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Has the Time for
Breed Specific Dog Laws
Finally Arrived?

Yvonne Hyatt was attacked and severely bitten by a pit bull while walking her Sheltie Hope near her Gilroy home one warm, sunny day. She received deep wounds in her arm. Fortunately, the dog’s bite missed the main artery or she could have bled to death. Her dog, also bitten in the attack, nearly lost her leg. In 2005, as a result of this experience, she submitted to the Gilroy City Council a list of dog law proposals hoping that her efforts would prevent the kind of attack she endured from happening to others.
“You always wonder why did this happen to me, why did this mauling happen to me. I don’t have an answer to that other than that maybe it is to make me a stronger person and maybe it is to protect other people from having this happen to them. That I can live with,” she says today, eight years after she was attacked. The physical wounds heal a lot faster than the emotional ones. Today she is again trying to effect changes in the dog laws in both Gilroy and the state.
When she recently called the City’s non-emergency number after having seen a pit bull that was known to attack other dogs loose in a neighbor’s yard, she was told that the animal control officer was on furlough and that the police would respond when they were available.
The animal control unit in Gilroy is down to one officer and he is furloughed, along with all other personal considered nonessential, the first and third Friday of each month, according to Jim Stephens, senior dispatcher for the City of Gilroy.
“The police are not specifically trained to deal with dog situations like animal control. I don’t blame the police for not wanting to come out and deal with this situation, but we need to be proactive. We need to protect people from being attacked,” she says.
Since this incident and others in her neighborhood and in the city of Gilroy involving pit bulls, she says she has written to Senator Alquist as well as many other senators and congressmen and the city council, e-mailed the mayor and talked to anyone who would listen.

Yvonne Hyatt in the hospital after being attacked by a pit bull. A neighbor hit the dog in the head four times with a hammer before it let go of her arm.

Present California State law allows cities to pass breed specific neutering and spaying laws. This is because the legislature had determined that “Uncontrolled and irresponsible breeding of animals contributes to pet overpopulation, inhumane treatment of animals, mass euthanasia at local shelters, and escalating costs for animal care and control; this irresponsible breeding also contributes to the production of defective animals that present a public safety risk.” No other breed specific laws (BSL) are presently allowed, however.
While Hyatt wants Gilroy to take advantage of the state law and implement mandatory sterilization for all pit bulls in the city, she is also advocating that they be labeled a dangerous breed by the state. “If this is done then local cities will be able to mandate even more restrictions,” she says. For instance, “there could be severe fines if a pit bull is loose and off property.”
“If you are a good dog owner why wouldn’t you want to sterilize your animal? Why wouldn’t you want to have a secure leash or muzzle on your dog if you know there is a possibility that it could be a danger to society? I think that there are certain dogs that were bred to help hunters when they are hunting ducks. My dog is a Sheltie. She has an innate desire to herd sheep. If she were placed in an enclosure with sheep she would automatically try to herd them. A pit bull was bred for dog fights, and they are a serious threat to people. I am tired of hearing people say after a dog attack, “I didn’t know my dog would do such a thing, I didn’t know it could be such a danger.” If you own a particular breed of dog that has the capability to do horrible things wouldn’t you want to make sure that they are secure and that people are safe from them?” she says.

Brigid Wasson, San Martin Animal Shelter Supervisor does not believe that BSL will be effective, however. “Any dog can be aggressive,” she says. “It’s not easy to tell which dog is a pit bull. There are 20 breeds that are pit bull types, including the Boston terrier and pug.” Although the San Martin Animal Shelter is a “no-kill shelter which tries to adopt out all of the animals that come in, they do euthanize aggressive animals. According to Wasson, all of the animals that are adopted out are first neutered. At this time about 24% of the dogs in the kennel are considered pit bulls.

Colleen Lynn, pit bull attack victim, friend of Yvonne Hyatt and creator of the web site dogsbite.org, has a different take on the issue. She says that while many dogs can be aggressive, it is the “severity of the attack that matters. All dogs do not attack the same.”
Carl Schindler, a State Farm Insurance agent in Morgan Hill says that most dog bites are from German shepherds but that pit bull bites tend to be much worse. "If you want protection, any big dog like a golden retriever or black lab will do," he says.
The 2008 Clifton report, compiled from press reports of deaths and severe injuries from dog attacks in the United States and Canada by Merrit Clifton editor of Animal People News, found that pit bull terriers or pit bull mixes were responsible for 43% of fatal dog attacks. Rottweilers accounted for 21% of the fatalities for a total of 64% of the dog related deaths attributable to two breeds.
While pit bulls were originally bred for fighting other dogs, Lynn says that that it is a myth that man-biters are culled out. Starting in the 1980s all kinds of people, who have no desire to cull out the man-biters, started breeding pit bulls. “They (man-biters) are worth serious money.” Even if a dog only attacks other dogs, the owner of the dog being attacked is often mauled when trying to protect his dog.
Although there are many pit bull mixes, many cities and countries have successfully described what is meant by a pit bull for purposes of BSL. Denver in its pit bull ban legislation, for instance, says the following:
“A “pit bull,” for purposes of this chapter, is defined as any dog that is an American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or any dog displaying the majority of physical traits of anyone (1) or more of the above breeds, or any dog exhibiting those distinguishing characteristics which substantially conform to the standards established by the American Kennel Club or United Kennel Club for any of the above breeds.”

Other countries
Many other countries have instituted BSL to deal with their dangerous dog problem.
Australia, for instance, not only prohibits importing pit bulls and other breeds deemed dangerous, but requires that dangerous dogs already in Australia be sterilized and in many places warning signs must be places at all entrances to the property where the dog is kept.

“It will take many victims and many horrific stories of attacks by this breed of dog before the senate will make any changes in the law,” says Hyatt. She hopes that anyone who has had a bad experience with a pit bull will write or e-mail their state congressmen or senator as well as the city council and mayor, expressing their support for breed specific legislation.
You can contact Hyatt through this paper at cnews@garlic.com.