‘Hysteria Has Taken Over’ : Pit Bull Fear Spreads to Owners, Neighbors Alike

Like a stubborn virus, pit bull panic refuses to fade.

Nearly 300 pit bull terrier owners throughout California--many of them afraid of being arrested, sued or attacked--have turned their dogs in to animal shelters and asked that they be destroyed, according to a Times survey of three dozen public and private shelters in major cities.

About 200 of the dogs were destroyed in Los Angeles County, most of them in the last week and a half. About another 150 stray pit bulls--some thought to have been intentionally released by their owners--were picked up during that time, officials said.

The majority of dogs turned in in Los Angeles County came from South Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley and the east San Fernando Valley.

Widespread fear of the dogs was triggered by a fatal Northern California pit bull attack on June 13 and a nationally televised incident June 22 in which a pit bull bit a Los Angeles animal control officer. Animal control officials are uncertain whether the furor is ebbing. Clearly, it has trickled into everyday life in a myriad of odd and poignant ways:

At the Pasadena Humane Society’s shelter, officials received two calls from pit bull owners who did not want to give up their dogs but were so worried about a violent outburst that they inquired whether they could simply remove the dogs’ teeth.

“That was a shock,” said Steve McNall, the shelter’s executive director, who advised the owners that if they were that anxious they should dispose of the dogs.

In Corona, a businessman who began printing “Outlaw Pit Bulls” bumper stickers a week before the well-publicized attacks stands to cash in.

“We’re looking at a big order” from a major convenience-store chain, said Lance Bigelow, who has pledged to donate 5% of his profit to a drive to ban pit bulls from private homes--if such a drive ever comes about. “I’m sure a politician will eventually begin some sort of movement like that,” he said.

In West Los Angeles, the owner of two pit bulls has been noticing a curious reaction when he walks either of his animals.

“I can’t do it without someone running across the street and snatching their child,” said Viren Moret. “They’ll watch me all the way down the block to make sure I don’t let my dog off the leash--and my dogs haven’t bitten anyone.”

Pressure From Neighbors

In Norco, another pit bull owner--like hundreds throughout the state--complains about neighbors pressuring him to get rid of his pets.

“Every night when I come home they ask me if I’ve gotten rid of them,” said Richard Sanders, who grew up with pit bulls in Tennessee. “I was raised with them and I’ve never known one of them to go crazy. It’s a very, very idiotic public.”

That assessment is echoed, in somewhat gentler terms, by a variety of animal experts.

“Less than 1% of the pit bulls have bitten, but 99% of the owners are being victimized because they own a dog that people think might be of a breed that is dangerous,” said Richard Avanzino, president of the San Francisco chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Trouble at the Clinic

Avanzino said a brawl nearly broke out recently when a pit bull owner brought her dog into the lobby of a Northern California dog clinic. In another incident, a doctor walking his pit bull was intentionally sprayed with a water hose by a homeowner in the neighborhood, Avanzino said.

“Hysteria has taken over for reason and logic,” said Lt. Marshall Vernon of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation’s west San Fernando Valley shelter, who called the public’s mood about pit bulls a “witch hunt.”

“Nobody’s interested in other dogs that bite,” said Ken Lipton, a personal injury attorney who estimated that of 200 dog-bite victims he has represented in the last two years, only four were bitten by pit bulls.

One person who welcomes the panic is John Rock, a deputy Los Angeles city attorney responsible for handling petitions from San Fernando Valley animal control officers who want to file criminal complaints against owners of dangerous dogs.

They’re Not Children

“It’s great that it’s generating the public fear that it is,” Rock said. “A lot of people treat their animals like kids. . . . People refuse to believe their animals can do anything wrong.”

Sadly, a number of shelter officials say, many of the pit bulls that are being turned in are not the most aggressive of the breed.

“I don’t think that the panic is affecting the people it should be at all,” said Tecla Simonton, assistant director of the Pomona Valley Humane Society. “The kinds of people who own the kinds of dogs we need, most of them are not going to come in.”

Animal control authorities and breeders’ groups believe that most pit bulls who are involved in attacks on humans were either sloppily bred with other breeds or were at one time owned by people who trained them crudely or viciously to protect property. In recent years, police say, pit bulls have become favored by drug dealers, who believe the dogs will at least temporarily stave off investigators.

Not Problem Dogs

However, a substantial number of the pit bulls that are being brought to shelters come from owners “who have had their dogs for a long time without problems,” said Kathy Snow, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County SPCA chapter. “All the publicity has told them things they didn’t know about their dogs.”

The most persistent theme aired during the last several weeks has been the fact that pit bulls have an inbred tendency to be aggressive toward other animals, and that an owner who acquires a pit bull without carefully checking the dog’s breeding may be surprised by unpredictably violent behavior.

Breeders contend that in most cases a pit bull can be properly handled by a patient, caring owner regardless of the dog’s background. But that argument has been largely lost in the current climate.

More than 30 cities in the United States have passed laws specifically aimed at pit bulls, including some that require owners to have liability insurance.

One that has attracted considerable attention was passed three months ago by Livingston, a city of 7,000 in Merced County. Its ordinance, passed in response to two pit bull attacks, bans all pit bulls born after the law took effect.

Pit bulls already in the city must be leashed and muzzled on the street. At home they must be kept in backyards and be penned in. Doors and windows must be kept closed whenever the dog is in the house--and screen doors don’t count. Owners must also post $50,000 in liability insurance in case of attacks.

A city spokesman said Livingston has received requests for copies of the law from more than a dozen cities.

James Harris, an Oakland veterinarian who is chairman of the California Veterinary Medical Assn.’s human-animal bond committee, said laws like Livingston’s represent a departure from “the traditional Anglo-Saxon law that has allowed any dog one bite” before it was impounded.

Harris suggested that the pit bull is on the verge of being regulated as a lethal weapon--a metaphor that was invoked last month in Alameda County, where Sheriff Charles Plummer suggested treating pit bull permits like gun permits by forcing an owner to carry $1-million liability insurance and undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Staff writer Robert S. Weiss contributed to this story.