OVERVIEW
While many changes are being made at DAS and much progress is being made, there is an alarming trend that demands examination. Citizens are being attacked and bitten, their pets are being attacked and killed, people are trapped in their driveways by loose aggressive dogs, loose dogs are on our highways and our schools, they are having puppies in our parks and under our school portables. People in many neighborhoods have stopped walking their dogs for fear of a random loose dog attack. Our mail carriers are being bitten at alarming rates. These issues are not getting better, to the contrary, dog bites are still spiking at alarming rates. For dog bite calls requiring police or EMS assistance, calls are up 64% over the last fiscal year. The BCG report does not address the spiking dog bite issues in the present. Short term plans need to made to effect change and safety and quality of life for citizens today.
For far too long, the city has been stuck in a crisis management mode and relying on luck and the hope that proclaiming some single focused postage stamp initiative could manage to keep a rapidly growing issue wrapped up in an appealing package. There is no one single magic bullet that will fix this issue, and continuing to expect such a thing after repeated obvious failures demands change and new goals and measures of success. It is also going to require our city leaders to get frank with the public and have some very uncomfortable conversations. But even with those tough conversations, there are solutions available.
Currently, dog bites are not included on DAS’ scorecard, and therefore, reducing dog bites is not a measure of success. Despite that lack of focus, there are many relatively simplistic ways to address our spiking dog bite issues, but they require using a multifaceted management approach. Spiking dog bites can be stemmed in a relatively short time period if and only if they are finally approached in a holistic fashion. Crisis management is an excellent skill, but it is not an effective long term management style for such a complex problem. By launching initiatives that encourage responsible pet guardianship, to include a culture of enforcement, along with better tracking of multiple dog bite offenders, education initiatives, and a targeted behaviorally sound loose dog control effort, the city can actually quickly address the issues contributing to the spiking dog bite issues and increase the safety and quality of life for residents and their companion animals.
Before we review the multifaceted recommendations, there is a study worth looking at. The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association published a dog bite study that reliably identified seven factors, potentially within the control of dog caretakers that co-occurred, in various combinations, in the overwhelming majority of the cases examined. The researchers identified a co-occurrence of multiple, controllable factors in the dog bite related fatalities. Here are the seven factors:
• No able-bodied person being present to intervene (87.1 percent)
• The victim having no familiar relationship with the dog(s) (85.2 percent)
• Failure to neuter/spay the dog(s) (84.4 percent)
• A victim’s compromised ability, whether based on age or physical condition, to
manage interactions with the dog(s) (77.4 percent)
• The owner keeping dog(s) as resident animals rather than family pets (76.2 percent)
• Prior mismanagement of the dog(s) (37.5 percent)
• Abuse or neglect of the dog(s) (21.1 percent)
Four or more of the factors identified co-occurred in 80.5 percent of the incidents. This is an especially important signal that there is a clear disregard for public safety and or the animals’ welfare by the dog’s owners. Again, the report highlights that the factors are potentially within the control of the dog caretaker in the majority of the cases they examined. This calls for us to look very closely at how the city can facilitate solutions to address these common, preventable, issues.
MULITFACETED RECOMMENDATIONS
Relying heavily on base research found in a policy paper written by Animals and Society Institute and Janis Bradley along with our own field research and first hand experiences and successes, we recommend four areas that the city can concentrate on to address the spiking dog bite statistics:
- ENCOURAGING RESPONSIBLE GUARDIANSHIP
- TRACKING MULTIPLE OFFENDERS
- EDUCATION THAT ELEVATES THE ANIMAL CULTURE
- MEANINFUL LOOSE DOG CONTROL
Every player from the ACOs to the City Attorney need to be aligned on the goals and the value of this effort. This focused policy shift will require open and constant communication between DAS, DPD, 311, the City Attorney’s office, and any 501s or volunteer groups doing community outreach and education initiatives.
1. ENCOURAGING RESPONSIBLE GUARDIANSHIP
• Effective Legislation
• Community Support for Responsible Dog Guardianship
• Enforcement of Existing Dog Regulation
• Meaningful Loose Dog Control
Effective Legislation
Encouraging responsible dog ownerships goes a long way towards significantly reducing dog bites. Legislation should target people who willfully disregard public safety. In addition to the law, work needs to be done to better understand the strengths and weakness of the current ordinances.
