Clampdown on Mean Dogs Considered by Supervisors

To Patricia Groscup and her family, the issue is simple: If owners of vicious dogs won’t control their animals, it’s up to the government to make them do it.

Spurred by what she called a “vicious and unprovoked” attack on her young children last year, Groscup wants county supervisors to stiffen regulations on dangerous dogs.

She says owners of animals declared vicious by the county should be required to muzzle them in public and to carry liability insurance that could pay claims to anyone attacked and injured by the creatures.

Groscup’s children, Sharon, 4, and Michael, 2, were attacked while visiting a neighbor in Chula Vista in September. The children were playing in the front yard when two unrestrained pit bull terrier puppies from the home next door mauled them--for no known reason.

Groscup tried in vain to pull the dogs off her children, but could only watch as Sharon suffered eight puncture wounds in her right arm and four in her head. One of the dogs grabbed Sharon’s arm and bit through to the bone, fracturing it, before the dog’s owner was able to stop the attack. Michael suffered minor injuries.

Sharon was hospitalized for 10 days and twice had surgery to repair the damage to her arm. Today, she is “terrified of dogs--even puppies,” her mother said. “I am too.”

“We need to recognize that the owners are not being responsible,” Groscup said. “The first time these dogs were not on a leash and not supervised by their owner, my daughter wound up scarred for life.”

Groscup told her story Tuesday to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. The board, at the request of Supervisor Susan Golding, agreed to ask a county advisory committee to review what Golding said she believes is a recent increase in the number of attacks by vicious dogs.

According to statistics from the county Department of Animal Control, 155 attacks by pit bull and mixed breed terriers were reported from January through September, 1985. Hector Cazares, the department’s assistant director, said he had no figures showing the number of attacks climbing.

But he said the damage that can be done by a pit bull--a terrier that can be trained for fighting--is cause for concern.

“They don’t bite any more often, but when they do, they have the potential to inflict a much more serious injury,” Cazares said.

He said pit bulls and their crossbreeds have powerful jaws that can exert as much as 2,000 pounds of pressure per square inch when biting, compared to about 700 psi for a Doberman pinscher.

Current county ordinances allow the department to impose conditions on the handling of dogs once they are declared vicious. Such a declaration can be made by the Department of Animal Control if a dog attacks twice within four years without provocation, or after one unprovoked attack if the bite causes a death or serious injury.

But it is possible that the new rules sought by Golding could allow the county to regulate all pit bulls, even if they do not have a violent history.

According to Golding, several Florida cities have passed laws requiring that vicious dogs be muzzled and that their owners carry as much as $1 million in liability insurance.

In California, the City of Santa Monica requires that all pit bulls and other individual dogs the city declares vicious be muzzled in public. Santa Monica Animal Control Officer Stan Hernacki said the ordinance was adopted about a year ago after numerous complaints of attacks in the beach areas.

Golding said she will leave it to the county’s Animal Control Advisory Committee to decide the best approach to the problem. But she said she thinks it is clear the county is doing too little now.

“In many cases it’s not the animal that’s at fault, it’s the owner,” Golding said. “I’m interested in reminding people who have breeds of dogs that may be dangerous that they have a special responsibility. Someone who owns a pit bull terrier has responsibilities that an owner of a toy poodle doesn’t have. They can both bite, but if a pit bull bites, they don’t let go.”

This is not the first time a county supervisor has suggested that vicious animals be subjected to further control.

In 1982, after a Ramona man was attacked and killed by two pit bulls, then-Supervisor Jim Bates asked for special penalties for pit bull owners whose dogs were caught running loose or attacking humans or animals. He suggested a fine of as much as $500 and a six-month jail sentence for the owner of a pit bull that attacked a human.

After protests from the breeding community and the advisory committee, Bates agreed to include owners of all breeds rather than singling out pit bulls. Ultimately, the board adopted the regulations that allow animal control officials to declare dogs vicious on a case-by-case basis and place conditions on their owners.

Glen Gayton, a pit bull breeder and a member of the county’s advisory committee, fought Bates’ proposal--and he vowed Tuesday to fight any similar move now.

“These people have got to learn that the pit bull is a good dog,” Gayton said. “It’s not a bad dog. It gets into the hands of the wrong people.”

Gayton said he is a strong advocate of punishing dog owners who let their pets run free. But he said it would be discriminatory to require only pit bull owners to muzzle their dogs or buy liability insurance, a notion he called “poppycock.”

“That’s hogwash,” Gayton said. “Why in the hell should I, if I take my dog for a walk, have to have special insurance because I’m walking a pit bull?”