NC: Pit Bulls & Co. May Get a New Leash on Life at Animal Shelter

Guilford County dog lovers are working hard to overturn a longstanding policy of the Guilford County Animal Shelter that imposes a death sentence at the facility on three breeds of dogs – pit bulls, Rottweilers and chows.

Those breeds are considered dangerous by some, but advocates of overturning the ban say that much of the fear surrounding those breeds is based on myth and misunderstanding, and it’s now looking very much like the Guilford County Board of Commissioners will overturn that policy.

Currently, the Animal Shelter’s policy is that the shelter will not place any pit bulls, Rottweilers or chows with adopters regardless of the disposition or the history of the dog. Rescue groups are able to take some of these dogs off the hands of the shelter before they’re killed, but most of those animals face automatic death since the shelter cannot adopt out the dogs.

The breed-specific adoption ban has been in place for about 16 years, but there’s currently a lot of will in Guilford County to overturn that policy. Doing so would greatly reduce the number of dogs that are put down each year at the shelter.

One group that’s been leading the fight against the three-breed ban is the Merit Pit Bull Foundation – a Greensboro-based organization that works for the rescue and permanent placement of pit bulls and similar dogs in North Carolina that have been “abandoned, neglected, abused and/or surrendered.” The group’s mission also includes educating the public about those breeds.

Laura Gonzo, co-chair of the group’s board of directors, said that it’s been frustrating trying to get the policy overturned because she couldn’t even find it mentioned in the county’s paperwork.

“It wasn’t listed in the county ordinances,” she said, adding that the ban wasn’t in the contract between the city and United Animal Coalition, the group that runs the shelter.

The ban goes back to an old agreement between the Board of Commissioners and the shelter in the late ’90s, which is why it will take action by the Board of Commissioners to overturn it.

Gonzo and her group said that pit bulls, Rottweilers and chows have gotten a bad wrap largely due to media reports that have elevated people’s fears of those breeds.

She said it makes no sense to show empathy and care for most dogs but then single out three breeds with a shelter policy that usually amounts to certain death for those breeds.

“The circle of compassion should extend to all animals or we’re not doing it right,” Gonzo said. “Dogs are dogs, and if you have a good screening process in place you should be able to adopt them out. Don’t think these are different.”

One reason for the ban has been the high-profile, widely reported pit bull attacks in the last four decades that in some cases resulted in the violent deaths of toddlers and adults. Whenever such an attack happens now, it is generally very big news. There is no shortage of recent incidents of tragic attacks involving these breeds of dogs. The website dogbite.org tracks deadly dog attacks like that of 87-year-old Maryland man Eugene Smith who was fatally attacked by the family pit bull while he was taking down his Christmas tree in January. Also in January, a 7-year-old Iowa boy, Malaki Mildward, was killed by two pit bull-mixes. In Pennsylvania earlier this year 2-year-old TayLynn DeVaughn was killed by a pit bull while visiting her aunt.

Despite these types of incidents, nationally some other places are moving away from laws or policies that single out certain breeds. According to Wikipedia, about 550 local governments still have breed-specific legislation.

A year ago, South Bend, Indiana, did away with a “dangerous dogs” ordinance that called some dog breeds to be euthanized within 48 hours of their entry to the shelter. They were also not allowed to be put up for adoption. In the case of South Bend, the law that was done away with dated back to the mid 1980s.

Gonzo said that, since any attack by a pit bull, Rottweiler or chow fits in well with a pre-existing media narrative, an attack by a dog of those breeds is played up greatly. She said that attacks, even fatal ones, by other breeds of dogs don’t get anywhere near the kind of media attention those do.

If one looks through the list of fatalities from dog attacks in recent years there are some instances of other breeds such as Siberian huskies and Labrador retrievers – but those names are sandwiched in between long strings of “pit bull” or “pit bull mix,” and it seems clear that at least one reason fatal attacks by pit bulls are reported more often than those other breeds is that they happen more often.

Gonzo also said that, in some cases, when these breeds do attack humans, there are extenuating circumstances that don’t get reported. For instance, she said, in one case a Rottweiler attacked a child, and the media reported that attack widely, but the fact that was barely touched on, she said, was that the dog’s owner had “starved him to death” – so that dog was desperate and antagonized before attacking the child.