Dallas has major issues understanding the intent and the power of the current ordinances. Often times DAS leadership along side the Animal Control Officers do not understand their powers and abilities regarding current ordinances. There is a learned helplessness from DAS surrounding the idea that there is “nothing they can do” because the laws aren’t good enough or the courts will not enforce the law. Laws need to be examined for their effectiveness and then leaders and ACOs need to be trained and SOPs need to be created that explain how to best leverage the laws. The courts need to understand the City’s desire to create a culture of compliance and accountability and they need to understand the importance of a “conviction” in giving power to DAS’ Director to revoke an animal license.
Currently, the city has too few Dangerous Dogs Affidavits filed compared to the number of dog bites per capital. While Dallas is #9 for population nation wide, the city of Dallas is #3 for dog bites. To solve the crisis, the city needs to be more proactive about leveraging compliance ordinances in pursuit of safety and quality of life. The city needs to lead the nation with innovative solutions, including an updated, proactive dog bite reporting system and dangerous dog designation process.
After a bite occurs, the Dangerous Dog Affidavit process is burdensome and there is a lot of misinformation at both a city level, and with the citizens, about the definition, the process, and the actual designation. The Dangerous Dog Designation or hearing process needs to be examined to remove the burden from the victim and to allow the city to file on a dog or a dog owner for the overall protection of citizens. This change may requires state level legislation, but the return on the investment will be a powerful compliance tool to curb repeat bites from known aggressive dogs.
To help shape behaviors, “Fix it” ticket incentives need to be created to allow those who are will to get into compliance, to have an extra incentive to do so in a timely manner.
To encourage a culture of compliance, there should be serious penalties for owners if their dog injures or bites someone in the context of another ordinance infraction, especially confinement, spay/neuter, and or leash laws.
Finally, we must solve the, “they will just go out and get another one” mentality. Penalty options should include revoking a license, and the citizens’ ability to own an animal in the city limits, for a limited amount of time.
Community Support for Responsible Dog Guardianship
Research has shown that dog bite rates can be reduced by creating community wide support, or a compliance culture, for the most basic responsible behaviors, including: spay and neuter compliance, microchipping, leash laws, and confinement laws. In Calgary, dog bite rates were significantly reduce though a message house that clearly defined acceptable behavior on the part of dog and the dog owners, by providing services that allowed owners to come into compliance, and by using enforcement efforts for those who refused to come into compliance.
North Oak Cliff is already following this mantra and results can be seen through Gypsy Dog Ops and the Oak Cliff Animal Initiative community events, the active community of animal lovers and advocates, and through the declining dog pack numbers and dog bite incidents. We have case study that shows that compliance efforts in tandem with free resources, neighborhood events, and targeted education initiatives, works to reduce dog bites in dog bite hot zones. When neighbors expect compliance towards a shared goal and help share information and services with neighbors, both the animals and the humans see an elevated safety and quality of life. Our model is successful, sustainable, and can be expanded to other areas of the city.
Enforcement of Existing Dog Regulation
While we understand Deputy Chief Sherwin’s stance that you cannot ticket your way out of the problem, there are studies that show that citations are an important part of elevating the animal culture and creating a culture of compliance of amongst citizens. The key is to motivate companion animal owners to WANT to be in compliance. By providing needed resources to underserved communities and continuing education initiatives, we can indeed create a culture of voluntary compliance. But as part of that conversation, there needs to be a consequence for pet owners who choose to continue to disregard the law. An expectation of accountably and clear consequences are indeed motivators. Why is compliance important to the dog bite conversation?
• A study of 36 Canadian municipalities found that the communities with the highest rates of ticketing for animal control violations (primarily leash law and confinement infractions – the two infractions that results in the most dog bites) had the lowest rates of reported dog bites.
• Unneutered dogs are statistically more likely to bite family members
• 8 out of 10 biting dogs are male and according to the AVMA, intact males are involved in up to 76% of reported dog bite incidents. Intact males dogs are a huge percentage of the problem when assessing dog bite issues.
• 83% of intact companion animals in South Dallas live in poverty and cannot afford to spay/ neuter their pets and get them into compliance. A culture of compliance can only be achieved in partnership with free services for those in need. Intact animals are hard for owners to confine and they tend to escape and roam freely. In a survey taken in 2015, approximately 90% of the animals in the Dallas shelter were intact.
• One European study of dog bites to children outside of their own homes found that all bites from dogs unknown to the child could have been prevented by leashing the offending dog. ALL cases. Read that again: ALL dog bites could have been prevented by leashing the offending dog. That should make you sit up and understand the importance of more confinement and leash law compliance in combating soaring dog bite rates. Robust ordinances and enforcement efforts are needed here here as effective pieces of a holistic management approach.
