Dog Attacks are Rare, but High on Legislative Agenda

It seems every state is cracking down on dangerous dogs, but did you know that only 12 people died last year from dog attacks, down from 32 in 2003? While dying from a dog attack is a very rare occurrence, especially when you consider the 64 million dogs in the United States, state legislators and city council ordinances have cracked down on dangerous dogs by enacting ordinances and laws that make it harder for people to own certain breeds of dogs, namely pit bulls and rottweilers who account for about half the attacks.

Texas, by far, has the harshest penalty for a canine fatality, making it a felony and adding a penalty of 10 years in prison for the owner.

While I understand the concern, the trend worries me. I wish we could enforce the laws on the books, as I think that might have an impact on the problems we are seeing: enforcing leash laws, getting dogs off chains, and promoting spaying and neutering. The dogs that bite the most are unneutered males dogs kept on chains — the plight it seems of most aggressive, under soclalized dogs.

The other problem is that we actually don’t have enough “animal cops” or animal law enforcement officers to cover the beat now. I spoke with the Alan Spence, the lead instructor for the Texas Academy of Animal Control Officers, this past weekend, and he said that if someone wanted to become an animal cop that there were probably 300 opportunites in the state of Texas alone for that job. The need has become so great for us to enforce the laws on the books, but we are not meeting that need in our communities because of lack of funds dedicated to paying these law enforcement officer a decent wage and because there are not enough trained officers to handle the job.

Just something to think about as we venture forward to make our community safe for animals and people.

mysa admin