Marty
06-09-2005, 12:35 PM
San Francisco, CA -- Pit bull supporters -- defensive after last week's fatal attack of a 12-year-old boy by his family's pit bulls -- used a city-sponsored forum in San Francisco on Wednesday night to inform the public about the facts and the myths of the canine breed.
"We're hopefully alleviating some of the anxiety that people are feeling about dogs, particularly about pit bulls,'' said Donna Duford, an animal behaviorist with the San Francisco Animal Care & Control agency who says pit bulls, as a breed, shouldn't be feared.
Duford joined Donna Reynolds, founder of the advocacy group BAD RAP (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible about Pit Bulls) to present the workshop, which was organized by the city's animal agency in response to Friday's fatal mauling of Nicholas Faibish.
Duford said that the pit bull breed shouldn't be feared, but that individual animals may exhibit cause for alarm. She outlined some common-sense warning signs and precautions people should take to avoid the potential for problems with pit bulls and other dogs.
For example, she said, children and dogs should never be left alone, and people should never approach strange dogs until their owners say it's OK. Stay away from dogs that snarl, growl, snap or have a stiff body.
Proper training of pit bulls, and the people who care for them, is a must, and spaying or neutering the animal is highly recommended to make them less aggressive.
Reynolds said a properly bred pit bull should "never be aggressive toward people.'' Red flags of a potentially problematic pit bull, she said, are that they don't like to be touched, they're overly territorial, they're hard to calm down or they're overly fearful, easily stressed or aloof. Anyone of these traits, she said, is enough for people to get a professional assessment of their dog's behavior.
A second workshop has been scheduled for Saturday morning at the agency's Mission District headquarters.
The stated purpose of the seminars is to help pit bull owners understand their dogs' behavior and to recognize potential signs of aggression. At Wednesday's session, it also was clear that another purpose was to make sure that pit bulls as a breed don't get a bad rap.
"There's been a lot of fear and paranoia,'' said Reynolds, who has a couple of pit bulls at home. "We're devastated about what happened, and want to make sure people have the right information to prevent something like this from happening again.''
Friday's deadly attack put pit bulls in the public spotlight and prompted city officials, among them Mayor Gavin Newsom, to suggest that new regulations are needed to better control the animals. The mayor convened a task force to look at the issue.
Among the suggestions already raised are mandatory neutering and spaying of pit bulls, requiring them to be muzzled when in public, banning the sale and breeding of pit bulls in San Francisco and mandating the owners partake in special training before they can obtain a license to keep them.
San Francisco's Commission of Animal Control and Welfare is meeting at 5: 30 p.m. today in City Hall to begin the discussion.
E-mail Rachel Gordon at rgordon@sfcrhonicle.com.
"We're hopefully alleviating some of the anxiety that people are feeling about dogs, particularly about pit bulls,'' said Donna Duford, an animal behaviorist with the San Francisco Animal Care & Control agency who says pit bulls, as a breed, shouldn't be feared.
Duford joined Donna Reynolds, founder of the advocacy group BAD RAP (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible about Pit Bulls) to present the workshop, which was organized by the city's animal agency in response to Friday's fatal mauling of Nicholas Faibish.
Duford said that the pit bull breed shouldn't be feared, but that individual animals may exhibit cause for alarm. She outlined some common-sense warning signs and precautions people should take to avoid the potential for problems with pit bulls and other dogs.
For example, she said, children and dogs should never be left alone, and people should never approach strange dogs until their owners say it's OK. Stay away from dogs that snarl, growl, snap or have a stiff body.
Proper training of pit bulls, and the people who care for them, is a must, and spaying or neutering the animal is highly recommended to make them less aggressive.
Reynolds said a properly bred pit bull should "never be aggressive toward people.'' Red flags of a potentially problematic pit bull, she said, are that they don't like to be touched, they're overly territorial, they're hard to calm down or they're overly fearful, easily stressed or aloof. Anyone of these traits, she said, is enough for people to get a professional assessment of their dog's behavior.
A second workshop has been scheduled for Saturday morning at the agency's Mission District headquarters.
The stated purpose of the seminars is to help pit bull owners understand their dogs' behavior and to recognize potential signs of aggression. At Wednesday's session, it also was clear that another purpose was to make sure that pit bulls as a breed don't get a bad rap.
"There's been a lot of fear and paranoia,'' said Reynolds, who has a couple of pit bulls at home. "We're devastated about what happened, and want to make sure people have the right information to prevent something like this from happening again.''
Friday's deadly attack put pit bulls in the public spotlight and prompted city officials, among them Mayor Gavin Newsom, to suggest that new regulations are needed to better control the animals. The mayor convened a task force to look at the issue.
Among the suggestions already raised are mandatory neutering and spaying of pit bulls, requiring them to be muzzled when in public, banning the sale and breeding of pit bulls in San Francisco and mandating the owners partake in special training before they can obtain a license to keep them.
San Francisco's Commission of Animal Control and Welfare is meeting at 5: 30 p.m. today in City Hall to begin the discussion.
E-mail Rachel Gordon at rgordon@sfcrhonicle.com.