Meaningful Loose Dog Control
DAS can’t enforce confinement and leash laws with dogs that are not owned. Dallas’ significant loose and homeless animal issue needs to be addressed in order to get the dog bite numbers under control. There is much conversation about the animal demographics of the dog population most likely to bite citizens, but the statistics show, a good portion of dog bites come from dogs that are “not owned”. This is contrary to what we are being told, and is an important point to understand.
Research has shown that one of the most effective way to decrease dog aggression in general, and in turn bites, is to simply educate people on the importance of socializing their dogs and integrating them as part of the family unit. There is no way to properly socialize loose street dogs or “resident” owned dogs that wander the streets. In combating crisis level dog bite numbers this research becomes important to the reason loose dogs need to be considered dangerous and picked up.
Karen Delise, of the National Canine Research Council, and others have done research that shows that in comparison to a family dog, a “resident” dog, one that simply lives in the yard or is tethered on the property with limited positive human interaction, are much more aggressive and much more likely to be involved in a bite related fatality. There are a high number of these under socialized, intact animals in the southern sector. When these dogs get out of their yard and become loose dogs, these under socialized dogs are more likely to bite and to become hard to catch breeders and pack dogs. These are the dogs DAS needs to be targeting. When these dogs are spotted and called in by a resident, they will most likely not yet be aggressive, but they are still very dangerous to pets and humans alike. Currently, these calls will not be dispatched.
When these dogs are left on the street to breed, they go into survival mode. There is research, that parallels our experience, that shows that long term stress can change DNA, natural selection is allowing fearful, unsocial dogs to succeed. What we are seeing on the streets is that generations of genetically fearful dogs are being born onto the streets. These are not ONLY unsocialized dogs, they are genetically fearful and exponentially more difficult to rehabilitate. The longer the dogs are allowed to sit on the streets and breed, each generation of dogs becomes more genetically unsuitable to becoming companion animals. If we really want to help the dogs, we will pick them up before more generations of genetically fearful dogs are born onto the streets.
Shelter capacity should not be part of this decision making process. Pick up these dogs, period. If there are capacity issues, they need to be addressed separately. This means there will be a spike in EU rates. The fact that there has not yet been a spike in the EU rate shows us that DAS is not yet picking up the unsocial hard to catch dogs.
Part of a no-kill effort does not include moving forward behaviorally unsound, unsocialized dogs that could be a danger to the public. The no-kill assessments strive to save all dogs who are behaviorally sound and healthy. The city needs to brace itself for a tough conversation about the safety and quality of life of the citizens and their companion animals. As an advocate of rehabbing and saving this very population of dogs, no one understands better than we do about the tough nature of that conversation, but it has to be voiced and understood by all involved.
As the research shows, dogs that do not have regular, positive, human contact are more likely to be aggressive and to bite. Plan on seeing lots of unsocial dogs coming into the shelter. As education efforts, compliance efforts, and spay and neuter efforts change the culture, eventually, unsocial animals will become a much smaller percentage of the city’s animal population. This will take time, just as it took time for this breeding nightmare of natural selection to occur. In the meantime, loose dogs need to be picked up (especially the hard cases to catch), unapologetically, as part of safety and quality of life initiatives.
Again, North Oak Cliff has already created a culture where citizens expect loose animals to be picked up. Results can be seen through neighborhood dog catching collaborations with Gypsy Dog Ops. Known dog packs and hard to catch dogs are not tolerated and neighbors collaborate to make sure the animals are picked up quickly and helped to the best of the collective’s ability. The results can be seen through the declining dog pack numbers and dog bite incidents. We have case study that shows that picking up loose dogs in tandem with compliance efforts, free resources, neighborhood events, and targeted education initiatives, works to reduce loose dogs and to reduce dog bites in dog bite hot zones. When neighbors expect and support animal control as part of shared goal, both the animals and the humans see an elevated safety and quality of life. Our model is successful, sustainable, and can be expanded to other areas of the city.
2. TRACKING MULTIPLE OFFENDERS
• The Efficacy of Compliance Tracking of Dogs with One Injurious Bite or a Dangerous Dog Designation
• Limit Injury Prevention Rules to Dogs Who Have Bitten Injuriously Through a Dangerous Dog Designation
• Bites in Context of Other Negligent Infractions
The Efficacy of Compliance Tracking of Dogs with One Injurious Bite or a Dangerous Dog Designation
According to Janice Bradley, of the Animals and Society Institute, “The only program with any evidence of preventing repeat bites has provided restrictions on those whose dogs had injured others, and then monitored the guardians for compliance.” This is a very important accountability and prevention measure. A dog who has a track record of bites should be on the City’s radar for a Dangerous Dog Designation hearing.
