear if the dog pack was involved in the man’s death.

Today, the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office confirmed the man was fatally mauled by a pack of dogs and identified the victim as 74-year old Joe Cleveland Scott, who lived in the McDonald Chapel community, where the attack occurred. The attack is believed to have occurred at 6:49 am, according to Lt. Joni Money. When deputies arrived on scene, the man was unresponsive and surrounded by six large dogs. He was pronounced dead at 7:08 am, Lt. Joni Money said.

Before they could begin their investigation, animal control had to be called to trap the dogs. Trapping the dogs took over an hour, reports AL.com. “It is unusual for somebody to be attacked,’' Money said. “My understanding from these neighbors is these dogs have been in the area for a while and have not been aggressive.” Douglas Peterson, a neighbor, told WTVM that he had seen a pack of dogs before. A few years ago, a dog pack came into his backyard and killed his cat.

Thus far, investigators believe the dogs are stray or ownerless with a “pack-type mentality.” As most readers know, ownerless dogs are rarely involved in fatal dog attacks, even when these maulings occur on Indian reservations. From 2005 to 2020, we recorded 569 fatal dog maulings. The owners in 19 cases were unknown or unreleased by officials. Of the remaining 550 deaths, there were 3 deaths involving stray or ownerless dogs, comprising around 0.5% of all cases.

1The victim was initially identified as being 65-years old. He obituary notice states he was 74-years old.

Posted on February 25, 2023 by Colleen Lynn

2023 Dog Bite Fatality: Man Killed by Three Pit Bulls in Escambia County, Florida

A 63-year old man was killed by three pit bulls in Escambia County, Florida.

Dog Owner Arrested
UPDATE 05/01/23: Earlier today, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office held a press conference announcing that Kathleen Taylor, 35, the owner of three pit bulls that killed a man in February, has been charged with negligent manslaughter, a second-degree felony in the state of Florida. Taylor faces up to 15 years in jail. The felony charge comes after a lengthy investigation showing that animal control had interacted with and warned Taylor about her dogs on multiple occasions.

Animal control had previously even taken dogs away from her. John Robinson, the manager of Escambia County Animal Services, spoke during the press conference. "We have removed animals from her before. A lot of times, she's just replaced them with new animals." Robinson also said that his office had no bite histories for any of Taylor's dogs. The investigation did uncover previous bites. Had they not been uncovered, this felony charge might not have been pursued.

As Sheriff Chip Simmons states, however, Taylor's reckless disregard for the victim wasn't just apparent before he was attacked and killed, she fled the scene with one of her dogs after the attack too. "It wasn't like a surprise to her," sheriff Simmons said. "They were cited, they were warned, they were fined, and still no action was taken. As if they didn't care." That is "why we are here now and why we ended up charging her with negligent manslaughter," Simmons said.

"We had multiple encounters with the owners of these animals. We have removed animals from her before. A lot of times, she's just replaced them with new animals. We've had multiple citations given to her. There's a lot of challenges for us ... We don't have a bite history that has been reported to animal control. So please, if you're out there, if you get bitten by an animal, we need those bite reports ... so that we can address that situation. We don't have any bite history of any of her animals in our system, which makes it very difficult for us to follow up with situations like that. We had a lot of roaming calls, nuisance calls, where the animals may have been chasing people. But having those bite reports is extremely important to us." - John Robinson, the manager of Escambia County Animal Services

Sheriff Provides Epilogue

To drive home Taylor's negligence, Simmons shared that while they were getting the warrants signed and working on getting it served, Taylor suddenly disappeared. She wasn't in hiding, she was arrested for drug possession on April 17. "So, in the meantime, she takes her dog and leaves the scene. Then, while were are doing the investigation, she's out there running around doing drugs. She went to jail and bonded back out, only to be picked up today," Simmons said.

WKRG reports details from the arrest affidavit, including the gruesome injuries, which are routine when a human being is attacked by three pit bulls. Deputies saw "the man lying on the ground with both ears detached, along with his nose and left eye detached," WKRG reports. A woman had been walking with the male victim at the time. As she screamed at the dogs to get off him, she saw Taylor, who allegedly screamed the dogs were not hers, then got into her car and took off.

