On Wednesday evening, I was at a neighborhood meeting. Right before it ended, a lady living a couple of blocks away expressed concern about a loose pit bull. The dog had been chasing after bicyclists riding down the street. It has also stalked my neighbor in her yard.
A Tucson police officer was at the meeting, and my neighbor begged him to do something about this dog before someone got hurt. Well, sorry, there wasn't anything that this officer could do. He told my neighbor to call animal control.
Well, guess what happened this morning. The pit bull was loose again. And it attacked my neighbor's house guest while she was on her bicycle.
Call in the cavalry! Here come the police! The paramedics! Animal control!
Oh, did I mention that the dog owners hustled the pit bull into the back seat of their car and drove away? And that this evening, my neighbor and the house guest noticed a moving truck at the dog owners' house? Looks like they're trying to leave this area in a hurry. I can't imagine why.
As a favor to my neighbor, who is a longtime friend, I called the police again. I figured they'd want to know about the dog owners absconding and leaving my neighbor's house guest in the lurch. She's looking at a very painful series of rabies preventative injections, because we don't know if the dog was vaccinated or not.
The police dispatcher told me to call animal control. I did, and let me tell you, the animal control dispatcher couldn't have been any more blase if she tried. Never mind the fact that the owners of a vicious dog are ducking their responsibility and we have a bite victim who may be looking at some substantial bills in addition to her personal pain.
Oh, yes, the dispatcher said she'd notify the officer. But our neighborhood's experience with animal control leaves a great deal to be desired. Their response time is often measured in hours, if not days.
By the time they get here, our irresponsible pit bull owning neighbors will be long gone.
Oh, excuse me. My next door neighbor's pit bull is barking. Again. Same dog I tried to report to animal control a few months ago. I suspected that this dog was unlicensed. Which means that it may not be rabies vaccinated.
And animal control couldn't have cared less.
Refresh my memory: Why are we paying taxes to support animal control?
infuriating.
ReplyDeleteYou can consider yourself lucky, there was the times in Serbia when dogcravers whom formed the NGO shut down the Animal Control service. The assumption was that the NGO's know solve the problem cause they love animals. The result was the explosion of stray dog population in our capital city, from 1500 to 20.000 in 3 years.
ReplyDeleteSituations of this nature MUST be treated for what they are: Reckless endangerment, assault, leaving the scene, etc... Impounding the dog IS an AC matter, but dealing with the dog owners IS a police matter.
ReplyDeleteSituations such as these really demonstrate how corrupt our LE and AC authorities have become when they will summarily dismiss a violent assault on a citizen in their jurisdiction. The people who PAY THEIR SALARIES are in harms way and they have their thumbs up their @sses!
And, we all know D@MN WELL, that if anyone tries to take matters into their own hands they would face the most excruciating of penalties.
Again, no protection from the dog, but PLENTY of protection FOR the dog!
The cop in question probably has a "My Poodle is smarter than your honor student" bumper-sticker on the back of his personal vehicle.
How severe were the injuries to the victim? Is she going to recover fully? What a horrid thing to have happen!
Full sympathies from your peers in FL, YQN.
Good ol' "regulatory capture" at work. Just like Wall Street and the FTC. We need useful animal control exactly to avoid having people resort to taking the matter into their own hands by either poisoning or popping dogs.
ReplyDeleteAnyone get a license plate number? Of the car? The moving truck?
ReplyDeleteAFAIK, no one got a license plate for the car or the moving truck. And I think I can tell you why: The dog owners aren't the most law abiding of people. For that reason, other people avoid them.
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