Gonzo said it’s often extremely difficult even for experts to know with certainty the breed of dogs. However, when an attack happens, she said, witnesses, who are often mistaken, are quick to identify the dog as a pit bull because that’s what they’ve seen and heard about.

“It’s pit bull, pit bull, pit bull,” Gonzo said.

She also said the narrative on dangerous dogs has changed over the years.

“People used to be terrified of bloodhounds,” she said.

These days, just about the only ones afraid of bloodhounds are escaped convicts.

Guilford County Animal Shelter Executive Director Marsha Williams said the Guilford County commissioners are being asked to address the issue, and she said that, in her view, lifting the ban would be a positive move for the county.

“It’s not my decision,” Williams said, “but I’m in favor of it. If we do the proper temperament testing, have the right kind of home visits and find decent homes for them, we have a lot of nice ones to place.”

Williams said there are several rescue organizations that take the dogs off the shelter’s hands, but that only saves some of the animals.

“A majority of our euthanasia is from that policy,” Williams said.

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Hank Henning said he has concerns about pit bulls and Rottweilers just as many others do but that he did not want them to be needlessly put to death if good homes can be found for dogs with good dispositions.

Commissioner Alan Branson said he’s been getting a lot of emails lately about animal welfare issues, and he added that, when it comes to the ban on adopting out these types of dogs, he’s certainly open to revisiting the policy and instead evaluating dogs on an individual basis.

“I’ve had some friends who had Rottweilers,” Branson said, adding that those dogs did not seem to be any more violent than other dogs. “I think it has a whole lot to do with how a dog was raised and how it was treated.”

Commissioner Ray Trapp also said he would be very open to lifting the ban. He said that, in his experience, those breeds aren’t necessarily mean or vicious.

“Any dog can be aggressive,” Trapp said this week.

Commissioner Carolyn Coleman also came down on the side of the supposedly dangerous breeds. She said her experience with dogs of that type had been very positive.

Scott Greene, who headed up Guilford County Animal Control for years but is now the county’s environmental health manager, said that there are few dog attacks in Guilford County and, when it does happen, it isn’t any particular type of dog.

“We get calls on all breeds,” Greene said.

Greene said there are so many different factors that go into whether or not a dog is dangerous that it doesn’t make sense to simply impose a wholesale adoption ban on these three breeds.

“It’s how it was bred, what kind of environment it was brought up in – it’s many things,” Greene said.

In the late ’90s, Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes ran the Animal Shelter after conditions at the shelter were determined to be untenable and the Sheriff’s Department took over. Barnes, a big animal lover, said that, given his experience, he thinks the dogs should be judged individually, not by breed.

“I think any dog should be judged on its demeanor,” Barnes said. “I’ve never had an issue with Rottweilers and chows.”

He said he used to have a Doberman and said that’s a breed many accuse of being dangerous. He said his was a very loving dog. The sheriff said Guilford County should be reluctant to just write off whole breeds of dogs.

In a recent email that Gonzo sent to the commissioners, she offered a point-by-point analysis of the possible objections to overturning the ban. She said, for instance, that any concerns about shelter liability were unfounded. Gonzo quoted Bonnie Lutz, an attorney who has served on the board of directors for the American Veterinary Medical Law Association. Lutz stated, “there is not a single reportable appellate opinion in which an animal shelter was found liable for a bite by a dog that it did not own.”

Gonzo’s letter to the commissioners also stated that the current policy leads to “moral fatigue” among shelter workers who get disheartened by constantly seeing friendly, loving dogs being euthanized.

Her letter said the policy also leads to people not taking dogs of those three breeds to the shelter because they know the dog will be killed.

The letter added that, by having the ban on adoptions, the Animal Shelter becomes “part of a system that encourages ignorance, neglect and abuse.” She said the shelter’s policy also perpetuates discrimination against the breeds by homeowners’ associations and insurance companies, which sometimes have different premiums or rules for these breeds that are considered dangerous.

Commissioner Justin Conrad is another county official who doesn’t think the current ban makes sense. He said he doesn’t think anyone should jump to conclusions about any dog based on its breed.

“The meanest dog I ever saw was my grandmother’s Chihuahua,” Conrad said.

Pitt Bulls & Co. May Get a New Leash on Life at Animal Shelter - Rhino Times