Kathleen Taylor has had a few run-ins with the law in Escambia County over the years.

In a subsequent news report by WEAR, a neighbor identified the victim as Nathaniel Posey.

02/25/23: Man Killed by Pit Bulls
Escambia County, FL - Just hours after a pair of pit bulls attacked four people, killing one, in San Antonio, Texas, a trio of pit bulls killed a man in the Florida Panhandle. Emergency units were dispatched to a home in the 400 block of Norris Avenue around 10:15 pm. Personnel attempted to resuscitate the victim, but were unable to. He was pronounced dead at 10:30 pm. A witness who lives at the home saw the end of the attack and was able to scare off the pit bulls and call 911.

One of the dispatchers can be heard on the audio dispatch log files at Broadcastify.com saying, “63-year old male … was attacked by some pit bulls. He’s not breathing .. we’ve notified animal control.” But animal control was unable to capture the dogs that night. Officials returned to the property the next morning and encountered one of the pit bulls, still aggressive, that a deputy shot. A second pit bull was captured in the afternoon. Deputies are working to locate the third pit bull.

The victim’s name has not yet been released by the Escambia County Sheriff's Office. Earlier today, the agency released a media statement about the fatal pit bull attack on Norris Avenue.

Escambia County Sheriff's Office

***UPDATE***Escambia County Sheriff's Office

The second pit bull has been located and captured.

JUST THE FACTS

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to a cardiac arrest last night (2/24/2023) at around 10:15pm, in the 400 block of Norris Ave. A witness observed a male being attacked by three pit bulls. The witness managed to scare the dogs away and immediately called 911. Unfortunately, due to the victim’s injuries sustained in the attack, he later died. Escambia County Animal Control arrived at the scene, but the dogs were not located. At the request of Animal Control, deputies responded with them back to the area this morning at 8:00 am, attempting to locate the animals. One pit bull was observed and attempted to avoid capture. The animal was still very aggressive and was shot by a deputy. The animal was captured and is receiving medical treatment. Two of the pit bulls are still missing however, the Sheriff's Office is working with Animal Control to locate the animals.

Dog Owner in Hiding

As of Monday afternoon -- three days after a man in his 60s was killed by a group of dogs -- the Escambia County Sheriff's Office continues to look for the third dog involved in the attack and its owner. Sheriff Chip Simmons told media outlets on Monday that the third dog is likely with its owner. “First of all we gotta find the owner -- the owner is apparently hiding from us," Sheriff Simmons said. "We're still looking for the one dog and we believe the homeowner has that dog."

Footage from WEAR shows a large dog kennel on the property, as animal control and deputies search the grounds. Authorities believe the dogs’ owner, who lives at the property on Norris Avenue, came to the scene long after police had gone in order to retrieve the dog and hide from deputies. “As the next couple of days unfold, hopefully we will be able to talk to the homeowner and determine whether the dogs had been found to be dangerous in the past,” Simmons said.

The felony dog attack statute in Florida requires the dog to be previously classified as "dangerous.” Thus, the dog needs a documented “first offense” that caused serious injuries, as well as a legal declaration. We’ve never seen a dog owner in Florida charged under this statute. However, we have seen a Florida dog owner hide a pair of pit bulls after a fatal attack and charged with lying to deputies and/or providing false information, a misdemeanor (Deanna Blitch, 2011).

WKRG reports that the sheriff’s office believes the victim was visiting a friend who lives on the property when the dogs attacked at about 10:15 pm Friday night. The dogs’ owner lives on the same property but was not home when the dogs attacked, according to deputies. The identity of the male victim still has not been released. Sheriff Chip Simmons described the man’s injuries as “dog bites to his head and neck area.” He was deceased when deputies arrived at the scene.

Dog Owner Located

On Tuesday, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office announced that the owner of the attacking dogs, Kathleen Ann Taylor, has been located. Taylor is wanted for questioning only. Taylor has a history in Escambia County, according to media reports from 2020. The third dog involved in the attack was also taken into custody. The sheriff’s office continues to work with animal control and the state attorney’s office to determine whether criminal charges will be filed against Taylor.

A 63-year old man was killed by three pit bulls in Escambia County, Florida late Friday.

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

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Compelling Testimony by Representatives Who Opposed the Bill