Vale incident raises visibility of vicious dog rules
BY Katie Pizza, Argus Observer
Saturday, February 14, 2009 11:55 PM PST
Vale—In the wake of the attack of a 5-year-old boy by a mixed breed dog Jan. 3, one resident is angered and believes actions by sheriff’s deputies regarding pit bulls is not fair. A Malheur County Sheriff’s Office deputy happened to be on patrol and spotted a black-colored dog inside an enclosed yard where it held the young boy by the arm and was dragging him around. The deputy yelled at the dog, which did not respond, and went to a gate and entered the yard to rescue the victim.
“The deputy had to kick the dog off the boy,” Malheur County Undersheriff Brian Wolfe told the Argus Observer in early January. After the boy was freed and in the deputy’s arms, the dog still attempted to continue the attack and had to be fought off, Wolfe said.
Once outside fence, the deputy closed the gate, but the dog was able to escape by crawling under the fence and ran to its home. The owner of the pit bull, boxer and black lab mix, Darlene Hicks, Vale, was cited for allowing her dog to run at-large and for a nuisance dog and not having the dog licensed. Wolfe said the boy was in his yard and had not bothered the dog.
Vale resident Donna Gay asserted that while Hicks, Vale, was furnished the opportunity to decide whether or not to put the animal down after attacking the boy, Gay’s pit bull, Mercedes, was not so lucky. She said, a few years ago, her pit bull escaped from her yard and was shot by a Malheur County Sheriff’s Office deputy after the deputy said the dog menaced a boy waiting at a bus stop a few homes down from her house.
Gay said she heard from a neighbor that the boy was throwing rocks at Mercedes and that she had never seen her dog act aggressive. Though she said Mercedes had recently had puppies, she did not believe that would contribute to any aggression since the incident did not take place near the puppies. She thought it was unfair that her dog was shot while the pit bull involved in the Jan. 3 incident was allowed to live. “She was shot right between the eyes,” Gay said.
Wolfe said it is up to the deputy’s discretion to decide what action to take. In the Jan. 3 incident, he said that deputy was more concerned with protecting the boy and getting him to safety than with the dog, which had already fled the scene.
Malheur County Deputy Oscar Rodriguez said, if a dog is acting aggressive on a resident’s property, property owners do have the right to take the action they feel is necessary to protect themselves and their family. The right also applies to residents who feel their livestock are being threatened by a dog. "You also have the right to call us and get a citation for the dog,” he said. This right also extends to law enforcement who are able to use whatever force is necessary to resolve the situation. “We have the ability to do what we need to do,” he said.
He also said county ordinances demand pit bulls, bull terriers, mastiffs and about 10 to 15 other dog breeds must be put in five-sided pens with a concrete floor. If a concrete floor is not used in the pen, there must be at least two feet of soil beneath the pen so the dog can not dig out.
At a recent Vale City Council meeting, council members listened to residents regarding proposed changes to the city’s current dog ordinance. While no final decision was made, Vale City Manager Brent Barton said the ordinance could be hashed out further at the next council meeting.
Ledy VanKavage, an attorney for Best Friends Animal Society, the organization that recovered pit bulls from dog fighter Michael Vick, said some officials will label dogs as pit bulls incorrectly. She said discriminating against breeds can be costly, since she believed the best and most accurate way to determine breeds to be DNA testing. “With the economy the way it is, does the city really want to pay for DNA testing for every mutt in the city?” she asked.
She also said irresponsible owners should not have their dogs singled out by any breed but should be forbidden from owning any dogs at all. “They can just go out and get a different breed of dog,” she said.
VanKavage spoke not about specific breeds of dogs, but of the specific dog involved in attacks. She said 97 percent of dogs involved in fatal attacks are not sterilized and 25 percent of fatal dog attacks occur when the dogs are running in packs.
She also spoke highly of laws in Illinois, which consider any dog to be dangerous if it threatens a person or companion animal such as another dog, cat or horse. If this happens, the dog must be sterilized, which statistically reduces cases of bites, and have a microchip inserted to assist in tracking the animal. If the animal is walked, it must be muzzled and not walked by anyone under the age of 18. If the dog does bite someone, it is considered a class 2 felony, with the owner subject to 10 years in jail.
Law enforcement officials classified the dog in the Jan. 3 attack as a pit bull, boxer and black lab mix. Tne magazine editor simplified this classification of dog. “It’s a mongrel basically,” Wash.-based Animal People editor Merritt Clifton said. He also said insurance representatives and dog wardens will often classify the dog by what type of dog it looks like. This classification has little to do with genetics, he said, because often shelter operators are simply attempting to determine the risk the dog will fight with other dogs.
Though some might label pit bulls as aggressive, Clifton said pit bulls are often reactive because of the fact they were originally trained to hunt rats on ships. However, because of their size and their inability to pull large amounts of cargo from ships, they were not considered apt for either job and instead began being bred for dogfighting on the docks. This rat-killing, he said, has made them more reactive.
He also talked about the head-shaking mechanism pit bulls would use to kill the rat, which in bites causes the tearing of skin, causing more damage than other dog bites. However, he said this can be combated by pushing the arm or other appendage further into the dog’s mouth, which will force a release. This action, he said, is preferable to pulling away, though he said it may be hard to focus on such an action in the midst of an attack. Clifton said pit bulls make up a large percent of dogs in shelters. Though pit bulls made up about 10 percent of dogs killed in U.S. shelters in 1993, they now make up 50 percent plus since 2003.
This amounts to an average of about 1 million pit bulls per year, at an average age of about 18 months of age. About half are owner surrenders, and half are impounds by law enforcement. Clifton also said he believed attacks stem from a trigger that many may not be aware of, since human senses are not as acute as a dog’s. However, he said he believed dogs can be trained to calm their reactions. “What you’re really trying to do is teach the dog to count to 10,” he said.
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