Posted on 04/10/2005 8:46:08 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
City cracks down on its pit bull rules
Sunday, April 10, 2005
By Dave LeMieux
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
Police are making an "all-out effort" to enforce Muskegon Heights' dangerous dog ordinance following two recent pit bull attacks in the city.
"We don't want the next child killed by a pit bull to be from Muskegon Heights," Chief George Smith Jr. said.
Community Police Officer Jimmie Fox is coordinating the city's efforts to identify and ticket pit bull owners in violation of the city's dangerous dog ordinance.
"We're urging every officer on the force to exercise zero tolerance on pit bulls," Smith said.
Police issued five citations for dog ordinance violations earlier this week.
Smith also is asking for help from city residents. "We're asking neighbors to report pit bulls that aren't housed in the proper manner," Smith said.
Residents who report dog ordinance violations don't need to give their names, Smith says. "We don't want to start fights between neighbors."
Fox will be distributing copies of the city's dangerous dog ordinance door to door, Smith says.
"Our goal is to have every pit bull in the city housed in accordance with the ordinance. If they're not, we want them out of the city," Smith said.
Smith said the city has more than its share of pit bulls.
"Parents keep insisting that the dogs won't harm their kids," Smith said. "But having a pit bull loose is like leaving a loaded gun lying around for your children to play with."
Under the Heights dog ordinance, police can seize any pit bull whose owner is in violation of the ordinance.
The enforcement effort comes in response to two recent pit bull attacks in the city.
A Muskegon police detective was bitten on the arm on March 31 as he attempted to deliver a subpoena at a home at 3329 Glendale.
Two days later, a 12-year-old boy was bitten in the neck when a pit bull chained outside 2144 Jefferson broke free and chased him.
Both victims required treatment at local hospitals.
Neither pit bull was confined in a securely enclosed and locked pen or kennel as required by city ordinance, police said.
Both property owners were cited.
I have never heard the cry come up for an all-out ban on toy breeds and mini terriers. Wait, they're the cute harmless little itty bitty dogs... everyone knows they're never dangerous and/or aggressive. I guess when they do it, it's the particular dog and not the entire breed. Funny how that doesn't apply to rotts, pitts, etc.
My daughter is now two, and her best friend, our 80 lb rottie, has never shown any aggression towards her. But Ursa sure has shown aggression towards the mini-schnauzer (who runs around the neighbor hood off-leash and menaces dogs and neighbors alike). Oh, and the black bear that came onto our porch one night. Apparently, my rott doesn't like black bears either.
A couple we are friends with has a Newfie who is a house dog-every time you go into their house and sit on the sofa, he jumps up and sits on you-it is a riot.
Our Husky gets a real kick out of squashing bugs, too-that is if she can get to them before the cat does-he swats moths right out of the air. The black vultures sometimes use our balcony as a lookout platform to swoop down and catch lizards and snakes on the cliff below-the dog loves to chase them until they fly away.
Princess tries to go after birds, but she never gets close...
the new puppy is oblivious....
I'm part of the bitten-by-a-Collie group-when I was about 8 a neighbor's sable Collie ran me down while I was riding my bike down the road, grabbed my ankle and bit it for no reason at all, then ran back into her yard.
We had a wonderful Australian Shepherd for ten years until she died mysteriously after what appeared to be a minor fall while playing with the the Husky and subsequent trip to the vet. She was as bitey as most of her breed I've met, and fancied herself a guard dog (probably because when we bought her as a pup we had a Chow who was the real deal-I can only assume she learned the guarding thing from him) She was a sweetie of a dog, and we adored her but that is not a breed I would have with little kids because they do seem prone to snap. I've had friends whose Yorkies and Poodles snapped at and bit their kids, too.
No bears here in the hill country, but Husky girl loathes raccoons and stares up at them in the trees, barking and howling until she is dragged away indoors-she does not realize that those raccoons are big and from eating purloined livestock, pet and people food and can tear her to shreds. I hike in the woods across the road after work a couple of times a week and I've never seen even any cougar tracks-I think it is because there are 14 homes on this road, making it too populated for their liking (thank heaven). There have been quite a few loose dogs killed by cougars near some of the larger ranches nearby, though-most recently two standard poodles whose owner had been told to keep the dogs inside the fence and fined for not complying-it is a shame, nonetheless.
the only people I have come across personaly or see on tv or read about that have these kind of KILLER dogs are doppers trying to keep the law away.
The black bear was a one-shot deal. A family of them seemed to be a little discombobulated after the hurricanes last year and started foraging near the houses in our development (they've since gone back to the woods). One night, Ursa woke us up by barking and hurling herself against the sliding glass door in our bedroom. I went to the door, looked out, expecting to see a raccoon--but came face to face with a rather befuddled looking, full grown, Florida black bear. The funny thing is, the bear was about 4 times Ursa's size--but was terrified by the racket she was making. He ran off pretty quickly.
Speaking of raccoons, Her Princessness despises them (and their creepy little pals, the squirrels...). But I cringe at how she'd fare if she actually tussled with one of them. They're nasty, aggressive, wily little things.
My sister owns this little twitchy, OCD-ish border collie who is about a quarter the size of my Ursa, but has it in her head that she's bigger and much more menacing.
Ursa seems to humor her, mostly, except when the baby is involved.
One night, just this last Christmas, my sister was over with the dog. Ursa felt the BC got a little too close to the baby and just stepped between them. She didn't snap, she didn't growl--instead, she just got really quiet and seemed to increase in size about forty lbs. I couldn't ask for a better security detail for my little girl.
The raccoons out here are mostly big and nasty-not the cute timid things we used to see when we lived in the city on the edge of a wilderness park-these are the big, agressive critters I remember from my rural childhood. Last fall, my husband and two neighbors went on a varmint hunt after one that was attacking dogs-after it (probably) killed another neighbor's little dog-days later, it confronted the pussycat rotties up the road while they were enjoying some treats on the deck, then went down the road and tried to kill my next door neighbor's Sheltie. They finally nailed it with a .22-that thing had to have weighed over 40 pounds-it was huge.
The Raccoon that comes onto the back deck, tries to open the sliding glass door and eats the yummy treasure that congeals in the bottom of the grease trap on my smoker (which now gets put in the garage after the black bear visit) is maybe about 20 lbs soaking wet AT THE MOST--but its your typical suburban vermin--scrawny and surprisingly bold--especially since the hurricanes when some of the moron soccer moms in the neighborhood took pity on them and started feeding them--and the bears.
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