Morgan Hill’s regulations regarding potentially dangerous dogs
require some fine tuning. The law was originally written after the
dog mauling death of a 2-year-old child at a semi-detached house on
Wright Avenue.
Morgan Hill’s regulations regarding potentially dangerous dogs require some fine tuning. The law was originally written after the dog mauling death of a 2-year-old child at a semi-detached house on Wright Avenue.
World renowned animal behaviorist Dr. Ian Dunbar was recruited to help write the ordinance by a local committee in response to that event. That dog owner was sent to jail for manslaughter.
Allowing any dog that causes serious injury or death to another animal or a person to live is like allowing a violent felon to carry a concealed weapon.
There is no reason to believe that the public will be safe from further harm. Unfortunately the law has a small, easily corrected loophole that caused one of the dogs involved in a July 21 incident to return to its owner and exempted another dog from automatic euthanasia.
We believe the city’s dangerous dogs ordinance’s level-three dangerous dog classification should be revised to say that any dog that causes serious or life-threatening injury to any other domestic animal or a person while not contained on its home property shall be classified as level three.
With this change the Morgan Hill police could take actions to impound and euthanize both dogs in a similar incident.
During the July 21 incident two teenagers were injured in their own home by a pair of poorly controlled neighbor dogs, highlighting the weakness in the law.
In this incident, also occurring in a semi-detached home, the resident dog and a visiting dog escaped from the house and chased the neighbor cat through an open door into the cat owner’s master bedroom. Trapping the cat there, the two dogs did such severe harm that euthanizing the cat was the only reasonable option. In the effort to prevent severe harm to their beloved pet cat, two teenagers were bitten by these dogs.
When dogs are in such a hunting or fighting frenzy, they are often not aware of the difference between the subject of their hunt and those who might try to stop it.
If one of those children had fallen during the frenzy, they could have suffered life-threatening injuries just like the cat. The death of one of those children was a real possibility.
On Aug. 9 another dog was mauled by a neighbor pit bull. It survived the attack after undergoing surgery to repair the serious injuries.
In this instance the neighbor escaped serious injuries after the pit bull charged her. The pit bull was, fortunately, euthanized. The owner of the dangerous dog was also cited for letting the animal run loose and for not property restraining it.
“If there’d been a small child inside, we could possibly have had a fatality,” Morgan Hill police Cmdr. Joe Sampson told reporter Marilyn Dubil.
We urge the Morgan Hill City Council to close the loophose in the law and make sure that vicious animals are no longer a threat to animals and humans alike in the city.
Send a strong message to owners of dangerous dogs that their violent animals will not only be impounded but will also be euthanized. Owners who train aninals to be violent should also beware that the state outlaws such practices.