Limit Injury Prevention Rules to Dogs Who Have Bitten Injuriously Through a Dangerous Dog Designation
As outlined above in the legislative section, an updated Dangerous Dog Designation process has the benefit of specifically targeting demonstrably dangerous animals, but it will be most effective at preventing bites when paired with incentives for responsible animal guardianship, education initiatives, and spay and neuter resources.
As mentioned earlier, research in the Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association has shown that prior mismanagement of dogs occurred in 37.5 percent of fatalities related to dog bites. Incentives for responsible animal guardianship become increasingly important when there is a history of irresponsible behavior resulting in harm.
Bites in Context of Other Negligent Infractions
There should be serious penalties for owners if their dog injures or bites someone in the context of another ordinance infraction, especially confinement, spay/neuter, and or leash laws.
Similarly, harsh penalties should be in place for owners who are repeat offenders, have a history of neglect or cruelty, or previously surrender their pets over compliance issues.
Such efforts will require stronger historical record keeping and tracking of offenses by DAS, but the efforts have tremendous potential to mitigate bite risk to neighbors and citizens. One can hardly argue that preventing even one human death is not worth the effort.
3. EDUCATION THAT ELEVATES THE ANIMAL CULTURE
• Focus Prevention Resources on Education
• Family vs Resident Dogs
• Education Children and Adults to Behave Safely Around Dogs
Focus Prevention Resources on Education
According to a research study on educational intervention, published in The Western Journal of Medicine, sixty-seven percent of injurious dog bites to children have been shown to be preventable by changing the child’s or the caregiver’s behavior in interacting with the dog.
Additionally, a single 30-minute lesson incorporated into a regular school day, taught by a dog handler, has been shown to dramatically reduce high risk behaviors toward unfamiliar dogs in both kindergarten age and middle school children.
It is equally important to educate adults about safety with dogs. A study published in Journal of the American Veterinary Association in 2008 found that parents generally lacked knowledge of factors that were likely to increase the risk of dog bites to children, even when they were supervising the child/dog interactions.
This education strategy is worth pursuing if we want to elevate the animal culture and reduce the number of dog bites. There are several known humane organizations, like the SPCA of Texas, that have education departments staffed with people well qualified to teach volunteers and reputable nonprofits. While utilizing a volunteer workforce minimizes the impact on DAS’ budget, if the program is to be successful then the city must allow easy access to the schools and a quick and easy process to get an appropriate, unified curriculum approved.
National Dog Bite Prevention Week Starts May 15th, the national event presents a great opportunity to partner with know national experts and leverage press and publicity surrounding the prevention message house.
Family vs Resident Dogs
This comparison of a family dog vs a resident dog is an important piece of knowledge for residents and sharing this information will help elevate the animal culture. Understanding this concept will help people know how to best allow their dogs to be safe companions.
A “resident” dog is one that is left in a yard without regular positive human interaction or tethered in the yard and gets limited positive human interaction. These isolated dogs are much more likely to bite than a dog that has been integrated into family life and is considered part of the family.
As discussed previously in the “Loose Dog” section, when a “resident” dog escapes their owner’s care and custody, these dogs’ lack of socialization puts the neighborhood at greater risk for an aggressive incident if the dog encounters a child, human, or a companion animal. Remember, research sited in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association showed that 85.2 percent of the time, in deaths that occurred from dog bites, the victim had NO familiar relationship with the dog or dogs. That was the case in Antoinette Brown’s horrific mauling death and we owe it to her family, and all citizens of Dallas, to proactively address known aggressive and dangerous dogs.
Educate Children and Adults to Behave Safely Around Dogs
There is no such thing as a dog that did not signal before it bites. Often, people who say that the dog “bit out of nowhere” just didn’t know how to read the subtle escalating signs. The risk of dog bite injury can be greatly mitigated by providing appropriate education to well-intentioned, but misinformed, guardians and to the public at large.
Targeting human behavior toward dogs is much more likely to decrease growling, snarling, snapping and biting behavior than is any attempt to identify and weed out at-risk animals. To simplify this concept, teach the humans about canine body language and how to safely interact with dogs, and they will be much safer and have stronger relationships with their companion animals.
