Marty
12-04-2005, 10:35 PM
Charlottesville, VA -- Two Central Virginia legislators are preparing to go after owners of bad dogs.
Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle County, and Sen. R. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania County, are drawing up bills to put more teeth in the laws that punish people for dangerous animal behavior.
Each lawmaker is working with the Virginia State Crime Commission to collar dog owners who, as Bell puts it, raise fighting dogs to attack or who knowingly allow dogs to run loose after they have attacked someone.
Bell, a Crime Commission member, said one problem with current dog laws is that if a dog attacks and wounds, but does not kill, a person, "there’s no crime right now."
Legislation he is preparing to sponsor for the commission in the House of Delegates would make it Class 6 felony for a dog owner "whose willful act or omission in the care, control or containment of a dog or other animal is so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life, and is the proximate cause of such dog or other animal attacking and severely injuring any person."
Recent dog attacks in Orange and Spotsylvania counties, and elsewhere in Virginia, including the dog mauling death of Dorothy Sullivan in Spotsylvania, led to the legislation.
Sullivan and her small pet dog were mauled and killed in March by a neighbor’s pit bulls, Houck said.
Houck and members of Sullivan’s family spoke before the commission and another task force and helped spur several pieces of legislation.
Houck said he is not trying to ban any specific breed of dog despite some suggestions that the state ban pit bulls.
"I don’t know that you can go as far as to ban a certain breed," he said Friday. The legislation he is drawing up has sparked interest and support from around the state and beyond, he said.
"It’s just unbelievable the [large numbers of] occurrences of these attacks," the state senator said. "I am getting phone calls and e-mails from all over the nation."
Bell and Houck want to allow any law enforcement officer, not just an animal control officer, to summons a dog owner if the police officer has reason to believe an animal is a dangerous or vicious dog.
Houck’s proposals would go further to limit reckless or negligent behavior of dog owners.
He is suggesting a list of changes to control dangerous and vicious dogs, including merging the definition of a vicious dog into the definition of a dangerous dog.
Houck wants to make it clear that the definition of a dangerous dog includes one that inflicts injury to a companion animal, someone’s pet cat or dog, to such an extent that the pet has to be put to sleep.
He would also prohibit the importation of a dangerous dog into Virginia and explore proposals to limit the leash length for a dangerous dog to no longer than six feet and to euthanize dangerous dogs that attack a person or a companion animal.
Virginia law defines a dangerous dog as "a canine or canine crossbreed that has bitten, attacked, or inflicted injury on a person or a companion animal, or killed a companion animal," but has exceptions if there is no serious injury to an attacked dog, if both animals are owned by the same owner or if they are engaged in lawful hunting or "participating in an organized, lawful dog handling event."
A vicious dog is defined as one that has killed a person or inflicted serious injury or continued to exhibit behavior that caused a court or animal control officer to warn the owner that the animal was a dangerous dog.
Bell has some legislative experience with dog bills, having successfully stiffened state law against dog fighting two years ago, but Houck said he is finding dog legislation a highly emotional issue.
"I’ve never dealt with legislation in this area before and it’s a real eye opener," Houck said. Working with law enforcement, mauling victims and many different dog owner groups, he has found that "to get them to agree is just a real challenge."
"It is still sort of a work in progress," he said of legislation he is drafting, which would go beyond the Crime Commission draft that Bell is preparing to handle.
Bell found two years ago that stiffening dog fighting law is one thing and going after cockfighting is entirely another.
The Albemarle delegate’s bill initially sought to stiffen dog fighting and cockfighting statutes, but he found he could not pass the measure until he dropped the birds from the bill.
He asked a House committee to strike sections prohibiting cockfighting, much to the relief of a dozen or so cockfighting advocates who drove to Richmond from rural counties.
"The dog thing was giving us chicken people a bad rep," said Eddie Colmer, who had traveled with friends from Rockingham County to oppose the cockfighting ban.
Bell knows what noises his fellow delegates will make to greet the pending legislation, given the clucking and barking sounds that fellow lawmakers used two years ago when his dog and chicken bill came up.
This year, the animal noises from fellow delegates are likely to be limited to mere barks, yaps and yelps.
