Other Dog-Bite Victims

“Postman Who Shot Dog Gets 6-Month Term” was a headline in The Times April 27. Nothing was said, however, about the basic cause of that incident.

What about that prime cause--the unleashing of a dog as a possible violation of a Los Angeles Municipal Code.

Postmen around the country are constant victims of dog attacks--most of them vicious. Domestic dogs kill more humans annually in the U.S. than all other wild mammals combined. Most of those killed, and countless others torn and terrorized by dogs, are babies and small children unable to defend themselves.

Yet, a supposedly equal-justice Los Angeles Superior Court judgment seems to place the welfare of a dog above that of children. In this instance four children are being deprived of the benefit of a father’s income for a period of six months, even longer, perhaps, since the primary victim in this case may be unemployed at the end of his six-month term. That, in addition to being saddled with a $500 burden of “restitution” to a fund for victims.

Only bias or stupidity can ignore the real victims--his family.

His alleged crime was in defending himself against a dog when somebody precipitated the entire drama by releasing the animal, which was reported to previously have attacked him. To claim the shot “endangered the neighborhood” is a questionable conjecture. It hit its target, hardly a “neighborhood.”

If justice is to be served why doesn’t the district attorney investigate and possibly cite the person or persons responsible for the leash law violation? Why do taxpayers have to pay for such an elaborate dog funeral as the $685 paid by the Postal Service? Add the costs of the arrest, trial, incarceration and other incidentals and you can add the taxpayer as another innocent victim.

JOHN F. GENSLEY

Calabasas