Dog attack spurs call for bylaw on neglect
17 complaints filed about dogs that mauled teen
Gwendolyn Richards
Vancouver Sun
Monday, January 06, 2003
The vicious mauling of Shenica White by two dogs may have been prevented if Vancouver had an animal control bylaw that dealt with neglect, says the head of an animal advocacy group.
The two mastiff-Rottweiler dogs had been the subject of 17 reports by community safety patrollers concerned about the animals' aggressive behaviour of viciously barking and throwing themselves against a fence when the patrollers walked by.
While the volunteers did submit their reports to the Cedar Cottage Community Neighbourhood Safety office, it is unclear whether any reports were made to the SPCA.
Judy Stone, founder and president of the Animal Advocates Society of B.C., a volunteer group that rescues and rehabilitates animals, says the City of Vancouver needs to implement a bylaw that would make illegal the practice of chaining or keeping dogs constantly fenced in.
Stone presented a report to city council in June 2001 about the potential dangers of so-called yard dogs, which she said are more likely to savagely attack if they escape their confines because they have been neglected and desocialized. However, no bylaw was created.
Stone says the decision not to go ahead with an animal control bylaw dealing with neglect put people in danger.
"Those dogs would not have been able to attack Shenica if there was a law and the law had been enforced," she said.
Shenica White was attacked by two mastiff-Rottweiler dogs on Dec. 22 as she and a friend were walking down a Vancouver street. The dogs had escaped from their yard at a home about nine blocks away.
Stone called the problem of yard-bound guard dogs in East Vancouver "a plague."
"The city is sitting on a time bomb," she said.
The current animal control bylaw for the city of Vancouver only covers issues like licensing or dogs running at large. Animal control officers can only enforce current city bylaws and can't do anything about cases of neglect or abuse except report them to the B.C. SPCA, said city pound clerk Nicole Page.
"Our hands are tied," she said. "A lot of us who work here wish it was different."
Shawn Eccles of the B.C. SPCA said the group sends out an investigator every time a complaint about abuse or neglect is made, but he noted there are only two SPCA officers for all of Vancouver.
Eccles said the lack of personnel makes it hard to ensure all dogs are being treated humanely and the SPCA depends on complaints made to the group.
Other Lower Mainland municipalities have adopted humane treatment of dogs bylaws that stipulate dog owners must provide their pets with opportunities for exercise, particularly away from their place of tethering or confinement.
Stone said Surrey, Coquitlam, Richmond and other municipalities created the bylaws after the Animal Advocates Society approached them with their concerns about neglected guard dogs confined to their yards. The group also approached Vancouver council in June 2001, handing over a report about 25 yard dogs in Vancouver.
Stone said city staff then contacted the SPCA and arranged meetings about the report. Stone also said staff recommended the city not approve the humane treatment of dogs bylaw because of the costs involved.
"They didn't want to pay animal control officers to enforce a bylaw," she said. "The city saved itself some money by not passing a bylaw that it would have had to pay animal control to enforce, but Shenica has paid the price and so have the dogs."
Now Stone hopes the new council will pass a bylaw that surpasses those adopted in other municipalities.
She would not say how she wants the bylaw worded, but said it should prohibit dogs from being kept isolated and outside constantly.
"These laws don't have to cover every single dog," she added. "It's not meant to cover the family dog that gets confused and bites someone's hand. It needs to cover the dogs that are being driven insane by isolation."
COPE Councillor Tim Louis announced on the weekend he plans to look into the laws surrounding yard and guard dogs and see what can be done to implement proper bylaws.
Louis said he has been motivated by what happened to White and hopes to talk to fellow councillors about it in the coming week or bring it up during the next council meeting.
"At the end of the day, maltreatment of animals is not just bad for animals, it's bad for the people the animal comes into contact with," he said.
While Louis agreed a bylaw would not guarantee another attack wouldn't happen, he said it would reduce the likelihood of it happening again.
"When dogs are tied up for indefinite periods of time, when they're tethered for weeks or months on end, never taken out, never socialized, when they then develop into very aggressive, dangerous dogs, we have a serious problem," he said.
Peter Wohlwend, a member of the community safety patrol group that works in the area where the two dogs that attacked White lived, said the 17 reports had been filed by volunteer patrollers since February 2002 about the dogs.
"We felt very uncomfortable when we walked by them. We made sure we stayed far away in case they got loose," he said, adding that the dogs would often viciously bark and throw themselves against the fence. "We wondered why anyone would need any vicious guard dogs like that."
Wohlwend also said he had seen a German shepherd inside the house going "berserk" and slamming itself against the glass.
Wohlwend said one report did say someone should contact the SPCA, but he didn't know if the call was ever made.
Wohlwend also said volunteers noted there was never any garbage behind the house.
"There didn't seem to be any sign of life in there," he said.
Meanwhile, Stone said she is hopeful that Louis' call to look into a bylaw is a step in the right direction.
"If the city does the humane thing, safety will follow," she said.
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