Controlling the dog days of summer

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Vickie Parks of White Sands said she had a terrifying incident when two pit bulls charged her and her two daughters as they walked along Planter’s Wharf Road last week. They ran off a woman’s property and charged, halting right in front of Parks, her teenage daughter and her 2-year-old that was in a stroller.

‘‘It freaked us out,” she said.”These dogs are flighty and you don’t know when they are going to snap.”

Parks said the dogs ignored their owner’s calls and stared and sniffed them before returning to their yard.

Parks called 9-1-1 to report the incident, but was told to call the sheriff’s office, and said deputies wouldn’t come out because the dogs were not at large when she called, and she was told to write an affidavit on the incident. Parks said she was upset by the deputy’s lax attitude, especially because her children were frightened.

‘‘My kids don’t feel like they can go for a walk now,” she said. ‘‘I don’t think dogs should run loose, and I see them around White Sands.” A deputy should have come out, she said.

‘‘These dogs were bred for killing, it’s in their genetics,” she said.

Parks then spoke about the man who was mauled to death by his own pit bulls in his home in White Sands two years ago.

The county defines a dangerous dog as a dog ‘‘which has a known propensity, tendency, or disposition to attack when unprovoked, chases or approaches or otherwise by its actions puts a person in fear while on public ground or in public places.”

It’s not a breed, it’s the action of the dog that makes it dangerous, Ditcher said. If a dog bites someone and it’s unprovoked it would be deemed a dangerous dog, he said, but if you hit the dog first, it’s not considered dangerous.

‘‘We get a lot of calls about pit bulls, but the county does not have laws against owning pit bulls,” he said. ‘‘Ninety-five percent of them are great dogs,” he added.

Asbury-Solomons, a retirement community in Solomons, allows owners to have pets roam without a leash on their property and Chesapeake Ranch Estates in Lusby has designated certain common areas allowing dogs to be let off a leash, Ditcher said.

Unless an association allows it, dogs cannot run at large and must be on a leash within the county, he said. If someone sees a dog running loose they can call the county number and report it to animal control at Ext. 2526, Ditcher said. Animal control officers work until 8:30 p.m. on weekdays, and after hours callers may push a button and the call transfers to the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher.

‘‘If it’s life threatening, people should call 9-1-1,” Ditcher said. Otherwise, call the county or sheriff’s office.

If a dog is seen running loose the witness needs to write an affidavit for a citation testifying to it because it’s a court process, Ditcher said. A form needs to be filled out documenting the incident, he said.

The county requires any biting from an animal to be reported to animal control, and if the biting animal is unknown, try to get a good description of the animal and the area it was last seen, he said.

Barking dogs that become a nuisance may be reported to the sheriff’s office, and a deputy or an animal control officer will try to work with the owner to fix the problem, Ditcher said.

‘‘We get calls at 2 and 3 a.m. about barking dogs. If an owner isn’t home, we can’t do anything,” he said.

Animal control cannot give out a citation unless the officer hears the barking themselves, Ditcher explained. If a dog continues to bark the person making the complaint needs to fill out a form at the animal control office stating what they have witnessed, then a citation may be given to the owner, he said.

Currently all animal control complaints are handled in the Calvert County District Court. The Animal Matters Hearing Board that was voted into law in Calvert County, to address animal control issues is still in the creation phase, and the county hopes to have the board take over animal control issues in October, Ditcher said.