BAD DOGS & WORSE PEOPLE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

Hearing testimony from attack
victims Allison Judah, 14, and Tiara
Dews, 13, the Washington D.C. city council
on April 2 passed an ordinance requiring that
pit bull terriers and Rottweilers be muzzled in
public. Violations resulting in human injury
may be punished by fines of up to $20,000.
On February 19, Anthony A. Fuller, 22,
allegedly led a gang in sexually threatening
Judah and Dews. They fled into an apartment
building, but were chased out by the manager,
whereupon Fuller allegedly set his pit bull
on Judah. Her leg injuries will require plastic
surgery. Washington Humane Society
executive director Mary Healy objected that,
“If our kennels fill up with Rottweilers and
pit bulls who are outside without muzzles,
we will have no space for adoptable dogs.”

Responding to complaints about
dogfighting, t h e San Francisco Housing
A u t h o r i t y has evicted about 50 residents
since last July for illegally keeping dogs.
The housing authorities of
Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, a n d
New London, Connecticut are proceeding
with similar crackdowns. However, to avoid
lawsuits arguing that the crackdowns unjustly
discriminate between types of pet, after
fighting such a suit to the state supreme court
last October, the Alleghany County housing
authority has barred all pets of any type.
A 10-agency series of busts o n
March 21 in Berkeley, Oakland, Fremont,
and Milpitas, California, nabbed 44 pit bulls
from reputed members of the same ring
whose dogfighting tournament was raided in
San Francisco in March 1995. Nine pit bulls,
firearms, and $52,000 in cash were seized.
Montgomery County (Alabama)
Humane Society executive director M a r y
Mansour and chief deputy David Cooper on
March 11 seized seven pit bulls from Samuel
Henderson, Cortez McDay, Ronnie
R o b i n s o n, and Rickey Henderson, who
allegedly stole a pit bull puppy and cut his
ears off as preparation to fight. Judge Craig
Miller of Montgomery County District Court
on April 11 fined them each $500, and gave
them 30 days in jail.
Former Houston Oilers running
back Todd McNair, 30, was charged on
April 4 with 81 counts of abusing 22 pit bulls
found chained on land he owns in E a s t
Greenwich Township, New Jersey. Many
of the dogs bore apparent fighting wounds,
according to the Gloucester County SPCA.
Dogfighting is on the rise, warns
Tom Skeldon, dog warden for Lucas
County, Ohio, after seizing 144 pit bull terriers
in 1995, up from just 50 in 1993.