After 25 years of training dogs, Tom Westin has come to a conclusion
when it comes to attacks.
"It's not the dog and it's not the
breed," said Westin, the manager of Discovery Dog Training in Rapid City
and a partner with the Humane Society of the Black Hills. "It's how
you train your dogs. If you deal with the problems when they're young,
you won't have to deal with it when they're older."
He says incidents like last week's attack in Sioux Falls where
two pit bulls mauled a man playing basketball, have much more to do with
the owner than the dog.
"I have taken an aggressive-style dog and calmed it down. It has
to do with food, training, exercise, discipline, and affection, in that
order," Westin said.
But many Sioux Falls community members
aren't sold on that idea. They're discussing everything from tougher
restrictions on ownership to an outright ban of pit bulls.
Concerned
community members cite research such as a special Centers for Disease
Control study to back up their fear. That CDC report published in 2000
is considered one of the most comprehensive studies of dog-bite-related
fatalities. It looked at a 20-year period and the 227 dog attack
fatalities during that time. Of those deaths, 76, or about a third,
involved a "pit bull type" of dog.
Critics do agree that an attack
by a pit bull or rottweiler is more likely to cause major bodily
injury. But they say the study's statistical gathering method is flawed
and pit bulls are no more likely to attack than any other dog. And,
they say even if the study was an accurate portrayal of the situation,
legislating against certain kinds of dogs is not the answer.
"I
personally don't like breed-specific laws, I feel it should be what the
animal did, not what it is," Rapid City/Pennington County Animal Control
Officer Supervisor Kent Brown said.
In 2008, Brown helped the
city of Sturgis look at dog bite statistics. That review was in
response to 10 pit bull attacks in the city within 10 months.
"The
leader of the pack around this area was labrador retrievers, followed
by border collies, followed by pit bulls," said Brown, who has worked as
animal control officer for 12 and a half years.
Even so, the
Sturgis City Council decided to put in place some of the state's
toughest restrictions on owning pit bulls. The addition of Chapter
32.04 to the city's municipal code effective November 5, 2008, set forth
requirements like a registration fee, adequate signage, and $250,000 in
single incident public liability insurance.
"(Dog bites) happen
throughout any breed to the point where I don't see a breed-specific
law doing any good," Brown said.
According to records, two other
South Dakota towns, Mobridge and Tea, have similar pit bull ownership
restrictions to Sturgis.
Four towns in the state have outright
bans on owning pit bulls: Hurley, Leola, Marion, and Spencer.
Box
Elder previously banned pit bull ownership but the approval of
Ordinance 497 in 2010 lifted the ban. That ordinance was further
modified in January of 2012.
Now, Box Elder, along with cities
such as Rapid City, has a broader ordinance on the books. Those
ordinances reference "dangerous" or "vicious" dogs, but do not name a
specific breed.
The dogs in Pennington County which are currently
flagged as "dangerous" aren't a part of any specific breed either.
"Included
on the potentially dangerous list right now, I have a yorkie, min pin
(miniature pinscher), pit bulls, and boxers," Brown said.
Brown
says in 2011, there were 313 dog bites in Pennington County. That's up
from the 288 in 2010, the 280 in 2009, and the 269 in 2008.
He
says a part of the problem is dogs that are allowed to run loose. He
says the more they run loose, the more they become territorial and
aggressive.
"So, eventually, even the sweetest dog left to roam
will end up biting someone in the end," Brown said.
Rapid City
Police Chief and terrier owner, Steve Allender, saw the result of one of
those bites first-hand. As a young officer in the 1980's, Allender
says he responded to a fatal pit bull attack where the dog killed a
six-year-old girl.
"It was very traumatic," Allender said.
He
says because of incidents like that one, pit bulls are in the news and
there is a certain amount of hype about them so when an incident such as
the Sioux Falls attack happens, it's no wonder it evokes a response
from the public.
"There is a reason to talk about it but
certainly no reason to be alarmed and consider the pit bull public enemy
number one," Rapid City Police Chief Steve Allender said.
Allender
says he thinks the current ordinances in Rapid City are adequate when
it comes to dogs, but the issue is more complex because not every attack
is the same.
"There's no one brush you can paint this whole thing
with and fix it," Allender said. "It's a long-standing issue and it
deserves more than a knee-jerk response."
Part of the problem, leaders say, is the culture that the young
generation has built around the dogs.
"Macho-ism. It's wanting
to be tough and getting a tough dog," Westin said.
But many owners
quickly find they can't handle the dogs and drop them off at shelters
such as the Humane Society of the Black Hills.
"Don't expect
your dog to guard you or protect you, your dog is a
companion," Westin said. "If you need a guard dog, get yourself a
bodyguard."
Leaders there say it's not uncommon to have many pit
bulls in the shelter.
Dog trainers and animal advocates say
the key is education to help make owners more responsible.
"It's
nature versus nurture. And when it comes to dogs' behavior, it's 95
percent nurture," Westin said.
