Officials: No easy fix for pit bulls
Published: Saturday, August 28, 2010, 11:54 PM
Aaron Aupperlee | Jackson Citizen Patriot
Charley Norris got a pit bull when it was 2 days old. He bottle-fed it for months, and it was docile and friendly. The dog loved to play with people, especially Norris’ young niece, Tyah.
“I loved him to death,” Norris said. “He was like a kid to me.”
But as the dog grew, Norris noticed it getting more aggressive. After an attack by another dog, it no longer played. Norris made the tough decision to part with the animal.
“I didn’t want something like this to happen,” he said Wednesday, a day after Tyah, his 6-year-old niece, was attacked by three pit bulls in Blackman Township.
Norris ran to his niece Tuesday and used a piece of lumber to club the dogs attacking her. Tyah’s blood stained his clothes and hands. Once a pit bull owner and lover, Norris thinks differently about the breed today.
He wants them banned.
“It’s just a dangerous breed. It’s in their blood to kill,” Norris said. “They’re not pets; they’re vicious animals. You can’t make a family pet out of them.”
Tuesday’s attack left Tyah with 500 stitches and a long recovery ahead of her. Doctors expect her to remain at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor for months.
It also left residents wondering what can be done to prevent future attacks.
Two children were attacked by dogs Tuesday — Tyah, at 118 Mantle Ave., and a 6-year-old girl in Parma Township who was bitten by a lab-shepherd mix. In July, a pit bull attacked Joe Williams near Union and Grinnell streets. He needed about 100 stitches.
Local elected officials agree action should be taken but are not sure a ban is possible. It is difficult to forbid ownership of one breed. Other breeds also can be dangerous, they said.
Whether pit bulls are more likely to hurt people than other breeds is debated.
“Although media reports and rumors often give the impression that certain breeds of dog are more likely to bite, there is little scientific evidence to support those claims,” says the American Veterinary Medical Association’s brochure on dog-bite prevention.
Before Tuesday, Jackson County Animal Control officers responded to six severe dog bites in recent months, Undersheriff Tom Finco said. Of the attacks, three were by pit pulls, two by shepherds and one by a rottweiler.
Finco said Sheriff Dan Heyns plans to meet with other county and law enforcement officials to address pit bulls or aggressive dogs. It could involve more licensing checks, for example.
Prosecutor Hank Zavislak said he would be involved: “I think there is a problem with any animal that attacks and does that kind of injury to any human being or another animal.”
On Friday, Zavislak’s office charged Brian Nace, 35, and his girlfriend, Jasmine Bailey, 19, with keeping a dangerous animal that caused serious injury. They owned the dogs that hurt Tyah.
The charges send a message about dog owners’ accountability in the event of an attack, Zavislak said.
Keeping pit bulls as a status symbol seems to be a trend, Zavislak said. This “translates into, ‘I am bad. Don’t mess with me,’ ” Zavislak said, reading a statement at a Friday news conference.
Many put the blame on the owners who neglect pit bulls or train them to be fighters.
“I don’t think they should be banned,” said Destiny Kidd of Blackman Township. “It’s all how you raise them.”
Kidd had a pit bull for 10 years before it died last year. The dog was not aggressive, Kidd said, and loved to play with her children.
“My daughter could ride her like a horse,” Kidd said.
Kidd’s children, Maya, 5, and Antonio, 6, are good friends with Tyah and could have easily been playing with her Tuesday when she was attacked, she said. They were not.
Some, like Charley Norris, want pit bulls out of their communities. Waterford Township near Detroit has enacted a ban. Jackson County officials have not seriously considered one.
“Pit bulls can be a mean dog. There are good pit bulls, too,” said county Commissioner Jeff Kruse, who represents Leoni Township. “And people have been bitten by other breeds of dogs. Do you ban all dogs from the county? I don’t think you can do that.”
