Make owners, not their dogs, pay for bites
Anyone who has been bitten by a pit bull, or had a beloved dog or cat crushed in the jaws of that potentially vicious breed, can attest to the fear and heartbreak that accompany those encounters.
But as many dog owners well know, virtually every breed of dog is potentially vicious. That's because dogs tend to get their aggressiveness from owners who, either through mistreatment or specific training, make them so.
Some breeds are better equipped to do damage, of course. But in the hands of an irresponsible or overzealous trainer, almost any dog can inflict pain. And in the Bakersfield area, we've seen plenty of recent pain.
Animal control agencies and organizations have reported some 2,400 dog bites in metro Bakersfield since January 2007 -- and that may represent only a small percentage of actual dog-bite incidents.
Pit bulls, a term used to describe a range of short-haired breeds and mixes, lead the way by a substantial margin. Is that because pit bulls are inherently aggressive, as some claim, or because of the type of owner drawn to them? It hardly matters when you're prying one off your cat. Or your child.
A few cities and counties across the U.S. have banned or severely restricted pit bulls. In almost every case, another breed of dog has turned up as the favored species among those who prefer aggressive dogs, and dog-bite numbers have been affected little, if at all.
That points to one common denominator: the dog owner. If we hope to ever muzzle dog-bite numbers, they're the ones we've got to leash.
It's time to crank up dog-registration enforcement and enact tougher penalties for those who allow their dogs to run loose. The penalties must be tougher still for those whose free-running dogs inflict damage.
How do cities and counties pay for tougher regulation and harsher penalties? Partially through a steep increase in penalties for failure to license pets.
Enforcing these laws will be challenging, because it's tough to pin an act of violence on a dog that's lying peacefully next to its dog dish, behind a secure fence, the morning after the crime. Victims of these attacks know this frustration well.
Local officials must carve out the time to research what works elsewhere. They might start in Calgary, a western Canada oil city of more than a million people, where reported dog bites dropped from 500 per year to fewer than 150 last year (and only 85 thus far in 2009) after a Responsible Pet Ownership ordinance went into effect in 2006. The law focuses heavily on licensing, education and strengthening relationships among animal agencies.
It's a tough challenge, but we've seen enough of neighborhood killers (and their derelict owners) walking free.