Contact Daily Progress senior writer Bob Gibson at (434) 978-7243 or bgibson@dailyprogress.com.
Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle County, and Sen. R. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania County, are drawing up bills to put more teeth in the laws that punish people for dangerous animal behavior.
Each lawmaker is working with the Virginia State Crime Commission to collar dog owners who, as Bell puts it, raise fighting dogs to attack or who knowingly allow dogs to run loose after they have attacked someone.
Bell, a Crime Commission member, said one problem with current dog laws is that if a dog attacks and wounds, but does not kill, a person, "there’s no crime right now."
Legislation he is preparing to sponsor for the commission in the House of Delegates would make it Class 6 felony for a dog owner "whose willful act or omission in the care, control or containment of a dog or other animal is so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life, and is the proximate cause of such dog or other animal attacking and severely injuring any person."
Recent dog attacks in Orange and Spotsylvania counties, and elsewhere in Virginia, including the dog mauling death of Dorothy Sullivan in Spotsylvania, led to the legislation.
Sullivan and her small pet dog were mauled and killed in March by a neighbor’s pit bulls, Houck said.
Houck and members of Sullivan’s family spoke before the commission and another task force and helped spur several pieces of legislation.
Houck said he is not trying to ban any specific breed of dog despite some suggestions that the state ban pit bulls.
"I don’t know that you can go as far as to ban a certain breed," he said Friday. The legislation he is drawing up has sparked interest and support from around the state and beyond, he said.
"It’s just unbelievable the [large numbers of] occurrences of these attacks," the state senator said. "I am getting phone calls and e-mails from all over the nation."
Bell and Houck want to allow any law enforcement officer, not just an animal control officer, to summons a dog owner if the police officer has reason to believe an animal is a dangerous or vicious dog.
Houck’s proposals would go further to limit reckless or negligent behavior of dog owners.
He is suggesting a list of changes to control dangerous and vicious dogs, including merging the definition of a vicious dog into the definition of a dangerous dog.
Houck wants to make it clear that the definition of a dangerous dog includes one that inflicts injury to a companion animal, someone’s pet cat or dog, to such an extent that the pet has to be put to sleep.
He would also prohibit the importation of a dangerous dog into Virginia and explore proposals to limit the leash length for a dangerous dog to no longer than six feet and to euthanize dangerous dogs that attack a person or a companion animal.
Virginia law defines a dangerous dog as "a canine or canine crossbreed that has bitten, attacked, or inflicted injury on a person or a companion animal, or killed a companion animal," but has exceptions if there is no serious injury to an attacked dog, if both animals are owned by the same owner or if they are engaged in lawful hunting or "participating in an organized, lawful dog handling event."
A vicious dog is defined as one that has killed a person or inflicted serious injury or continued to exhibit behavior that caused a court or animal control officer to warn the owner that the animal was a dangerous dog.
Bell has some legislative experience with dog bills, having successfully stiffened state law against dog fighting two years ago, but Houck said he is finding dog legislation a highly emotional issue.
"I’ve never dealt with legislation in this area before and it’s a real eye opener," Houck said. Working with law enforcement, mauling victims and many different dog owner groups, he has found that "to get them to agree is just a real challenge."
"It is still sort of a work in progress," he said of legislation he is drafting, which would go beyond the Crime Commission draft that Bell is preparing to handle.
Bell found two years ago that stiffening dog fighting law is one thing and going after cockfighting is entirely another.
The Albemarle delegate’s bill initially sought to stiffen dog fighting and cockfighting statutes, but he found he could not pass the measure until he dropped the birds from the bill.
He asked a House committee to strike sections prohibiting cockfighting, much to the relief of a dozen or so cockfighting advocates who drove to Richmond from rural counties.
"The dog thing was giving us chicken people a bad rep," said Eddie Colmer, who had traveled with friends from Rockingham County to oppose the cockfighting ban.
Bell knows what noises his fellow delegates will make to greet the pending legislation, given the clucking and barking sounds that fellow lawmakers used two years ago when his dog and chicken bill came up.
This year, the animal noises from fellow delegates are likely to be limited to mere barks, yaps and yelps.
Contact Daily Progress senior writer Bob Gibson at (434) 978-7243 or bgibson@dailyprogress.com.