Blackman Township Trustee Chuck DeBruler said his gut reaction to Tuesday’s attack is to ban pit bulls in the township. He said he would never own one and would be nervous if his neighbors did.
DeBruler, however, thinks more laws and regulations surrounding ownership of potentially vicious dogs might protect residents better. Licenses, insurance and education should be a part of owning a pit bull, he said.
“I think they’re dangerous, and I think we have to make people, especially the owners, aware of the responsibility they take on when they own a dog like that,” he said. “There’s been too many people bit and hurt.”
DeBruler expects to talk about dogs at the Sept. 6 Blackman Township meeting.
Township Treasurer Sherry Brockie brought up the issue in January after a man paying taxes in the township office asked Brockie if the township could mandate permits for pit bulls and rottweilers. Public Safety Director Mike Jester took the question to the Public Safety Committee in March.
“The committee discussed the idea and decided that they were not interested in pursuing this matter further,” read the minutes from that meeting. “They felt that animal-control issues are handled at the county level.”
“I think the whole county needs to be policed on it, not just one township,” said township trustee David Sercombe, who sits on the committee. The rules should be consistent throughout the county, he said.
There has been some discussion about countywide pit bull regulation, and there will be more talk of it, county Commissioner Clifford Herl said.
Like others, he said it is difficult to legislate only one breed: “Every dog could be vicious.”
Stricter licensing enforcement is one strategy. The dogs in the recent attacks were not licensed, but licenses do not raise enough money for the county to hire someone to go out and check all dogs.
Licenses, which require proof of rabies vaccination, are $10 to $30, depending on when a resident buys a license and whether the dog is spayed or neutered. Seniors pay half.
If the county raised the prices, fewer people might bother to get licenses.
“I wish there was an easy answer,” Jackson Mayor Karen Dunigan said.
City officials have talked about legislation for pit bulls or vicious dogs in recent years but opted to operate under the county’s guidelines.
The city’s only pet ordinance regulates the number of pets, Dunigan said.
It is difficult to determine which dogs are aggressive or what dogs should be regulated. Asked Dunigan: “Where do you start and where do you stop?”
— Jackson Citizen Patriot staff writer Danielle Quisenberry contributed to this report.
Levels of dangerous animals
Jackson County’s animal control ordinance addresses dangerous and vicious animals. The county assigns levels to different behaviors to classify how dangerous animals are and regulate them properly.
• Level 1: Animal continuously runs loose.
• Level 2: Animal indirectly causes injury or damage to a person, animal or property.
• Level 3: Animal, while at large, is found to menace, chase, display threatening or aggressive behavior, or otherwise threaten or endanger the safety of any domestic animal.
• Level 4: Animal bites or scratches another animal in a less-than-dangerous manner.
• Level 5: Animal bites or scratches a person in a less-than-dangerous manner.
• Level 6: Animal, while at large, is found to menace, chase, display threatening or aggressive behavior or otherwise threaten or endanger the safety of any person.
• Level 7: Animal, while confined, aggressively bites or causes physical injury less than serious to any person or animal.
• Level 8: Animal, while at large, aggressively bites or causes physical injury less than serious to any person or domestic animal.
• Level 9: Animal, whether or not confined, causes the serious injury or death of any person, kills or causes serious injury to any domestic animal, engages in or is found to have been trained to engage in exhibitions of fighting, or has been classified as level 7 or 8 and repeats the behavior.
Under the ordinance, animals classified as level 1 through 5 must be restrained so that they do not reach any public sidewalk or adjoining property when not on a leash.
An animal at level 6 must be confined inside a secure enclosure whenever not on a leash or in the owner’s house. The animal must also be microchipped.
Level 7 is the same as level 6, but the owner must post warning signs. Level 8 is the same as level 7, but the animal cannot leave the owner’s property unless it is muzzled.
Animals at level 9 can be euthanized by a court order or be subject to level 8 restrictions.
— Source: Jackson County Animal Control Ordinance
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