4. MEANINGFUL LOOSE DOG CONTROL
• 15,000 undispatched 311 loose dog calls a year
• Spay / neuter surge
• Spay / neuter maintenance
15,000 Undispatched 311 Loose Dog Calls a Year
This is simple math. If you don’t have a short or long term strategy to pick up the loose dogs that are not “aggressive”, breeding and spiking dog bite rates will continue. The current strategy does not have the bandwidth or capability to address these fifteen thousand 311 calls a year, so the garden variety loose dog will remain on the street, posing a danger to people, pets, neighborhood cats, and cars alike. Neglecting to pick up these dogs is not addressing safety and quality of life issues and it is simply NOT acceptable. A new, different, innovative approach, similar to DPD’s NPO model, needs to be implemented and added to the current strategy in order to address there loose dogs. This is where the neighborhood liaison and specialized catch team comes in. We have case study that shows our model works and can be expanded across the city.
Spay / Neuter Surge
While a good percentage of dog bites are from owned dogs in their own homes, a large percentage of dog bites are not. Loose dogs, homeless or owned, are a big contributor to the dog bite statistics.
Revisiting the bite statistics reviewed earlier, here is why intact animals matter to the dog bite statistics and to the solutions:
• Unneutered dogs are statistically more likely to bite family members
• 8 out of 10 biting dogs are male and according to the AVMA, intact males are involved in up to 76% of reported dog bite incidents. Intact males dogs are a huge percentage of the problem when assessing dog bite issues.
• 83% of intact companion animals in South Dallas live in poverty and cannot afford to spay/ neuter their pets and get them into compliance. A culture of compliance can only be achieved in effective partnership with free services for those in need.
• Intact animals are hard for owners to confine and they tend to escape and roam freely. In a survey taken in 2015, approximately 90% of the animals in the Dallas shelter were intact.
As our research showed and BCG recommended, a spay and neuter surge that addresses all the intact animals in poverty in southern Dallas needs to be an urgent priority for the city. Without this surge, breeding math will keep the supply of animals, and traumatic bites and attacks, flowing. Certain areas are now drowning in free roaming dogs, and meaningful intervention needs to come soon.
Spay / Neuter Maintenance
Once the surge has begun, the city needs to strategically understand what is needed to maintain a spay and neuter culture throughout the city. Too often the failure of efforts to provide free services to address this issue are blamed on cultural views when in fact the only cultural issue at play is the culture of economics. Services must be provided with a deep understanding of the street level economic census data along with other community factors that may prevent the services from being easily acquired.
SUMMARY
A growing body of research supports that canine companions enhance human health and wellness. During a period where people increasingly consider their dogs valued family members, injurious bites have gradually declined nationally, including a decrease in the percentage of injuries sustained by children. Contrary to national trends, here in Dallas, our dog bite rates are increasing at alarming rates. Solving the deeply complex crisis level loose animal issues and spiking dog bite issues requires a multifaceted holistic approach. Complexities run across both the human and canine populations involved. Solutions demand a solid understand of both human and canine behaviors in order to shape behaviors and elevate the animal culture. Successful multifaceted neighborhood models, like ours, should be examined, embraced, and expanded throughout the city.
We must also look to current behavioral studies to offer insight. We must look to holistically improve our city’s animal culture, enforcement and compliance tools. We must leverage the known behavioral differences in the behavior of family dogs, who have opportunities for daily, positive interactions with people against the behaviors of “resident” or “neighborhood” dogs” who live in relative isolation, without integration into a family social unit. Educating ourselves, our leaders, and our neighbors about these differences will help elevate the animal culture, allow for open conversation, and improve our safety and quality of life.
As we look to solve the crisis level loose dog and the spiking dog bite issues for our citizens, Dallas’ public policies need to educate pet owners on pet behaviors and bite prevention, facilitate information about how to care for their companion animals, all while providing services that allow companion animals in poverty to come into compliance. Finally, the city needs to create a culture of compliance and accountability surrounding pet ownership. The city needs to look to successful neighborhood partnerships and programs like ours and expand them citywide. Elevating the animal culture and our relationships with our pets will create safer and more humane communities for the people in our growing city. Elevating the animal culture and our relationships with our pets will ALSO create safer and more humane communities for the ANIMAL in our growing city. Dallas cannot grow to become a world class city without putting the political capital and resources towards this urgent crisis level issue. Let’s not let safety and quality of life issues stand in the way of the growth and success of Dallas.
