After a neighborhood family moved away abandoning fifteen un-neutered cats which I ended up taking to the shelter a few at a time, (I'm happy to report that with one exception, they were all adopted), I became so incensed with so many pet owners' irresponsible behavior I began writing letters to the editor of the Russian River Times. I now write a pet column for them (not for pay, it's my own personal crusade).
My topic for December is the number of loose dogs attacking people and leashed dogs. In my neighborhood alone, there has been three leashed dogs walking with their humans which have been attacked. One was attacked once, one was attacked twice and the third was attacked three times. Connor, a young Guerneville child with muscular dystrophy is often seen in town with his mother and his aid dog Noodle. Noodle was once attacked; Connor was knocked over, wheel chair and all, onto his face. His mother managed to pick up her son, put him back in his wheel chair and no one was seriously hurt. Again, in my immediate neighborhood, three large dogs who were continuously escaping their yard tore a woman's cat to pieces in front of her. Two large dogs who roamed my neighborhood almost every week-end threatened my mother on our own property. One night, getting home from work around 2:00AM, I was unable to give my own dog his last quick outing due to the same two dogs hanging out in front of my property and threatening me every time I would begin opening my front door. This is how I found out there is Animal Control Personnel that will come out in the middle of the night and search for potentially dangerous dogs. I reported this pair to Animal Control several times. Nobody knew where they lived and they weren't caught until they attacked a person. He wound up crawling across River Road kicking at the male dog's face. The dog was trying to grab on to his feet.
I told the owners of the three dogs who killed the cat they needed to better secure their yard. I also told them one of their dogs was starting to become agressive. The response: "Oh no, she's a sweetheart." She was once, as were the other two. There was a time I could put leashes on them and take them back to their yard when I saw them roaming the road. Too many months of yard confinement 24/7 with little human interaction beyond being given food and water turned them into a pack I could no longer approach without being growled at.
If you do not have the time, or willingness, to work with a dog and train and socialize him, don't have a dog. If you have two or more dogs and leave them in a yard 24/7 without spending time with them, they will likely become a pack, and will become dangerous. If you have a dog that tends to be aggressive with other dogs, it is your responsibility to make sure your dog is confined and/or leashed at all times.
It is our responsibility as community minded people to report aggressive dogs to Animal Control and make sure the complaints are followed through. My 80 year old mother should be able to walk my dog without risking being injured by someone's loose dog. The young girl who lives around the bottom of the hill should be able to walk those three little dogs every day without being at risk of seeing one of them maimed or killed or being at risk herself. Connor should be able to go everywhere with Noodle without being at risk of injury. The neighbor whose dog was attacked three times now carries pepper spray, I'm considering it myself. I, myself have decided to report all loose aggressive dogs, even if the owner is with them but has chosen to walk them off leash. If one dog I did not report kills or maims someone's beloved pet or injures a person, I would consider myself to be partly responsible.
Next thing, good dogs sometimes just get away...please make sure your friendly dog has tags. I've rescued many a lost dog who just wandered off through a hole in the fence or went off chasing something before his owner could stop him, I love it when all I need to do is read a tag and make a phone call or take a walk to a nearby house.
What I've written here is not the actual column. If anyone is interested in the column itself, I will be happy to post it once it has actually been published.