In Springfield, a 13-year-old sustained substantial injuries after being attacked by three unleashed dogs while with his family on Wittenberg University’s campus.
For former state Sen. Bill Beagle, it brings back memories of the tragic death of Klonda Richey, a Dayton resident who was killed in a 2014 dog attack.
“What struck me is that Richey was filing complaints about these dogs with authorities on a regular basis and the system failed her,” Beagle said. “That’s what motivated me to get involved and try to do something.”
Englewood case “doesn’t seem right”
Englewood resident Connie Brown said she was on her mobility scooter, taking her leashed dog, Splash, for a walk on Aug. 15 near her Sunset Drive home, when she heard a dog barking nearby.
The approaching dog, a leashed male pit bull accompanied by its owner, began to attack Brown and her Cavapoo (a poodle-spaniel mix). Brown said the pit bull’s owner, Linda Downing, attempted to hold her dog back, but the dog was too strong. The pit bull pulled Downing forward, knocking her to the ground.
“She tried to get him off my dog, she really did, but he wasn’t listening to anything,” Brown said. “The attacking dog pulled so hard that I was pulled off my scooter onto the pavement.”
An Englewood police report said Brown’s dog had “numerous” bites on him, was bleeding and was unable to walk. Brown immediately took her dog to an emergency veterinarian, but she said Splash, who was 1 1/2 years old, died from his injuries.
Downing, the owner of the attacking dog, also sustained injuries to her lip and lacerations from falling during the altercation, the police report states. She did not immediately respond to requests for comment from this news organization.
Downing, 58, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “control of dogs” Aug. 23 in Vandalia Municipal Court. She was given one year of probation in exchange for a suspended 180-day jail sentence, court records show.
Downing’s dog was not ordered euthanized by the court. She must obtain a dangerous dog registration certificate, must show proof of homeowner’s insurance with dog bite liability coverage, display a “Beware of Dog” sign on her home, and pay veterinarian medical bills to the victim, according to court records. She is also prohibited from walking her dog without a leash and muzzle, and must enroll the animal in obedience training.
Brown said those requirements don’t feel like justice.
“My family lost our puppy while their vicious dog is allowed to live; somehow this just doesn’t seem right,” she said. “I would think if an owner cannot control their own dog then perhaps they shouldn’t be allowed to have that particular breed.”
Fallout from the attack
According to Bob Sexton, a control officer supervisor for Montgomery County Animal Resource Center, a judge has the right to order an attacking dog to be euthanized following a biting incident if the dog owner is found guilty of criminal charges related to the attack.
“While it does happen, dogs are not humanely euthanized for this reason frequently,” Sexton said. “For this to happen, the judge would take into consideration the severity of the attack and history of the dog.”
Brown said she knows Downing “feels horrible about it” and said she feels no ill will toward her. But she remains concerned that the dog will continue to live in the neighborhood.
“I feel that if people knew the result and end to the story for my pet and family, and that this dog is still within their neighborhood, they would be irate, too,” she said.
Springfield dog attack
On Aug. 24, police and emergency medical professionals responded to multiple reports of people being bitten by dogs on the Wittenberg University campus.
Clarence Mann of Preble County said his family arrived on campus to help move in their eldest daughter Kaitlyn, 18, to start her first year of college, when his 13-year-old son was mauled by three dogs he described as pit bulls.
“The first one started biting him, the other one knocked him down and they were biting him. … Three of them all at the same time,” he said.
Mann said his son, an eighth-grader at Preble-Shawnee Schools, used his arms and hands to protect his face and neck during the attack. The young teen suffered a crushed right wrist, a broken bone in his left arm above his elbow and numerous abrasions and deep bites on both arms. He initially was taken to Mercy Health – Springfield Regional Medical Center but later went to Dayton Children’s to treat his broken bones, his father said.
A representative of the Clark County Dog Warden’s Office said one dog died in the incident, one dog was captured and one was at home with its owner. The official could not immediately provide additional details about the fate of the two dogs.
Should laws be changed?
In April 2015, Beagle introduced a bill in honor of Richey, aimed at updating Ohio dog laws in several ways. Richey, 57, was mauled to death in February 2014 by two mixed-mastiff dogs outside her home at 31 E. Bruce Ave. in Dayton. When police responded, the dogs charged them and were shot and killed. The dogs’ owners — Andrew Nason and Julie Custer — were sentenced to 90-150 days in jail on misdemeanor counts of failure to control dogs.
Beagle’s bill sought revision of how “vicious” versus “dangerous” dogs are defined — with a proposal to limit the vicious dog category to those animals that have killed a person or companion animal, and define dangerous dogs to include those that have caused serious injury to a person or companion animal — and for harsher penalties when a dog kills or seriously injures a human or companion animal.
Beagle said he and fellow legislators met with stakeholders, like animal advocacy groups and law enforcement officials, as part of the bill writing process.
“We compiled what we thought were solutions that would be most effective,” in preventing tragedies like the Klonda Richey case, Beagle said.
One such proposal was to require a “vicious dog,” defined as having killed a person or companion animal, to be euthanized by court order after the first attack.
Current law instead typically reserves court-ordered euthanasia for a second attack.
While Beagle’s proposed bill passed the Ohio Senate in 2016, it failed to gain House approval. A previous vicious dog bill died in committee in 2014, and multiple attempts to pass similar legislation have failed in subsequent years.
“Animal bills are difficult to pass ... almost everybody has had an animal, so everyone is an interested party and there is a lot of pressure (on legislators) to try to fit solutions to all the animal problems in one bill,” Beagle said.
Often in dog attack cases, an owner argues that the dog was provoked. In those instances, Beagle’s bills would have shifted the burden of proof from the prosecutor to the dog owner, a specification that was a tough sell to some legislators.
Beagle said it was also hard to get support to rewrite the law for something that doesn’t happen extremely often. But just three years after Richey’s death, Maurice Brown died on Middle Street in Dayton after being mauled by a pit bull.
Beagle said when these types of incidents do occur, the call for change is reinvigorated.
“Every time this happens, it captures headlines and all of a sudden people ask, ‘How do we fix this?’ ” he said.
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