Pit-bull attack leads officials to act

In the wake of a pit-bull attack that led to the death of another dog, Bothell City Council has begun looking at toughening its laws against vicious dogs, including imposing stricter rules on the owners of specific breeds.

A resident of 241st Street Southeast, Diana Selin was walking her dog Ty on Aug. 3 when, according to various reports, a neighbor’s pit bull attacked Selin’s dog. Selin tried to pull the animals part, but with little success.

Ty died during surgery at a Bothell animal hospital. The pit bull was later destroyed, though its owner has two other animals.

“Our family had him for 11 years,” Selin said of Ty in an emotional voice. “And he really was part of the family… He was like one of my kids.”

Selin said she has had no contact with the owner of the pit bull. She added she did not know there were pit bulls in her neighborhood prior to the August incident.

During last week’s meeting of council’s safety committee, numerous residents, including Selin, urged officials to quickly rewrite the city’s existing vicious-dog laws. During her comments to council, Selin twice asked how long it will take before new rules appear.

While he backed strengthening the city’s existing rules, Mayor Mark Lamb said the city needs to move carefully.

“This needs to be a defensible ordinance… This isn’t something we can pass in 24 hours,” Lamb said.

He added the current rules address situations such as what happened to Selin after they occur, while the intent of any new ordinance would be to prevent such incidents.

“I’d just like to see the wheels of justice move fast,” Selin said.

Based on their comments, the 15 or 20 people in the audience were nearly unanimous in their support for toughening Bothell’s vicious-dog rules. A neighbor of Selin’s, one woman said she has been afraid to walk her own dog since the early August incident.

What might a new ordinance require from the owners of targeted breeds? Lamb and others talked about registering certain dogs as dangerous and making that information available to the public, even providing maps of the locations of where certain breeds of animals are kept. Officials discussed a mandate that certain breeds of dogs be kept leashed at all times. Other possibilities include imposing strict rules on housing certain breeds, such as requiring enforced fencing around the dogs.

City Attorney Joe Beck said he helped create breed-specific dog legislation for other cities. He said in order to ensure such legislation can stand up to court challenges, Bothell needs to provide substantial evidence that a breed deserves special treatment, as well as hold a number of public hearings, providing plenty of time for comment on the issue. But while Beck said the city needs to proceed carefully, he added that breed-specific ordinances are possible and can be enforced.

In Bothell’s case, who exactly would carry out that enforcement is almost certain to become an issue.

Bothell currently contracts with King County for animal-control services. But because of financial problems, the county has announced the impending closure of its animal shelter. Deputy City Manager Steve Anderson also said the county council is considering a proposal to eliminate all animal-control operations next summer.

In response, Lamb and others said Bothell may have to look at hiring at least a part-time animal officer or possibly contracting with Snohomish County or another city. Predictably, officials said cost will play a big role in determining how the city proceeds. Police Chief Forrest Conover said Bothell received 184 animal complaints in 2008, approximately one every other day. He added the number of calls just never justified the city hiring a full-time control officer.

Police officials also said the city received roughly 25 aggressive-dog complaints in the last three or four years. The incidents involved eight bites to humans and six attempted bites. There were also a small number of dog-on-dog incidents and several incidents involving an animal allegedly menacing either a person or another animal.

Conover said he doesn’t believe it’s any secret that King County’s animal-protective service is underfunded and understaffed. He later encouraged any resident to call 911 in the case of an emergency involving a vicious animal, adding police will respond quickly.